I don’t currently have a clean solution for this. or any solution really. I use spark headphones when I’m practicing, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a solution that that involves these. many times if I’m out somewhere playing my bass and get an idea, I want to have a way to record it quickly. but I don’t have that. what do you guys do?
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I am nowhere near the abilities to even consider recording anything… I will let the more experience members here advise in that capacity, but…
..at the very least, use the recording app on your phone so that you don’t lose the moment and lightening strike of a good riff. You can always embellish it later, but get and keep the concept so that you don’t forget it.
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Without buying more? I don’t know but in general there are several ways to do that. I’d do the zoom Q8N 4k it’s one stop shop for video/ audio recording you’ll just need the aux out 3.5 from your phone audio track and 1/4” instrument for your bass and off you go.
Granted the video quality is so so but there’s nothing better on the market right now for audio recording option.
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Have you tried the voice recorder on your phone? 
iPhones also have GarageBand.
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yeah really the closest thing i’ve gotten to recording amplified bass on the fly is literally shoving the zoom handy recorder in my headphones while playing. it works, kinda. btw speaking of the recorder im currently using it to record some stuff. its 430 in the morning and im in Albuquerque New Mexico waiting for the first balloons to launch at the annual balloon fest.
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I bought this thing to start trying to record using my ipad & garageband:
so far it’s very humbling to listen back to my not so clean playing 
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I like this idea a lot. I used to just hum the bass part into the voice recorder app. It’s the fastest way to capture ideas.
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not sure how much it would pick up with no amplification? probably would at least give you enough to hear. i like the humming idea though.
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Yeah sometimes an idea of a fill(s) comes to mind while listing to a song I just turn on my Voice recorder app and replay the part and hum my fills. Then later transcribe that onto my bass. It’s a much faster way to capture the inspiration.
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I have 7 zillion voice memos of bass lines and music ideas.
Some amplified, some not.
It picks up everything with pretty decent accuracy.
Unamplified bass is quiet, but it records.
I’m always urging students to use their phone recorders for everything!!
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Hey! I totally feel the struggle of trying to capture a quick riff before it disappears! For anything serious, I usually fire up the DAW, but for just grabbing a quick idea while noodling around, I’ve been trying to keep it as simple as possible.
I’ve actually been using Online Voice Recorder lately. It’s pretty handy because you don’t have to mess with any software or interface settings—you just record straight into the browser. It picks up the low end of the bass surprisingly well for a quick reference. Definitely beats humming into my phone and trying to remember what the actual notes were later!
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nice 