Learning to play bass guitar - any thoughts?

There’s a lot of good advice here on buying the instrument. I’ll just join the in to say get your hands on a bunch of different ones & see what feels good. If you can, speak to an experienced bass player or teacher & get their input. Make sure you’re not missing the simple stuff with regards to how you hold your bass and position your fingers. I’m a pretty tall guy-6’2"-and I’ve never been crazy about fender Jazz or P’s (I’m a Spector guy) either.

I will take a moment to mention the other part of your linked all-in-one deal though, the amp. Presumably, you have an idea of what kind of music you want to play and the folks you want to play with. Your amp needs will certainly be shaped by that, but you will want to be able to hear yourself when practicing at home. Unlike a guitar, an unplugged electric bass is not something you are going to be able to listen to properly. So, as a long time player I’ll give you a bit of advice that I follow to this day. Get yourself a small, cheap, crappy practice amp for home. Why small? Why crappy? You’ll plug your bass into that tiny 15 watt disaster and cringe at how bad a bass can sound through it. You’ll tweak all three of the eq knobs and futz with the gain and…

…you’ll really pay attention to your technique. Every buzzed note will sound ten times as bad through a crappy amp, so you’ll learn to buzz less notes. The string noise your fingers make sliding across the neck will kill your ears, so you’ll start to finger your notes more cleanly. It’ll help you stabalize your right hand attack (pick or no) and you’ll soon find that when you start to sound good through a terrible amp, you’ll sound even better when you get your hands on a nice amp. I have amps to spare, but my home practice amp is one I found that someone was throwing away.

So…shop around and find a bass you really like. Then get your hands on a tiny amp that you will learn to hate.

You might look for inspiration from this highly talented/petite female bass player: Tal Wilkenfeld.

I tried bass for a little while, but it didn’t really suit me. I apparently can’t live without harmony, so I went back to the piano.

Anyway, I picked up a Yamaha RBX170. It only cost about $180 or so, but a bass player friend of mine checked it out and said it was a very well made instrument. I got it mail order from Elderly Instruments, because I knew they’d set it up right before sending it out.