So now my son wants to play bass!

We had a great visit to California, and I got to spend some very much needed and WAY too long overdue time with my son Dylan:



So while we were hanging out, he told me that he would like to learn to play bass! Even though I live so far from him, we talk constantly, and his uncle Kurt (my brother-in-law, and former bandmate) is close to him, and might be able to help. I want to get him a starter package with a short-scale bass since he is only 11. You can also see how tall he is standing next to me. I am around 5' 10", so I figured that a full-scale bass would probably overwhelm him. Any suggestions as to what bass to get? I don't want to spend a ton of money until I see that he really runs with it. But I figured that a short-scale bass, and a small practice amp would be a good start.

I showed him some basses, and he zeroed right in on the P bass design. In black, of course. After all, he is my son!

Dood! Thats awesome!

The absolute disaster my life has been, ive always been grateful I didnt have any kids and drag them through that.

Now im 41, married and settled down (somewhat), im a little envious; esp when I hear stuff like this.

I dunno, this 8 year old likes his dad's EBMM



he actually plays it quite well and has a bunch of youtube vids of himself playing dad's various basses:

Thanks MadMike. He is my little hero. And I don't see your decision not to have kids as anything bad. It is a deeply personal thing, and ultimately, a selfish decision. After all, did our parents ask any of us if we wanted to be born beforehand? Of course not, because they couldn't. I had no idea how things would turn out all these years later, but I can tell you this much. He is, and always will be, what I am most proud of.

That's a great pic, Mike! But since my son hasn't ever really held a guitar, much less a bass, I don't want to overwhelm him. Heck, when I started playing bass at the age of 16, my first bass was a black 19-fret 1978 Fender Musicmaster. I think it was a 3/4 scale, but at any rate, it was a lot shorter than a full-scale bass. And within two years, I traded the Musicmaster for my first Yamaha BB300. The transition worked well for me, so I think I want to start my son on a shorter neck first to see where he goes with it before graduating him to a full-size bass.

Awww....what the heck. If I can't embarrass myself in front of you Guys, who can I? Here I am in early 1983, still 16, playing in a bar in San Jose CA, with only a handful of gigs behind me, playing my beloved Musicmaster bass:



If only I had possessed the foresight way back then. I still wish I had kept that Musicmaster. It wasn't the greatest bass in the world, but it was my first. I think I still have the original sales tags from when I bought it complete with the serial number. I have often entertained the thought of trying to find that bass again. Yeah, it was used, and a little beat-up, but it was my first bass, and I would have gladly passed it to my son for his first.

So I have been trying to find shorter-scale basses, but they are hard to find. Most of the ones I have seen are only slightly shorter than a full-scale bass, and I'm not sure if the difference is enough to matter. Any suggestions, Guys?

I was pretty young when I picked up my first bass, and it was a brand new (to me, it was a few years old when I got my hands on it) candy apple red 21-fret 1985 Peavey Dynabass. I didn't really have much trouble, even with that nice fat 34 inch scale.

anyway, as far as short scale basses go, I've found the nicest ones to be the Squier "Vintage Modified" Jaguar SS bass and the Epiphone EB-0, and fortunately neither one of those will break the bank as they can both be had for under $200.

Funny that you mentioned the EB-0 basses Boots, since I did consider them for a bit. But the only thing is that my son really liked the standard P-bass look. I'm guessing that, provided he does run with this, he won't be a Gibson fan.

Now, the Jag is something I'll have to look into. Great suggestion!

You must mean this bad boy, right Boots?



I gotta admit that I love the look!

That's the one.

I've actually gotten really close to getting one on several occasions but can never bring myself to do it. The only reason I haven't gotten it is because it gets kinda tough to keep everything nice when you've got 13 instruments already.


Another thing to consider if you're willing to get your hands dirty, I've seen people modify existing hardtail strats (it could be done with a tremolo I'm sure, might take some extra work though) to be 25.5" scale basses.
All they do is fill the tuner holes and redrill for bass keys, swap the tuners, nut, and bridge and go with that.

hey eric! ..............

nice pants!

i saw the bass player from gwar's band, without all the gwar makeup and stuff (he was actually in a toga and naked part of the show) playing that same bass you got. he said something about that he borrowed it and that he really liked it and might not give it back.

i'm really digging that amp behind you. sunn?


i thought the jaguars were full scale ...... ???????

the musicmaster was brought back when squires started being manufactured under the name bronco bass. definitely not as nice as the fender.



.... and the fender was made from leftover fender shop parts like a 6 pole strat pickup.

i saw that guitar center has reissue models of this bass ................... for $700! doh!

naw, i'm wrong.the jag is short scale.

i think that one is it eric ...............

http://www.samash.com/p/Squier_Vintage%20Modified%20Jaguar%20Bass%20Special%20SS%20Short%20Scale%20Black_1590620?cm_mmc=Froogle-_-4%20String%20Basses-_-Vintage%20Modified%20Jaguar%20Bass%20Special%20SS%20Short%20Scale%20Black-_-F8800506X

shoot, that price i may go get one!

embarrass yourself in front of us? ah, you can't unless this was a x-rated board and you were naked.

I also used a EB clone modded with 6string gutar pickup in the bridge.
1981:



funny pic because I am 5'6 and those 2 are over 6'

madmike wrote:

hey eric! ..............nice pants!

Hey now! Parachute pants were the thing back in the day! Right around the time they invented running water!

madmike wrote:

i'm really digging that amp behind you. sunn?

Yes indeed! My first amp was a Fender Bassman 50 head into a Fender 1x15 cabinet. They both had the matching old school glittery tan fabric on the covers. But I sold that for the Sunn, since I wanted to graduate to 100 watts. That head was heavy! But it had great tone, and was loud as all get-out. I think it had about a hundred tubes in it! The cabinet was a custom build my mom's cousin did for me, and it housed my dear old precious JBL E140's.

Boots, that's not a bad suggestion about modifying a guitar, but I don't want to go through the work. LOL! Last night on the phone, my son told me that he wanted his bass to have a custom Godzilla paint job on it! He is such my little rocker!

amimbari wrote:

embarrass yourself in front of us? ah, you can't unless this was a x-rated board and you were naked

By the way Mike, nice hair! Did we even know how goofy we all looked back in those days??? I look at my old pics from back in the day and I think "what on Earth was I thinking???"!

I gotta admit, the more I look at that Jag....the more I like it!

custom godzilla paint job? what would that consist of?

all i can think of is B.O.C.

so yeah, the 16yo jamming picture of me needs to wait ... a polaroid (remember them) of me playing guitar is in my mom's shoebox of pictures. next time i'm up there ill dig it out and scan it.

EricHaven wrote:

madmike wrote:

hey eric! ..............nice pants!

Hey now! Parachute pants were the thing back in the day! Right around the time they invented running water!

If it makes you feel any better, I've still got a pair hanging up in the closet.

parachute pants? let me take a picture of mine tonight and post it...

( I'll be wearing them )

madmike wrote:

custom godzilla paint job? what would that consist of? all i can think of is B.O.C.

Since he's now going through a Godzilla phase, he has also discovered Blue Oyster Cult. I even got him a best of collection for Christmas, and he loves it!

Now then, about the bass. He said that he wants a head and shoulders view of Godzilla from the year 2000 spitting his radioactive fire. He did also mention that he would like the B.O.C. name somewhere on the bass, maybe forming out of the fire trail. I told him I would work on it. What I might do in order to make it as cheap and easy as possible is see if I can't find a bass pickguard that has Godzilla on it, and slap that on whatever bass I end up getting for him.

I will also ask Andy what he thinks tonight at practice, although there is no way I can afford to have him build me one just yet.

Can't wait to see your modern flashback pic, Mike!

I just don't have a wig anymore ( or even that much hair )...lol

another "dated" item.....lol

Oh my looking back how silly things were, but trying to be so futuristic.

Im thinking of 1986, a dude jumping out of an airplane, pulling the cord, thinking somthing is wrong, looking up to see the shape of mikes pants cut out of his chute and plumeting to his death..

Ha!

So getting back to the topic, if I may? Does anyone else have suggestions for a decent starter bass for my son?

Also, has anyone ever seen a bass pickguard with a Godzilla design on it?

didn't you buy your Davison for like 150 or so?

This isn't Talkbass so your not gonna get 35 people telling you to get a SquierCV or whatever because a 100 buck Rondo is "so ugly" since they changed the headstock..

you ask me I'd buy him a Ibanez GSR200/300 for 100 bucks. Get AWAY from that stupid Fender look.
I just got that 100 buck Peavy BXP 2 jazz pickup unit...very light, very well put together, and surprisingly minimal buzz out of the cheap pickups.

I think the SX's look decent at a decent price and they have short scale.

amimbari wrote:

didn't you buy your Davison for like 150 or so?

This isn't Talkbass so your not gonna get 35 people telling you to get a SquierCV or whatever because a 100 buck Rondo is "so ugly" since they changed the headstock..

you ask me I'd buy him a Ibanez GSR200/300 for 100 bucks. Get AWAY from that stupid Fender look.
I just got that 100 buck Peavy BXP 2 jazz pickup unit...very light, very well put together, and surprisingly minimal buzz out of the cheap pickups.

I'm gonna have to suggest against an Ibanez in that price range. They don't pick up in quality until around $350. Any cheaper and you get a load of problems with them in my experience.

I dunno Bootz, I had those GSR 200 + 300 perfect in every way up to the day I sold them.

I'm considering this:

http://www.rondomusic.com/ursa1bkjrpack.html

Less than $150 with shipping.

Opinions?

That will definately get him started.

I like it.

Reminds me of my p from the occupants days.

p.e.r.f.e.c.t

Cool.

Now to find a Godzilla pickguard for the bass.

Yeah, I looked for godzilla stuff. All I found was pin up girls and 50's sci - fi stuff.

I wonder how they print thay stuff on there / laminate it.

Lemme know what you find.

I got the perfect solution, let the kid throw 100 godzilla stickers on it.

ok, i finally got up to my mom's house to go thru the picture box.

this is from 1987 .......




......

i look like juan esparenza! chek out the mustachio.

Dude! You never told us that you had such a lucrative career as a porn star!

... and that pic isnt even a wide enuff shot to see my huge .....



oh, you mean i look like a porn star.

hey man ... 17 years old and i was scorin big time. what happened?!?!

ha!

I'm guessing that new guitar you're holding isn't a Strat, right?

No, its a hondo ... and I understand people are actually putting out a bit of cash for some of the models these days. One of the first korean copy companies. Does that make them "vintage"?

This was actually a great guitar.

I'm not too sure, but I suspect that some models might well be considered collectors items nowadays.

yes Hondo's are now vintage and you know what that means......the crowd goes wild!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hondo-Precision-Bass-/250992598129?pt=Guitar&hash=item3a70531c71
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1980s-Hondo-Fame-7603-Electric-Guitar-w-OHSC-VINTAGE-PINK-FINISH-/110821264784?pt=Guitar&hash=item19cd764d90
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HONDO-II-PROFESSIONAL-DOUBLE-CUTAWAY-MIJ-RARE-MODEL-BIG-UPGRADES-/320844094214?pt=Guitar&hash=item4ab3cc5b06
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hondo-Mini-Jr-Strat-Style-Electric-Guitar-/330615359208?pt=Guitar&hash=item4cfa3606e8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1970s-Hondo-II-Black-P-Bass-Precision-Bass-/140696416647?pt=Guitar&hash=item20c228f187
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hondo-Checkerboard-Explorer-electric-guitar-Series-781-/270909741126?pt=Guitar&hash=item3f137a9846

CONGRATS and support him 110%!!!!

Second the Rondo & stickers.

My son started when my wife said "So which bass can Johnny use?".
I had a parts bass(Hohner Steinberger with a maxed-out trussrod) that he started on.
When he wanted one for High School, we got a Steinberger(5 string wooden one) and he also
ended up being given an Epi Goth(bat bass) for jazz band.
I knew I was beat when I walked in when he was practicing and saw this,
reading music from one monitor while the software(right monitor) played the song.
Software is "Noteworthy" IIRC.


It later resulted in marching band(wireless) his senior year:


At this time you are only experiencing part of the amazing and rewarding journey it will be.
One cannot put into words the sheer joy you BOTH will feel when you see and hear him perform.
ENJOY!!!

did you post that band/marching pic on TB or in another thread here Johnny? that looks very familiar.

There were a few TB threads on HS Band bassists and one in particular that was about HS Marching Band.
Good memory as that was a couple of years back....

there you go...TB pics

Chek out the big brain on mike!

... wait ...where am I?

hey, just another proud father pic true, how could anybody remember that but who could forget a white uniform and a white FIVE string SB?

Im really digging the amp on wheels!

Me too! It's a portabass!

I ruined one of my cheap SS amps 2 years ago at the Pittsburgh Marathon playing thru a generator.
Although I'm not in that band anymore and won't be playing this year at the Marathon...never again will I do any gig that has to be "generator" power.