Beginner questions...

DDELFIERRO · Newbie Alert Joined: 03 Jul 2005 Posts: 1

O.K., I finally indulged and bought myself an Ibanez SR300DXL as a beginner bass. I have relatively small hands and the thin neck is helpful though I have trouble spanning down the fretboard and working above the 12th fret gets to be a problem. As I've never done much else other than casual plunking on any guitar whatsoever and I don't see an official Ibanez company forum online, I figured that I'd check if some of my questions could be answered here...

1. I got quite a bit of fret buzz on my bass right out of the box. Obviously, some of the problem is technique but I think that my bass is just abnormally buzzy especially on my E & A strings. The documentation is a bit sparse on how to rectify this but I'm inclined to bring it down to a shop for an initial set-up though I'd think that it was set-up properly when shipped out to begin with. Probably just some settling problems. It's really distinct when played unplugged and only more annoying when amplified. Is there a clearer (i.e. more highly detailed) set of documentation on adjusting this? The action seems a bit low and I wouldn't mind higher action in exchange for no fret buzz. I will experiment a bit with the allen wrench and the bridge to see if I can sort it out myself since I can always get it worked on if I screw up. I haven't really broken in the strings yet (I think) but I don't think that the problem will go away entirely even with a string change.

2. Regarding strings, I see that my bass came with the standard roundwounds. Basic setup, of course. But, I hate how much string noise my fingers generate. I don't intend on doing a bunch of slides but I think that as I develop my technique it couldn't hurt to try different strings. I am really looking at a set of GHS Pressurewounds as it appears that the smoother exterior will really cut down on the noise both from my fingers and the fret clacking. Plus, I do love the Motown-esque flatwound sound and the GHS Pressurewound appear to be a good compromise at a good price. The string gauges for my bass are .045-.065.-080-.100 out of the box but I see that the medium gauge GHS Pressurewounds are .044-.058-.080-.120 (i.e. slightly different). Would this be a problem? It's not as though I will be putting a E string in the G tuner but I don't know if this is of any concern.

3. I see that my model is an active bass but there isn't much documentation on using the EQB-2C EQ to achieve a particular tone or even what pickup I'm playing off of or how that is supposed to sound.

4. Perhaps it's just me but it is somewhat annoying to have 3 string tuners pretty much parallel to the headstock when properly tuned but one tuner almost perpindicular to the rest. I'm sure that this is normal but now I find myself looking at other peoples basses to see if this is aberrant behavior. I don't recall my tuners being out of line when I first got it and it seemed to be in tune on 1st check out of the box.

5. Is there any special diagrams, books or documentation for the left-handed bassist? Just about everything I see says that all I have to do is "flip" the information to the other side. Er, not particularly helpful. People tried to get me to play a right-handed guitar but it just doesn't feel natural to me and if it feels unnatural then I doubted that I'd stick with the instrument. Must have watched too much McCartney or Hendrix footage in my musically formative years. At least I'm not pulling a Haslip and playing a right-handed stringed instrument in left-hand position (i.e. E on bottom, G on top). I downloaded the Guitar Codex program with was really enlightening and did a screen capture of the fretboard in EADG tuning left-handed setup for easy reference but I obviously need more help. I've already been turned away or walked away from a number of places for instruction after being told that I would be learing to play my bass "wrong" by doing it lefty or that the instructor didn't really know how to translate for me. I figure it's pretty much self-taught for me but I will take some lessons anyway to establish good technique.

Any help would be appreciated!