You could check out Fretboard Roadmaps Bass by Fred Sokolow and Tim Emmons. It'll take you through the basic shapes on the fretboard, and introduce you to a bunch of bass cliches that are good to know.

If you don't already have a bass... well, why not?. You might check out the Ibanez Gio MiKro. It's a short-scale bass, so it's smaller, lighter, and easier to play. Plus, it's a lot of fun to play, which is pretty important. Not the greatest tuners, but not terrible.

And don't get one of those tiny, tinny amps. The difference between playing a bass through a cheap guitar amp and a decent bass amp is night and day. When I finally got my son a real bass amp, I regretted not getting it much, much sooner. It's much more fun to play a bass that's got real low end.

The Fender Rumble amp sounds nice and importantly doesn't weight a ton.

The bass is primarily a supporting instrument. If people don't notice it, it's probably doing it's job right. Root and fifth is often enough - getting too fancy on the low end just makes things muddy. Groove with the kick drum, and let other instruments take the lead. There are only a few places where the bass needs to be noticed during a song. Like lead guitar, I think it's more about keeping a feel than particular notes.

If you were a bit more specific about where you were having issues, that would be helpful.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?