I've now got my "Perfect Bass" which cost peanuts!

[ThomBassmonkey]

Prices are odd, there seems to be various budgets that all have their own criteria for what makes them good. People talk about the current runs of Squiers being as good as their £1000+ bass, but I bet if the Squier's RRP was £1200, no one would buy them (even re-branded so they don't have the Squier stigma).

It's just a fact that basses made with a £400 price tag can easily have the QC to make them fine players, that doesn't make them "as good" as pricier instruments. I play Warwick and Sandberg, I could've saved myself a fortune by just getting a Rockbass and Squier Deluxe Jazz 5. I could've bought them new for a fraction of the price and ended up with nearly identical basses. I think I made the right choice.

[dbass]

You did Thom,

Also - What was the Sandy like at the gig mate??

[ThomBassmonkey]

[quote name='dbass' post='1062268' date='Dec 18 2010, 09:29 AM']You did Thom,

Also - What was the Sandy like at the gig mate??[/quote]

Battery died. 2 second fix though and it sounded awesome, really good player and I know I made the right choice. Can't wait to hear it tonight at the Bell.

[David Nimrod]

My Ibanez SR1000 neck thru is a beautiful bass...

It's just that it seems a little too polite at times

[Vibrating G String]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1062259' date='Dec 18 2010, 01:22 AM']Prices are odd, there seems to be various budgets that all have their own criteria for what makes them good. People talk about the current runs of Squiers being as good as their £1000+ bass, but I bet if the Squier's RRP was £1200, no one would buy them (even re-branded so they don't have the Squier stigma).[/quote]
Rebrand it Lakland Skyline and people would

One thing I do find is often better on expensive basses is the setup and fretwork (though not always). My OLP with a fret plane and refret plays as well as any bass I've owned but it was hideous before the work. I feel a setup and fretwork are the main component of what makes a bass play well to me. Much more so than rare hand selected rainforest woods or handmade LED's.

[Delberthot]

I went through 3 or 4 Rickenbackers, 2 Warwicks, about a dozen Stingray 4 & 5 strings, Modulus Flea bass and a whole bunch of other relatively expensive stuff before I realised that none of these basses made me any happier or improved my playing. In fact, some were terrible and my 20th and 30th Anniversary Stingrays never left the house as I was too scared of damaging them, careful as I am.

I'm loving my Thunderbird and have been happy with it for a long time now. it cost me just over £200 including gig bag, new pickups and Hipshot Supertone bridge. I found it remarkably simple to set it up to my liking and the roto flats were the icing on the cake.

I look after my equipment extremely well but the odd bump against my music stand or whatever doesn't phase me in the slightest as I know that it wasn;t expensive and could be replaced cheaply enough if anything were to happen to it.

I'm happy in the knowledge that I have 3 different basses that i could confidently take to any gig and their combined cost was just over £400

[thebrig]

[quote name='Delberthot' post='1063388' date='Dec 19 2010, 11:44 AM']I went through 3 or 4 Rickenbackers, 2 Warwicks, about a dozen Stingray 4 & 5 strings, Modulus Flea bass and a whole bunch of other relatively expensive stuff before I realised that none of these basses made me any happier or improved my playing. In fact, some were terrible and my 20th and 30th Anniversary Stingrays never left the house as I was too scared of damaging them, careful as I am.

I'm loving my Thunderbird and have been happy with it for a long time now. it cost me just over £200 including gig bag, new pickups and Hipshot Supertone bridge. I found it remarkably simple to set it up to my liking and the roto flats were the icing on the cake.

I look after my equipment extremely well but the odd bump against my music stand or whatever doesn't phase me in the slightest as I know that it wasn;t expensive and could be replaced cheaply enough if anything were to happen to it.

I'm happy in the knowledge that I have 3 different basses that i could confidently take to any gig and their combined cost was just over £400[/quote]
You sum up perfectly the point I was trying to make, when I started this thread

[JamieBenzies]

My SR1006 is my baby. My other two bases lie in a mottled state of disrepair in the shadow of that beast. Good basses

[Pliskin]

I can't offer my experience with bass guitars really as I've only owned three; a Squire P-bass, Epiphone Thunderbird (both a few years ago when, as a guitarist I began to dabble with bass) and my current bass a '94 Warwick Thumb BO which I bought in January when I started playing 'properly'. I hated the P and the thunderbird and only ever played them when I needed to record something. The Warwick on the other hand changed me, I'm at a point now where I am starting to see myself as a bassist rather than just a guitarist who puts on a different hat once in a while. I'm not under any illusion that this is down to how much the Warwick cost but the thumb definitely has (for me) something the others didn't. It is right for me.

On the other side of this, my Tokai love rock plays and sounds as good as any Les Paul I've tried and cost a fraction of the price!

[Krysbass]

I recently bought an Ibanez SR600 and it ticks all the boxes for me for sound, versatility, playing comfort, looks and price. But I didn’t arrive at this after sampling any bass exotica – in fact, it’s only the 5th in a line of low or mid-priced basses I’ve owned since I started playing in 1982 – and I still own the 3rd and 4th of those basses.

Having played for so long, I’m a reasonably solid player and in those circumstances I guess many people could justify investing in something "reassuringly expensive". And I GAS over high-end basses as much as anyone, but if I actually owned one I’d be afraid to take it out of the house to a gig or rehearsal in case it was stolen or damaged. I can’t just see a bass as a tool and ignore whatever scars the instrument may pick up along the way – I’d lose sleep over stuff like that and insurance companies would love me, as I'd rarely trouble their claims department!

I’d get so hung up on an expensive bass’s value that I’d even be afraid to play the thing with a degree of enthusiasm that might scratch the finish or damage it in some way – so it would probably hinder my playing.

So, for me the Ibanez SR600 sits at a price point and a level of ubiquity where if something happened to it, it shouldn’t be a major problem to have it repaired or replaced. Besides; I’m not a professional player and short of coming into a substantial financial windfall, I’d find it hard to justify spending £1000+ on a bass, so as I’ve said; the SR600 does the job on many levels yet doesn’t cost a fortune.

[Delberthot]

Another point I'd like to make is that a few years ago I had a job where I had access to three different works vans and occasionally hired one for long distance gigs. At first I found it hard to get used to going from my car to the one of the vans and then back again. As I did it more and more, the more I got used to it and the transition became almost seamless from one to the other.

I am of the opinion that I am now the same with basses. I've owned that many that I can now pick up any bass and make it my own: as long as it can be adjusted, it can be gigged and I'm having a lot of fun playing a few different basses as opposed to having the GAS pangs that I used to - the chase, the find, the guilt, the sale, the end.

[TimR]

Funny enough I spent about 7 years looking for my bass. I didn't buy any others because I couldn't find the right one.

I enough saved from gigs to go to about £2k but couldn't find anything at all that spoke to me.

Ibanez SR400 for me £499. The only criticism is that it IS a cheap bass. It sounds great, the neck is good, the pickups are great. The bridge is a pain when you change strings. The machineheads aren't great and I replaced the whole lot of them like for like after one sheared off (at a gig!).

I'm not changing it - overall it's a great bass.

[thepurpleblob]

My greatest revelation was finding that expensive, boutique basses are cr*p. Well, they aren't good at anything I care about.

I variously play a rather rough MIJ Precision, which sounds brilliant and a nice Stingray which, if I'm honest with myself, probably isn't as good as the Precision but looks a lot better. Anything more expensive that I have tried just sounds rubbish.