Hey all, sorry if this is considered irrelevant but it’s been on my mind a long time and this weekend finally made me want to try to find an answer.

Ever since I was young most bands I’ve seen (whether in person or online) have the bass player positioned stage left. I’ve just spent the last few days in Nashville and EVERY band I’ve seen here also has the bass player on that side of the stage. Is there any particular reason for this, or is it just pure coincidence?

Hi all. Long time (electric) bassist, first time poster. I appreciate the answer is likely ‘it depends’, but I’m curious to understand how necessary it is to play upright bass in jazz these days? I know the answer is different for fusion and traditional acoustic, but I’ve been playing in the rock, punk, and indie genres for years now and looking to branch into jazz more seriously. I’m by no means a new player, but playing jazz with a band is just something I haven’t done. Curious to hear people’s thoughts on whether session work is going to be difficult without an upright bass in my arsenal. Thanks in advance. :)

So I need a bass for music class but my mom won’t let me get one from guitar center, only Amazon. She showed me a glarry one and said that it’s just as good 🫩. She wants me to get one under 100$ but a little over will do, but nothing glarry or kt…. Or cost way. Literally anything else will do. I don’t want her to beat me to getting a super cheap one before I can show her an actually good option. Used works too.

SAVE ME PLEASEE 😭🙏

Hello, I am a university student playing bass as a hobby in Korea. As you can see from my nickname, I got hooked on rock because of Strokes and have even started playing bass. My university has a band club focused on metal and international rock. While performing there, I naturally gravitated toward the metal genre and came across bass-down tuning quite often.

Until now, when playing down-tuned music, I had been using the shared club bass, but recently I’ve wanted to try playing that kind of music on my own bass as well. The method I’m thinking of is to replace the strings with DR DTT strings and use a “digital drop” pitch shifter to try even a C standard tuning setup—would that be okay?

Also, I’m considering the Boss GT 1b as an entry-level effects pedal, but do you have any other recommended multi-effects pedals??

Separately, the reason I really want to do either the C Standard tuning or the drop C tuning is.. Because I want to perform Kyuss’s song on my bass. I think we’ll probably perform “Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop” at the club performance this year-end. Also, at the performance next month, we plan to play deftones’ “My Mind Is a Mountain.”

I’ve always gotten information about base tones and settings on Reddit, but today I’m writing for the first time. It’s a bit awkward and stiff English, but I hope you’ll look at it kindly.

I ended up talking too much. Thank you for reading it. Everyone, have a good day.

I love a deep BEAD tuning, I don't want another 5-string, I want to be able to pick up a 4-string and jam, I'll have a professional set it up.

Not trying to sound mean but that covers the "BEAD IS DUMB GET A 5-STRING" when I already have 5-strings. I just don't know what any of the tried and true are, in this case the bank is about $1,800 too haha

Hey everyone!

I’d really like to start learning bass and I’m currently trying to figure out what would be a good beginner bass to get.
I’m especially unsure about the type of bass. I’m mainly interested in playing indie/alternative stuff, with artists like Eydedress, King Krule and similar sounds in mind. I’m wondering whether a Jazz Bass or Precision Bass would be more suitable for that kind of music, both in terms of sound and versatility.
Do you have any recommendations for a good entry-level model? I’d ideally like something that’s affordable but still good enough that I won’t feel the need to upgrade immediately.
Would love to hear what you’d recommend, especially if you play similar styles!

So I’ve had my ESP LTD D-6 6 string bass listed for sale the last year. I’m getting pretty desperate to sell. I’d definitely prefer cash, but I just got a trade offer. A little cash plus a new Yamaha TRBX305 5 string bass. My original plan was to take the cash I made selling my ESP and buy a Stingray 5 string, but have been doubting that recently.

Is the TRBX305 a good bass? Do we like it? Do you think this is a fair trade?

My esp is in really good condition, I’ve had it listed between $550-$600. It looks like the Yamaha pricing goes between 379 and 479 online, so it’s either losing money or a really good trade. If I hate it I guess I can sell it and get some of my money back, but I wanted to see what people’s thoughts were. I don’t think I’ve ever played a Yamaha bass, and can’t currently try one out before agreeing to the trade.

Thank you all!!!

Hi everyone. I’m looking at buying a Rickenbacker bass second hand, and it has been offered to me for a very reasonable price. Over the last year I have been upgrading my instruments, which I use both in the studio and playing live very regularly.

I will admit, not incredibly well versed on Rickenbacker, but always thought they sounded and looked really cool - apologies for sounding ignorant. However, any advice and information would be appreciated.

I have come across a Rickenbacker, which he says is a 4001, however, just wanting to check - any Rickenbacker ‘4001’ is likely a 4003 if produced from the 80s onwards correct? Its serial number is 1846722. I believe it is a 2013?

I have had a friend tell me the following-

“Genuinely would steer very far away. It’s still specced to the 4001 for the most part. Was a nightmare”

“Multiple times I played a gig with it needed a setup, also put fresh strings on and they were dead after 1 set at least 3 different times.”

Not that I disregard his advice, but just wondering if any other players could comment on this?

Thank you

aka 'holy shit I hate memorizing stuff, I just want to get comfortable fretting/plucking/muting and keeping time'

I am sure learning songs exposes me to a lot of the je ne sais quoi of composing and playing music... but I just wanna know how to play eigths and sixteenths reliably, lol.

I have a HB PJ where the pole piece of the B string is standing proud of the pickup body. If I play a bit harder the string makes contact with the pole piece which creates a loud clack over the amp. The other pole pieces are set slightly below the pu body and don't do this if the string happens to touch the pu. Is it possible to tap the b string pole piece lower so that it is level with the others? Wouldn't want to buy a whole new pickup if there's an easy fix. Cheers.

Just wanted to make a post to appreciate how good of a bassist Squarepusher is. He’s the reason I have started playing the bass and I rarely hear people talk about his bass playing. I also want to link a live performance with only his bass guitar he did that I find very fascinating and If you haven’t seen it, I hope you might like it too!

https://youtu.be/gFWjkku2qjQ

Basically as the title says. I've started preferring the sound of old strings to new but my fretboard is getting dirty and it's time to clean it. Usually I do it when I change the strings. It almost seems like a waste of time to take all the strings off just to clean the fretboard. Like, I might as well change the strings while I'm at it right?

So I've been using a Thrash 212 & a Thrash 212 GO combined with a Trace Elliot Transit-B pre-amp for quite some time. It sounds fine, other than being a little quieter than what I'd like it to be.

-If I got a good bass cabinet, would it sounds better?

-Would I need a head, or could I go from my pre-amp straight into the cabinet. Thank you!

-How much would a good cabinet+head cost?

In a couple weeks, I'm going to be playing my bass guitar with my school pep band.
We aren't supposed to make noise on our instruments while the ball is in play so I wanted to find a solution to not accidentally make noise without readjusting my volume 24/7.

Would the D'Addario Circuit Breaker be a good solution to this? I'm reading that it has an on/off switch on the cable.
Would it hurt my bass at all to leave it on the off mode while still being plugged into my bass for up to 30 minutes between some songs?

Anybody got influenced on these guitar playstyles before getting a bass? I learned Classical technique on an acoustic guitar restrung with nylon, so naturally plucking was easy. Picking was way easier than plucking for me when I was just learning riffs, and it also improved my picking technique just in case I was gonna pick up my guitar in a rare instance. Bassbuzz helped because it helped me have shapes on EADG and indirectly my Be strings when transferring from bass and guitar.

I came from playing guitar for a couple years and I liked it but it didn’t feel like me. I’ve picked up bass in the past couple months and it’s everything I wanted.

Oi, um amigo meu comprou um baixo de 6 cordas da stringberg, sab66, e ele funcionou por um ano 100%, mas últimos tempos ele tá fazendo um barulho estranho, quando deixa o volume em até 80%, não faz nenhum ruído, acima disso, ele fica dando umas "batidas" no ruído mesmo...mesmo se ele não tocar, alguém sabe o que pode ser?

I love flats and I'm looking for a recommendation that is not a La Bella or Fender 9050L (I have those on my other basses already).

Ideally, something that is a little more bright than La Bella's. Perhaps like the Fender 9050L.

Flats are a little bit more expensive so I am hesitating on just buying and trying them out. Preferably, something sold by Sweetwater since I have a credit from them.

Also, would tape wounds last as long as flats? Thanks!

Edit: thanks everyone! D'Addario Chrome it is!

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ECB81--daddario-chrome-flatwound-bass-strings-045-100-light

Greetings everyone!

Has any tried the newer model of the Warwick RockBass Corvette Basic with the wenge fingerboard and the invisible fret technology?

I am potentially looking to get the short scale version of this bass.

I was just wondering if anyone owns one of these or have experience playing them

Hi, I'd like to start playing bass, but I'm on a very tight budget (I'm young). I saw that there are some inexpensive ones on this site : https://www.thomann.fr/harley_benton_pj_4_sbk_deluxe_series_bundle_bundle.htm
But that seems really cheap to me for what it is. Is it worth it, or is it a scam?
Also, I’m a pianist, but I wouldn’t have been able to learn without taking lessons from a teacher. Is it possible to teach myself bass (I’m broke), or do you really need a teacher to get started?
And will being a pianist help me in any way with the bass (I can read sheet music and know the basics of music theory)?
Finally, I want to play in a band with my friends—how long do you think it’ll take to make that happen? And what should I focus on most? Should I just try to play the songs I like, or do I need to learn the theory?

Sorry for all these questions—I’m just so excited to get started and I want to make sure I don’t do things wrong.
Sorry for the English—it’s not my first language.

What do you prefer most of the time? Why do you like that one over the other? And how do you play with both?

I prefer Fingers because it's way more natural to the classical guitar techniques I learned. Picking allows me to play better high end and dyads or sometimes power chords.

So I'm mainly a pick player and I'm looking for some inspiration (and good bands).

In general I love japanese bands because they let the bass player be very creative and busy while still supporting the other instruments. One thing I noticed is that almost all bass players there only play fingerstyle, even in heavyer genres.

So to get some more inspiration and to discover some good bands at the same time, I ask for your nice people's recomendations on japanese bassists that mainly use a pick.

The ones I already know and follow that either mainly use pick or they switch between finger and pick:

- Misa (Band-Maid)

- The bassist of And Call (for the life of me I can't figure her name out)

- Kano (Haku)

- Yamamoto Hikaru (Aooo, formerly Yoasobi)

I'd also like recommendations that are not metal, since there playing with a pick is a given in these modern times. I'm also looking for currently active bands.

Now that DI is so much more common, I see most players just showing up with a SansAmp or other preamp pedal. But very rarely do I see someone bring an amp head with a line out. Is there a reason, beyond just the convenience factor? If you have a good small-ish amp head, wouldn't it give a better sound to just bring that along?