Guitar How-To

Posts Tagged ‘buying a bass guitar’

Buying a bass guitar is an exciting time. The scent of new experiences and realized dreams is in the air, so a little discipline is called for.

So have you set your price range? You might be looking at somewhere between two and five hundred dollars for a decent bass bought new at a guitar shop. The price of a secondhand bass guitar could start at one hundred and shoot up to over a thousand dollars.

Where to look when buying a bass guitar? The local guitar shop is a logical, but not necessarily the best, choice. Pawn shops usually have a bass guitar or two hanging from the rack, anxious to tell its story. And Craigslist, US Free Ads and your local classifieds will have more choices for you.

It is always wise to try out a range of instruments. You may think that you do not know anything about buying a bass guitar but after you have tried a few you will start to get a feeling for what is good and what is not.

If someone is selling their bass through classifieds they will probably have it set up ready for potential buyers, and your local guitar store should be only too willing to let you try out their bass guitars. If you are tempted to buy sight unseen, do so only if you know you can get your money back if it does not work out. If you see a bass advertised on the net, go to a guitar store and ask about the model and try it out if that is possible.

Of course, before you go buying a bass guitar you should be finding someone who plays bass who would be willing to try instruments out for you. An experienced player will be able to warn you about any adjustments that need to be made or about faults like a warped neck.

Squier is one of the big guitar makers that produces basses and guitars for beginners but they have a reputation for being one of the big producers of poor quality instruments so some care needs to be taken if you become interested in this brand. Ibanez and Epiphone are also brands to go for if you are cruising the guitar retailers.

As far as types of bass guitar go there are probably more kinds of bass than there are regular guitars. There are basses with frets, there are bass guitars without frets. There are instruments with four, five or six strings. The common or garden bass guitar has frets and four strings, and that is the one you should look for if you are a beginner buying a bass guitar.

If you are tempted to go for a new bass guitar from one of the supermarket chains, be careful because quality may not be the main consideration where these instruments were made. If you are really tempted by a bargain but do not know about the brand or model bass you are looking at, check out the guitar forums. Sometimes you can find a forum post about a bargain guitar by typing the name into Google.

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