Okay, youngest son is starting to get into playing bass guitar (already plays the drums) and he’s picked up an okay looking Stagg electric guitar. It’s a cheap 2nd hand guitar and it was no doubt pretty cheap when new but it looks alright. But I know nothing about bass guitars so it may or may not be…

He’s asked me if I can get him an amp and cable but I have no idea of what to look for and what is good or bad?

Any advice on this would be great!

And any advice on bass guitaring in general would also be great!

I do ride my bike sometimes but this place is still so brilliant for all sorts of life stuff haha!

The question is, what’s your budget? You can get some great little combo practice amps for around £70. Avoid anything cheap as the sound will be terrible….
I get most of my bass and drum bits from gear4music.

If there’s a PMT near you they have loads of stock – go try it out

http://Www.pmtonline.co.uk

As for cables (leads) you’ll be looking for a 1/4in mono Jack plug at each end.

Not just bass guitar players, bass amp designers too!

He’ll be fine with a little low power combo (20-100W) with a single 8″ speaker, in a sealed or ported box (though cheap ported cabs usually sound better if you stuff the port to stop it doing much). Bigger speakers will go louder and do more lows but won’t be so good at the real tone of the instrument until you get to much bigger budgets.

Bear in mind that it’s a guitar which plays the bass line (and the bass line is a combination of rhythm, melody and harmony – you need some lows for the rhythmic function to work but plenty of midrange tone to fulfil the melodic and harmonic function). It isn’t just the rumbly noise under the other instruments.

See if there’s anything local here: http://basschat.co.uk/forum/20-amps-and-cabs-for-sale/

I’m a fan of the little Peavey and Roland bass practice amps because they just work and sound fine.

cheers

Well, he’s just starting out with this so I don’t want to spend a lot just in case he sacks it off.
I’m guessing I’m probably better to look at the 2nd hand market?

If he gets into it then I’ll be looking to get some decent gear…

Aha! Cheers chiefgrooveguru! Cool job you have 🙂

Another bass player here.

Based on my sisters complaints all through teenage years, get one that takes headphones and a line in so he can play along to stuff without everyone else having to listen to it as well.

I use the 50watt version of this. It’s a guitar amp but has done me fine for 5 years. http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vox-AD50VT-Guitar-Amp-/262600669911?nav=SEARCH. It’s been fine for small gigs with quiet drummers and comes complete with loads of effects. The roland bass cubes are similar

Get him to join a band as soon as possible, playing bass on my own soon got boring

Check out thomann, their Harley Benton stuff works well on a budget. Second hand peavey also good, though as with bikes, can be a minefield if you don’t know what you’re looking at.

I play death metal though so what do I know?

…so he’s tried the drums and now wants to try an actual musical instrument?

It’s a good thing to do. One of my kids did base to grade 5 I think fwiw, guitar to grade 8. He got asked to do a more stuff round his school on bass than on guitar as there tend to be more guitarists about (music for shows orchestra etc- funny to see him slapping it at the back as the cast and band mount a serious assault on some disco number). Bands with mates likewise.

You needn’t spend much as others have said – no reason a 2nd hand stagg wouldn’t be okay for starting out as long as it works and the neck’s solid etc – my lad got quite a long way on a bass that was £110 new (before getting a fender precision jazz). And there’s no need to spend over £100 on a 5/10 watt practice amp.

my cheap peavey 8″ practice amp has a much nicer tone than the big 1×15″ i bought for gigging.

Great little amp, and loud enough for practising with drums, as long as the drummer doesn’t absolutely belt it.

Depending how keen he is, I might spring the extra for a Yamaha bass. Be a great second if he sticks with it and ends up with a Jaco Pastorius sig as his main 🙂

My first bass was a yamaha, when i was 12. It was tough as boots. Looking back, for a careless teenager, that was great.

I then moved onto an electric ibanez sr300, an ibanez electro-acoustic (poor electrics..) and now a warwick 5 string.

The Ibanez SR series are very good for the money, especially the cheaper ones.

…so he’s tried the drums and now wants to try an actual musical instrument?

Well given that he’s now on bass, I guess coordinating two hands AND two feet was probably too much 😉

…that and driving a van.

(I know, drummers always get gigs, and to hang about with musicians.)

haha! He’s still playing the drums John. And still massively enjoying them 🙂

Thanks for all the help.

I’ve been offered a Laney RB2 amp which to me looks good. Anyone used one?

Cheers

Laney amps are good. Not sure if 30W would cut it with a drummer in the room, our bassist uses a 300W Trace Elliot head with Laney 4×10 & 1×15 cabs.

As a kid I learnt to play bass by playing along to records. Find something he likes that’s relatively easy, grab the tab online if required and off you go. I learnt to the Ramones initially 🙂

Brother bought my daughter a cheap electric guitar and amp last xmas(she already has a half decent acoustic guitar),

Biggest difference we noted was binning the cheap amp and cable and replacing with a decent cable and a Roland Micro-cube.

I’d have a look around to find a secondhand iPad running GarageBand.

Ik multimedia sell a gizmo (try eBay) that lets you plug your guitar and headphones into the iPads headphone socket.
Great effects.
Record your efforts and edit/ manipulate with the touch screen.
Practice along to a drum machine.

Best thing for making music?, probably.

The website ‘musicradar’ from the bike radar/ tech radar people spells it out better