So the new toys arrived

I had the bass, amp, and other related goodies delivered to work and they showed up yesterday.  Was a bit of a struggle to get it out to my car (though I had plenty of offers of help from my buddies at work) and then carry it into my apartment, but I got it done.  Lugging a 70lb amp with a herniated disc is probably not a great idea, but I think I'm far enough along in recovery that it shouldn't have done any damage.

The bass itself is pretty sharp looking, it actually looks sweeter than the picture online.  I'm not a big fan of how pick guards look, but its a noob bass so I'll deal.  The way they did the package deal was the bass itself is considered a "scratch and dent" item, so in other words there's some kind of cosmetic damage to it.  So when I had a chance yesterday I opened it up and checked it out.  Neck nice and straight, chrome nice and shiny...but wait, alas I found the cosmetic damage.  A 2" scratch.  On the back.  Pfft.  The front of it looks beautiful so I think I can deal with the little scratch that no one will see anyway.

I did a little errand running right away then got back and had everything set up and functional by about 6:30.  Know what?  I suck lol.  But yeah, to be expected.  There was an instructional dvd with the package so I popped that in, and it helped a bit.  Got reacquainted with a scale or two and have just been playing those over and over.  Fun things with scales is you can make up about any rhythm pattern you want.  Whats nice too is that it forces you to use all 4 fingers on your left hand and helps get used to strumming with 2 fingers on the right.  So I played for almost 2 hours last night, or in other words until my left hand was knotted up, and gave it a rest.  I got up early this morning and spent another 45 minutes playing until I felt I really needed a rest.  I know it probably sounds silly, but even just a little I can feel it coming back.  What seemed damn near impossible last night when I first started has become a bit easier, so its progress.

The guy in the dvd was doing a good job right up until the end, when he just started fucking showing off.  Yeah yeah, I get it...you're good.  I already feel inadequate, I don't need help!

So I'm going to do a little online digging around today and find more scales (its amazing what you forget) and get to practicing those.  Basics, basics, basics.  Plus keep in mind I want to re-learn to play the instrument, not just learn how to play "song X".  I also want to get a set of headphones to plug into the amp, but the Best Buy closest to me didn't have any so it will have to wait.  Besides, the people upstairs have been getting noisy again...time for payback. :)