it was either a cello or a bass guitar.
bass guitar is a tad easier to transport but now have to buy one ( + amp).
can anyone point me in the direct of a reasonably priced bass and amp for a "young adult".
I'm in north brisbane.
I'm happy with second hand (and have explained this to said child with the proviso that after 2 years of lessons will result in the purchase of a new bass).
thanks
I am in favour of buying kids 2nd hand junk instruments and seeing if their interest lasts. Plenty of people buy their kids the $150 guitars at JB for Xmas, then they are collecting dust 12 months later and can be bought for $50 on Gumtree, usually with all the $5 and $10 accessories like straps, extra strings etc. that add up.
If the kids get into, buy them a nice instrument for Xmas.
"I am in favour of buying kids 2nd hand junk instruments and seeing if their interest lasts."
I'm dead against this. The problem with 'junk' instruments is that even if the kid does everything right/ has genuine ability etc., the instrument will not sound any good, if it is 'junk'. Giving the kid an instrument that cannot sound good, is a good way to ensure that eventually they stop trying to make it sound good. You need to give the kid something decent to learn on. It needn't be top of the range/ majorly expensive, and 2nd-hand is fine (preferable even if you can find something really nice at a cheap price), but you can't give them a 'junk' instrument, and expect them to enjoy/persevere with learning to play it.
You can't make a $150 guitar sound good? I absolutely agree the action on a $2000 les Paul will be nicer, and the tone better, but a 10 yro getting their first lesson is unlikely to understand much difference.
There were Epiphone les Paul jnr guitar/rock smith packs on here for $110 a few months ago.
Is a similarly inexpensive bass going to drive a 10yro away from music? Really? Or are you just pointing out what is nice to have?
I have a cheap no name Chinese classical guitar that cost $27 that is lovely to play, and sounds fine. Have you got any examples of inexpensive bass guitars to stay away from because the cant sound good?
And note I agree that a nice instrument is worth it, I just find that the majority of instruments purchased don't result in a long term musical interest, so I argue the nice instrument should come after the kid has proven they are sticking at it.
If your kid wants to try guitar, bass, piano, drums etc. are you going to keep buying quality kit to gather dust after 6 weeks? Mind you, I have 4 kids, so we can pass the junk down the line till everyone has had a go and decided where their interests lie.
The wording you used, and I reiterated in context, was "2nd hand junk instruments". The post you have now added subsequently suggests that you were not actually referring to instruments that would be considered 'junk'. This changes everything.
And re:
"You can't make a $150 guitar sound good?"
For the record, I can make a thick old piece of elastic strung across a tea-chest with a hole in it sound good, particularly if I'm allowed to sing along with it. But we're talking about kids learning to play for the first time here aren't we, not actual musicians?
;-)
Maybe we are talking at cross purposes. When I say junk I mean something like this:
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/leichhardt/guitars-amps/ashto…
an "Ashton" brand, so no brand at all. The amp has an ok size speaker cone for a 15w bass amp, I reckon.
It's $80, and I reckon was some kids Xmas present a year or two ago.
I would happily hand this to my 9yro if he showed an interest in playing the bass. I suspect he would find it a bit unwieldy, with a long neck for his short arms, but it would give him the chance to see what it involves.
I'd get hime some lessons and ask muso friends to spend a little time with him when they visit.
This strategy has worked ok so far with my bigger kids. One plays a bit of guitar, but hasn't really any passion for music. She noodles around copying people off youtube when she has time to kill.
My bigger boy fooled around with guitar a bit after seeing his sister do it, but wants to play drums. We've just bought him a 2nd hand "junk" kit and started lessons. We'll see what happens.
My own experience was a couple of years of terribly tedious piano lessons (at least I learnt how to read music) then nothing till I was a teen ager and bashed away at rhythm guitar for a few years.
I didn't have the talent, but I had lots of fun, and would be delighted for my kids to have the same.
Similarly, I'm happy to support them with decent instruments, and will prod them to continue lessons if they get over the first couple of months.
You're better off buying something that is half-decent that will hold it's value and still sound pretty good. There's a lot of junk brands out there, but for an extra $50 or $100 you can get something from a reputable brand like Yamaha or Ibanez. If you buy second-hand then the original owner has already taken the depreciation hit and you won't likely lose any money if you have to sell it cos the kid loses interest.
Never heard of a 10 year old that wants to play bass and not lead. Everyone I know that plays bass is because they wanted to be in a band but sucked at lead so went with the easier option; Hats off to knowing what you want. As mskeggs said, you can pick up some amazing second hand instruments off Gumtree, I picked up a great Ibanez and amp for $100, retailed new for over $800 and was in get condition, even came with all the extra bits that usually cost a mint when added up.
Ha! I'm trying to get one of my kids to play bass - you can always get a gig in a band, even if you are pretty average. And I reckon there is a premium on female bass players too ;-)
You can get into a band of really talented musicians if you are the good looking female bass player!
Erm… any 'real' bass player would disagree with just about everything you've said. AAAnyhoo, carry on.
I mightn't be very clear, I think great bass players are awesome, but there aren't enough good ones.
There are plenty of bands that would have to go without a bass player if they waited until they found one with equivalent talent, simply because there are many more guitarists.
So if you want to have the fun of playing in a band then playing bass is a good way to achieve that.
And in my amateur experience a female drummer or bass player attracted a lot of attention.
@mskeggs:
No decent band would compromise their sound by having a bass-player who was of substantially lesser talent than they, just to "make up numbers", "complete a certain 'look/aesthetic'", or "fill out the bass-end of the audio-spectrum".
This is because they know they would sound better with either no bass player, a talented keyboardist, or a subtle backing-track.
Of course I'm not talking about amateur thrash/metal/pop (etc.) bands; typically most members thereof are relatively devoid of talent, or are just carrying the other members until they find other peeps with comparable talent, to form a great band with. But in real bands, a 'weak-link' bass-player would simply not be tolerated/entertained; cause they would ruin the sound. Even if they were technically capable of keeping time etc., if they lacked the creative ability and adaptability ('ear') of the rest of the band, they would be a real hindrance. The band would be almost unable to improvise anything on-stage, as a group for example.
Re that last bit of your most recent post, a female anything on a stage will tend to attract a lot of attention, if they are good looking. No serious band would want that to be their 'draw-card' though.
Were you even in a band when you were 15!?
:-)
There might be one good musician, plus an ego maniac singing and whoever you can rope together on the day to make the rest of the music, if they can get their mum to give them a lift!
Fooling around in bands that only slightly exceeded my (lack) of talent between the ages of 14-18 were great times for a boy from the suburbs. And I enjoyed seeing some old band mates/associates go on to a bit of success when we were a bit older.
So I've never been involved in a "real" band, and the kind of outcome I'm hoping for musically for my kids is to be able to lead some singing around the camp fire with a beat up old guitar, or muck about with a few friends when they are teenagers in a terrible garage band. Fun stuff.
I'm happy to support a kid who shows desire and aptitude, but I haven't got kids asking for an instrument because Mrs Smith the music teacher at school is amazed at their talent and can't keep up with them.
I have kids that see a band on the telly and think, they look cool.
And while I agree that some complicated bass riff can absolutely make a song, a heap of pop music is 4/4 rhythm with nothing but plodding along, so the argument that "real" bands need a gun bassist rings a little hollow.
Well, OK, I will agree if they are just plodding along perhaps they aren't a real band!
"Were you even in a band when you were 15!?"
Just because you asked, not to be a (profanity) or whatever; yes.
if anyone in brisbane has a reasonable 3/4 bass guitar for sale then let me know.
Just wondering alto, what kind of music does the child like? Given that their request was "cello or bass guitar", I'm, thinking they're not just into the standard pop/etc.
If the choice is bass, then it would be good to play some very 'bass oriented' music around the house now and then, to reinforce the idea that it is a great instrument, in its own right; not some kind of "prop" type instrument. An obvious choice if the kid was a wee bit older than 10 would be jazz; in many jazz bands, the bass-player essentially functions as the 'conductor'; everyone takes their cues from them. And there is nothing quite as sweet as an awesome jazz bass-player, if you like jazz.
But at age 10, maybe you'd be better focusing on some more 'funky' type stuff to try and impart inspiration. There's been some awesome three-piece bands over the years consisting of a drummer, a bass-player, and a guitarist; with one or more (usually more) thereof also singing. In these bands, the bass-player NEEDS to be awesome, and you can hear it. 'Primus' would be an example and there's many others. I'll be showing my age when I suggest this too, but if you want to download/acquire some VERY AWESOME tracks that really demonstrate how integral/awesome the bass-guitar can be/is, anything with STUART HAMM playing in it is bound to do that. And if the kid get's a bit more accomplished/runs with it, they will love the Hamm/Satriani stuff.
Thanks for asking this question. I'm going to dig out my axes tomozza, for the first time in quite some years. :)
the music tastes of my chidren (10,8,5) is varied. I've (well, my wife and I) have never been the "hey, it's the wiggles" parents. music varies greatly -my kids were listening to chemical brothers -Brothers Gonna Work It Out. and then got the Taylor Swift album and that is on repeat. Prior to that it was Tatu. -go figure.
I was looking at playing some red hot chilli peppers. Primus is a great suggestion (loved them in Bill'n'Teds). Joy Division has some great basey tracks that I was going to put out there as well
Yep the chilli peppers are a great 'old-school' (<-please excuse my correct spelling) example of a heap of very "nicely diverse" bass-driven stuff. They really stood the test of time too! If you can find any around (I'm guessing you can't), you may also wish to check out a track or two by a Melbourne band called "Three", who played the pub scene in the early/mid 1990s. They were a two-piece, just a drummer and a bass-player, but via harmonies/etc. were capable of generating quite a sound. Their stuff might be inspirational to an aspiring bass-player, if you can locate any of it.
@altomic:
Chuckle… ah, nuff said then :)
Did you ever see that band "Cranky" that was doing the circuit at that time (I saw them play at 'The Corner Hotel' at least once)? They were playing pretty good stuff I thought ('confident'/original/good bass-player they had too)… but I reckon they killed their chance at "world fame" by releasing a track that essentially bagged out the USA, in no uncertain terms…
Whatever bass you get him, make sure it's one of the lighter ones available. It will be a lot easier for him to learn on then. And re the amp, make sure you get him an actual bass practice-amp, not a standard guitar practice-amp, or an 'all purpose/general' practice-amp. Otherwise the amp will die a fairly rapid death, particularly once he starts turning it up a bit, and 'slapping' the bass.
Go 2nd-hand all the way for the bass if you can find a nice light one around, but take someone with you who knows how to play bass (or electric guitar). They will be able to check that the neck is straight, and that the wiring/knobs/'pots' are all good. There should be no "crackly" sounds when it's on/plugged in, and you turn any of the knobs (the volume knob or tone knob/s).
Not sure how readily available/common these now are, but one with a built-in tuner would be way better than one without, as the kid won't be able to tune it by ear, at least not for a while yet. When I was playing no guitars/basses had inbuilt tuners, but that was back in the 1980's/ early 90's; I think nowadays many (most) of them do.
Lastly, get the amp new, not 2nd hand.