Hi,

Dumb question for everyone.

I am realtively new to bass guitar, and play (almost) exclusively via rocksmith on my laptop, with earphones.

I have a pretty entry level bass guitar.

I'm thinking of upgrading my guitar, but wonder if it will even make a difference? I know a lot of time a higher quality guitar will give you better / different tone, warmer sound, etc.

But since I mainly only use rocksmith, with the tone processing already built in, would it even make any difference in playing, or does the quality of the bass almost become irrelevant, since the tones and sounds are already being completely processed by rocksmith?

I guess the question is - is it woth it to upgrade my bass, since I only play rocksmith with it?

Sure.  As you play you will notice nuances about the bass that you like or don't like.  My advice would be to keep playing and pay attention to how the bass feels.  Is it going out of tune a lot?  Are the frets to wide?  Too narrow?  Is the neck to thick?  Too thin?  Understanding this will allow you to know what you would like for a future bass.  Then, when the time is right, go to a store and try several different baases.  I am a firm believer that when you find the one you like, you'll know.  It will just feel comfortable and "right" to play.

 

My son started on rocksmith with a inexpensive guitar and we recently bought him a more expensive one.  He tried several and just liked the feel of the one he chose.  As a result, he plays a lot more.

 

So keep playing and you'll know when it's time.  They key is to playing.  Technique is never wasted on lower end gear and you may find that once you get a higher level instrument that you can play it with greater ease.

 

My thoughts anyway.  Hope it helps.

I also recommend upgrading when you feel like it. I bought one bass and almost never touched it. Then I bought Rocksmith, and now I have two more basses and I never play them outside Rocksmith. Each one has enhanced the playing experience in their own way. My second bass has 24 frets as opposed to my first one's 22, so I had to readjust my playing posture in order to reach the frets further away. However, it was built in unsatisfactory quality and I was never arsed to get it fixed. The third bass is somewhat similar to my second bass, but it's built just about right, is better balanced and looks cool(er). Sound-wise I can't tell much, but playing a better-quality instrument feels very different (note: quality and price don't always go hand in hand).

I'm a beginner as well and one thing that made a big difference for me was getting an amp.  Started using Rocksmith about a year ago borrowing a 5 string from a friend.  Had a really hard time just dealing with the 5th string.  Ended up getting an entry level Ibanez and it has been great.  But, the biggest difference in my play came when I got an amp about a month ago.  I run the line through a pedal to get a dual output, so one in the PC and one into the amp.  Being able to isolate the bass volume etc. really helped me listen more to how I was playing and understanding better how to stay in time etc.  Just something to think about as well.  

Thanks to everyone for the input.

Adding a seperate feed to the amp is a great idea, I'm going to work on that this weekend.

So I guess the dominant concern would be for comfort for the next bass, which I guess makes sense.

I know it is subject and personal, but does anyone have a mid-range cost bass that they absolutely love for rocksmith?

What do you have at the moment?

 

For the price, you can't go wrong with a Yamaha.

 

I've got an RBX170 that I've had since last January.  It's very basic, but good quality and easy to play.

 

I was so impressed by it that my second bass is a TRBX504.  The neck is thinner, and it feels a little lighter and smaller than the RBX.  It's a bit more than I actually need at the moment though, because I never really plug it directly into an amp to benefit from the improvement in tone over the RBX, since I only really use it for Rocksmith.  It is nice to look at though. :D

I have a cheap Kona that I got off of amazon. It actually holds its tone well, and is comfortable. but very basic

I've never heard of Kona.  I had to look it up...

 

Maybe it's time for you to get along to a music shop and take a look?  There would be no harm in it - just don't take your credit card for the first visit! ;)

Yep I did the rounds for several weeks checking out music stores and pawn shops too when I was trying to figure out what I wanted in the range of what I wanted to buy.  Endless amount of choices when you factor in all the used gear you can get so it just has to feel right for you.  I ended up going with an Ibanez SR300.  Really liked the tone of it and it's super light weight.  Knowing I was mainly going to be using it for Rocksmith and not taking it anywhere, figured I could go with something that wasn't quite as heavy duty as most others.  Would definitely recommend it to a fellow beginner if you want to spend that much.  http://e6ee355f6b52135bf99d-24afd19e4548a12cca5a6a8962f16307.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/b/ibn-sr300-mg_1.jpg

Thanks everyone for the help.

I ended up getting the Ibanez GSR200. I just felt the best in the shop. Was playing some last night, felt great.

I also picked up a good amp, so this weekend I'm going to combine with the rocksmith per madzillage above, great idea.

Should I change out the strings on the new bass? it feels fine to me, but I guess I assume the stock strings and just that, stock?

Depends, really. I prefer medium strings (045 to 105), which I think your Ibanez also has if it was new. One of my basses came with light strings (040 to 100) and they felt too flimsy, so I replaced them.

Not sure what you are going to use to split the signal.  I went with the simplest and cheapest option of a cheap pedal.  However I read up on a bunch of different options here http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=208747982. Lots of good comments by users too in that post.  But I didn't want to make the investment in a DI box or something similar having just paid for an amp.  

 

My cheap solution was a $25 Behringer Chorus pedal that has dual output. A little finicky at times but overall has been great given the price.  One thing to take note of is Rocksmith needs a clean signal to work so you can't use the pedal effects when you are playing the game.  You're only using it as a splitter - so when playing the game you can't have the pedal on.  Took me a few minutes and several line changes to figure out what the issue was.  Also, remember to go into Rocksmith and turn down/off your bass volume all the way so you only hear your amp.   

 

As for strings, I played mine for awhile and they were fine.  Might as well get a couple months of use out of them while you're still breaking in the instrument.  

I ended up getting an A/B splitter box at guitar center. I forget the brand and official name. It has one imput, two outputs, and switches on top to turn on and off both outputs. It cost about $50, i've only tried it once so far but it worked great.

I have a Sonos system run throughout our house, and tried to run my laptop through that to play the rest of the guitarsmith sound, but there was a half a millisecond delay, and was about to give me a siezure :o

I love the setup though, it is a great idea

I've got Sonos as well.  Now you have me curious, how did you run the RS through the Sonos?

One the back of the Play 5, there is a line-in slot. Via a male to male 3.5 audio plug wire, I hook it up from the headphones out on my laptop. Then I can group the play 5 to my livingroom set up of soundbar and two play 1s in surround.

It sounds pretty good, but there is a slight millisecond lag. But I didn't turn the bass all the way down on the Sonos feed, which may eliminate that. I will try it tomorrow morning and let you know.

Thanks everyone for the help.

I ended up getting the Ibanez GSR200. I just felt the best in the shop. Was playing some last night, felt great.

I also picked up a good amp, so this weekend I'm going to combine with the rocksmith per madzillage above, great idea.

Should I change out the strings on the new bass? it feels fine to me, but I guess I assume the stock strings and just that, stock?

 

 

My first bass was an Ibanez GSR200, and it is still my primary bass.  I fully agree with the idea that one should try out several options and choose the one that feels right, but that wasn't a great option for me.  My hometown was quite small (5,000 people) with no music stores, so I chose that bass because A) it was close to the cheapest option in my Musician's Friend catalog, and B) I liked the looks of it.

 

But as it turned out, I actually like it as an instrument quite a lot now.  Setup wasn't bad on delivery (15 or so years ago), and tweaking it to be pretty much perfect (took out a slight neck bow with truss rod and fixed some minor intonation issues) was quite easy.  I actually really like the stock strings that came with it.  I kinda prefer a low setting on the tone knob, and generally prefer the dead thump of well worn in strings -- so I actually am still using those stock strings today (15 years of off-again on-again play later).

 

Balance is really good, it isn't heavy, neck width and cross section feel right to me, passive pickups are simple and perform more than adequately, etc.  Only cons I have with it are that it tends to go a little wonky for a while if I change the tuning -- going from E Standard to anything lower than Drop D needs a few hours to settle in and be really stable, and anything really low like Drop C needs beefier strings to be very sensible.

 

 

 

I bought an Epiphone Thunderbird Pro 5 about 9 months ago because I thought that I was due for an upgrade and wanted to get a 5-string option.  I chose the TBird mostly because I like the looks of it, and again I don't really have a local music store so I got it by mail order through a store in the US when I was on vacation.  Cost close to 3 times what the Ibanez cost, and I can tell that a LOT of it really is quite superior in construction.  The neck, finish, bridge, tuners, etc. are all real quality hardware...  BUT, the active pickups seem to have grounding issues and pick up a LOT of buzz and noise.  Touching the strings doesn't help -- I can cut down on the noise by 85% or so by touching the metal pots (not convenient when actually playing), but not the strings or bridge.

 

The tone and sustain are better than my Ibanez, but that noise is killer.  I think I may have to look into completely replacing the pickups and electronics, because at this point I end up playing my no-hassle Ibanez most of the time just to avoid the LOUD noise.

 

So, I guess I lucked out on a mail-order purchase, and then had a moderate snafu with the next one...  Glad that you got to go hands-on and pick out one that really works for you -- I really SHOULD have gone that way also!

 

 

(sorry to ramble)

Oh, that reminds me.  When I was debating about whether or not to order in the TBird 5 without actually playing it first, I was wondering how much of a learning curve the 5 strings vs 4 difference would be.  So, I wanted to try SOME 5-string just to make sure that my brain wouldn't melt making that adjustment or anything.  The shop (Guitar Center in Las Vegas) gave me a 5 string real-deal Fender P-Bass to try.  I think it was over $2,000 list -- and in just a quick play on it, even I could tell that it would be totally worth it in the hands of a pro.  It "felt right" to me bigtime -- although that price was way out of my budget range.  One thing that amazed me was that I *suck* at slap/pop.  I just can't do it at all on my Ibanez.  But on that Fender, it was real close to being easy.  Totally blew me away.

 

I'm happy enough with my TBird Pro -- especially if I can eventually sort out the noise issue by some means that doesn't break the bank.  But if I had the money to spend, I think I'd be real happy with a genuine article Fender.

I fairly new to RS and I've been playing mostly bass. My 5 string bass is getting a little pissed because it's not getting any attention. I like the fretboard (flatter, strings closer together) of the 5 string but the 4 string seems like digging in there and more stretching and works great on RS. I find I'm spending a lot of effort getting a nice tone rather than just hitting the notes.

 

Newbie question though, I use Guitar Pro a lot (5.2 for just reading tabs and version 6 for doing my own tabs). Is there a way to change the string a note is played on. IE I prefer Psycho Killer opening played on the E string (A fretted 5 on E in stead of open A). I'm a little OCD and feel compelled to play what RS presents. In Guitar Pro, you can simply highlight the note and hit alt-up/down to change the string it is to be played on. This makes for tight boxes and not moving your fretting hand so much. 

 

Thanks in advance and kudos to all the great CDLC here. If I get better at tabbing, I will contribute.

Changing a CDLC chart is close to creating a new one, so if you're familiar with the process, it will complicated to do so (and in general taking on someone else work is harder).

 

So yes it's possible but if you're unfamiliar with the tool in the first place it might become a nightmare quickly.

Upgrading your Bass will never be a bad idea because in future you may decide you want to take your music away from Rocksmith and play through an amp.. In which case it will make a difference .Also, different basses feel different and have different features e.g wider frets or neck. You may prefer a different style.. Hope this helped :)

you should buy an amp first and a splitter so you hear your bass only thru the amp, not the game. This will improve your playing no end because you will hear what you are playing, not a mix of the original and without the effects.