One of the most important things you can do for your Fender Bass is a general setup. Unfortunately it’s also one of the most neglected things for many bassists.
If you have a serious set up issue or a major mechanical problem you should take your bass to a professional, but minor adjustments to your bass can help avoid a serious issue later on and make your bass sound and play better.
Buying a bass player a gift can be a tricky thing. That’s why we put together this bass player gift guide. The first thing to consider is the level of the player. Buying a gift for a beginner is the most straightforward because you most likely will be looking at budget basses and accessories. For more experienced players it can get a little more involved but I put together some bass gift ideas that hopefully will help.
Coming up with the top 10 vintage Fender Bass years is a tall task, especially when you consider all the years that Fender produced great basses. I decided to concentrate on the vintage years between the 50s and the 70s, even though there are many awesome years after that, including up to today. It would be almost impossible to play a vintage Fender from every year, and of course, any given bass from the same year could either be amazing or not so great for many reasons. For instance, one bass may have some hidden electronics issues, a warp in the neck from damage or weather, and many other possible problems.
I, therefore, put the main criteria on the significance of a particular bass in Fender’s history, on the great players that used them, and the overall reputation of that year’s quality when I was working on this best vintage Fender bass years list.
Changing bass strings for many players is often just a normal part of life. Whether you’re trying a new roundwound set, some new tapewounds, or just needing to replace some dead strings that you’ve had too long, we’ve all been there. But, some bassists have trouble with the task. So, if you’re still wondering how to change bass strings correctly, read on.
And while there is no one completely agreed upon method, I’ve found over the years that one way, especially for Fender Basses, seems to work best.
At the beginning of your bass playing journey, you may not even know that flatwound bass strings exist. When you hear people talking about them or come across a discussion online, you still might not know exactly what the fuss is. They sound darker, or warmer? They were used by the pros in the “old days” maybe? Whatever you know about flatwounds from reading or interviews, you don’t know much until you play with them. At the beginning of my flatwound bass string odyssey…I sure didn’t.
