I bought a bass guitar and it is awesome.
It is an Ibanez SR506. This model has six strings (an extra high and low string in addition to the normal four), a beautiful mahogany body, active electronics, and the most comfortable neck I have ever felt on a bass.
I started thinking about getting a bass after playing Josh's several times. He and I have been jamming about every other weekend with a drummer named Jason. Josh writes the songs and plays rhythm guitar; I play lead guitar and bass; and Jason plays bongos. We are still debating what to do about real drums and a singer. Bongos cannot replace a full drum set, and the singer we had— an opera major, no less— recently moved away. We have a good number of songs but definitely need to practice more before we move from the apartment to live shows.
I will always have my solo music whether I am in a band or not. That is the main reason I bought a bass. I can now record my bass tracks rather than having to write them out note-by-note to be played by my MIDI synthesizer. Tonight I threw together three short samples:
- Bass and Guitar Sample #1
- Bass and Guitar Sample #2
- Bass Solo – This clip really demonstrates the range of a six-string bass.
To record the bass, I upgraded my POD to include the bass expansion pack. The installation was interesting. I had to download a client program that ran on my computer and communicated with the POD via a USB cable. After I paid for the expansion pack, the client program downloaded the firmware from Line6's website and installed it on the POD. The bass amp models included in the expansion sound great, and I like being able to record both bass and guitar through one device, but I had to debate long and hard whether to spend a good chunk of money on what amounts to a software update. Unlike a physical console, I cannot resell the expansion if I decide to upgrade in the future.
Between the new equipment and the band, I expect I will have more music to post in the future.
Note: This is the second new purchase post in a week. One could almost get the impression that my grad student salary is more generous than it really is. I assure you that this is not the case.