I have been playing electric bass since the early Reagan years.  My high school buddy gave me his pawn shop bass after he totally destroyed a truly awful acoustic guitar of mine by backing over it with his car- I still use that bass, because it’s way, way better than that crummy guitar.  I’ve used it in a few bands over the years, and use finger, thumb or a pick depending on what the music needs (each of these techniques brings out a different musical feel and tone).  I can teach you to do the same. 

If you’ve heard that bass is easier than guitar, that’s partly true, some of the time.  Other times it’s not true at all.  Skills are needed, such as a highly developed sense of rhythm and form, things most musicians need more of.  That said, if you can play any other string instrument it will likely be easy for you to start playing some simple things on the bass.  It’s great for any musician to know how bass lines are built.  I like to start easy with The Ramones and go from there.  There is a lot to know from there.

This bass has many-years-old flatwound strings (they start out round but get ground smooth in the manufacturing process) on it- they give it a thumpy, heavy sound as opposed to a bright brassy sound.  Some players like newer, brighter-sounding roundwound strings...some don’t.  I got the idea to try these strings from James Jamerson- the guy on virtually all of the Motown recordings.  He’s credited with using the same set of strings daily in long sessions for years on end to get this effect.  It almost sounds like an upright bass. Super bottom-heavy and full sounding.  And yes, that’s black spray paint on a 1970’s copy of a Fender Precision bass.