Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

[Stratosphere]

I'm looking for an inexpensive bass guitar mainly to make home recordings with - preferably a Jazz bass clone or similar. I've found a few options out there - Squier, SX, and MIM Fender (used). Any thoughts on these options? I'd guess the MIM Fender would hold it's value better. I played a "vintage modified" Squier Jazz Bass and found it quite decent - but the body is made of maple which seems unusual.

 

[NUNOSLASH]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

You wanna play Stratovarius with it?

 

[phil_104]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

I would wait out for a deal on a used MIM Jazz.

 

[Sordid Tales]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

for the money, SX just cannot be beat. For the price of a used MIM or higher end squier, you can throw new PUPs in the SX and still have a full wallet.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

I have a Kramer Focus bass (a guitar, too).

Japan-made by ESP. Good to great hardware. Usable pickups. Standard pickup dimensions. Real wood etc.

 

[Fender_Punk]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

Only the VM '70s Squier Jazz Bass has a maple body, the '60s Classic Vibe is basswood and the Chinese made Affinitys (one of which I own) uses alder (and on mine really nice rosewood board and pearl dots).

I'd go with a used MIM if you can, and otherwise settle on a Classic Vibe or Affinity Squier (oddly all Squier Standard J Basses are agathis bodies while the Affinitys are alder if from China, agathis if from Indonesia). I've never tried the SX basses so I can't speak to them, but they look fairly appealing, especially for the price, so if price is a big deal I'd try one of those.

 

[ex-250]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

i love my SX, play it a good deal more than my much-more-expensive spector

 

[d1dsj]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

G&L Tribute J bass... excellent.

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

I found my MIM J-Bass at a pawn shop for around $350, IIRC. There are deals out there.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

The new Squier Vintage Vibe series basses feel amazing to me... super great necks and sound good...

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

For real inexpensive while yet really good-for-the-price I found Smash (by Swing) to be great basses for the price (basically Smash is Swing's Squier):

SMASH JB-1 Lite
- Chinese Ash body, Canadian Hard Maple neck, Rosewood or Bubinga Fingerboard. What's not to like?

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

I bought my son an SX short-scale Jazz Bass, expecting to replace the pickups, but it's fine the way it is. $109 - what's to lose?

I recommend the lake placid blue one like the they currently have on their opening web page. Purdy.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

MIM Jazz Bass. They work right out of the box. The Ibanez SB series basses are decent, too.

 

[jalguitarman]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

I have a MIM active deluxe jazz bass that is sweet. I paid
$699.00 for it and theymay ahve gone up in price but find a good one used. Mine is super resonant and has awesome sustain.

 

[Spudman]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

What do you want to spend? That's always a good place to start.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

For real inexpensive while yet really good-for-the-price I found Smash (by Swing) to be great basses for the price (basically Smash is Swing's Squier):

SMASH JB-1 Lite
- Chinese Ash body, Canadian Hard Maple neck, Rosewood or Bubinga Fingerboard. What's not to like?

Swing´s squier?? LOL? I dunno, but when I look at and play Swings I can´t knock the feeling that they´re already only minimally better than a good Squier... esp. when I play the FR models (Gon, K-1, Exciter...) as they use the cheapest Schaller Copy tee market has to offer and it shows both in tone and tuning stability.

Maybe they´d be better with a bit better hardware, but for me considering them to have "their own Squier" just makes me cringe right now :blindfold

 

[fenderbass6]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

Swing´s squier?? LOL? I dunno, but when I look at and play Swings I can´t knock the feeling that they´re already only minimally better than a good Squier... esp. when I play the FR models (Gon, K-1, Exciter...) as they use the cheapest Schaller Copy tee market has to offer and it shows both in tone and tuning stability.

Maybe they´d be better with a bit better hardware, but for me considering them to have "their own Squier" just makes me cringe right now :blindfold

He said basically..
No need to cringe.

 

[andrizzle]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

I have a MIM Fender Jazz Bass (5 string version) and I really love it... came ready to play and the noiseless pups on it sound really good! The action's a little high, but that keeps me working... and of course could be fixed if I put some effort into it

 

[Stratosphere]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

Thanks everyone for your input. I think I'm leaning towards the MIM Fender, after playing a couple in shops around here. It looks like they can be found used in the $250 to $350 range, which seems reasonable.

Is there an issue with these regarding the pickup replacement? (Like the pickups being a weird size or something...it this different for different years?) I thought I remember seeing something about that. I'd like to put in Duncan noiseless at some point so it would be good to know if they will fit.

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Shopping for a cheap but decent bass guitar

Swing´s squier?? LOL? I dunno, but when I look at and play Swings I can´t knock the feeling that they´re already only minimally better than a good Squier... esp. when I play the FR models (Gon, K-1, Exciter...) as they use the cheapest Schaller Copy tee market has to offer and it shows both in tone and tuning stability.

Maybe they´d be better with a bit better hardware, but for me considering them to have "their own Squier" just makes me cringe right now :blindfold

This is my guitar, the Swing EZ-10 (notice how it looks nothing like the one on their site?)
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/9929/dsc00010os3.jpg
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5094/dsc00016qi5.jpg

Thing is, my guitar came with THE worst Floyd copy (a Schaller copy like you noticed) and real crappy electronics but for THE lowest price I could ever imagine a neck-thru floyd guitar could EVER go for. What's even funnier is that bad hardware aside (and it had a pretty decent set of tuners and locking nut) the wood and woodwork were pretty darn good so upgrading it didn't feel like polishing a turd (quite the opposite really, I bought it with the intention of upgrading it from the very beginning).

Now, while I DO agree that the floyd models that as sold out of Korea aren't the best (in Korea the K-100 comes with an OFR and SDs stock) they're FAR from what they can really do. Check some guitars like the Swing Standard, the Prism or the Swing Deluxe. All of them are KICK@SS guitars with premium parts (SDs, Wilkinsons, Sperzels Gotohs, L.R. Baggs etc) that could easily kill MIA Fenders but at a cost at about what MiMs sell for today (i.e. a little more than what they did before the price hike).