I coleague of mine, years ago (2004) heard I was collecting music instruments and was wandering if I'd like to buy his right handed bass (Ibanez EDB 400) with training amp (Hartke B30). I tried to play a bit on it, but it was to frustrating that I couldn't get a kinda normal sound out off it. I stored it and a few months back I was cleaning out and tried it again. Still terrible, but found vids online on playing technique, muting (that irritated me most, now knowing hot to keep the rest of the strings quiet) and most importantly, one from bassbuzz on how to setup a bass.
Walking trough the setup helped me as well, truss-rod was to straight and the strings were way to high, so I just couldn't get notes out of the bass. Now it's setup (probably not perfect, but working for me) I'm having fun with the bass and I'm messing about with it, doing scales and trying to be able to play them consistently without breaking fingers.
I just ordered some extra's, like a strap (long upper arms, when sitting the bass seems to high positioned to play comfortably), tuner, capo, 5 guitar stand and probably my biggest mistake as starter, a fretless Fazley FMN218NT-FL. It's dirt cheap, but I'm curious if I can get it to help me with positioning my fingers better (and at this prize, it can be moved on without to much of a hit). Reviews showed that it needs a setup to be useful. I can't wait. (it'll arrive tomorrow when all goes well)