Slapping da bass...

If you were picturing me slapping a fish, you loose 100 bonus points.

Bass, not bass... um, pronounced: "base not bass"... still confusing.

I have been considering picking up an inexpensive bass guitar for recording.  The various music/guitar shops that have been sending me "holiday special" e-mails, several a day since before Thanksgiving, apparently thought I should, too.

After a fine Italian meal for lunch, Joan suggested we take a little drive to Brownsville.

"Brownsville?"

"Guitar Center."

"Oh..."

I had an e-mail offer from them, about a dozen of them, suggesting that I could get 15% off.  Well, there was a Fender Squier Vintage Bass that looked pretty decent on one of the websites.  It had decent reviews, too.  A quick check on-line showed that the Brownsville store had one in stock.

It was an interesting drive there - we haven't been this way since last spring... lots of oil rigs being built in the port.  Pipelines being assembled alongside the highway.  And, traffic.  Brownsville always seems to have heavy traffic.

We went into Guitar Center and were greeted by my new best friend, Sam.  I told him what I was looking for, and he didn't even wince when I emphasized "inexpensive."  He showed me the Squier model I was interested in... it was a heavy beast and didn't sound all that great.  He brought me another.  And another.  They actually had a decent selection of bass guitars in my price range.  It was between an Ibanez Mikro short-scale bass and a Yamaha not-quite so short-scale.  Sam pulled out a sunburst model Yamaha... which Joan liked.  Sold.

He had one that was still in the box.  Back through the Brownsville traffic and home.  Opening the box, I found that the bass was protected from aliens and secret government mind probing projects... there was a foil cover over the head of the bass...

I plugged it in and quietly tuned it up.  Nice sunburst finish (a bit more red than the one in the store) and a decent sound.  Even in small scale, the neck seems long (34" scale vs the 24 - 25.5" of my six string guitars).

This would be considered "a beginner bass" - seems appropriate since I would be a beginner bass player (a whole different technique from my 6-string guitars).