Now Play It

[Guitar Man Sam]

Hello people!
I have a major bass related dilemma- I want to buy a new bass and obviously I want the best possible bass for my money hence I am appealing to all you bassinators out there in bass land. My budget is realistically £400 to £500 (that's about $1000 USD) and my questions are such;

-Should I get a fretless? Although it is sooo much fun sliding up and down the neck, are they versatile and practical?

-Should I get active pickups? I have owned three Peavey Cirrus BXPs which were beautiful in every respect except for the fact that the batteries ran down every two weeks- hence took it back to the shop and replaced the bass twice- and yes I did remember to unplug them when I wasn't using them! So my question really is, should I bother with an active bass or is there a passive bass with similar tonal versatility as an active, and if so- which bass is it?

Has anyone had any great basses or got any handy advice for me?

Thanks!
Guitar Man Sam (Now Play It Production Team)

[Festival6667]

Okay, I think a few things are to be said

Good news first: your budget is more than enough for a good bass unless you have very expensive tastes.

About the fretted/fretless dilemna:
- Fretless basses are great but usually less versatile than fretted.
- Furthermore they are more difficult to play on, especially if you don't have any experience with upright or something like that since you not only have to put your fingers on the right spot (and not loosely between two frets) but also press way harder on the string, which are more of a cable.
- Sliding up and down is also fun on a fretted, especially is you have flatwound strings like most fretless
- This leads me to think that if you're looking for a bass that is closer to a fretless in terms of feeling and sound without the hassle, you're most probably looking for a fretted strung with flatwound or even better: with nylon tapewound (basically they're nylon flatwound)
- This being said, if you plan on keeping the bass(es) you already own, you certainly can consider a fretless to open yourself more possibilities, but I guarantee fretless are a different world ^^

About the active/passive dilemna:
- You sound like your active gear had some problems: seriously you shouldn't have to change the batteries so often unless you play like 24h a day.
- Anyway: the pickups are always passive (EDIT: well, not always passive but most are and active pickups have the same tonal qualities, only less noise and higher output) and the tone controls too when there are some. The difference being just that an active bass has a preamp in it (but you know that already). Just recalling that to say that the difference comes from the EQ integrated in the preamp: meaning that if you have a passive and want an EQ, you can just buy an EQ pedal ^^
- It is true that active basses are usually more versatile but it really depends also on the quality of the components. So I'd say: if you can get a good active for the same price than the same in passive, go for the active. But a good passive will always do the job (remember you can shape the sound with pedals and/or your amp)
- Last but not least, some basses have a switch to bypass the preamp, making them both active and passive, which is great, especially if you run out of batteries on stage...


In any case:
- Go try out some basses, not two basses are alike and though more expensive basses are generally better than cheaper ones, there are exceptions and bad ones. I tried out a custom fender going around $3000 which was pure crap (but nicely finished I give you that). Just to say that you have to try the instrument to make sure you're buying something that fits.
- Speaking of fitting, try some basses to see the kind of neck shape/width you want (rounder, flatter, thinner, larger...). Usually people tend to prefer kinda thinner necks (like a Jazz Bass neck contrary to Precision bass neck)
- Avoid extra heavy basses if you plan to play standing up and don't have the adequate back/shoulders (it's always horrible to sell a bass you love because it's just too heavy)
- Since you want tonal versatility, I'd say you're looking for a two-pickup configuration (be it J/J, P/J, P/MM, J/MM...)
- If you find a fitting passive bass, remember you can get some EQ somewhere else
- Last but not least: remember to look at second-hand basses in shops since you can try them out to check if they are not warped or damaged and it's always a good means to get some insane gear at a much more decent price !

Well, I am pretty sure you knew most if not all of that anyway but I hope I was of help.


As for possible basses, I tend to look in slightly less expensive categories but I suggest that you look at
- Ibanez SR-500
- Cort RB4 or B4 (the RB4 is not produced anymore but some stores still have it)
- Fender Japan Jazz Bass series (waay better than the Mex at a given price)
- higher-grade Bacchus Jazz Bass (if you can find one... good luck though!)

These are just a few of the possibilities but without knowing more of your tastes/wishes and the music you play it's difficult to tell more.

[Guitar Man Sam]

Oh wow! Thats is actually a massive help- I must admit I hadn't even heard of Nylon Tape Wound bass strings, do they give a different tone? I assume they go some way to reducing fret buzz and are generally less prone to rattling? I should be off down to Danemark Street after Christmas to try out some of those basses you mentioned earlier
Guitar Man Sam!

[Festival6667]

Tapewound strings are basically the same as flatwound except they are not wound with metal. Currently for bass there are only black nylon tapewound strings (there used to be some other colors like green but no more. Black is super cool though).

My personal favourite (I've tested about all the black nylon brands out there since this kind of string give me the sound I like in a bass) are the following:
'Deep Talking Bass - Black Nylon' by La Bella

As for the sound they give, how to be precise:
- Very deep bass on the E string, and kinda acoustic-like
- Bright sound on slap and pop, but with that extra deepness on the E string.
- Kinda sparkling, edgy sound on the higher notes but without aggressivity. Me and my friends call that the bubblegum effect, there's kind of a sugary dimension in the sound of black nylons.
- They are bigger than other kinds of strings and need way more tension BUT they are very soft to the fingers, very fast to move on (even more than metal flatwound) so they are arguably the most comfortable strings to play on.
- Oh last but not least, even less fret and finger buzz than flatwound which have already like no buzz


Don't hesitate to ask if you want some more info. I could post up some pictures or even soundclips if you want.

Oh, and NowPlayIt needs more bass tutorials

[Guitar Man Sam]

Thanks again- there will be some more bass lessons up in the near future- If you check the coming up section every so often there should be news on the latest releases- I think the other Sam will post some news soon!

[Official NPI Guy]

He will indeed. I think the next bass tutorial will be from Ruben... More news very shortly.

Other Sam

[Bass Man Ben]

Back to what bass, ive got a epiphone white thunderbird, looks beautiful but proberly something for the rockers out there.

a fender P bass is my next bass i think, its versatile and looks great.
what more do you want....

[Guitar Man Sam]

Thats funny Ben- I thought you said that I should get a squire Bronco!

[Guitar Man Sam]

Also- does anyone know what the requirements are to be eligible for the interest free Take It Away loan?

[Weegie]

I have a Jim Deacon FPJ62DBU (Cant ever remember the last bit).
Dont play it too much since I switched to guitar, but thats how I started playing guitar style instruments (was woodwind and brass before that).

[Guitar Man Sam]

I started playing the trombone before switching to Guitar! I think it's quite a common thing to do I think- seeing as you can't play pink floyd on a trombone it seemed like a sensible thing to do.