Youngest daughter looking for an electric bass guitar to learn on, been using an acoustic guitar so far and is enjoying it and wants to try bass. She’s tall enough for adult size I think. I remember years ago when our older son learnt on a normal 6 string guitar you could get these all in one packages with a little amp/combo which were quite good for young people, Squire by Fender I think, not too expensive if they get bored or don’t enjoy it but good enough to learn and then progress onto something else should they want to. What’s good in the bass department for something like this? Any recommendations appreciated. Cheers

I think squier do a similar package for bass. The choice is between the Precision (aka P-bass) and Jazz. Jazz has a slimmer neck so may be better for smaller hands but get her along to a music shop and try a few.

Most shops will do a package of bass, amp, tuner and leads the most important thing is getting a bass she’s comfortable with.

As well as Squier there’s a few brands that do good ‘starter’ basses. Yamaha, Peavey, Epiphone probably the most popular.

Thanks for that, yep get her along to local shop I guess to try

As Lifer says get allong to a good shop. And be prepared to spend a bit more on the bass than your first instincts. I’ll compare cheap basses, guitars, etc. as the BSO of the musical world. One sure fire way to demotivate someone is give them crap tools to start with. But you don’t have to spend a fortune either.

I have played for years, started off with second hand rubbish, bought better and better kit, some real exotica, but the bass i clicked with the most was a pawn shop P-bass copy. I replaced the pick ups, hardware and electrics, then rattle can sprayed it and sticker bombed it. Luckily I was in a punky RnB blues band, the look just suited it.

Get over to Basschat forum for some advice. The For Sale thread is a busy place that would probably do your daughter proud.

If you have an iPad or iPhone you can use Garageband as an amplifier with a suit interface. Inexpensive ones are far cheaper than a horrible sounding practice amp. I only use an amp live, and that was a few years ago now, everything att home, in the studio is through the iPad or computer. I used to take the interface and iPad as back up for gigs.

Yeh, try it on for size, as with 6 string guitar, there’s some diamonds and some pigs at the lower end of the market, so it is well worth having a hands on demo of a few in your budget. Any guitar shop worth it’s salt will happily let you demo a couple.. But definitely try before you buy.

It’s not a case of “adult” or “kid’s” sizes. It’s short or long scale, and many adults prefer a short scale – I’m one. Jack Bruce and Jim Lea played short scale.

Get her to try at least one short scale before you buy.

Back when I had misplaced aspirations of being the next Lemmy I settled on a Tanglewood Rebel 4K after much consulting with actual players. I sucked but the axe was rated well by those who could play. Now retail about £180 from a quick google, you can get a used one for half if that. Avoid cheap Fender copy crap.

I’d go for one of these if I didn’t already have an acoustic bass, albeit a cheaper version.

(Ibanez acoustic bass)

And if you get “Rocksmith 2014”, then using the cable supplied, you end up with a game that works as a learning tool, and can use the pc without any other software/interfaces, to get started, to keep costs down.

But yeah, go to a decent guitar shop to find a bass.

Squier do the Bronco bass for around £170, and the Mikey Way mustang for about £270 (it is sparkly!). Both have short scale necks with a slim radius so great for shorter people and small hands, and not too heavy either. The Squier kit in recent years has been great. Although these don’t come as a starter kit with an amp etc, you could pick up an Ashdown Tourbus amp, headphones, tuner and a cable and keep the total bill under £300.

It’s harder to make a bass work well at short scale (30″) than with standard scale (34″) and they’re much less common. You might come across a Fender Mustang short scale (or variant upon that). I’d steer clear of Gibson/Hofner short scales as they’re much more one trick ponies.

Unfortunately with basses the woods and neck joint make or break the tone, so you really need to play the specific instruments and hear them unplugged. If you’re near Brighton I’d be happy to lend a critical ear. We got our work P-bass from the basschat classifieds, though I got to try it first (and that’s a motley collection of parts but it sounds great)!

A slim neck, low action and flexible/lighter strings all matter more to playability than the scale length. She wouldn’t like my heavy gauged medium/high action 36″ scale five though, that definitely doesn’t play itself! 😉

Royal Blood Guy used to use a short scale cheap Gretch Bass and he can create some noise (although his pedal board probably cost a few quid)

My first bass was a bodged up frankenbass from someone’s parts bin.. I graduated to a short scale Ibanez Roadstar..

I’ve just got my old man’s 60s Framus Starbass now but it’s sadly in need of extensive renovation

And the best five minutes of bass tips on you tube i have found…

(Dave Ellefson of megadeth)

Peavey Milestone or Yamaha RBX170

chiefgrooveguru – Member
It’s harder to make a bass work well at short scale (30″) than with standard scale (34″) and they’re much less common. I’d steer clear of Gibson/Hofner short scales as they’re much more one trick ponies.

Maybe, but they do quite nice tricks. I wish that I’d never sold my late ’60s short scale EB-3 because they’re like hen’s teeth now.
But no, if you want to slap and pop like Marcus Miller then you’d never choose one of those.

Depends how much you want to spend – a s/h MusicMan Sterling is a nice bass – versatile, light, lovely neck width and profile and, especially the early ones, lovely fit and finish. Quality stuff that’ll never go out of fashion IMHO.

On the other hand, I’ve got a Yamaha BB404 that I bought as a cheap bass to leave out in that Greece. Alder body, so it’s light, 2x single coils p’ups, quality hardware, lovely neck and sounds as good as lots of stuff worth ten times what it cost me, which was £100 s/h. You can slap that thing to kingdom come and back, I love it.

Bass’s can be very heavy, so try before you buy, as above, plug into phone/computer etc, easier on the ears and loads of FX/learning tools available.

And the best five minutes of bass tips on you tube i have found…

(Dave Ellefson of megadeth)
Gotta say I disagree with the plectrum thing – it’s a tool to have in your pocket when needed, but I prefers plucking both for sound and speed. Bang some distort in there and sharpness becomes less important than attitude… 🙂