My DS has decided that he would like to take bass guitar lessons. My DH and I know absolutely nothing about the bass guitar. If any of you know anything about this instrument I'd love to hear what brand of guitar you like, what amp brand you like, etc. Since we're not sure he is going to love this, I'd like to start with a nice but relatively inexpensive guitar (if that's possible!)

Thanks for any suggestions!

EandC

I don't know a thing about guitars, but when DS decided to learn flute, I know that once we had found a teacher the rest just fell into place. She had a preferred brand (or three) and two places she trusted for purchasing or renting, and offered to come with us if I needed help at the store.

We ended up renting for a year (that is, it has almost been a year now) and we're about to switch to a new flute and buy it outright. The music store allows us to apply all the rental payments toward purchase, even if we switch models, so it worked out rather well that way.

Thanks Erica! Unfortunately they don't rent "rock" band instruments because that is what I would have preferred to do. I've had a couple of recommendations from businesses where they teach lessons, but I was just wanting an unbiased recommendation from someone not actually making money from their recommendation.

Thanks for the response and I hope your DS is still enjoying the flute!

I don't know very much but my son takes drum lessons at a local store that also has a recording studio. Last week, my husband decided to start taking guitar lessons at the same location. They worked with him to figure out the best instrument fit. The biggest information they gave was to look for strings that are close to the kneck of the guitar. The farther away the strings are the more effort it takes to play and the faster the player will fatigue. Since we were looking at acustic with ecetronic addins, I'm not sure if the same applies to bass guitars. I've found the people at the store to be good about not pushing the high end items but helping us to select instruments that have growth potential without being priced out of our budget.
Have fun