Hi guys I'm thinking about playing bass. Right now I play guitar but I think it would be good to be able to play more than one instrument. I was just wondering is the bass much more limited than guitar, is it harder to play? Can you use kool effects with them aswell? And what bass you guys prefer? And anything else you can think of that I might like to know.
Bass isn't much harder it's the same tuning as guitar just down an octave, with bass it's more about the rhythm, and less about riffs(that doesn't mean you can't do them). If you are playing guitars with the bass and the bass is out of tune, it will make the guitars sound out of tune even though it's the bass, because the bass frequencies will determine the key of whats being heard. You can get some effects but alot take over into the high frequencies(flanges, choruses, phasers and that) and it sorta kills the bass sound, but there can be good ones. Fingering is a bit foreign because the neck is longer and the frets are farther apart so you have to stretch to hit the notes you could hit more easily on a guitar. Bassists go nuts over their strings, the strings can last for a life time so they usually invest quite a bit in their strings. Used and worn in strings sound better, new ones have alot of fret noise, since stings gunk up(especially between the coils) most people boil their strings, but there are strings called Elixers that have ridges along the string instead of coil they are a bit expensive(bass strings do cost a bit anyways though). On what bass I prefer...I prefer my own... but if you meant the type of bass there Precision and Jazz Bass pick-ups, basically the Precision pick-up is the one where the pick-up is split, and it accents the lower tones, the Jazz pickup is just straight and it accents the high end more than the P-bass. How many strings really depends, I find you don't really need a 5th or 6th string unless your going into a heavy solo riff (it takes over the guitars). There are more options but most are trivial or expensive. It's you preference on what you wan't in one, but I will say that you should look down the neck of any bass you are looking to buy to make sure it is straight(the strings are really tense and it will warp the neck on bad basses).
