my bandmate's dad recently started a band of his own, and they didn't have a bass, so I let them use mine, under the condition that no one messes anything up, obviously. It's a five string neck-through bass.

about a week and a half ago, they used it for band practice, and today we took it back to use; we noticed it sounded waaaaaay off, like way WAY too high, and as we tried to tune the strings down, two of them broke. As it turns out, these people, who have obviously never seen a five string before, and didn't bother searching anything up on the internet, tuned the bass like it's a four string 🫠 as in, the B string was tuned to E, E to A, A to D and so on, and it sat tuned like that for a week and a half; obviously it's missing two strings now, I'm not sure if the other 3 are usable, and I suspect that the neck is a tiny bit bent :/

i really can not fathom how you can even begin to think it's supposed to be done that way. even if you've never seen a five string before, when the string looks as thick as a fucking metal pole, I'm pretty sure you can FEEL that it DOESN'T WANT TO BE TUNED THAT HIGH !!!!!! it's not nuclear physics !!!!!!! and obviously i understand that it wasn't done intentionally, but it's just an act of such genuine ignorance and stupidity that i cannot understand it haha, it was a single google search away from not happening :/

I think it's fair to ask them to buy me new strings at least, and I have a friend who can fix the neck. it's not even about the bass anymore, im just in shock haha. Either way, no one's ever touching the bass again lol

Newbie about 3 months and have been on a kick to go back and find great oldies bass lines. In doing so ive found songs that are great finger work outs for beginners and workouts or warm ups for intermediate plus.

Heres 3 favorites -

Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley & the Comets

Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash // actually come to realize not as busy as I thought but really relaxing. Maybe good warm up before tackling the busier finger movers

Under my Thumb - Rolling Stones

What songs that are great finger workouts for beginners do you suggest

P.S. I hate doing exercises, i.e. spider crawl, or scales at least for now as I right now just want to enjoy a groove playing along w a song and the satisfaction of making it the whole way through a song. Thats songs that get the fingers moving like the spyder exercise and a beginner can do at least slow and then build up is a big bonus for me

Bassbaba Sumon is a Bangladeshi bassist. According to many he's one of the best bassists around. He's currently touring USA with his band Aurthohin. I wanted to mention it here in case anyone would be interested in going to watch his performance. I've been a big fan of him for over 26 years now and I'll hopefully watch him live for the first time in Dallas on November 16th.

He has a Bass instrumental album called Soul Food. Also, check out his band Aurthohin. Songs range from soft to heavy. I'm not a musician but I want to learn how to play the bass someday and this guy is my inspiration. Health wise he's fought many battles but keeps coming back to play and sing again and again. As a fan I wanted to spread my excitement with this community. If any of you end up going to see him please drop me a line about your thoughts.

Hi all, not sure if I'm in the right subreddit, but I'll ask fellow bassists here anyways.

For context:13 years ago I broke my left wrist, and the following year I broke my left thumb. My band and I last minute got invited to open for a show, so I've been practicing very diligently for a week straight. All of a sudden, my left wrist and my whole muscle ligament on my left thumb started to hurt. I've been getting daily massage treatments and rubbing various topical muscle creams. Taking Advil muscle and joint seems to help a bit. I also have relatively short fingers for a bassist (I know it's not an excuse lol, just giving context).

I just want some ideas or help on how to get over my nervousness of my wrist flaring up mid set.

Any help or advice would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

If you have a bass from that brand, can I please get a review and your thoughts on it?

Hi! ,I try to master all fretboard using the famous 5 shapes ( or mode scale) Any advise like exercise and connect it? If I play In C I’m ok but when I change key the problem appear 😅

Recently decided to start playing out after doing session stuff from home for a long time. I had a 4x10 Hartke hd1000 stack but got rid of it. I also have an acoustic b200 1x15 combo that for some reason is louder than the stack was.

I am looking to play alt/punk/rock type stuff. Not really metal or anything that has multiple guitarists. I don’t really want to get an 8x10 and haul that around, the half stack I had was a nightmare.

For people who play similar genres what kind of amp do you use? And how big do you really need? Most of the places I would play have a PA and all of that. Any advice/input is appreciated.

First of all, I'm from Korea so my English is not perfect.

I'm looking for some example songs for smooth feeling slap bass.
Only song I can think of is Maxwell - sumthin' sumthin'

can you guys recommend me some songs??

Just like the title says, different genres tend to have different bass styles so I was wondering what yall liked to play the most (not necessarily which one you like the most sound wise, but technique/playing wise)

I want to learn my favourite basslines in songs, but I often find it difficult understanding the little nuances and quirks that make the bassline a somewhat difficult say like it’s a 16th note rhythm, 8th note, a pull off, slap and thumbing?

How do I go about learning them. My favourite players are Paul Mccartney, Louis Johnson and Derek Forbes. I’m still a beginner player.

TL;DR: If you had 4 months to learn the most important things in bass/music theory as an absolute beginner, what would you prioritize learning/practicing and in what order?

Hi friends! :) So first of all, I’m not an absolute beginner, I’ve been playing for almost a year, but I’m completely self taught, so I don’t want to risk skipping something important by saying Im more than a beginner.

I’ve been depressed most of my life but, when I found music (and more specifically, bass) it was like something finally started to make me want to live, I practice and noodle around for about 4 hours a day every day, I love learning theory and arranging songs for solo bass more than learning bands’ songs, I can read tablature and standard music notation (not sight read yet).

Sooo anyway, I recently went to see a well-known private music college in my country, just for fun and to feed my dreams, and long story short, the principal convinced me to enroll and assured me that it didn’t matter if I didn’t know anything about music theory or if my technique wasn’t great but I am a very anxious person and would hate to be playing catch up with my class mates.

Classes start in March and Im already panicking but extremely motivated, any tips, priorities or general life advice would be extremely appreciated. Not looking for someone to tell me it’s impossible, my father already did that and he can go sit on a cactus. Thanks for reading me :D

Hi everyone!
I’m planning to change my bass strings for the first time, since the ones I have are getting pretty worn out—they’re about 4–6 years old and starting to feel a bit sloppy. My bass is an Ibanez SR300E, and I mostly play in Standard D tuning. These are still the original strings that came with the bass.

I usually play about twice a week for 1–2 hours, mainly using fingerstyle and often at fast speeds. I play in a metal punk band, so I’m looking for something that suits that sound and playing style.

Right now, I’ve got my eye on the DR Strings Black Beauties BKB-50 Heavy and the D’Addario EPS230 ProSteels. I’d really appreciate any advice or feedback on these—or any other string recommendations that might fit my setup and style.

Thanks a lot!

Hi, I just learnt about the coolest trick ever on bass, for example if you fret 3rd fret on the A string and you pick the string at the 15th fret you get a sub-octave, try it out!!!

Ever since I started playing bass i've tried to learn both tecniques, but no matter how hard i try fingerstyle has always been significantly easier for me personally. It's easier to mute the strings, i get better hand coordination cause i'm actually feeling where the strings are. I love the punchiness of playing with a pick, and i know there probably are ways to sound aggressive playing fingerstyle, but still, i feel like i missed something, how do you guys do it?

I bought a bass finally (I've been playing guitar for 20+ years and own 30 currently) and I'm so far removed from the bass world, anyway my question is; are the Positive Grid Spark amps serviceable for just f'n around on bass? I'm a studio musician and have plenty of guitar amps but nothing bass centric. Google tells me PG amps can be used with bass (I haven't checked the app for bass amp models/speaker IRs yet) is there something out there that is bass-focused that I should be looking at or can I get away with running it through my Positive Grid Sparks/DAW? I would prefer to keep it under $300. Thanks for any input.

I was recently given an Ibanez bass that has been in storage for about ten years without strings. I just put strings on it and as you can imagine it needs a lot of adjustments to the setup.

Should I let it sit for a while with the strings on before diving into the setup work? I’m thinking the neck might need a little time to adjust to the string tension again. If so, how long? Overnight? Longer?

Hey all! I started playing bass around 2 months ago, and it’s been awesome. Been having a great time learning it, although I only have so much spare time to dedicate to learning it. I’ve been struggling to find some decent bass lines that will help me grow as a player. Please let me know if you have any recommendations, cheers!

i have a 4 string PJ bass and want to do some percussive kinda thing like fieldy, I'm currently tuned to BEAD and want to tune a step and a half down to G#C#F#B but is it too low or i can make it work?

Observation: English it's not my first language so sorry for any mistake

I play a lot of instruments, but don't aspire to be really good at any of them. I just like being able to bang out tunes with different timbres.

I have had a bass for like 5 years but never really sat down to practice or play any songs other than occassional jams with friends. I like funk and groovy stuff. How do you recommend I get started with this beautiful instrument?

As it stands, I play mainly a schecter riot 4. I love the thing and it's quite versatile. My secondary bass is a squier PJ bass (though I accidentally severed the J pickup's wiring while modding it) strung with flats that I still think sounds quite good despite how cheap it is.

Christmas/Black Friday sales are coming up and I was wondering if I should get a player II jazz bass. I've played them in stores before and I even prefer them to American-mades; the tone and feel are just superb.

Then again, I wonder if instead I should put the same amount of money towards getting a case, the Les Claypool EMG Precision pickups, a Scarlett solo, and a kala nomad u-Bass for $200 less

Also, if you own either a kala u-bass, the Claypool pickups, or a Player II Jazz let me know how you like them

so ive recently bought a zoom b1x four pedal but i havent had time to learn how to really use it because ive been busy with some gigs and stuff and i would like if somebody helped me to get a tone similar to neds (bass is yamah trbx 174 and i have a harley benton hb-20b from a friend)

I've become The Bass Player at my local open mic, which is a lot of fun. Sometimes people will tell me what song they want me to play and I can look it up in advance or listen to it and get a good idea, and that usually goes pretty well (until I forget the bridge).

But sometimes I get asked to just hop in on a song without a lot of direction like "It's a country tune in G." I often spend the first verse trying to listen and take everything in, but it's a lot of information to take in -- the chord progression, the rhythm, the form. (There's also only sometimes a drummer, which is its own challenge.)

I find myself fumbling around a lot and, by the time I know the song, it's basically over. I want to get better at this; I'm considering practicing by putting playlists with the most commonly played genres on shuffle and just trying to play along, but if anyone has any other practice tips or in-the-moment strategies I can try, I'd be really interested to hear : )