I've got a bass, I want to play it, but I know diddly squat?

Question:A dude gave me bass/amp for excavating his yard. I want to play it because it sounds cool and is supposed to be fairly easy to start off on as an instrument.
I've got books, I've got online tutorials, and I managed to wrangle a smart man into giving me some pointers next week, I want to make the most of this opportunity, so can yall give me the absolute beginner pointers?
Common mistakes?
tips and tricks?
Links to a glossary of common terms?
When I think of playing a bass, I think "okay, I look at the paper, and it says to play a E, so I pluck the E string and call it good."
Is that all there is to it?
what the hell is a scale?
do I need to learn chords?
are tabs lame? should I just skip straight to learning sheet music?
Thanks to any and all who answer :D

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: A dude gave me bass/amp for excavating his yard. I want to play it because it sounds cool and is supposed to be fairly easy to start off on as an instrument.
I've got books, I've got online tutorials, and I managed to wrangle a smart man into giving me some pointers next week, I want to make the most of this opportunity, so can yall give me the absolute beginner pointers?
Common mistakes?
tips and tricks?
Links to a glossary of common terms?
When I think of playing a bass, I think "okay, I look at the paper, and it says to play a E, so I pluck the E string and call it good."
Is that all there is to it?
what the hell is a scale?
do I need to learn chords?
are tabs lame? should I just skip straight to learning sheet music?
Thanks to any and all who answer :D

Be ready, Bass is extremly har don your hand. More so than guitars. You wont be able to play very long or har duntil you relly get used to it.
I cant help much as I dont play bass myself, id love to but I just havent had the chance.
there various ways of playing it. Like plucking the string up, or hitting it with the knuckle of your thumb. The man will be able to help you with simple things liek that.
Theres a bit more than just hitting one string but your off to a start.
A scale is a series of note, usually an octive. You know, C D E F G A B C.
you'll need to learn chords, you'll start memorizing them even if your not specfically trying to.
And i personally love tabs. They are alot easier to read than sheet music, and alot more readily avalible. Yes there are bad things about them but it really pays to use them. But learn sheet music as well.
Hope i helped.. its not much but good luck!

books are always cool to have but maybe a few lessons at a local music shop might get you started on a good foot, theres alot more to it than plucking the e string, knowing where the notes are on the fret board is very helpful especially if u ever have a jam sess with other musicians, i would learn key signatures, a scale is a group or series i gues of notes that all sound like they belong together. learn how to build chords theory wise, tabs are very useful especially in musical pieces in different tunings like drop d, but knowing how to read sheet music will make you a well rounded position, i dunno if you use a pick or not but make sure you learn fingerstyle aswell

later

You've already received good advice. Here's a gift. Enjoy.
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Haha CGIV76 always giving yahoo links. I have nothing against it I just find it funny. Your avatar made me remember you O_o!

I forgot what everyone else already said to be honest. A scale is basically a set of notes, often with different positions that need to be memorized and then these positions get moved etc depending on the root note. Don't read the above sentence, rofl. Anyways bass players need to know a lot less chords than guitarists. Tabs are definitely not lame. Many songs that you will want to learn will have easy to find tablature, but sheet music will be near impossible to find. Unless of course you pay for it, use guitar pro, or us power tab (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ theres bass stuff there too).

"tips and tricks?"

Make sure you put in the time playing. Books and videos can help, but you really should think in terms of putting in about an hour a day. Try and find people to play with as soon as you can. You don't have to be brilliant, but you learn a lot quicker when you can use what you've learned in a practical context.

"When I think of playing a bass, I think "okay, I look at the paper, and it says to play a E, so I pluck the E string and call it good."
Is that all there is to it?"

At its simplest, yes. But that gets dull really quickly.

"do I need to learn chords?"

Sort of. You probably won't ever use chords in the same way as a guitarist does (ie playing all the notes in the chord at the same time), but you will need to know the notes that comprise the chords. That's so you can come up with bass lines that harmonize with the rest of the players.

"are tabs lame? should I just skip straight to learning sheet music?"

Sheet music is better, but a lot of people use tabs. A lot of the tabs you can find on the net aren't very accurate.And a lot of sheet music is wrong too. :P