Ah... it's not. It's going on the pile now. Probably be better for what I do anyway. Cheers.

Beepster


Ah... it's not. It's going on the pile now. Probably be better for what I do anyway. Cheers.

What did I recommend then? The only replacement pickup I've ever bought was the Quarter Pounder.

It was a genuine Fender 62 P-Bass replacement pickup. I'd link to it but it appears the page is broken. It was a pretty good deal but might not have been hefty enough for my needs.

Hope you've been well, bapsi.

Ah, yeah now I remember.

Beeps, I'm good in the hood.

Glad to hear it. Just chugging along over here trying to turn myself into an engineer. It's taking forever. :-/

To all of you thanks much!  I am very glad to read your comments on this.  My next purchase is going to be most likely that Fender Squire on sale that Babu mentioned.  Thanks Ed although the Ibinez Mike showed looked good as well buy I am not sure of the pricing yet.  I am very excited to know your thoughts on this.  I am going to learn how to play bass after TOO many years!  Life is good.

Rimshot

A good idea that you can get started on now is learning about chord structure and arpeggios. A good bassline is more about playing the notes within a chord than focusing on scales. You'll want to learn the patterns that will allow you to easily access the I, III, V and sometimes VII notes of the various quality of chords. Mainly Major, minor, diminished, augmented. Then use scales to move through those notes to create a "walking" effect.

You may already know all that but it's something I neglected for years in regards to bass playing so it's worth mentioning. Cheers.

Very good point Beepster.  Personally, as a drummer, I have been around bass players for a lifetime now and much of bass playing theory has rubbed off on me.  Playing keyboard bass for 20 years now has taught me scale and harmony.  However, I have never recorded myself playing bass and look forward to learning that aspect.  I think it will influence in a positive way how I put the notes together from not only the physical aspect but chordal aspect too as you have correctly mentioned.  I don't know why I didn't get into this a long time ago.  

Rimshot

I always recommend something with Fender-style configuration (PU's/parts/neck joint), as that allows you to easily replace or upgrade things as desired.

There is nothing wrong with the Squiers, though I have heard some say the quality is inconsistent, but this is likely to be a problem with many inexpensive instruments. In general, I have found that (regardless of quality level) basses vary more from one to the next than electric guitars do. If buying from a brick and mortar store, you will want to compare carefully to find the best one you can.

Personally I don't like Ibanez basses, but only because Ibanez tends to put skinny little necks on most of their instruments and I decidedly prefer chunkier necks, but YMMV. I also don't like "low" action and one of the first things I end up doing when buying a new bass is raising the action, but other people will obviously differ on this.


Overall, there's no reason you can't get decent results with a reasonable quality inexpensive bass. IMHO if you have a decent instrument, practice will probably make a much bigger difference in the results than spending 3 times as much on the instrument would.

Drew,

I bought my Alembic on the theory I wouldn't have to practice.

You can see how well that worked out.