A few days ago I received my first ever Bass Guitar. Looking forward to slowly learning how to play!
I do not have an amp yet and was thinking of running my bass through my Mac that has Garageband and then outputting the sound to my speakers. Has anyone here done this before? If so how?
Thanks .
Last edited by 04Stefan07; 16-05-2013 at 10:29 PM.
I haven't tried it and I wouldn't. The speakers simply won't be up to the job and you risk damaging them. These days I play my lovely Tacoma Thunderchief acoustic bass guitar and rarely touch the electric (a very early Ibanez Rickenbacker copy) but I have a cheap practice amp rated to about 30W. When I bought it it basically buzzed, farted and rattled so I replaced the driver with an 8" sub speaker from Jaycar and reenforced the case by adding extra braces and screws and silasticing down the front grill and a few other spots. Now it sounds about 1/4 decent and I've even played very small gigs with it. (One night I got to use a Mark Bass combo box and now want one)
Entry level 4-String Bass (the brand is Samick), 2nd hand. Came with a bag and extra strings.
Not looking to form a bad or play live, just got this to play as another one of my hobbies. Always wanted to play an instrument (used to play Bass Trombone in high school but lost interest).
Last edited by 04Stefan07; 16-05-2013 at 10:28 PM.
A very good book for learning is Complete Learn to Play Bass comes with 2 CDs and starts from the very basics. I have this one, the Blues guitar one, and the keyboard one. They are very good and easy to understand and cover a lot of ground. you can get it for about 40 bucks very good value for money.
Also The best program I use for learning, and its finally supports Linux now is Guitar Pro Its the best program for learning songs there is full stop, check it out
This is where I do my learning I have Guitar Pro running with the computer headphone jacks plugged into the input on my Digitech effects pedal. With this set up I can mute the part I'm playing adjust the Digitech for the sound and bingo off I go If. I can slow the music and TAB down to a easy level and slowly speed it up in guitar pro. If I were you I would get the bass Digitech BP90 effects pedal, these things are unreal they have effects, amp and cabinet simulators and tuner all for around 100 bucks just wish I had this set up when I was younger
I also recommend using a bass amp rather than regular speakers for live use and for practice.
Firstly the amplifiers used for regular speakers are typically not designed for constant low frequency output at high volume. Bass amps are designed for this sort of use. Secondly, electric guitar and bass amps intentionally introduce certain distortions, which adds to the tone and character of the sound. Using say a hifi amp for an electric or bass guitar will instead sound thin and yuck. In short, use a bass amp (or a pedal board like a digitech or Zoom at the very least).
[For recording the requirements are slightly different, and there can be some advantages to going from a guitar to a DI box to a recording device. Even then my preference for elec guitar and bass would normally be to mic the amp rather than run direct to PC.]
Cool, we use to modify them old cassette recorders back in the late 70's, pull the head unit off and wire them straight up to the guitar lead, 4 D size battery's, out in the middle of nowhere with a couple of slabs, perfect combo the the best music in the world
Congrats on the purchase Stefan, if you get a chance, slip down to a music shop and try the Yamaha THR10 guitar amp. It's about the size of a loaf of bread and is a modelling amp with inbuild PC recording capabilities and software for recording and editing the various parameters in the THR.
The THR10 is useable for Electric, Acoustic and bass (it has a specific setting for bass guitar), it even doubles as a great PC speaker, being Hi-Fi in quality.
The THR10 is an amazing little amp, although I've not tried one for bass, my understanding is that they work quite nicely. There is also a corresponding free ipod/pad app for practice track use with nice cancellation capabilities.
Sorry Phil, but I'm not convinced by a bass amp with only 3" speakers. For the price of the Yamaha THR10, I think you'd be better served with a Ampeg BA108, Marshall MB30, Line6 Lowdown 15 or a Roland Cube CB20XL.
Small amps have come a long way but I agree with Richard. Decent bass from a 3" speaker sounds unlikely. Big heavy amps are a pain to manhandle though. Just go to a store and try a few. You'll soon get an idea of what you like. Enjoy!
BTW Stefan, what flavour of music are you drawn to?
I wouldn't suggest any amp with less than a single 12" speaker for bass unless it's a specifically designed 10" bass speaker. Being a bass newbie, consider the likes of Ashdown's (NOT crap Ashton) Five Fifteen bass amp ($399) or Peavey's MAX 112 ($299) or MAX 115 ($345) then put some dollars towards a suitable compressor pedal, learn to use it to get some of the "punch" for your musical preferences .
Being in the music biz myself I'm sure you will have a blast with your new bass guitar.
Is that all Dave???? Could get a few astro bass players using your gear ...still love the 6" frac BTW
Hey Stefan good choice on instrument, nothing beats playing bass lines IMO....as for amps I use the 60 Watt Roland Bass Cube, the orgional version, had it since the early 80's and it's still going strong.
Bass lines...one name says it all....Jaco
then there's Marcus, Stanley....
Matt
Is that all Dave???? Could get a few astro bass players using your gear ...still love the 6" frac BTW
Hey Stefan good choice on instrument, nothing beats playing bass lines IMO....as for amps I use the 60 Watt Roland Bass Cube, the orgional version, had it since the early 80's and it's still going strong.
Bass lines...one name says it all....Jaco
then there's Marcus, Stanley....
Matt
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