Archive for the ‘Bass Guitar Package’ Category
You don’t have to be the best guitarist in the world to be in a band. Being in a band doesn’t mean you have to play gigs either.
Starting a band is really quite simple, find a couple of people with their own electric guitar packages, get a bass player with his own bass guitar package, get yourself a drummer and you have yourself a band. If you know someone who plays keyboards invite them to sit in.
As far as what songs to play what I did with my first band is everyone in the band contributed with song and styles that they were into, we didn’t even have sheet music, one person would know the chords and yell them out as we went along. As we went on when someone came in with an idea for a song at the end of practice we would make the announcement learn this song by the next time we meet. At the nest session we would play the song, it needed some polish but for the most part the system we had worked.
The biggest thing to remember when forming a band is to have fun with it, your not doing it as a profession. One other thing is, it’s alright to make mistakes, it’s things like that that will make you better as you go on.
Did you ever purchase something just to find out you need something else to make it work properly? Like buying a hockey puck without a stick, or a hockey stick without a puck. How about purchasing an IPOD alone that didn’t come with ear buds or some other device to produce the sound.
The same thing applies to purchasing a guitar. Whether it be an electric guitar, or even an electric bass guitar, without an amplifier the results would be same you can practice for yourself with the guitar but it would be awfully hard to hear anything without a bass amplifier or guitar amplifier.
From a logic’s stand point it makes much more sense to purchase an electric guitar package or a bass guitar package. Your wallet will thank you for this also as it is less expensive to buy a bass or electric guitar package. Along with an amplifier you would receive a guitar tuner ( also a necessity ), your guitar isn’t any good if it is not in tune ( bet you didn’t even think about that one ),
Now that you have learned how to adjust the saddles on your new bass guitar you should take the following steps to set what is called intonation. Intonation is the term that refers to the open note on each string should be the same as the note on the 12th fret.
This is not as scary as it sounds, and like adjusting the saddles on the bridge is a very easy fix. At the very end of the bridge there are screw adjustments that will draw the string either in or out to adjust the intonation.
You will need a philips screwdriver and a bass guitar tuner like the one you received with your bass guitar package. Place your tuner on the head of your bass guitar and play the open string, lets say the A string tune the string so that it is dead on then play the note on the 12th fret, the notes should be the same, if they are not in tune adjust the screw until they are the same. After you are done with the first string do the same thing with the rest.
You have already purchased a bass guitar package and have had it for a while. You’ve practiced everyday and have become fairly proficient at it and are ready to take the next step, however you’re not sure what wether to try another style of bass guitar, or get a bigger bass amplifier.
Why choose, consider the advantages of having both another style bass guitar, and another amplifier. With the right bass guitar package you can have both. As with electric guitars all bass guitars don’t play alike, or sound alike. Having another style bass guitar gives you the flexibility to experiment between the two when your playing a song, you might like the sound of one over the other, or the feel of one over the other.
When looking for another bass guitar package look for one with a different size amplifier than that of the one you already have. Again this gives you more flexibility, let’s say you already had a 10w bass amplifier and have now picked up a 20w amplifier, you can either play either bass guitar with either of the amps or you can treat one amp as a pre-amp. This is achieved by running one cable from your bass to the first amp (lets say the 10w bass amp), next you would run another cable from the headphones jack of the first amp to the input jack of the second amp. (by the way the second cable you get along with the 2nd bass package). Don’t be afraid to experiment with it that’s how the professionals get their sound.
Whether your playing an electric guitar or electric bass guitar there are certain accessories that are a must to have. The first and most important thing you need is an amplifier for an electric guitar or an amplifier for an electric bass guitar (there is a difference). Next unless you plan on walking around forever with your guitar attached to you, your going to need a stand. How about tuning, unless your one of those gifted people with perfect pitch that can tune a guitar by listening to it your going to need a tuner. Some of the newer digital tuners make tuning your guitar very easy.
Rather than waiting to find out after you get your electric or bass guitar home that you need the guitar accessories outlined above, why not look around for an electric guitar package or a bass guitar package that has everything you need already. One of the biggest advantages of buying one of these packages is that they are normally cheaper than buying each item seperately, even the guitar is cheaper in a package. A package will also have a gig bag and a few other things that are nice to have.
Black Sabbath not only had the great electric guitar of Tony Iommi, it also had an outstanding bass guitar player named Terry “Geezer” Butler who among other things is the first to add to his bass guitar package a Wah-wah pedal. The front man for this band is known as the “Godfather of Heavy Metal” or the “Prince of Darkness”, He is Ozzie Osbourne.
Next up is the flamboyant front-man for Van Halen David Lee Roth. His showmanship with Van Halen and in his solo career earn him honors amongst the great front-men. Along with the tradition of heavy metal bands Rolling Stone once wrote that he was “the most obnoxious singer in human history”. Although he had a decent baritone voice he was better known for the physical side of his performances.
I would like to take some time and talk about some of my favorite bass players, first one being Donald “Duck” Dunn. For those of you that might be saying who?, I’m talking about the bass guitar player from the movie The Blues Brothers.
Now your probably saying oh yeah I remember him, well there’s more to him than The Blues Brothers, his early career was with a band Booker T and the M.G.s. He later played with such greats as Otis Redding, and Sam & Daves’ “Hold On, I’m Comin”. He has played with the likes of Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. He was the bass player on “Stop Draggin My Heart Around” a song by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty.
In 1998 he along with Fender came up with a candy apple red Precision Bass using a 1950s style bass, it also featured a gold anodized pickguard. This later led to the Skyline Series bass guitar made by a company out of Lakland, Chicago.