I'd figured that a bass is pretty much a bass - but after getting a bass yesterday and playing with it a bit, I actually did some reading about their differences, and today I exchanged that bass for a new, new bass.
And this is it:
Specs:
Camera Glare
Way-Cool Neck
The bass I exchanged is a Fender P-bass, and this one is a Geddy Lee model Fender Jazz bass.
This Geddy Lee model bass has a consistent note-sustain/decay, rather than the previous bass's louder initial punch and then a more abrupt fade-out of the note. This one also sounds nicer from having better pickups - though 'nicer' here is still going to be subjective.
This bass has a thinner neck than the one I exchanged, both in width and front-to-back depth, and so it's easier to adjust to playing for a guitarist like me, since guitars have thinner necks than basses. The neck is also just wonderful-feeling on its own, from a combination of the maple wood and the finish used on it.
Also, this guitar has better weight distribution between the neck and body, compared to the previous bass. The most important difference for me, though, is the consistent, smooth note-sustain/decay.
I'm looking forward to having bass in my tracks - previously, I would either omit a bass-line, or try to fake one by EQ'ing a guitar down to bass range, or possibly use MIDI.
This bass is a whole lot of fun to play. Here's a clip I just made to test it out:
I can throw down guitar tracks in no time, while the most cumbersome part of making a recording, for me, continues to be creating drums using a MIDI sequencer. This bass-line took ~7 minutes to make up - and then the drums took several hours to etch out, one hit at a time. After that, it was just 1.5 minutes to record the bass-line over the drums.
C~ Soundscapes
