mike6182 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Hi Everyone, Later this year I'm due to have surgery on my left hand & I won't be able to play bass for at least 3-4 months. I don't want to let the rest of my band down, so I said I'd look into getting a keyboard to play bass on instead (one-handed obviously!). As it happens, I had been thinking for some time about getting a keyboard to experiment with & try a few bass lines. I'd really appreciate any advice on what kit would be suitable & how to approach this. We play mainly rock covers, both classic & recent. Cheers, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dumelow Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 blasphemy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 [quote name='mike6182' post='860708' date='Jun 8 2010, 09:35 AM']Hi Everyone, Later this year I'm due to have surgery on my left hand & I won't be able to play bass for at least 3-4 months. I don't want to let the rest of my band down, so I said I'd look into getting a keyboard to play bass on instead (one-handed obviously!). As it happens, I had been thinking for some time about getting a keyboard to experiment with & try a few bass lines. I'd really appreciate any advice on what kit would be suitable & how to approach this. We play mainly rock covers, both classic & recent. Cheers, Mike[/quote] Hey Mike, Same thing happened to me when I broke my arm! I ended up using a Roland D5 synth through my bass amp - the band were ok with it so it must have been ok! We play everything from 40's swing through to Kings of Leon, and the basic bass sounds were all fine for this. The D5 cost me £80, and I still have it. Would reckon on trying any synths you can - the D5 is a bit antiquated so you'll probably find better. Novation bass station / Roland Juno / Korg X50 were all mentioned to me as possibles too. I had no problems running the synth through my GK rig, in fact using it that way made the difference less noticeable to the band sound - still ran the amp DI into the PA as usual. I ended up enjoying the change/challenge of playing bass keys, especially not having a Stingray round my neck on marathon wedding gigs too! Good luck, you'll be fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Sounds like a good idea. There are a lot of keyboard bass lines out there. Hope your hand heals quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 I seem to remember the old Roland D50 having some good bass sounds. They're going for round the 100 mark on fleaBay. I wouldn't mind one myself. [quote name='chris_b' post='860768' date='Jun 8 2010, 10:24 AM']Hope your hand heals quickly.[/quote] ditto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Budget? I tried out a load of keyboards recently in the 600ish bracket, I was quite underwhelmed by the keyboards if I am honest. I ended up saving for a bit longer and spending nearer 500 on an m50. Sounds are great whole load of basses, so maybe the x50 if your looking at less than that. If your newish to keys then I recommend picking usability over sounds tbh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toneknob Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Novation Bass Station or something by Moog? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 I'm using a Novation Xio Synth to great effect currently! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 [quote name='Sibob' post='860822' date='Jun 8 2010, 11:30 AM']I'm using a Novation Xio Synth to great effect currently! Si[/quote] I'd considered this one as well when my Novation Bass Station broke... But I fixed it in the end. Still the Xio synth looks very good and I've seen a few go cheapish on ebay. Its an interesting route to go down and means I have no interest in pedals for my bass as I've got all the weird and wonderful sounds available at the press of a key. Give it a go Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhysP Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 For bass parts I'd go for a Moog Little Phatty or a secondhand Moog Prodigy. The Novation Bass Station is pretty good too. There was also somebody on here recently selling an Access Virus synth, which are great synths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Depends what you're after. If you're happy to use preset sounds then just go an try every keyboard you get your hands on and buy the one that has the most sounds you like that's within your budget Anything produced in the last 5 years by Roland Korg or Yamaha will most likely be excellent. If you want to get into programming buy something with lots of knobs on it. Parameter access programming will frustrate you quicker than anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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