Learn Bass Guitar

If you want to learn bass guitar without annoying the whole neighborhood then this little gadget is well worth a look! For a while, Vox have been producing natty little ‘headphone amps’ in various styles, known as ‘amPlugs’. The good news for us bass players is that they are adding a bass version to the range, known as the amPlug BASS (as pictured). You plug the device straight into your guitar and can also plug in a CD/MP3 player so that you have something to play along with! Pretty cool I reckon. The bass version isn’t available yet but is due out around November time, along with a new lead guitar version (amPlug LEAD). I’ll try and put up another post when the device is actually on the market. I’ve read a few reviews of the previous versions of the amPlug and there does seem to be an issue with some background hiss, but for the convenience of this little gadget I think we can live with some imperfection. I haven’t managed to find out how much the amPlug BASS will cost when it’s released, but the others in the range retail for around $40. If you want to find out a bit more about the amPlug range see the Vox amPlug page. If you go to the site you can even download MP3s to give you an idea of the sound they produce!

UPDATE: The amPlug is now available, see the related VOX amPlug post. Or just get the amPlug.

Technorati Tags: amPlug, bass gadget, learn bass guitar, VOX

It just struck me that I haven’t actually written much about me on this site yet, or my bass playing history!

So, yes, I want to learn bass guitar, but I did actually learn to play once before. Some 20 years ago when I was 12 (yes, sadly that means that I am now 32!) I was encouraged to learn a new musical instrument at school. I already sort of played the trumpet, piano and church organ believe it or not (though none of them very well), but I wanted to play something a little more cool! I was asked what I’d like to play and I said electric guitar, to which my music teacher responded “Well, we don’t actually have an electric guitar that you can use, but I think there may be a bass guitar somewhere in the music cupboard, so how about learning that?”. We went and got the bass out of the cupboard (it was a black Fender Precision Bass, like the one pictured) and I thought it looked pretty cool so I said yes….

The next thing that had to be sorted was how I would learn, so I asked if there was a bass guitar teacher I could learn with. The response this time was “Um, I’m afraid we don’t have a bass guitar teacher but we do have a regular guitar teacher - I’m sure he could teach bass”. So that was how it started; I began learning bass guitar from someone who had never picked one up before! The guy, named Mr Rosenburg (I can still remember him!) was quite a character. He sort of reminded me of a cross between Mick Jagger and Jools Holland - with a bit of Eddie Izzard thrown in! To be fair to the guy, he gave it a prety good go and tried to learn a bit of bass himself in order to teach me, but it wasn’t the best way to try and learn bass guitar! I managed to learn enough to bang out a few notes, and the highlight of my bass playing career was playing some pretty funky (well, they seemed it to me at the time) bass lines in the school production of Bugsy Malone when I was 14. I stopped playing bass when I left secondary school at 15 (I had to give bass back!) and haven’t picked one up since. As part of my drive toward mid-life crisis I feel it’s time to try to learn bass guitar all over again, but I don’t think I’ll look up Mr Rosenburg….

Technorati Tags: learn bass guitar

This may not be the ideal bass to buy if you are just starting to learn bass guitar, but look at it, it’s quite an impressive bit of kit! And, if you have a spare $250,000 you may be able to buy it! This guitar is one of a number of hand-crafted guitars made in Germany by a guy named Jens Ritter. Believe it or not Jens started out when he was just 7, making a bass guitar out of a piece of wood, a food can and some wire for a school project! Later he started re-designing electric bass guitars and at the age of 19 he made his first original bass guitar. Since then he hasn’t looked back, and now produces around 50 to 60 guitars a year, all of them works of art!

The bass pictured above, the ‘Flora Aurum’ is being sold be Wynn & Co for around $250,000 and you can click here for the complete story.  For more information on Jens himself, as well as more stunning bass guitars have a look at his site, Ritter Basses. Look around the ‘models’ section for some gorgeous pictures. The 5-string bass pictured below is one of my favourites, and Jens named this one “The Zephyr Concept”. Right, I promise the next article will be of more use to us in our quest to learn bass guitar, but when I find stuff like this I get a little distracted!

Technorati Tags: learn bass guitar