The problem with being a drummer and living in a semi-detached house is that keeping a kit in the house, much less playing it, is not likely to endear you to the neighbours. Nowhere to store it, nowhere to play it, and no way to move it around.
Now I consider myself something of a music fan. Not particularly "hardcore" as the stereotypes depict, but nevertheless I enjoy a fairly comprehensive range of music across an equally comprehensive range of genres. As my mood takes me I might listen to Bach or Borknagar, Muse or Mudvayne. Music is something I enjoy regularly and over the years, the set of circumstances I found myself in - and the subsequent lack of opportunity to play my instrument of choice - was an itch that became more and more maddening.
With that in mind, consider that I had started daydreaming about the possibility of taking up something more practical, that is, the bass guitar, which I considered to be a much more practical instrument, much less expensive, much easier to transport, more convenient to play, and with much smaller demands on my finances, time, and storage space. I started "daydreaming" several months ago, and the more I thought about it the less opposed I was to the idea. My inner voice crying "I'm a drummer not a guitarist!" is all well and good, but a drummer is no good without drums, and a musician is no good without an instrument.
And life went on, and playing the bass remained in my "one day, maybe" box. Until one day something happened to change that.
What happened to change that is a matter of opinion. One of my IRC buddies suggests that my subconscious "reached out to me". I counter that I simply had a dream. A rather good dream. Where I was playing bass, in a band, and having a very good time of it. Letting the music flow through my fingers, expressing emotions through sound, like some kind of musical jedi.
It was quite a good dream.
And so, inspired by the dream, or perhaps frustrated to the point that I was no longer willing to accept being without a musical way to express myself, I went online and started searching for a bass guitar, with a view to buying.
I read a few articles, most of which made little sense to me. Did I want four strings? Five? Six? Did I want a bass with active pre-amp, or passive pickups. Did I want a precision bass, a jazz bass, or neither? Why was one bass guitar £130 and the almost identical-looking one next to it over £800? Were the strings more magical on the expensive one?
Each question seemed to lead to more questions. And so I joined a forum that specialised (well, half of it does) in bass guitars. That turned out to be a good choice.
Thousands of bass players from veteran bass teachers to session musicians, plenty of folks experienced at playing in bands of all genres, and yes, plenty of completely new guys wanting advice and answers, all in one place. I had found the central source of knowledge of the bass playing kingdom, so it seemed.
Being a fairly impulsive type, I had narrowed my choice of bass down to three criteria:
- I wanted a "midrange" instrument of good quality. Price was secondary to the reputation of the manufacturer, and of the instrument itself. I didn't want a £79.99 "baby's first bass" starter kit that came with the amp/strap/book and whatnot. While such a kit might be suited to my skill (or lack thereof), I wanted something I wouldn't outgrow for a while, something that wouldn't need to be replaced. I am not sneering at owners of such basses by any means. They're an excellent and comprehensive way to get into music. But I wanted something more.
- As a drummer and a biker, I've been fond of Yamaha for many years, They make very good quality products with attention to detail and without cutting corners. When I was drumming, I dreamed of owning a Yamaha drum kit, but I was/am in no position to own a drum kit, Yamaha or otherwise. So I decided for no better reason than this, that it would be a Yamaha bass.
- Research on the internet suggested that five and six string basses were not really suitable for new bass players, and while I wanted something I could grow into, I didn't want something advanced enough for me to find it difficult to play. I wanted a four-string bass.
Over the intervening years, for some reason, Yamaha decided to stop selling TRB basses (the RBX line is alive and well). They did, however, introduce a new line of basses called the TRBX line, which was intended to combine the best of both the TRB and the RBX lines in a single line of instruments.
And so, after comparing differences between the two lines - differences that seemed to lie in details that I didn't understand and comparisons that I wasn't informed enough to draw - I asked the forum about TRBX basses, for no better reason than that the majority of RBX basses seemed more expensive for no easily understandable (to a new bassist) reason.
People seemed to speak well of Yamaha TRBX basses, and so that settled it. The new bass would be a Yamaha TRBX. But which one? To further complicate matters, I found that the TRBX line consisted of three types, each type further split into individual models with varying numbers of strings.
Each bass was assigned a type number that identified its "place in the pecking order", followed by a number that showed the number of strings. For example, the TRBX304 is a less expensive model with four strings. The 305 has the same hardware and electrics/electronics, but five strings.
The TRBX304 seemed likely to become the successful candidate. It was relatively inexpensive and seemed to fit the criteria I had set out. I saw a few presentation videos and reviews of the bass that highlighted its cool features, one of which is a five-position selector switch that chooses which of the five active equaliser presets (think rock/classical/acoustic GEQ presets in itunes) the guitar would output. I thought this was quite cool.
I wasn't sure that I liked being "locked in" to 5 predetermined presets though. Me being me, I much preferred the idea of being able to set the bass exactly as I liked it.
Not only that, but I had read that in order to have these presets, the bass was essentially an Active bass.
As I understand it, there are two types of bass, where this characteristic is defined:
Active basses use a battery-powered amplifier to tune and amplify the output signal before sending it down the cable to the amp on the other end.
Passive basses have no internal amplifier, and output only the signal generated by their pickups.
This may be a simplistic explanation of active/passive basses, but this is currently the situation as I understand it.
So where's the problem? Well, the two types of instruments seem to have two different sounds, with passive basses sounding warmer and rounder, and active basses sounding harder and more powerful.
But what if I wanted a choice?
So I kept looking. Close to the top of the model lineup lay what seemed to be the best bet. The TRBX504. No EQ presets, only complete control. A selector that switched the bass between active pre-amp and passive "pickup only" modes, and - as I found out - superior pickup circuitry (the benefits of which I am still unclear about), and the extra price of the bass seemed to make sense.
But it was a lot of money for an impulse buy.
And it was exactly what I was looking for.
A night of drunken "Woo I'm gonna be a bass player!" and "Woo, new toy!" coupled with a little "I can't believe I just made a £400 impulse purchase!", and a couple of days later, and the new instrument arrived at my door.
10:02, Wednesday 17th June, 2015. The time and date that my new musical "career" as a bass player began.
I'd learned a lot in my research, and I'd spent a lot in acquiring the bass itself.
Of course the learning - and the spending - have only just begun!
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