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Best sub £400 6 string?


James L
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Hi there,

I'm in my second year of a music performance course and I'm looking to purchase a 6 string bass. I would only have £400 maximum to spend on one as I'm also buying a new rack but I've chosen that already.

What would be the best sounding and quality bass in this price range?

I play a lot of progressive and metal but I'd also like it to be versatile when playing slap and jazz pieces.

Thanks in advance.

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I think for a good 6 in that price range you really need to be looking at buying secondhand.
If you want new, you can get a Peavey Grind for about £400 and an ESP LTD for around £450 which could be worth looking at, but I think the secondhand market is the best place to look.It'll certainly give you more options.

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There's a Yamaha John Myung for sale on here in the basses for sale section.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/242727-yamaha-john-myung-rbx-jm2-plum-pearl/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/242727-yamaha-john-myung-rbx-jm2-plum-pearl/[/url]

They're quite nice.

If that's your maximum budget I'd look for Yamaha or maybe Ibanez, and buy used, and try as many as you can until you find the right one.

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[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1407595124' post='2522158']
And actually, the Harley Benton offerings are surprisingly good for the money (around £200 IIRC)
[/quote]

When you say this, are you referring to the older models which strongly appeared to be rebadged Shine basses? They have revamped their 'modern' range recently and the six string is different. I must admit that while I haven't seen one in the flesh, the HB does look a bit 'cheap' to me.


It's good if a playable six string bass can be bought for £123.03 so that someone can give 6 strings a go without breaking the bank. If the OP is a music student who has £400 to spend, couldn't they do better? There are no ratings or reviews of the new HB six string on Thomann, so who knows how good it is. A lot of HB instruments are said to be very good for the price, but not all of them.

Again a bass I haven't played so I'm just working from visuals and reputation, but LTD basses are mentioned above. A LTD D6 with fancy stripy through neck can be found for £427 new. They turn up on ebay sometimes, so are available second hand. Isn't this going to be a better bass than the HB, and also if the OP is making his/her way in the music business, wouldn't this give a more professional impression?

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[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1407668267' post='2522691']
When you say this, are you referring to the older models which strongly appeared to be rebadged Shine basses? They have revamped their 'modern' range recently and the six string is different. I must admit that while I haven't seen one in the flesh, the HB does look a bit 'cheap' to me.
[/quote]

Actually yeah, the older "Shine" one was my first ever 6er. I still kind of wish I hadn't sold it! The new ones look a little bit like those ropey H&S branded ones that were doing the rounds on ebay a few years ago. Couldn't shift that quick enough :unsure:

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[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1407670701' post='2522733']
Actually yeah, the older "Shine" one was my first ever 6er. I still kind of wish I hadn't sold it! The new ones look a little bit like those ropey H&S branded ones that were doing the rounds on ebay a few years ago. Couldn't shift that quick enough :unsure:
[/quote]

I have an actual Shine, that I bought for £60. It really needed work, but I suspect that mine was at the lower end of the quality variability that you get with inexpensive basses. It has improved with work on it, particularly filing down the nut slots.

I had a look for reviews of the newer HB sixer, and found a review in German that Google Translate seemed to do a good job on. [url="https://translate.google.com/translate?§sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bonedo.de%2Fartikel%2Feinzelansicht%2Fharley-benton-b-450550650-progressive-series-test.html&edit-text=&act=url"]https://translate.go...t-text=&act=url[/url] I'm disappointed by the sound samples (only play on the original German page). I feel that I've learnt something about the reviewer's soloing style, but not enough about what the actual basses sound like.

Perhaps the beginning of the review looks a bit too friendly to Thomann, so I'd like to see more reviews. But if we take the review at face value, the B-650 appears to be a reasonably well designed and well made (for the price) generic six string modern active bass. The main problem (apart from IMHO the bass not looking very nice which others may not agree with) seems to be upper fret access, for those who want to go all the way up there. A plus seems to be a push-pull knob to switch between active and passive mode. The review lamented the fact that only the six string model had this.

Edited by Annoying Twit
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Hmm that review does make it look very good! The thing that winds me up about it though is the upper fret access (even though I'd probably never go up there :P), and those monorail bridges. With how aggressive my picking hand is, if I don't have the bass strung through the back of the body I tend to pull the bridge saddles out! I could blame my technique, but a bad worker always blames his tools ;)

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