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Easy, option 3, the Stratocaster. It's an all-rounder with many useable voices, the body shape is close to perfection (OK so the Explorer is a worthy challenger on body shape), the front mounted but angled jack socket is genius, the 5-way switch an unintentional masterstroke. The only drawback is choosing one from the forest of fender models and copies!

"Now what do I do?"

You start off playing the root note. This will allow you to plod through any song without embarrassment. Here's 'Louie Louie';

http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/www.b … nt=3824510

It's A D E D A all through the song but what does the bass play? Most obvious is;

------------------
------------------
----5---7---5----
-5-------------5--

This is dull but it's what I play if I'm singing the verse.*

To get 'Louie Louie' to rock you need to add passing notes. So the bassline becomes;

-----------------------------
------------------------------
---(4)-5-------------(6)--7-----5--
-55---------------------------
baBum-ba-Bum       da-Dum-(ch)-Dum

Changing to this at the chorus really makes the song rock (at this point I stop singing, so I hope the rest of the band are up for 'Louie Louie, woaooao' not a hard lyric to remember). Remember the bassline is not set in stone, you can move around the A Dd D D# E shape how you like. You'll also note it falls over 4 frets, look to have your thumb and second finger on the 5th fret and use your pinky on the 7th (yep I know it's tough but that finger will get stronger).

Enjoy.

* There are other areas on the bass neck where A D and E are close together you could simply play the open strings but it sounds boring, if you haven't fretted a string you can't give it feeling. There's also a A D E two below and down but this gives a more treble feel. But once you've learnt the basic groove you could transfer to it for effect later in the song.

Hi Tron, two very different basses there. One remark on the TR seller's desciption makes me worry "Not shure too much about the pickups or anything else about this bass." I'd take that to mean that the electrics are shot. I would avoid unless he can guarrantee he's plugged it in and the pickup sound is good, volume and tone don't crackle etc.

With basses you have two types, active and passive. Originally all basses were passive just like regular guitars, but at some point in the 90s makers started adding circuits powered by a little 9v battery in the body. The SoundGear Gio4 has just such a thing called Phat EQ. I have the version of Phat EQ from 4 years ago on my Ibanez and I can tell you it makes a huge difference. With it turned off your bass handles like a typical passive bass, fine for unobtrusive backing. Turn up the Phat EQ and in comes a real punch. Great if you are playing at low-ish volumes but want an -in-yer-face sound or indeed if your bass amp is too mellow, just watch out for boomy room vibes.

If you have a regular guitar amp you can use the bass with it for practice just start with the volume turned way down and then gently crank up making sure you don't overload the speaker cone when you play loud.

PS. One downside of an active bass is when the battery goes flat (sounds weak or distorted), always unplug the cable from the bass to avoid running it down too quick.

Been learning bass for the last 2 months now Tron. Recommended book CD packages are both by Ed Friedland, Bass Grooves (you're bound to find a favourite in there) and Blues Bass (you may not think you know the songs but they are real standards everyone's heard once).

Playing bass starts with playing root and pumpin out eigths. You'll also find r'n'b/soul/funk grooves very satisfying to learn. Then you need to start appreciating 'chord' shapes, passing notes and working out your own basslines. There's no one right way to play a song, but your job as bassist is to work out something that drives the beat forward.

The other big tip I've had of my bass tutor is the 'hamburger hold'. Imagine you are holding a large hamburger, the shape your hand makes holding it is how your hand should go over the bass neck. Your thumb lining up with the second finger not the first, indeed if you make your thumb point to 1 o'clock it's perfect. This feels odd but gives you the best stretch, you will be able to access 4 frets without moving up and down the neck, freeing you mind up to make grooves.

Let me know if you want more and I'll tab out the grooves that make 'Hang On Sloopy' and 'Louie Louie' bump along rather than just plod through the root notes.

You'll find 30W amps are more common but in some ways I'd concentrate on speaker size as amp figures can lie (50watt is most common in bass amps). Look for twelve inch speakers that give a clean sound (dirt can always be introduced by a pedal). Peavey Valveking 112 (also two 12" speakers the 212) and Kustom Defender are worth a look and not expensive.

Pedals - if you're getting a decent amp you should be able to dial in a good bit of distortion there so an overdrive pedal isn't the first to get. I'd recommend a Compression pedal as this has a wide range of uses. You may also find a boost pedal useful try one when buying the amp and see if it gives an edge, Electro Harmonix's KO is an interesting variation on this.

If you are in the market for a guitar as well you are in a great position to try out amp/guitar/pedal combinations and drive a shop crazy. Don't decide on one and then match everything to it, keep you mind open and options fluid (store assistants hate this, but do it anyway). So try a single coil with some amps then try out a humbucker guitar with the same amps. Then try pedals with it and see how both react. The treble boost pedals I mentioned behave differently with different amps (must be tube though) and guitars (depends on the tone pot).

Let us know more about the sort of sound you are gravitating towards and we can advise more (if you said metal then I'd recommend humbuckers, a Marshall and a metalzone type pedal, if you said country I'd recommend single coils, Fender amp and a compressor etc.).

I think this idea is FALSE.

"Most everyone seems interested in the hardware SLASH uses - what guitars does he have, what strings does he use, and what about picks and amps and effects? Just to show you that you don't have to have a $3,000 guitar to get started, SLASH started out with a one string acoustic. His first electric was a copy of a Gibson Explorer. Later guitars included a Memphis Les Paul copy, a B.C. Rich Mockingbird, a B.C. Rich Warlock, a Fender Stratocaster, a Jackson Firebird copy and a Charvel. Sadly, almost all of these early SLASH guitars were sold to support his former drug habit."

That quote is from this great Slash fan site

http://www.snakepit.org/equip.html

Clearly now he's rich and famous Slash can afford top flight guitars, but he didn't get known in the LA music scene with an expensive Les Paul. Then he was using regular instruments like most other jobbing guitarists. Notice alot of those early instruments were copies or makes that are now much derided like Charvel.

This is a tricky song, with an odd beat and what are called rundowns. In a rundown fingers are taken out of a basic chord shape and placed on other notes to give an effect. The video is a bit naughty as an unseen sitar sound has been dubbed on.

Solo is a chance for a guitarist to show-off, make some fireworks. How you do this is down to you.

One way to think of the solo is as a form of singing. In fact you may have seen guitarists making strange mouth shapes in the middle of a solo. Listen to Zep's 'You Shook Me' and you can hear Jimmy Page making the words 'babe, baaabbe, you shook meee, shoook meeeee' in a call and respone with Plant's vocal. So if a song has a reucrrent theme or riff, find it in the appropriate scale set. Having a motif like this will give you a fallback position. So you play up and down the scale, do some fast twiddling... then run out steam... Go back to that motif, this reminds the audience of the song and you can keep repeating it till the band fall back in behind you.

The best advice for a solo is keep it short and rehearse it. Not just what you'll play but how the song will come out of it. Time for a 'secret signal' like Team America ;-)