Hi there everyone,
I'm a guitarist and I've been daydreaming of buying a cheap bass for pushing the game up a little bit in my beginner home recording project. Programming midi is quite obnoxious and not much satisfying, plus playing a real bass would be fun in any case and I like learning new things.
So what am I looking for?
The bass should be:
- LEFTY
- cheap, entry level is ok as long as it has a minimum re-sell value for future safety (i'd say a budget of around 200 euros for a 4-stringer and 300 for a 5-stringer, the less money the better as long as the bass is decent)
- both used and new is ok, I'll probably look at used stuff
- I will only RECORD at home with it at hobby level, and not likely play live (not yet, at least)
- no amp, just the bass since I'll be playing it through my Pod and powered monitor
- now on to the big question: 4 strings or 5 strings?
I only own 6 string guitars for the moment and I usually have my guitars in standard tuning, but I like to experiment from time to time and I always have some heavy gauges lying around: standard detuning, open tunings, drop tunings, etc.
That being said, I know a bassist usually plays single notes (I mean, chords on a bass are a quite advanced thing and I don't see myself playing them in any case, in addition to the fact I don't "want to become a bassist" at the moment. I just could see myself needing a bass to lay stuff down) so I was striving for a 5-stringer to immediately solve the down-tuning issue.
In standard 5-string tuning, I'd have notes down to B (which I don't usually tune below on guitar) so I'd just have to probably shift some positions but I'd have all the notes handy already.
With a 4-stringer, the detuning issue would be more real and I honestly don't want to spend around on non-standard bass strings just for the (occasional?) probability of detuning. Not to mention that any tuning change would be a problem per se.
On the other hand, it won't be so easy to find a decent cheap lefty 5er nor to hypothetically resell it.
So this is a bit confusing.
What do you recommend based on your experience? It is smarter to magage a 4 or a 5er for those issues?
At present time, I've been looking at some Ibanez (GSR line) and Cort models among the entry range.
Harley Benton basses (the Thomann.de private label) are also said to be of good price\quality ratio as for example this one among the 5ers (non to mention it's the only super cheap LH 5-string bass available on there): Harley Benton B-550LH BK Progressive Series - Thomann Italia
Let me know!![Cool :cool: :cool:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I'm a guitarist and I've been daydreaming of buying a cheap bass for pushing the game up a little bit in my beginner home recording project. Programming midi is quite obnoxious and not much satisfying, plus playing a real bass would be fun in any case and I like learning new things.
So what am I looking for?
The bass should be:
- LEFTY
- cheap, entry level is ok as long as it has a minimum re-sell value for future safety (i'd say a budget of around 200 euros for a 4-stringer and 300 for a 5-stringer, the less money the better as long as the bass is decent)
- both used and new is ok, I'll probably look at used stuff
- I will only RECORD at home with it at hobby level, and not likely play live (not yet, at least)
- no amp, just the bass since I'll be playing it through my Pod and powered monitor
- now on to the big question: 4 strings or 5 strings?
I only own 6 string guitars for the moment and I usually have my guitars in standard tuning, but I like to experiment from time to time and I always have some heavy gauges lying around: standard detuning, open tunings, drop tunings, etc.
That being said, I know a bassist usually plays single notes (I mean, chords on a bass are a quite advanced thing and I don't see myself playing them in any case, in addition to the fact I don't "want to become a bassist" at the moment. I just could see myself needing a bass to lay stuff down) so I was striving for a 5-stringer to immediately solve the down-tuning issue.
In standard 5-string tuning, I'd have notes down to B (which I don't usually tune below on guitar) so I'd just have to probably shift some positions but I'd have all the notes handy already.
With a 4-stringer, the detuning issue would be more real and I honestly don't want to spend around on non-standard bass strings just for the (occasional?) probability of detuning. Not to mention that any tuning change would be a problem per se.
On the other hand, it won't be so easy to find a decent cheap lefty 5er nor to hypothetically resell it.
So this is a bit confusing.
What do you recommend based on your experience? It is smarter to magage a 4 or a 5er for those issues?
At present time, I've been looking at some Ibanez (GSR line) and Cort models among the entry range.
Harley Benton basses (the Thomann.de private label) are also said to be of good price\quality ratio as for example this one among the 5ers (non to mention it's the only super cheap LH 5-string bass available on there): Harley Benton B-550LH BK Progressive Series - Thomann Italia
Let me know!