YOUR QUESTION:

09/06/2019 7:32:32 Dad of many.

Hey Trevor,
Thanks for all of the music you have created, please know it has brought much joy to me over the years, and I remain an enthusiastic supporter of your works whenever possible. As a parent, two of my boys are currently enjoying the process of learning to play music, one is expressing interest in bass. What should I look for in terms of good starter basses for a kid?

BTW playing "My ass is on fire" to a 10 year old probably not in the textbook of recommended listening for most, at least if one chooses content using a 'commonsense media' type approach, but I've never seen the spark of joyful mischief ignited in a kid more quickly than hearing: "Don't you fucken look at me!" over and over followed by heavy guitar, drums and bass. Your work lives and continues to inspire, so thanks for that!

MY ANSWER:

Thanks so much for these kind words and I’m very happy to hear that my weirdness is getting handed down to the next generation. I remember my first bass lesson when my teacher called me a “bad ass”. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard and it filled me with inspiration. Also, if I had understood half the Kiss, Cheap Trick or Blondie lyrics I was being fed as a teenager it would have only encouraged me further.

You might want to look into a medium scale bass. New Mustangs aren’t insanely expensive and for a smaller person the fit might be better. That said, it doesn’t really matter. I started on something called a Hondo II and played that for a good 5 years before getting something that had a nice tone. All you really need is a fingerboard and some strings.