Cheap bass

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dopps
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When buying a guitar or bass, I need to feel it in my hands. The way a guitar feels and plays is very important - and there is no way you can get that on ebay.

Candidly, I don't trust many people, but e-commerce is now a way of life, and many people who sell on ebay do want and need a clean record (although I'm sure there are con artists looking for a mark).

I've bought a few things on ebay, with no problems. I likely will soon be a seller on ebay (I'm moving in the near future and this seems like a good time to clean house on some stuff) I just don't know what I want to get rid of yet! (mainly some rack effects, sound modules and some dynamic mics) As a seller, I will want to have satisfied buyers - to generate good feedback which will hopefully attract other buyers.

That all being said. I'm willing to buy some rack gear on ebay, or cables, etc. etc maybe even a mic - but I would always buy a guitar locally, so I can actually play it before I buy it.
 
That may be one of my unnegotiable quirks, although I buy mics based on reviews, many of which I find online. At least microphones can be compared to one another. Last year I saw a chart purporting to compare a great many mics based on such criteria as "warmth", "airiness" and other rather slippery adjectives. Even so, it was useful, because if you own a mic you know is colored in a certain direction, you can then reliably discover another that is colored in the opposite, or at least a different, direction. As long as you are aware that there are no uncolored mics, I guess you can do all right. But microphones, as a class, are versatile in a way instruments are not: a mic that is unsuitable, for example, for a female soprano might be just the thing for bongo drums. A bass, however, is a voice, at least in my opinion. I play better bass when the instrument in my hands speaks my particular language, and I don't think my experience is unique. I just spent a week recording an acoustic duo in the Austin area and the two persons involved used very different standards for picking out their axes: one, my stepson, HAS TO HAVE a certain shape of neck to be happy; the other is a Tone King kind of guy who will put up with a lot as long as he gets his sound. In fact, he played a Gibson J45 and a 1933 metal body National biscuit bridge and either one would bring tears to your eyes [always assuming that they had YOUR tone]. They had crappy action, heavy strings and -- to the unitiated -- ugly finishes, but in his hands they didn't just speak, they testified! Guitars to suit either one of these will not be found on the internet, except by the wildest of coincidences. I confess that I bought Seymour Duncan min-humbuckers for my Les Paul DeLuxe without listening to them first, but I took advantage of SD's website with sound samples of each pickup. Not that I would have balked at returning them had I been disappointed....
 
Oh man I've really been wondering about those Rondo SX basses...I looked on Harmony Central and the reviews are great for a bass that's even cheaper than a Squier. Of course the reviews could all be from the company owner's family for all I know.

Similar to the topic author, I need a bass to simply provide some low end for home recordings. As long as it produces low tones, I'm not too worried about having an excellent bass, just something that gets by. The SX line looks pretty tempting. Anybody here played one?
 
I had a SX Jazz; it was pretty nice looked good and sound like a jazz. Played pretty good.
 
I bought a $100 Rogue bass from Musicians Friend(excellent etailer). The electronics were a little noisey. If the volume is at 0.5 it sounds fine. The neck is great. All of the frets are set and dressed really well. The action is good too. I can play as fast on it as I can on my Les Paul Studio(my max speed=Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley).
 
in the sub $200 basses, look at Peavey and Yamaha first......

after that, Ibanez and Fender.....

I have a Fender Squier Affinity that i picked up for $119 (i think) and its decent enuff......the salesman was more willing to deal on the Fender than the Yamaha that i was looking at so i went with the Fender.....in hindsight i rathered the Yamaha and should have paid the extra $$$$.......but im still satisfied......
 
I've bought a 1980 Peavey T-40 bass with OHSC on eBay for $200 that I've been extremely happy with.

As far as a NEW budget or entry level bass, I hear good things about OLP. They're made in China, licensed by Music Man. You can get the 4-string at Musician's Friend for $200 or the 5-string for $230. Guitar Center also stocks them sometimes, so if there's one in your area, you could go and try one. Loads of reviews to read at http://www.harmony-central.com/User_Reviews/
 
I was in the same boat a while back. I bought a SX Jazz Bass from Rondo. I was really impressed with the guitar-- for the price, I doubt you could do much better. However, I haven't enjoyed recording with it. The pickups are total crap (which-- based on the price-- is to be expected). They produce a transient with every note (I use a pick) that sounds almost like a click. You can see these in the waveform after you record. Most people probably wouldn't hear it in the mix, but I can so I haven't been using it. I plan on getting some decent pickups for the bass but there are too many other things on my "to buy" list right now.

So that's my long-winded way of saying, if you are going to get an SX bass, make sure you have room in your budget for a set of replacement pickups. Other than that, I have no complaints about my SX bass. But, I'm a guitarist... so what do I know?
 
in the sub $200 basses, look at Peavey and Yamaha first......
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Definitely. I got a new Yamaha bass for $179, plays great, records great. No more noise than I'd expect out of any passive single coil pickups.
 
lpdeluxe said:
That may be one of my unnegotiable quirks
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Fair enough. I don't disagree especially for expensive instruments. But for cheap ones, once you know the brand . . . ah, what's the difference. Well, anyway, a good range of opinions here.
 
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