Hi everyone, I posted about a week ago looking for a first bass under £250 and got a truckload of suggestions. I spent the week poring over ebay, gumtree, fb etc and then actually went into a music shop to see what they had. Realised I felt like a prat looking for "something nice" when it was my first time holding one of the things, and the entry level ones sounded fine to my untrained ears... Anyway, a slightly beaten up Yamaha RBX170 turned up right around the corner for £70 and (after checking reviews on here first) I went and got it!
Anyway, this forum's provided me so much information this week, so thanks everyone. I'm now gonna look for a copy of Hal Leonard's bass thingy and get stuck in, I'm psyched just to finally have the strings in front of me. It's admittedly a little daunting having it all in front of me and not knowing quite where to start (also being 24 and not having played anything before) but this place seems very chill and welcoming of questions.
I mostly started because I want to eventually play music with other people for the fun of it. I'm mostly into rock/indie and some jazz stuff but I'm hoping getting to know the instrument will open up other music for me. A bassist that really made me want to start is from one of my favourite bands, a Japanese group called Gesu no kiwami otome who do funky, jazzy rock/pop. He seems really talented and I'm always drawn to their basslines. The vocals are definitely an acquired taste though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B98VzkSNV1U&ab_channel=gesunokiwamiotome-Topic
Anyway, cheers for having me!
Edit: One thing I'm struggling with is the difference in sound between my index and second finger when I pluck. The second one is less powerful and also less twangy, the cause seems to be that my index is a little pointier and the nail tends to hit the string, unlike with the other finger. Is this a (common/easily fixed) problem?