I currently own a Squire Affinity Jazz from around 2012. It’s a beautiful sunburst and has a rosewood fingerboard. Contemplating getting a Squire Classic Vibe 70s Jazz and selling the Affinity. I know I’ll lose money on the Affinity and I liked the rosewood which as we know is not used as much anymore.
They have 20% off all in stock Squire, but it’s just a snap sale so will be over in about 14hrs.
For those that have played both, would you consider this a decent upgrade?
Either that or I keep the Affinity and look at getting a completely different bass. Have previously posted about Ibanez SR, probably the 500 or 600. Also looked at Yamaha TRBX504 or 604 + an ESP LTD Surveyor 87 ( loved the rainbow crackle look). I know those other bases are very different and some of them much more expensive.
I mainly play guitar, but also really enjoy bass and probably going to sign up to B2B.
If you want to step it up a notch and want to still play on rosewood why don’t you look for a older pre 2017 Mexican model Jazz. Maybe even a deluxe or past era series model. You could probably find one in great condition for the same price as a new CV, or less. My first rosewood MIM Jazz was a 2010 and cost me only $400 but this was going back a few years.
I had a Squier Indo PJ that was not bad at all but I eventually let it go to get a Mexican PJ Deluxe and have been very happy with the ‘upgrade’. In the end it will come down to what feels best in your hands.
As a far as taking up the B2B course I have to say you will not be disappointed. You will probably breeze through the early exercises if you are an experienced guitarist but @JoshFossgreen has a way of teaching so that you develop the proper habits to play the bass the best way possible. That and you will pick up a lot of basscentric skills that will allow you to form a solid foundation to build up your abilities in all things bass.
The Ibanez SR 500/600 and the Yamaha TRBX504/604 are similar and all are excellent choices. I’ve owned seven basses and my TRBX604 (my second bass) is one of the two I still own. Just a fantastic instrument for the price.
Thanks folks, maybe I’d be better doing the B2B course on the bass I have and when I’m a badass, I try some bass in store. If I ordered this bass, it would be sight unseen as it’s in another state.
I did briefly try an Ibanez SR300 a few months back and it felt very easy to play with the little bit of bass knowledge I have.
I see Josh generally uses an affordable bass in his YouTube videos, usually the Squire Vintage Modified I think. Guessing that’s deliberate to show that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get started.
This is exactly the case. Here’s the very point you make from the man himself.
I did the whole course on a $150 Ibanez Talman and it didn’t hold me back from learning.
One of my favourite YouTubers and all round nice guy Paul David’s said it best "Practice Trumps Gear’
I’m with @howard on this one. When I started I did touch on a few mainstream classic but went contemporary design route, Yamaha motion bass, Tobias etc. they are easier to play and have strong modern tone.
Now that I’m doing more mainstream, I can certainly appreciate the different shade of green on the other side of the fence. However, if you are considering mainstream designs then I recommend getting a MIM p bass not pj just p and see what’s all the fuzz’s about. You can go the other route and get Sterling by MusicMan like Ray4 or ray24.
Or… you can choose my route and keep your affinity and upgrade the pickups and learn how to work on your bass. It’s a perfect platform to learn. I’m not a guitar player but I learned a lot from working on a bunch of Squier Stratocaster from changing pickguard, pickups, fret dresses, etc.
If you are going to take a loss selling, might as well gain your experience by use it as your test bed bass. In addition, nicks and scratches on a fender is not only acceptable but desirable and will appreciate in value overtime.
I take it you already have a Bass or headphone amp.
I also needed to purchase another tuner. My Snark headstock tuners were just too unreliable at the Bass freqs. YMMV.
I would keep the Affinity as a backup and go with the Yamaha TRBX504 for an upgrade Bass.
As always, Bass selection is such a personal choice. Just purchase the one that you really want and then you will not need to purchase another for some time, if at all.
As far as the B2B course is concerned you can’t go wrong and it has a money back guarantee, so no risk at all there.
Thanks for the video, hadn’t seen that one and great to hear about your experience. I’ve struggled with guitar learning at times because so many videos/courses don’t really have much in the way of play along or don’t teach you how to join everything together to become musical. From watching the intro to B2B, it helps with both of those things.
I’ve also bought things I haven’t really used instead of just practicing.
Yep, I’ve got the Fender Rumble 15 from the starter pack. I’ve also got the Yamaha THR10X that has a bass channel (not that great on the speakers, but reasonable with headphones)
Tempting to go that way as quite a few people saying they really enjoy the TRBX504.
Thanks for your insight into the course and well wishes.
You shouldnt make a mistake with any of those. They are all solid. Its mostly about your preference.
Ibanez SRs are lightweight skinny neck and fast af boi.
Yammys bit chunckier but sounds is alike to ibanez.
Im unsure about ESPs never tried one but theres plenty of people here who own em.
Squier CVs or Paranormals are awesome buys. Best of Squier, in some cases better than MIM Fenders.
Just make sure you get Alnico 5 pups whatever you go for.
It depends on what sound you are going for and how much control over the tone you want on the bass itself. You can think of it like having a preamp pedal to EQ the tone, but built in to your bass. It’s a nice feature and I have used it a lot in the past. You can really alter the tone of the bass with it.
But it is not mandatory and you can EQ elsewhere.
The way I would thing about it is about how much tone control you want built in to the bass (versus somewhere else). It changes the tone of the bass before any other pedals, amp, etc. If all you plan to do is plug your bass into the amp and go it doesn’t matter as much (though it is convenient). If you plan to use effects, it’s nice to have an EQ on the bass before it goes through the pedals, to change the original bass tone. Depends on what you want to do really.
Honestly I prefer passive basses but sometimes active can come in handy when playing live with band when you want to pop out a bit more without fiddling with amp.
Can also make slapping and tapping easier if you are into that.
Also im not pedals guys, but as howard says it can affect that also.
Thats why im aiming for Yammy BB734A next, usable in both active and passive mode. Actually I should get it around new year.
You can start with easy systems like EMG. Its soderless wiring kit is easy to installed. The only thing you may have to deal with is making extra room for 9v battery. Usually not very difficult you just need a palm router and router bit. Fortunately, most time there’s enough room in the cavity for the 9v.
There are different kind of active systems. The common type is the active preamp and passive pickups… it usually boost signals and eq. If you bass is making any hiss and hums it would get worse.
Another popular type is the active pickup and preamp, like EMG active systems they are not as loud their active electronic generate the opposite current to cancel out the 60 cycle hum.
I like @Growl suggestion on the Paranormal, the build quality is top notch and it looks awesome. I just finish upgrading this with EMG pickups.
This is exactly my experience as well. The beauty of the B2B course as I can tell so far (just started module 6) is that every single excercise teaches you something fundamental. It might be just getting your fingers moving in the beginning, learning alternating plucking or different rhythm patterns or some music theory, which is then applied directly to the bass. That is really important for me, because I don´t have the feeling that I am practicing something and then don´t know what do do with it.
Most of the times, before I start a new excercise, I look at the sheet music and sometimes think “Oh, that seems easy”, only to find out, that there is one specific thing in that excercise that teaches you something new and is maybe a bit tricky, which is a good thing.
Go for it! You will definitely be able to after the course.
This is what I do too. I basically lay down drums using SSD5, then do a bassline over it, then my bandmate does guitars while I do synths and vocals. I posted a few over in the covers thread.
That’s awesome, just listened to some of them, very impressive. Must feel great to listen to the finished product.
What’s SSD5 like? I briefly tried the demo for EZdrummer and it definitely looked like it lives up to its name. Is SSD5 easy to use. At half nearly half the price, it’s certainly worth considering. Will download the demo.
Looks like they both can sting you for more cash with add-on packs.
