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In search of the Perfect Custom Bass | The Search for My First Bass

The Search for My First Bass

by Pamela Perez

It took 28 years for me to arrive at the decision to learn to play the bass. I don't know the first thing about the bass or any other type of instrument. I can't read music or tab (although I think I may have figured tab out). Other than having a great love of music I am completely naïve. I chose to learn the bass simply because that is the sound that stands out to me in a song.

In May of this year my fiancé Don and I were browsing guitars at a local music store. I wandered over to the little cubby where they had their basses. I was amazed at what I saw when I started looking at the selection. I had never realized that there was such a variety in colors, shapes and especially prices. I wanted to pick one up, just to see what it felt like but I had never held one in my life and I didn't want to look like an idiot. So I just stood there looking and turning over price tags. Don came over and asked me if I was ready to go. It was at that moment that I made my decision. When I realized that I had a million questions about the bass guitar screaming through my head I decided I wanted to play the bass. I turned to leave, looked at Don and said, "I wanna play bass."

Don loves anything that is related to music so he was thrilled. It really fired me up when he showed nothing but confidence in me right from the start. He never showed any kind of doubt in my ability. He just grabbed my hand and dragged me into every music store within a 50-mile radius of us. My first mission was to learn as much as I could about the bass. I bought every magazine I could that related to the bass. I read them cover-to-cover even though most of the technical stuff made no sense to me. I looked at a lot of books but since I had no idea how to read music or tab the selection of those were extremely limited. The market was flooded with videos and DVDs that promised to have you playing in one day, but since I didn't even have a bass yet I figured I should wait to purchase those.

When I actually started to look at basses I was nervous and Don could tell. He never pushed anything on me. He let me look and find what appealed to me and then we looked at it together since I knew nothing about quality, construction or manufacturers. The first bass that really caught my attention was a Schecter Stiletto Elite. I stood there staring at it sitting on it's floor stand for a few minutes before I actually got the nerve to pick it up. It was much heavier than I expected. I heaved it up, balancing it on my right thigh. It was gorgeous and standing there holding that Schecter I started to understand what drives people to play. I felt alive and full of energy. I wanted more than anything to learn to play. At that moment I wanted to shake the walls with the baddest bass lines ever played. But I had yet to learn even the most basic playing skills. I called Don over and showed him my trophy. He grabbed it, looked it over and called the salesman over. He asked him questions regarding everything from wood type to scale size and a whole lot of other stuff that to me was unimportant. Then he set it back down and said, "Let's keep looking." I had confidence in Don's knowledge of instruments so I knew there had to be a reason that he wanted to keep looking.

Over the next few days we continued our search. I spoke to several of my friends who are musicians and asked them for advice on how to pick my first bass. Their answers varied but were helpful.

1) Make sure that the bass feels comfortable and is easy to play. (This was the #1 response)

2) Visit the stores at their slowest times so that you can browse without a store full of people. This also allows for the salesperson to spend more time with you.

3) Have someone who knows about basses go with you or try to find a salesperson that plays the bass. They will hopefully be patient enough to help someone who is just starting out.

4) Have the salesperson check to make sure that the bass is properly adjusted.

For someone like me who had never picked up a bass before it was necessary that I have someone with me who knew how to play. I had no way of telling if the bass was adjusted right. I couldn't play yet so how was I supposed to know?

During my hunt I picked up every bass that caught my eye to see how it "felt". I began to realize that many of them "felt" the same when I held them. The body, color or manufacturer may have been different but they generally felt the same. There was a beautiful Fender Mark Hoppus Signature Bass that I almost purchased but something (other than Don) said to keep looking. On my final day of searching we ventured into The Bass Place in Tempe, AZ. This was the smallest store we had been in so far, but they had the largest selection of not only basses but also bass amps. I scanned the walls seeing many of the basses that I had seen at the other stores. Then I noticed two that were hanging on the wall that appeared to be slightly smaller than the rest. One was red, the other white. On the headstock it said Fender Mustang Bass. Several salesmen had recommended these to me. Because they are a shorter scale (usually 30') they thought that they would fit my body better and be easier for me to carry for long periods of time. But they also said that they were rather hard to find. I felt incredibly lucky that I had managed to find two.

I grabbed the red one down off the wall. From the moment I held it I knew that this was the bass for me. It was perfect! The weight was something that I could easily carry for a long time, my hand didn't feel overstretched anywhere on the fret board and it just felt …right. I called Don over and he told me that this was a 64' reissue Fender Mustang. He plugged the Mustang into an amp and played a couple of notes. Now Don is a rather large fellow so of course this bass looked very small in his hands but he agreed that this was probably the bass for me. Probably??? There was no question in my mind and I was not going to settle for any other bass.

He talked to the salesman to see if he would come down any on the price. They didn't come down but agreed to throw in a gig bag. Still Don hesitated. He wanted to check online that night and see if we could get a better deal. We searched and found nothing that was comparable so the next day we returned and purchased the Fiesta Red 64' Reissue Fender Mustang, a Fender California Cable and two sets of strings. The following week I fiddled around on my bass with an acoustic amp that Don had and just kept the volume low to avoid blowing the speaker. On Mother's Day I came home to find a new Ampeg BA115 sitting in our music room.

This was my final gear purchase to get me started. I now have all the gear that I need and I am ready to set off on the next step of my journey to becoming a competent bass player. So far it has been slightly intimidating, overwhelming and way more expensive than I would have thought, but I can't remember the last time I was this excited about anything and I can't wait to see what challenges come next.