i've encountered a bit of an internal musical conflict...

viewerfromnihil

viewerfromnihil

Vein-Marbled Tower
May 29, 2008
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Berlin, Germany
ok so i've been a guitarist for 4 years and nearly 3 months now, all of my money gone to guitar along with all of my time. i just got out of a rough spot with guitar (i basically stopped practicing) and when i got out of it, i also picked up bass. i've been consistently playing bass for a month now but it's been around my house for over a year (not mine, my sisters, she got it and didn't touch it so i took it over). i've found that i have made quite alot of progress on bass within this month, building a decent slap technique, getting my right hand fingers fast and consistent, and i can play most of atheist's mother man (not quite all the way through though, it's quite an exercise :p). on top of that, i've been around drums for 3 years now, getting to jam once every couple months and have built up some basic skill with it and have recently started improving (thanks to air drumming :lol: it really does help) so, i'm buying a drum set in a week or so... this has been causing a bit of a controversy with both myself and my wallet :lol:

so here i am now, wondering what i am going to do with my practice regiment. i'm decent at guitar, i have decent writing skills and can hold my own in a technical aspect but i find my skill progress with guitar has been coming slowly unlike how it used to be. however, with bass, i've made a huge amount of progress and it's not slowing down, both technically and with writing unique and cool sounding bass lines for songs. lastly, with drums, i've wanted to play since i can remember and can hold my own pretty well for somebody who doesn't even have a set or a consistent practice regiment and i also have random bursts of skill improvement with drums. for example, i haven't played drums in two months but, the other day i jammed out on a set and played twice as well as i could before.

now, with the wallet aspect, i have broken bc rich ironbird that's been waiting to be fixed and i have the supplies but not the money to get it up and running. i also need to get a new amp head soon due to the fact that mine is a crate. with bass, i need to get a better bass because i'm stuck with my little sister's starter bass that is all kinds of fucked up. i also need to get a bass amp. i have multiple musical projects waiting for me to upgrade my bass equipment but i hate putting off funds for guitar considering that i play guitar for my main band, athropos. however, for a crate head, my sound isn't that bad thanks to the speakers i have in my cab but i have been putting off getting a new amp head for years. as for drums, they're expensive as fuck :lol:

so yeah, anybody else have any advice or who can also relate to my current musical conflict? thanks
 
well, you can do what i do. buy and play everything. youll of course have to start small with the gear. but if youre leaning toward one instrument over another, go with it. and actually, youd be amazed how much learning bass helps your guitar playing, and vice versa.
~gR~
 
Ampeg makes a really good practice amp... I'd get one of those, they always blow me away with their sound quality and they cost less than $300.

Something to figure out if you're going to buy a bass it what your preferences are. String spacing, tone woods, scale length, pickup placement, active vs passive, and pickup type are all very important in choosing a better bass for yourself. Nothing is universal, it's all about the bass making the sound you hear in your head as an ideal bass tone. And what feels the best to play.

I sat down in guitar center maybe 3 hours a day playing every bass they had in the store. Every chance I got. I'd go home afterward and look up everything about the instruments I liked, figuring out what gave them their unique tones and feels. Picking a bass to buy is a process that you should take your time with. A salesman may tell you a certain bass is really good and you could find that same instrument so disappointing... it has to suit your music.
 
With the progress thing, that's because when you pick up an instrument you go from sucking colossal balls to being able to play it very quickly. Learning any instrument is a series of sudden climbs separated by long plateaus. Only the guitar mountain goes higher...
 
thanks for the comments guys

Genocide: that's probably what i'll do but god damn that's gonna take a while :lol:

Eligos: i've been looking at the amps you're talking about so that's probably what i'll go for. i've actually found what bass that i really want under every catagory, a steinberg 5 string fretless, but that's out of my price range at the moment. i'm probably going to buy my friend's 6 string ESP for $350

WAIF: very true, i wonder why that didn't cross my mind before...

thanks guys
 
The ESP 6 string with the ash body? I hear those play great but that the electronics suck and you'll need to change em out to make it sound good. Otherwise it's muddy from what I hear.

I like Steinberger! Smaller basses are definitely a lot of fun to play. And graphite necks are something I've always been interested in. I actually want to get a Modulus Quantum VI if Kastigation ever leaves the states because they are great for travel. No neck warping. Major plus.
 
^exactly, plus, i've always prefered an unconvetional tone bass wise. i also hear that you cannot find a more comfortable instrument

as for the ESP, pretty much what you said is how they are though i don't think that they're too muddy but they still are a bit muddy
 
Eligos said:
The ESP 6 string with the ash body? I hear those play great but that the electronics suck and you'll need to change em out to make it sound good. Otherwise it's muddy from what I hear.

I like Steinberger! Smaller basses are definitely a lot of fun to play. And graphite necks are something I've always been interested in. I actually want to get a Modulus Quantum VI if Kastigation ever leaves the states because they are great for travel. No neck warping. Major plus.
Click to expand...

zon makes basses with graphite necks too
~gR~
 
Practice without an instrument? lol

You can't exactly pirate a bass, unless you can run really fast.
 
Eligos said:
Uh... They look 10,000x as awesome. Have you seen the Hyperbass? Holy shit. I cream every time I see it. But Zon basses were going for 4k the last time I checked.
Click to expand...

this is very true. and honestly, the wide string spacing of zons annoy me
~gR~
 
um. no? every GC ive been to has a person at the door checking receipts. they also write down the serial numbers of all things coming in as well
~gR~
 
ah, well, i'm 100% sure that these guys did steal all of their shit from GC. i haven't been to a GC in a few years but last time i went, they didn't have anybody at the door. maybe it's just my local GC
 
viewer_from_nihil said:
actually, guitar center is EXTREMELY easy to steal from. a local band stole all of their equipment from there and they just calmly walked out the front door with the stuff.
Click to expand...

Oh god please let me in on the secret, I would absolutely love a five-finger shopping spree at GC.

But yeah, they have dudes at the door checking receipts.
 
I wouldn't actually do it but theres a store near me that's really busy all the time and it's really small, would be piss easy to just walk out with a guitar.
 
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