Rain


Lots of great suggestions guys! Short-scale may be an option - plus, my wife always wanted to learn to play bass, but a full size one would be way too big fore her. Getting one that we can both use would be terrific.

Plus, writing grooves on bass is so much fun. :P

The Fender I want is the long scale version, but their short scale version is the Mexican built Special ... with the same pickup style and it only goes for about $650 or so. I might endup with that until I get better and then give Bapu a run for his nickels with the Stratus ... which for now is my dream bass ... I'm actually looking for headless just to be different ... suggestion has been that the headless is steadier and sustains better, which for bass is a good thing. But that could be an illusory idea when one can consider so many embelishments nowadays!
 
yeah ... I miss my Cherry Red EB-0 original Gibson ... that thing had punch, and was solid. By contrast the EB-3 is crap and cheap!
 
The nice thing about the EB-0 is the short scale and small neck ... the Fender Special short scale version of the above also has a Jazz neck, which is smaller around the hand.

Not cheap, not short scale...  but bought this one 15 years ago and have not looked back.


Rickenbacker 4003  Jet Black.

A half-decent cheap bass would be?

A half-decent cheap Bass. No matter how you play it.

Go over to Cowtown Guitars Rain.

I'd never heard about that place yet. Thanks for the tip. :)

To be honest, there are lots of perfectly decent inexpensive instruments in the modern world (it didn't used to be that way). 

But I've found that when it comes to instrument quality, acoustic guitars vary the most from one to another of the exact same model, followed by electric basses, then electric guitars. So I'd say you may want to just look for a good one rather than seek out a specific model. 

If you're looking for decent quality and know what you're doing, or can take someone along who does, it's just a matter of finding one without any egregious flaws. I'm a believer in looking things over carefully and playing every fret on every string fairly hard all the way up and down the neck while looking and listening for any issues.

Fit and finish issues, or a loose ground wire or something like that might be easy to fix. A twisted neck, or a loud and unidentifiable buzz that only happens on certain notes might not be.

Rain


. But yeah, she's tiny, even w/ high heels. She could probably hide behind a Fender Jazz. ;)  

Here is Cherie, the tiny Filipina bass player I mentioned in my earlier post, in a hammy music video.

digi2ns


I have the same troubles and bought a 5 String Schector pretty much for the same reason, to simplify the process of making music.

Action is low and smooth but my hands get fatigued pretty fast.  Gotta love the Punch Ins  LOL

Ditto. I went and bought a Warwick 5 string Rockbass. That low B is er, well, low........

 I occasionally play bass at a very beginner level. I picked up a Shecter rock bass which sounds and feels fantastic. I have been using it with Amplitubes SVX rig. Honestly in some cases I seem to get fuller sounds when playing bass on keys as I have a few decent sounds for bass. Most of what I play doesn't really need a busy bass part and so I find myself using keys at least half the time. The fender instrument in X2 is actally a decent sounding bass IMO. 

 Like drums bass can either become very complicated in mixes or it can do what basses mostly do.

 If I had it to do over again I'm not sure I would even need a bass,although it is fun to sometimes try and add a groove that I can't get on keys.

The main issue I have w/ bass samples is mostly that, though I do manage to play keyboard, it's just not as immediate to me as it would be to just grab the instrument and play the lines.

In terms of sound, Scarbee is great. Usually a blend of the clean sound and a bit of SVX goes a long way, sonically.

But it's really more a matter of speeding up the creative process, because I realize that not only playing bass via the keyboard isn't as intuitive and quick as it could be but it has also become a thing which I dread, because it feels like it's stalling the whole process. Writing bass lies would just be easier to accomplish on the actual instrument.

Once I'm done writing, I'd have no problem going back in and editing, adding little details and fine tuning. Anyway, once the basic track is cut, I can always send it to one of our bass playing fellows who'll be more than happy to assist.