welcome, glad you found us here, the lessons are amazing.
As far as what bass to get.
Well, most of us have something called MBD, and if we don’t already have it, we soon catch it.
that said, it is highly doubtful that the bass you buy today will be the bass you are playing for life. In my case, I did the whole B2b course with the bass I first got, but I did the course in a week, LOL. Corona just hit, I had time.
But if I would have done it over a few months, chances are that I would have finished it on a different bass then the one I started with.
I started getting different bass brands used, for cheap, and keeping what I liked, and selling what I did not like.
By now, I have sold many of the basses I bought early on, and have stepped up the collection based on what I learned while playing them all, and what I learned from this forum, and other forums, and blogs, and you tube videos, etc…
If you can go to a shop, and try 5-6 basses in your budget, that is a good place to start.
If you start looking for used versions of those basses, you should be able to get them at steep discounts.
I did, I tried a few $200 basses, and bought a few used, and liked one well enough to start looking for upgrades of that brand, it was Ibanez.
I also found other great bargains cuz of Covid and got to try some other, mid grade quality basses, and find some that I really liked.
Then after selling a few that I got cheap, and actually turning a profit on them, I took the profit to the Guitar Center, and bought a Sterling by Music Man Stingray 4 for $299, and even though it is considered a budget level instrument, it started quickly becoming my favorite bass.
A few months before that, I would have thought Ibanez SR basses were going to be my favorite basses to play, I already had 3 of them by then, but soon after getting the stingray, I started playing them less to the point where I actually sold all my full size Ibanez SR’s and only have the Mikro for fun.
I also have really nice ESP LTD, and have had nice Schecters, a Yamaha and another no name brand.
I found my favorite is Stingray, and LTD B4-E. I have other Stingray’s now, a Sterling Ray34 and a EBMM Stingray Slo Special.
But there are many other basses I would like to own at some time, but
What I am saying here is, it will be hard to make a choice without trying lots of basses and seeing what feels right.
either check out used ads and play them to see if you like them
or go to a store and play a few off the wall
After you get a few in your hands, you will start to notice a difference and some will feel better than others.
So try alot, but
also
as a beginner, it is not possible to know all the ins and outs of the bass, and all and it takes years to be an expert (to which I am not) so don’t keep holding out for the PERFECT bass, that will push you off further and further from actually starting to learn, but do yourself a favor and try out a few basses.
Set up on a bass is a huge factor in how they feel and play also.
If you pick up a bass with a bad set up, it might feel terrible when you play it, but if you pick up another bass with a good set up, it will feel great.
So even with a budget bass, if you get a good set up, it can make all the difference in the world to how it feels to play.
If you ever get discouraged with a bass you have and playing it feels like a chore, double check with an expert to see if your set up is any good.
If the bass you have FEELS good, you can watch some videos on YT and learn how to set them up yourself, it is not really hard once you understand it.
The critical thing about set up’s is if the neck is not set right, it can be too flat, or bowed too much. once you get it to the right level (which is easier then it sounds), then you can adjust the string height. When the neck is too flat, the strings will buzz unless you raise them up higher than desired.
If there is too much bow, the strings will be too high also.
When the neck is right (within a range) you are able to adjust the strings to a good comfortable height.
When you do this, the bass is much easier to play, and for beginners it means less pain in hands and fingers, and wrist up to elbow and shoulder.
It is no fun to play thru un necessary pain, and poor set ups with string action too high can and will strain your hand and arm to the point of pain.
and nobody wants that, it is probably the first thing that will drive a new player away from continuing to learn bass, and that is very unfortunate, considering proper set up, and proper playing (fretting, plucking, posture, etc…) which is taught in the course, will get you on your way to a life full of bass**
**
) for some nine months now, and having just turned 50 I’ve finally decided to take it seriously after decades of joyful & delightful listening experiences during which the low end bottom always was my fixation !!
; having watched Josh’s YouTube videos for a while I’m positive that this is a wise choice!