mikejones1732 Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Hi all, I'll start with a confession - I'm really a guitarist. But I'm hoping you can forgive me for that, and offer a bit of expert advice. I'm starting to do a lot of home recording, and I need something to replace my very cheap, poor quality Precision copy. The reasons I dont like it are: it sounds crap it takes me too long to adjust to the long scale So, I'm looking for a decent quality short scale bass. I've got around £250 - £300 to spend (I'm assuming I'll be buying 2nd hand). As it will be used for recording, a good quality sound is the most important thing (although a range of usable sounds would be nice, obviously). It will mainly be used for rock music. There was recently an Ibanez ARTB100 on Ebay at £200. And there is currently a Hagstrom HB4 at £295. Anyone got an opinion on these? Are these the kind of basses I should be looking at for my needs? Has anyone got any advice/recommendations/suggestions etc? Any help would be much appreciated. Many thanks Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 When I was working in guitar shops, I found the Squier Bronco to be a surprisingly satisfying little bass. You can pick a new one up for about £150! The Squier Vintage Modified Mustang is fairly new I think but it looks like they go for about £250. The Danelectro 56 had a favourable review in BGM recently, and I think they're going for about £250 too. I've tried a couple of Epiphone EB's before, but they always seem to be poorly put together and badly set up, although of course I might have just been unlucky! I don't think your budget is quite enough for a vintage Fender Mustang but it might be worth a look. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime_BASS Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 [quote name='TRBboy' post='1296358' date='Jul 7 2011, 08:00 PM']When I was working in guitar shops, I found the Squier Bronco to be a surprisingly satisfying little bass. You can pick a new one up for about £150! The Squier Vintage Modified Mustang is fairly new I think but it looks like they go for about £250. The Danelectro 56 had a favourable review in BGM recently, and I think they're going for about £250 too. I've tried a couple of Epiphone EB's before, but they always seem to be poorly put together and badly set up, although of course I might have just been unlucky! I don't think your budget is quite enough for a vintage Fender Mustang but it might be worth a look. Hope this helps.[/quote] About the vintage fender mustang: I've seen some go for below £200 but this was before people started putting premiums on them cause they are old. Old doesn't equal good but does equal high price tag to some. The best short-scale bass I've owned is the jack Cassidy signature by epiphone. Fantastic sounding bass, very precision esque, warm and woody and the varitone is interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I tried a squier Vintage Modified Jaguar short scale bass recently and I wouldn't hesitate to use one live (I usually use a Fender Mustang). You can pick one up for £190 which is fantastic value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 [quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1296398' date='Jul 7 2011, 08:28 PM']About the vintage fender mustang: I've seen some go for below £200 but this was before people started putting premiums on them cause they are old. Old doesn't equal good but does equal high price tag to some. The best short-scale bass I've owned is the jack Cassidy signature by epiphone. Fantastic sounding bass, very precision esque, warm and woody and the varitone is interesting.[/quote] The Jack Casady Signature bass isn't short scale though... [url="http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=116&CollectionID=12"]http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?Produc...CollectionID=12[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 [quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1296398' date='Jul 7 2011, 08:28 PM']About the vintage fender mustang: I've seen some go for below £200 but this was before people started putting premiums on them cause they are old. Old doesn't equal good but does equal high price tag to some. The best short-scale bass I've owned is the jack Cassidy signature by epiphone. Fantastic sounding bass, very precision esque, warm and woody and the varitone is interesting.[/quote] The Jack Casady Signature bass isn't short scale though... [url="http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=116&CollectionID=12"]http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?Produc...CollectionID=12[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejones1732 Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 Thanks for the suggestions so far. I must say, I hadnt really considered buying new, but I think I'll visit a few shops to check out the Squiers. Can I just ask (and sorry if this makes me sound like a snob) but how good are Squier basses? As a guitarist, I equate Squier with cheap components and poor workmanship - basic, entry level stuff. They are usually badly let down by their pickups. Is this the case with basses, or are they of a better standard? I suppose another way to ask the question is - I have a budget of £250/£300. Am I still in 'entry level' territory, or should this kind of money get me something a bit better than that. Thanks again to all who have taken the time to reply - much appreciated. Cheers Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 If you don't like the pickups on a squier, you can replace them & still be within budget. I wouldnt need to though as the tone when I tried the jaguar sounded great to my ears even with the stock strings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LemonCello Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Hi Mike, I played an Epiphone Allen Woody Rumblekat not so long ago. Really impressed with it. They were circa £350 new so there should be a few good used examples for £200 or less. LC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davout Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 My brother, who plays bass in my band, went over to a short/medium scale ? bass a couple of years ago. He first tried the Epi EBO, & not quite happy with that, he found the Tokai SG bass. He was so happy with that, that he has even bought a second one as a spare. It is the Tokai equivalent of the famed Gibson EB3 (two pickup model) & I believe it has a 30" scale. I think they are around £399 brandnew, but he managed to get both of his second hand off Ebay for considerably less. It is quite a versatile bass & has rather lightweight modern tuners, rather than the large weighty elephant ear variety on the Epis & Gibsons. This helps to lessen the head-heavy tipping action so common with SG style instruments. Tokais seem to have a bit more quality finishing & precision than the usual budget equivalents. He also has an Epi Viola bass which is a nice cheap & cheerful very lightweight option for a couple of hundred quid, which he uses for home practise. Tony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 [quote name='mikejones1732' post='1296621' date='Jul 7 2011, 11:30 PM']Thanks for the suggestions so far. I must say, I hadnt really considered buying new, but I think I'll visit a few shops to check out the Squiers. Can I just ask (and sorry if this makes me sound like a snob) but how good are Squier basses? As a guitarist, I equate Squier with cheap components and poor workmanship - basic, entry level stuff. They are usually badly let down by their pickups. Is this the case with basses, or are they of a better standard? I suppose another way to ask the question is - I have a budget of £250/£300. Am I still in 'entry level' territory, or should this kind of money get me something a bit better than that. Thanks again to all who have taken the time to reply - much appreciated. Cheers Mike[/quote] These days the Squier stuff is pretty good. The only thing to look out for is quality control. The modern computer aided manufacturing processes used today mean there is little difference between the cheapest basses and some top brand stuff! The real difference comes in the finishing and its all down to the amount of 'human' time spent. A well known brand bass will have a good hour or so spent on snagging (filing down protruding frets, set-up, testing, cleaning up etc.) At the lower end you'll be lucky to get 5 minutes spent on them, but prior to that the production techniques are largely the same. You can pick up a pretty good bass for not much money with the Squiers and Epiphones etc. that are made in the Far east. You might have to spend a bit of time setting it up properly (or get your local luthier to do it) and if you use it a lot you'll probably want to invest in upgrading it. But for home recording a Squier Jaguar will give you a good range of tones and once set-up will be pretty good to play. I bought a Squier Jazz bass a little while ago and after I had it set up by Bernie Goodfellow its now my main bass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wylie Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 [quote name='brensabre79' post='1297445' date='Jul 8 2011, 12:23 PM']These days the Squier stuff is pretty good. The only thing to look out for is quality control. The modern computer aided manufacturing processes used today mean there is little difference between the cheapest basses and some top brand stuff! The real difference comes in the finishing and its all down to the amount of 'human' time spent. A well known brand bass will have a good hour or so spent on snagging (filing down protruding frets, set-up, testing, cleaning up etc.) At the lower end you'll be lucky to get 5 minutes spent on them, but prior to that the production techniques are largely the same. You can pick up a pretty good bass for not much money with the Squiers and Epiphones etc. that are made in the Far east. You might have to spend a bit of time setting it up properly (or get your local luthier to do it) and if you use it a lot you'll probably want to invest in upgrading it. But for home recording a Squier Jaguar will give you a good range of tones and once set-up will be pretty good to play. I bought a Squier Jazz bass a little while ago and after I had it set up by Bernie Goodfellow its now my main bass![/quote] ++1 on this. My Squier VM 77 jazz is an amazing value for the money ($285 or L180). I swapped out the bridge for a Gotoh ($32), which proved to be a good upgrade, and shimmed the neck using a BassChat pictorial lesson. Quite easy to do. I get great tones all over the fretboard, all hardware is decent, it holds a tune, I have no neck problems--I couldn't be happier. tg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejones1732 Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Once again, thanks for all the replies - plenty of options to think about. Plenty of recommendations for the Squier VM series, and good point about changing the pups and still being in budget - thanks Jean-Luc. Time to do some detailed research, and get out there and play some! Thanks Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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