Gigging with a really cheap bass

[cachao]

Scored an Aria STB p bass from Gumtree for £10. I made a few basic adjustments to the neck and bridge, and now have a very playable, and solid instrument.

I am quite impressed by the quality of this bass, and it has served me well during a couple of blues gigs this week. Of course, I did have to put some new flats on.

The Wizard Thumper probably made a difference too.

[thisnameistaken]

Bass guitars are pretty simple instruments and the cheap ones are actually really good these days. A high price tag is no guarantee of quality, as demonstrated by Alleva Coppolo.

[Dom in Dorset]

I'll happily gig with a cheap bass, I do find that when recording a "higher quality" bass is easier to work with, much less time spent getting a good sound.

[witterth]

Flats, yuk, hate 'em. good luck, though!! just an opinion (that loads of BCers don't agree with)

Edited January 2, 2014 by witterth

[iconic]

[b]'Yuuuuup'![/b] as that guy on Storage Wars says....I've got one 'tis a very good bass indeed....£10....got to be a BC record?

[skidder652003]

99.9% of pub punters couldn't give a t*ss what you play or how it sounds as long as it stays in tune (and even then most don't notice). A good quality instrument always feels and sounds better to actually play and gives you one thing less to get stressed out about on stage, but if you got that instrument for a tenner then fair play to you!

[Freddy Le Cragg]

I once gigged an Encore Str*t I found in skip. It did not survive.....

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='cachao' timestamp='1388621277' post='2324237']
Scored an Aria STB p bass from Gumtree for £10. I made a few basic adjustments to the neck and bridge, and now have a very playable, and solid instrument.

I am quite impressed by the quality of this bass, and it has served me well during a couple of blues gigs this week. Of course, I did have to put some new flats on.
[/quote]

Of course all basses sound exactly the same when strung with flats

[Earbrass]

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1388652507' post='2324309']
A good quality instrument always feels and sounds better to actually play and gives you one thing less to get stressed out about on stage
[/quote]

In my experience an expensive instrument does not always feel or sound better than a budget one - and the expensive one gives you one more thing to get stressed out about before and after the gig.

[muttley]

That's not a cheap bass, it's an [i]inexpensive[/i] bass. There's a big difference .

[Hobbayne]

I have an old Squier bitsa which I use for the .... er..... lower quality establishments. It doesnt matter too much if it gets knocked over or covered in beer.
I have kitted it out with spb 1 pups so it can hold its own with our enthusiastic drummer and guitarist.

[Paul S]

The sort of places I generally get to play in no-one in the crowd gives a monkeys what bass you use. I regularly gig with basses that owe me less than £100. If they feel and sound ok to me that is all I care about.

[FinnDave]

Only other bass players look at the gear we use, no one else gives a rat's backside. And why should they?

[Dom in Dorset]

My regular fretless is a bitsa made from spare parts from nameless sources , it cost about £80 in total plays like a dream , sounds great live. Sounded a bit muddy when recording straight into the desk but via my amp was great.
I also have a light weight chambered plywood bitsa for festival gigs (you seem to end up carrying you gear for miles and then having to leave it in the back of a van belonging to some guy called "Boz" that you've never met before) that cost about £60.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Dom in Somerset

[Mod_Machine]

I restored an old (early 70s) cream 28" scale jedson bass shaped like a telecaster guitar I restored after purchasing from a BC member. Biggest mod was allowing the floating bridge to ...ERM...move to allow intonation as they left the factory screwed down! Even used the original bridge pickup.
It was a charity gig for a friend in Hitchen and a personal aspiration to restore and play something older than me at a gig was the only reason I did it. The strings were horrendously floppy, the neck too short and narrow (even though I only play short scale) and when I arrived the drummer asked where I got the 'toy guitar' from.......and yet......nobody at the gig noticed anything out of the ordinary!

I now rarely gig with anything valued over £250 and record with the same bass....im not being cheap...honest....(ok maybe i am a little bit) i like to think of it as part of the bands charm and whilst nobody seems bothered, and til the label fancy buying me something else I dont see too much reason to invest further.

In fact In most clubs the mixing seems pretty low/bass heavy (especially as I like a more compressed new wave sound). I wear ear plugs so can't enjoy my tone, and the venues always seem to think that louder is better ( which is fine in the 02 acad or the cavern when its heaving, but less than necessary in an un-named local 2 bit semi filled upstairs 'room') and that always effects the listeners enjoyment..!

Ultimaytely we are bass players, nobody really cares too much about us as stand alone artists or musicians.

[NancyJohnson]

I gigged in Reading about a month ago and took an old Aria ProII Primary (Precision) - I didn't know that venue and really didn't like the idea of taking one of my Thunderbirds. If it got nicked, I'd claim for it through my insuarnce, but it wouldn't have pissed me off as much as if one of the Gibsons got pinched. Reassuringly, it does have great tone. I have a neck coming for an old Squire Bronco (Badtz Maru Mustang thing)...I might give that an outing once it's bolted on!
P

[JamesXP]

My main gigging bass is a £60 squier jazz affinity.. and it has been for almost a year now without an issue.. except for when it got knocked over an a machine head snapped.. cheaply sorted though!

[BigRedX]

So long as the instrument meets are the require criteria for sound playability and looks who cares how much it cost?

At one point I was gigging with a fretless bass that had cost me £70 and a fretted that cost several thousand. Both did the jobs that were required and therefore they both got use.

[Maude]

I've gigged with my Aria STB P loads, I paid a whacking £40, 1/4 Pounder P/U and Chromes later and it's awesome.

[attachment=151467:531471_10150898487935686_321614790_n.jpg]

[attachment=151468:dscf6709_1.jpg]

Edited January 2, 2014 by Maude

[Monckyman]

Bitsa P for me.80s Hohner body bought some 80s pickups and a nicer neck but it still isn't worth £150.
Done at least 50 gigs no prob and sounds fine.
Recently I've been using a SUB, very cheap, sounds great,nobody in the audience gives a toss but me and the drummer love the sound.

[Annoying Twit]

I've heard a lot of good things about the Aria STB range. It also seems that many people here know where to get themselves a cheap knockabout bass.

[martthebass]

Quite often gig with my Squier Jazz VM77 which I only bought as a back up.

[cachao]

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1388706208' post='2325252']
I've gigged with my Aria STB P loads, I paid a whacking £40, 1/4 Pounder P/U and Chromes later and it's awesome.

[attachment=151467:531471_10150898487935686_321614790_n.jpg]

[attachment=151468:dscf6709_1.jpg]
[/quote]

I see you have the ashtray. Have you added weights to this to correct the neck dive?

[Maude]

Can't say I've really noticed a problem with neck dive. No weights added, just there to pimp it up along with the tort guard, which may be going black in a mo.
I like to move my bass around a lot when gigging anyway, sometimes it's horizontal, sometimes it's vertical so I probably don't notice neckdive as much as a lot of folks seem to, can't stand a grippy strap for the same reason.

[davehux]

Just sayin'