bass guitar

i just bought a bass a few months ago, ive taken a few lessons and im pretty good at it. Anyone else use one for production? Ive added some bass to a few tracks and it sounds good but the sound i get from deep bass samples seems to be a bit better. those that use a bass guitar im wondering if they put any effects or do anything to make it sound better?
im just putting it right into my mixing board to pc.

Mixing bass is pretty hard. I'm far from a pro, but what I usually do is that I use EQ to cut below 25-35 (depending on the sound used) to get rid of excess rumble, then I compress it (lightly) to make sure it sits better in the mix. After that I touch it up a bit my cutting away at some of the higher frequencies as well.

try using a compressor and mess with the settings. you might get a good sound from that. i guess what u wanna do is eq it up real nice. im sure they use a small amount of reverb on it (maybe.. )

just make sure you play the notes really clean and mistake free so you wont have to work around any unwanted tones or messups. not too familiar with bass guitars. if your using c.e.p. try using some of the compressors or gates that have for guitars. that may help the sound a bit.

Most bassguitar samples are sampled with a mic and an amp.
~If you have a soundcard with very low latency you can use a software amp simulator instead. Something like AmpliTube or Steinberg Warp.
If you need hardware and don't feel like spending a fortune on pre-amps, amps and speakers, try this:
http://www.v-amp.com/LX1-B/index.cfm

I'm not a bassplayer myself, but my dad plays the bass and i've seen him record a lot.

First piece of gear you have to cop if you want record good basslines is a good préamp. Try to afford a tube one if you go digital... You may have saveral comp-soft, but a stripe channel will good!

Peace!