New Old Bassist would Appreciate Advice...

[Oopsdabassist]

Hello there!

I have used both the fender rumble 15 and the 25 as home practice amps and would say either would suit your needs, the headphone jack is great because you can practice without annoying the family and the aux in means you can listen along with your own choice of mp3

I remember getting a real kick when I found I could play along to U2, With or Without You, when I first started (I was like you a late starter!) 

Whatever you have, remember we love to see pics of gear!!!

 

 

[Unknown_User]

22 minutes ago, TripleB67 said:

So since I currently have a standard guitar amp, the Acoustic G20  (still new in box; paid $76.49), would you advise me to take it back and exchange it for something like the Fender Rumble 15 ... would it be adequate for home use to learn on?

I know they make a Fender Rumble 25 but would rather not put the extra money into it if I can get by with the Rumble 15 for a few years.

Thanks!

TripleB67

Definitely.  You should use a bass amp rather than a guitar amp for playing bass through.  I've never used the Fender Rumble ones but I have used an old Fender Bassman at a gig once and I loved the sound out of it.  If you can trade in your guitar one then even better.

I reckon a 15W amp will be perfect for playing at home.  Unless you're only taking it up to upset the neighbours!

[Monkey Steve]

if you play a bass through a guitar amp the amplifier part will be fine, although it probably won't sound great, but the risk is that you'll knacker the speakers.  take it back before you break anything...might be difficult to get the shop to accept that it came with a busted speaker when you're asking to replace it with a bass amp

Conversely, playing a guitar through a bass amp is absolutely fine, and I know a couple of guitarists who prefer it as the sound tends to have much more depth

Edited October 2, 2018 by Monkey Steve

[Geek99]

On 01/10/2018 at 14:14, Grangur said:

Hey @TripleB67,

Firstly, a big welcome to BC from another mature bass player. Actually, many of us here are the wrong side of 45, so you're in good company. You got a good deal on the bass there.

I started bass in earnest when I was 50, and also don't gig. I've been in 2 bands, but found it's not for me either. I play a lot of tunes and melodies. There's a lot you can do on a bass, and plenty of challenges in bass-playing, without committing to humping gear in and out of bars at sill hours in the night. (IMHO)

A good place to start learning is YouTube. You also won't spend long there before you come across Scott Divine and Scott's Bass Lessons. Scott does some good free lessons on YouTube, but he promotes his "SBL Academy". This is well worth the investment. He does a 14-day money-back trial. Take advantage of this. The number of lessons there are phenomenal. They go from "parts of the bass", playing technique, etc, right on the walking bass lines, Jazz and loads more. There are also lessons on SBL, from other teachers who teach at major music colleges in USA.

www.studybass.com is also worth taking a look.

 

1 hour ago, TripleB67 said:

Again, I appreciate all the input, help, and advice.

One quick question (probably one you will laugh at): Do bass guitars require a specific type of amp?

I've got the following amp: Acoustic G20    I am guessing it won't work with my Yamaha bass guitar?  If not, is there a "cheap" (ie: under $100) bass amp that will be adequate to learn on?

Thanks again!

TripleB67

I got an ampeg ba108 - small and yet a big bass sound, cheap too

 

You’re never too  old to start, i use thumb and two fingers in almost double bass style. I rarely  use a pick, if ever 

 

we have lots of Americans here on the board, you’re not the only one. Lots of famous people too. 

[TripleB67]

I'm not sure which of these are available locally, but here are the bass amps that get very good reviews and can be had for under $100 new.  Two are from Fender and two are from Acoustic.  I've definitely heard of Fender, not much about Acoustic.

Fender Rumble 15 $80

Fender Rumble 25 $100

Acoustic B15 $70 (price matched)

Acoustic B30 $100 (price matched)

Again, brand new to bass guitar and will be playing in a finished basement (one room is about 10'x18'; the other is about 14'x30') just for myself (at least for now).

Thanks!

TripleB67

 

[Monkey Steve]

9 minutes ago, TripleB67 said:

I'm not sure which of these are available locally, but here are the bass amps that get very good reviews and can be had for under $100 new.  Two are from Fender and two are from Acoustic.  I've definitely heard of Fender, not much about Acoustic.

Fender Rumble 15 $80

Fender Rumble 25 $100

Acoustic B15 $70 (price matched)

Acoustic B30 $100 (price matched)

Again, brand new to bass guitar and will be playing in a finished basement (one room is about 10'x18'; the other is about 14'x30') just for myself (at least for now).

Thanks!

TripleB67

 

I don't think Acoustic is available in the UK so it's unlikely that many of us will have an opinion.  That said, they have a good pedigree - it used to be the house bass set up at the Rock Garden and sounded brilliant...presumably those old rigs will have very little to do with the new cheap combos.

My suggestion is to simply plug in a bass and see what they sound like - or if you're not confident, ask an assistant to demonstrate the differences between them for you.  They will all be functional, and in all honestly, the tonal differences between practice amps for a complete novice are unlikely to be significant

Edited October 2, 2018 by Monkey Steve

[gjones]

Learn to play with fingers and play along with some ZZ Top - which have some good simple basslines (I recommend you don't start with Rush).

[TripleB67]

1 hour ago, Monkey Steve said:

I don't think Acoustic is available in the UK so it's unlikely that many of us will have an opinion.

Interesting....I didn't realize that!

Another newbie question.  In comparing the Fender Rumble 25 to the Fender Rumble 15, I noticed that the 25 has two items that the 15 does not (other than more output): an 'Overdrive' button and a 'Contour' button.  What do these two items do?

Thanks!

TripleB67

Edited October 2, 2018 by TripleB67

[thebigyin]

3 hours ago, TripleB67 said:

So since I currently have a standard guitar amp, the Acoustic G20  (still new in box; paid $76.49), would you advise me to take it back and exchange it for something like the Fender Rumble 15 ... would it be adequate for home use to learn on?

I know they make a Fender Rumble 25 but would rather not put the extra money into it if I can get by with the Rumble 15 for a few years.

Thanks!

TripleB67

Just for home use your guitar amp will be fine....personally I would wait to part ex until you have been playing a few months....then once you are a bit more familiar with the instrument you might get the urge to jam with folks then you could always part ex for a half decent Bass Combo....but till then your guitar amp will suffice just crank the bass EQ to about full and keep the mids and treble to a minimum.

[TripleB67]

5 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

Conversely, playing a guitar through a bass amp is absolutely fine, and I know a couple of guitarists who prefer it as the sound tends to have much more depth

So if you have a bass guitar and a six string electric, but only one amp, it's better to have a bass amp?

TripleB67

[Geek99]

4 hours ago, TripleB67 said:

I'm not sure which of these are available locally, but here are the bass amps that get very good reviews and can be had for under $100 new.  Two are from Fender and two are from Acoustic.  I've definitely heard of Fender, not much about Acoustic.

Fender Rumble 15 $80

Fender Rumble 25 $100

Acoustic B15 $70 (price matched)

Acoustic B30 $100 (price matched)

Again, brand new to bass guitar and will be playing in a finished basement (one room is about 10'x18'; the other is about 14'x30') just for myself (at least for now).

Thanks!

TripleB67

 

Ampeg 

im sure @Norris will be doing to endorse them, not least because I got that steeer from him

[Bridgehouse]

It's just my personal opinion, of course, but I don't think it's worth compromising on amplification.

I think a dedicated bass amp is the way to go every time. For practice, at home as well. The other alternative is a Preamp/DI or some sort of bass specific interface that can go to a PA style speaker. A guitar amp will always be found lacking. 

[Woodinblack]

5 hours ago, gjones said:

Learn to play with fingers and play along with some ZZ Top - which have some good simple basslines (I recommend you don't start with Rush).

I did, in fact rush were probably the reason I started on the bass. Rush and Yes. I got an Ibanez Rick clone.

[yorks5stringer]

5 hours ago, TripleB67 said:

Interesting....I didn't realize that!

Another newbie question.  In comparing the Fender Rumble 25 to the Fender Rumble 15, I noticed that the 25 has two items that the 15 does not (other than more output): an 'Overdrive' button and a 'Contour' button.  What do these two items do?

Thanks!

TripleB67

The 'overdrive' button will give you that slightly distorted bass sound and 'contour' will do something else, neither will make much difference but maybe try reading some reviews of the different amps?

[gjones]

16 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I did, in fact rush were probably the reason I started on the bass. Rush and Yes. I got an Ibanez Rick clone.

You were probably an obsessive teenager, as I was, when you got your first bass.

The first song I played live was 'Alright Now' by Free. It took me forevers, squirrelled away in my bedroom, to get the tricky bassline in the solo. In fact I was still figuring it out about 5 mins before I went onstage.

But this dude is 51, he's got better things to do than hide away in his bedroom for 6 months learning 2112.

[skankdelvar]

On 01/10/2018 at 17:55, TripleB67 said:

I was hoping to find a song or two that were super easy so my practice time wouldn't be simply going through the basics.

Knocking on Heaven's Door (Dylan), Cortez The Killer (Neil Young) and The Joker (Steve Miller) are nice easy three chord songs. Paranoid by Sabbath is fast but easy. When you're more comfortable with the bass maybe try some slightly more difficult, riffy numbers like Sunshine of Your Love (Cream) or You Really Got Me (Kinks).

You can probably guess my vintage from the suggestions above...

Edited October 3, 2018 by skankdelvar

[AntLockyer]

I cannot tell you how strongly I feel about this piece of advice I'm about to give. I'm not much of an evangelist but I'll shout this from the roof tops if need be.

Learn to play the blues.

There is so much material from this simple starting point you will absolutely get a lot better in a very short space of time. All the other stuff is complicated and hard and this is the backbone of pretty much every form of American music.

Lesson 1 - 12 bar blues in A just root notes. Work it out slowly, see if you can do it without looking anything up on the internet. See the relationship between the 3 notes visually. Hear the relationship and feel when to change. 

Lesson 2 - play along to this 

Only use the root notes, play it loads and use different rhythms. Really get into it, have fun.

Lesson 3 - add notes. Try and learn some common patterns to play in addition to the root note. I suggest the uptown shuffle. 1, 5, flat 7, octave. A, E, G, A. See the pattern on the board, move the root, play the same pattern. You'll get it.

Lesson 4 - Downtown. Same pattern going backwards. 

You now are good enough to play with others and a whole world just opened up. This is not the only way but I promise you it is a very fast way to getting tools you need to move on. Solid foundations letting you interact with others and be creative.

Edited October 3, 2018 by AntLockyer
Fixed my poor phone spellings

[Norris]

9 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Ampeg 

im sure @Norris will be doing to endorse them, not least because I got that steeer from him

Absolutely. The Ampeg BA-108 is an impressive little practice/small gigging amp for not much money, with a decent bottom end and no rattling/farting

[lownote]

Hey, at 63 I see you as a mere child! Start with root notes, play something simple that you like. Get in a band as soon as you can.  Focus on hitting the beat more than the right note (although both is ideal, obviously). Join Scotts Bass Academy even if money is tight, it's worth it.  Don't waste money on face to face trainers. 

Edited October 3, 2018 by lownote12

[thebigyin]

21 minutes ago, Norris said:

Absolutely. The Ampeg BA-108 is an impressive little practice/small gigging amp for not much money, with a decent bottom end and no rattling/farting

Great little amp I have one

[SpondonBassed]

1 hour ago, Norris said:

a decent bottom end and no rattling/farting

Did you lift that from a dating site?

[Monkey Steve]

12 hours ago, TripleB67 said:

So if you have a bass guitar and a six string electric, but only one amp, it's better to have a bass amp?

TripleB67

probably...

the logic is largely for valve amps, where the bass version will typically stay cleaner at higher inputs and louder volumes...you will probably learn a lot about "head room" now that you're a bass player.  There's also how the amps are "voiced" and some guitarists prefer certain bass amp characteristics (Fender Bassman's have a long history of being used by guitarists, as have old Marshall valve heads)

At practice amp levels, what you'll probably find is that guitar amps aren't "voiced" to handle bass very well (plus, as above, the speakers aren't designed for it) but the bass amps will give you a fine clean sound for guitars.  What the guitarist is likely to miss is any overdrive or distortion that they might expect to find on a guitar amp's dirty channel.  Easily fixed with a fuzz box.  

The contour button you asked about will have a pre-defined eq shape, and that would be aimed at the range for basses, not guitars, so anything like that isn't likely to work very well for both instruments, but the basic amp function will be fine...

Which leads me to one final point - effect pedals.  It's a bit early in your bass playing journey to be stocking up on pedals - learn to play first, don't get distracted with a load of other whistles and bells that you don't need yet, but as a rule of thumb, for anything dealing with eq you really need to get a bass specific version - for example if you want a Boss graphic eq pedal you should go for the GEB-7 rather than the GE-7. Doesn't always apply - for example things like delay are fine, but others that work brilliantly for guitars, like distortion pedals, usually don't work so well for bass.  If in doubt, you know where to come to ask...just be prepared for a range of opinions.

[jonunders]

bit more expensive but the Roland Micro Bass Cube. +1 for the blues

[Lozz196]

Either the Ampeg BA108 or Fender Rumble 15 will be more than enough for home use, I`ve had both and never used either of them at anywhere near full volume when playing along to music on my stereo/pc/tv.

[converse320]

Welcome on board.  Im old as well, and really only started when I was 60.  For me, I found the structure of doing graded exams very helpful, so thats what I'm doing.   For me, I need to find something that gives you external goals - like a band, or a performance or an exam.