Bass question

MC Mystery

I recently acquired a free mexican fender electric bass. Apparently before I received it had an awkward tone when amped so someone tooled around with it's inside and I was told it would make crazy weird sounds now when amped, but it has worked nothing but spectacular for me. Well, spectacular for what I was expecting of it, and I wasn't expecting much. It definitely excelled. Now. The strings on it seem to be on their last legs, so I want to invest in some new ones. What's a good brand of string and how do you restring? I've restrung guitars in the past on my own, but I haven't done it in YEARS and it was when I was taking lessons so I had a lot of help. I have absolutely no memories of how to go about this process, and honestly am embarrassed to ask my bandmates. (I'm not usually on bass for us, but I don't want it to be revealed I'm this out of the loop on stringed instruments). In addition, jamming today I remembered how much I liked playing bass (I have been the resident bassplayer in a few other bands I've been a part of, I just sold my last bass when I moved) and want to invest in a nice stage-worthy amp and perhaps some effects pedals. My bass player for our band swears by not using effects on her bass, but I'm really curious about playing around with them. What are good pedals to get? Should I/can I see about getting a professional to take a look at my bass to estimate if any work needs done on it? I can't really tell. Also, how do fender bass' traditional rank against other companies?

Lux

Stringing a bass:
http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_string_change/

Great guide.

gobassgo

Effects should be used sparingly, but in the right context can be totally awesome.
I like to bring out the auto-wah bass pedal for when I want to bring out an especially Bootsy/P-Funk sound.

MC Mystery

Oooh I'll definitely check that out, as just before posting this I was discussing with another person I play with how much we both love P-Funk.

Is there a pedal that'll make my live bass sound more like a synthesized bass? Seems like a silly thing to want, but it's something I'd like to have every now and again.

Scrublet

On effects, get as many as you can and experiment with them. You might buy 10 pedals and hate 9 of them, but buying those 10 introduced you to the one that might influence a unique sound. Don't fall prey to the blanket rule many bassists use (pedals are for guitars only).

Fenders traditionally hold up very well; these are classic basses. You were asking about amps; I swear by Ampeg. Depending on your style and how big a place you're playing, you may be able to get away with a 2x12 combo (both the amp and head are in one unit). However, if you tend to play louder music, or know you're going to find yourself in venues that will not mic you, you may want to invest in a halfstack 4x12. If you do that, I'd recommend looking at these to start with: SVT-410HLF, B-410HLF. For a head, look at B2-4E and B4R. These are all Ampeg, which is what I'm most familiar with.

flatlinegraphics

ok. strings, i currently rock ken smith mediums. i really like them. before that, it was fender nicklesteel mediums.

as for stage ready rigs... it really depends on the stage, and the rest of the band. i usually recomend atleast 3x the wattage as the guitarists, at least for a solid state amp. something around 300w. good cheap heads, gk rb400, hartke 3500. i usually don;t recommend lower end ampeg ..anything. they just don;t seem to be able to cut, and they seem to never have enought juice. i'd reccomend that you find a good 410 to start with. peavey tvx cabs are excellent used. new, go poke around avatarspeakers.com. 412s are exceedingly rare (and huge).

i really really really recommend against a combo. unless you have a strong back, and don't care about breaking it. by the time you have enough juice and enough speaker area, the damn thing weighs about 200lbs. you can look into pre/power amp setups for more versatility, but until you know what you are doing, you should stay away from that. just try out every amp you can find. what kind of budget do you have? that can greatly effect whats available.

as for effects. generally speaking, bass is for laying down the low end. generally speaking, one shouldn;t load up a bass with effects, or the bottom end drops out of the band, and it sounds thin. now, that doesn;t mean YOU shouldn't. experiment. find a store with a liberal return policy. make friends with the clerks.

you can look for an akai deep impact for those weird synth bass sounds, or a moogerfooger. possibly a digitech whammy. autowahs, etc. but good synth/filter pedals are f'ing expensive. those multi effect pedals are typically a waste of money. 3 dozen ok effects, but no GOOD ones.

i'd suggest hanging out at the harmony-central bass forum for a bit and talkbass. hcbf has tons of good info, but a lot more relaxed, while talkbass is ver very very serious.

for reference, i am currently playing a mm stingray through a sunn 1200s, eden 410xlt and an ampeg svt212.

Scrublet

flatlinegraphics wrote: »

as for stage ready rigs... it really depends on the stage, and the rest of the band. i usually recomend atleast 3x the wattage as the guitarists, at least for a solid state amp.

Note: (and this is from someone who doesn't know too many of the gritty details here) While there ARE exceptions to this rule, in general tube amps are better than solid state (and much more expensive). Most people prefer the sounds the tubes generate. They are also less susceptible to heat/power problems and are easier to replace. However, they are heavy, bulky, and EXPENSIVE. I just wanted to elaborate on what he meant by 'solid state'...that's probably what you want at this point.

flatlinegraphics

the big difference is that you can use ALL of the wattage available in a tube amp. all amps distort, but tube amps distort musically. it mostly deals with even and odd order harmonics (and psychoacoustics, compression etc. that i barely understand). but since bass is typically used clean, and dirt added later via preamp distortion or a stomp box, you will 90% of the time be dealing with solid state. you need the headroom and power available from SS. there are tube amps, notably the 400+ and the SVTii, but those will set you back 800-1500usd. and a full retube of a 400+ is around $2-300usd. (12x 6l6s).
there are hybrid amps out there, with tube preamp(font ends) and solid state poweramps. this usually gets you the best of both worlds. the grit and "warmth" of a tube and the ass shaking power of solid state.

plus tube amps are expensive, and heavy. you are basically hauling around a box of lightbulbs.

MC Mystery

As far as budget goes, a friend of mine wants to go halvsies on a stage-able amp with me since she'll be using it for performances and practicing at my house, but doesn't want to carry it from place to place so will leave it with me. So any price I'd be paying gets cut in half.