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Oh, he’s good!!! 
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Welcome to the forum John @John_E! Glad you’re digging the lessons and you’ve got some good gear to start with.
Welcome @Jess! That’s awesome your whole family is musical, sounds like there are some good Patridge Family possibilities. 
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Wow! In house band! Sweet!
Welcome to the community.
Jerry
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My go-to family band template.
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You’re totally all set, that’s cetrainly better gear than I started with 
We have a thread over here to discuss the Zoom boxes, a lot of value in those things.
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Hi Everyone,
My name is Christian and ever since I turned 40 a couple years back, I decided each year that I would try to learn something new. I’ve always had an interest in learning the bass guitar. When I was young, I had a choice between playing music or playing sports, I chose the latter. Now that I’m older and can’t really play sports anymore, I figure I might as well give the bass guitar a go. I thought I could just YouTube learn my way to success or take cla$$e$ but thankfully I found BassBuzz. I’m really happy with the lessons and have been thoroughly enjoying the journey. It’s super addictive! I was aiming to do the 3-month schedule, but at the pace I’m going I will probably finish in 6-8 weeks.
In terms of playing goals, I have a couple of modest ones. My eldest son is 9yo and is learning to play the violin and guitar. I also have a 16yo god son who plays the guitar extremely well. I would love to be able to jam with them one day. My other goal is to be able to play some songs from some of my favorite bands; the Pixies, RHCP, and the Beatles. In my short time playing, I’ve already learned how to play “Come Together”, so much fun!
I picked up a couple of short scale bass guitars as I’m on the shorter side (5’5) and have bad hands. I pretty much destroyed my hands from my days of amateur boxing. I have boxer’s fracture in both hands so I have a bit of arthritis and my pinky articulation isn’t the greatest, but I’m working on it. My set-up is a Gretsch G2220 Junior Jet and an Ibanez Mikro which I play through my computer using a Berhringer UM2 and Audio Technica headphones. My son has claimed the Mikro as his, which is fine by me as the Gretsch feels better and I enjoy playing it.
Thanks BassBuzz for existing!
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Welcome aboard, @XTN . . .
We hope you enjoy your time with us, and glad to hear you’re happy with the lessons!
Cheers, Joe
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Welcome to the friendliest bass forum around, @XTN. You’ll find the schedule will probably flex, but it’s not about how long it takes, but about how much you get out of it and enjoy it. I started aiming for 30 days and had the free time to do it, but then stuff got in the way and I didn’t pick up the bass for over a month. Coming back to it I even went back over a few modules.
Don’t forget; jamming, and even playing songs can be as simple as you make it. If you play a simple bass line your god son can riff around you. Tadaa! You’re jammin’! You might surprise yourself with the confidence that brings.
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This is so true. Best to jam as much as you can, regardless of skill level. Obviously those you are jamming with need to be understanding of your skill level, but I think the bass is an instrument that can sound right even at basic levels due to the nature of it. I hadn’t played bass for around 20 years and someone asked me to go to a studio and jam with them (drummer) and guitarist. They loaned me a bass two days before. I just played VERY simple things, but kept to the beat and it was good. I mean, you could even just play one or two notes with half notes or something and that would do the trick.
Anyway, I encourage everyone to play with as many people as they can. It’s the best way to learn in my opinion and will give you more drive for improving.
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The bottom line (our specialist subject) is that it feels like you’re ‘really playing’ when others are playing too. though I still remember how good it felt to play along with the early lessons, when I suddenly thought “hey, that sounds like a tune!”, but I still remember in my dim & distant past, just how good it felt to play in an actual band - even though I wasn’t 1/2 the player I am now - and I’m still only 2/3rd through the course (not including my quick backtracking), and only 5/8th as good as I think I should be by this stage.
(is anybody keeping track of what fraction of a bassist I am?) 
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You’re probably still a dotted quarter note and a few triplets shy of where you want to be - give or take…
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Sometimes in life you just need to round up. 
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…insert answer here.
The phrase I like to use to describe somebody being a little less than fully comprehending the situation is “a pork pie short of a picnic”.
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I understand you Scots have some very colorful expressions (whatever the occasion warrants) 
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Welcome @XTN
Man its soooooo nice to see Im not the only 40+ yr old dude just getting serious about playing the bass. I picked up my bass (oddly enough also a Ibanez GSRM-20 Mikro due to small hands and some limited mobility in my index finger due to old football injuries) at 48 
I will say playing has increased my mobility in my hands, and gets better every month.
So much so about 6 months ago I picked up a full scale Yamaha bass TRBX-504 and have really loved playing it.
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Believe it or not - you’re far from alone
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I’m definitely taking my time and not trying to do too much too fast. The problem is… I’m just enjoying everything so dang much! I’ve found myself using my down time to learn & practice instead of wandering aimlessly on social media or gluing myself to the TV. I have really fallen in love with playing the bass guitar.
That’s a great idea and didn’t think of it that way. This is something I am so looking forward to. I’m sure with my god son I could just chug or play some simple shapes and he’ll create some great riffs around me. With my 9yo boy, we’ve chosen some songs to play together (Stand By Me - B. King and a bunch of Star Wars Stuff) and are slowly working our way towards playing together. Good times!
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Thanks for the welcome @faamecanic! I’m glad to hear that you have increased mobility in your hands. That’s a nice side effect to have from playing. I’m hoping that this will allow me to regain some mobility in my hands as well. Being older now, I listen to my body a lot better than I used to. I sort of treat playing bass just like I did sports. I warm up (hand & wrist exercises), I play, then I cool down with some hand stretching.
When I went to GC to pick up my first axe the sales rep recommended the Mikro. After reading around the interwebz about short scales I kept seeing stuff on the Gretsch Junior Jet. It was an itch I had to scratch. Tried it at the store and it just felt right. It’s hefty, a little bigger, and the sound is so different from the Mikro. I had to take it home. One day, if I can get my hands to stretch out a bit more or if I can get fast with my microshifts I’d like to move up to a long scale. There sure are a lot of purdy bass guitars out there.
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