Ever had a cheapo bass that you just keep going back to?

[yondergo]

Bear with me, this has been a long time coming.

About 2 and a half years ago my wife bought me an SX p-bass (one of the early ones with the very F-style headstock not that horrid kayak paddle current design) as i was just getting back into playing bass in a band after going to the dark side for a few years and i wanted a p-bass - i also reminded her that as a bloke we don't really get much out of the whole marriage deal other than a b-squad of nagging parents and a good pissup.


Great bass that SX, played it for a year and a bit, got my first set of flats on it and really got into finger-style playing - had a great time with the 90 quid thing but decided time was coming to move up. I sunk a bit of loose money into a Japanese Fender P and had it shipped over from Ishibashi, looked the absolute business so i took my time setting it up and it played great and sounded cool.

Happy, right?

wrong!

For some reason, after the initial novelty of the Fender has worn off i now keep going back to my little cheapo SX bass. I took it to Brazil with me last summer, i use it for writing and practicing on at home and it has always sounded bang on to me, we used it on our first album and it sounded great. And i mean i genuinely i find the tone of it to be just right for me, even more so than the Fender with all the the wiring and pickup upgrades i've chucked at it. It even plays better, i've found myself laboriously swapping strings between the two after convincing myself that it MUST be the set of status/fender/picato flats on the SX thats the difference, only to find its not at all. Measuring neck relief and trying to match it, endlessly diddling with the pickup height. I even briefly entertained the idea of putting the 5 quid SX pickup in my fender to see if thats the missing link. Nothing i do seems to close that little gap that keeps the SX always a little bit ahead.

Basically it's now starting to dawn on me that as great an instrument as the Fender is (and it is objectively better in every respect - looks, craftsmanship, materials, electronics etc) i just seem to have this weird rapport with the SX bass that i can't seem to shake.

Am i entirely and completely mental to be thinking of biffing off the Fender in favour of a sub 100 quid knock-off?

have any of you guys ever had a guitar you just clicked with even when comparing it to pricier, more worthy specimens?

[BigRedX]

No

[yondergo]

good chat

[alyctes]

My no-name CAR jazz. £80, from BC-er Mr Foxen (IIRC he got it from eBay as a beater/project bass), and still the bass I'm most comfortable on. It's certainly not the most expensive (though nothing I've got cost me more that £400). It doesn't even sound best. It just plays well and feels comfortable.

Edited September 22, 2015 by alyctes

[Bassassin]

About 10 years or so back, I was buying & selling a lot of 70s & 80s MIJ basses & guitars, basically picking them up cheap, cleaning/repairing/setting up, and then selling them on. I came across a scruffy CSL-branded Jazz copy in a local pawn shop, which I took home for £60 - fully intending to tidy it up & flip it, as was my wont at the time.

Still got it now, just can't get over how well it plays. I have a good few basses, one or two of which cost more than £60 - but if I could only keep one, it'd be the CSL.

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:12515] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:66973]

Jon.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='yondergo' timestamp='1442950008' post='2870918']
good chat
[/quote]

OK I'll explain despite the fact that IMO this is just another inverse snobbery trolling thread.

When I first started playing all I could afford were cheap instruments - my first guitar was £10 out of a catalogue, my first electric guitar was something I cobbled together myself in the school woodwork shop and my first bass was a heavily abused Burns Sonic that cost £60 including the hard case and a Fender branded strap. Right up until the early 90s these were the instruments that I played. All had serious limitations in pretty much every aspect but I couldn't afford anything else so I made do.

Then I finally had a decent job and some disposable income and found myself in my local musical instrument emporium trying an Overwater Original bass. After a lot of consideration a bought it. Owning that bass was a complete revelation. I suddenly realised that the only thing holding back what I could do with it was my own lack of playing skills and technique. Unlike the previous instruments I had owned, there was nothing in the instrument itself that was impeding my ability to play. Because of that I'm more inspired to play and I actually play better.

Since then, I've owned a lot of basses and guitars all at various price points. However the ones I keep coming back to are the ones that don't place any limitations on me. Unsurprisingly they are all instruments with a new RRP in excess of £1500. I have owned expensive basses that I couldn't get on with and couple of the cheaper ones that weren't bad, but over the last 2 years I've cleared out all the instruments that I wasn't using regularly and they all got sold.

I can imagine that if you favour Fender type designs, then it would be possible to find cheaper versions that suit you better than the "real thing" - after all the whole philosophy behind the original Fenders were that they could be made inexpensively using the affordable technology of the late 40s and relatively unskilled (when it comes to making musical instruments) labour, so it shouldn't be surprising that in the 21st century those instruments can now be made for a fraction of their original cost in real terms.

In the end though you should play the instruments that you like, and provide that you can afford them the cost is irrelevant.

[CamdenRob]

Sell the Fender and play the SX... it obviously works for you, so you might as well sell the bass you don't really like and use the money for something you do like

It's simple really... play what you like and as BRX says cost is irrelevent. If I was you I'd be happy that I've found what I want from an inexpensive bass.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1442998177' post='2871205']
OK I'll explain despite the fact that IMO this is just another inverse snobbery trolling thread.
[/quote]

Why do you think that? Genuinely interested.

J.

[chris_b]

[quote name='yondergo' timestamp='1442949227' post='2870908']
have any of you guys ever had a guitar you just clicked with even when comparing it to pricier, more worthy specimens?
[/quote]

I understand your point, but . . . . . no.

Better is best, is the only philosophy I have.

Price doesn't come into it, but more worthy? That will win out every time.

[Marc S]

Not a real "cheapo" but second-hand, they're not too pricey
I had a Squier Classic Vibe 60's P bass, in Fiesta Red
Loved it, but GAS got the better of me, and I sold it, to get a USA P bass

The US bass is lovely - but not that much better than the Squier
I really missed the Squier, and when one came up 2nd hand locally
I just had to get one again. It's a great backup
and I'm not so precious about taking it to pubs, whereas, my near mint US P, I'm over protective of.....

Although Squier CV's aren't truly "cheapo's" they're cheap compared to the US basses they're copies of

[colgraff]

I had a Yamaha RBX (I think) bass when I was in my late teens / early twenties that was much better to play than its price tag suggested. I kept it for years and years until I moved to 5 strings.

Maybe it was just right for me or maybe I got lucky and it was a particularly well-made instrument (after all, like cars, two basses of the same model are not going to be identical.) I moved up to a Hohner 5 string which wasn't quite as good as the RBX and a good 10 years later I moved to a Yamaha TRB which was the first bass I'd owned which I could confidently say was better than the RBX, especially its electrics, but then it cost over 5x as much.

[dazza14]

My main bass is a 'cheap' bass, but it does what i want (and what my talent level requires) but i have a second bass that i muck around with that, all in all, after selling the bits i didn't want and buying replacement parts, cost me £34!
I think the reason i like it is the neck radius, the neck is thicker than most P-bass necks and it suits me really well, it's also unfinished with varnish which again suits me because i like how it feels.
Never having played a bass costing more than £1000 i can't compare it to higher spec basses but as a 'go to' bass it's perfect.

[brensabre79]

I bought a Squier VM Jazz bass a few years ago, it was a bargain at £200 (ex display). I thought it was amazingly good for the money and raved about it at the time.
After a few gigs I decided that although it was great to play, some of the elements were not quite up to scratch... I have a 90s US Jazz too, so it was easy to make a comparison and the hardware generally felt a bit 'weak' and of lower quality.

So I decided to invest in a few parts to 'improve' the Squier...
• I bought some Gotoh machine heads - which improved the feel of the tuning (not that it went out of tune with the originals, it just felt more solid)
• Then I got a Badass bridge - which I really liked.
• I decided the pickups were not to my liking, so I got some custom wound wizards.
• I put some straplocks on and upgraded the wiring with CTS pots, replaced the plate and screened the innards properly
• Then I found a 1974 Fender body on eBay, in olympic white, which I preferred to the black VM - it also had 70s spacing which it turns out I prefer. The Squier scratchplate didn't fit so I got a new one made that did.
• One day a 1974 neck came up at a great price, these transition maple ones are particularly rare with 4 bolts and white blocks. I decided to take a punt on it. It was chunkier than the VM but lovely to play, nicer than the Squier neck by far actually.
• Finally I replaced the neck plate for one with an 'F' logo on and the black gasket.

At this point, having spent about £1,000 on improvements I was really happy with my bargain little Squier...

That was the day I realised that I had a box full of enough parts to make an entire Squire VM Jazz bass.

[chris_b]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1443006135' post='2871316']
• Finally I replaced the . . . . .
[/quote]

Sounds like Triggers broom.

[brensabre79]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1443007112' post='2871331']
Sounds like Triggers broom.
[/quote]
Yes, exactly

[yondergo]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1442998177' post='2871205']


OK I'll explain despite the fact that IMO this is just another inverse snobbery trolling thread.

[/quote]

Hmm, well honestly that's not the intention behind my question, I'm discussing the relative merits of 2 of the basses I own and my subjective interpretation of how I find their playability etc - and I'm interested in whether other people have had similar experiences, and from the interesting responses people have left it would appear that it's not as unusual as I would have thought.

Sorry if you find my question annoying or something, you sound like you might have had similar conversations previously and are bringing whatever negative feelings you got from them into this conversation, I can't really do anything about that but to accuse me of reverse snobbery and trolling is quite a leap to make - and a bit rude really. I'm just trying to use this forum for a bit of honest discussion about something that's been on my mind lately.

Thanks for the replies guys, loving that CSL Jon!

[bassmachine2112]

My cheap bass that,s never out my hands is a USA Peavey Foundation.
Lots of Love for these basses
The only thing cheap was the price.

[neepheid]

I currently own 8 basses ranging from £150 to £1500ish. I make sure to play them all equally, otherwise there's no point in me having them. I take a different one to every rehearsal/gig and I even keep a spreadsheet documenting which basses I've played at which gigs to keep a record and an eye on how the love is being shared. If I'm picking one up on a whim for a noodle at home it'll be more a case of "haven't played you for a while" rather than a favourite (regardless of the cost of it). The cost is irrelevant when you like them all for various reasons. The only favouritism I have (which basically covers the order in which they'd get sold in a financial meltdown) is based on sentimentality and ease of replacement vs. ease of selling.

So, no then

[chriswareham]

I sold my Stingray last year as I was always playing my fairly knocked about Jolana that cost little more than a tenth of the money I paid for the Stingray. Surprised me, as I was blown away by the quality and playability of the Stingray when I first bought one in 1998 and I never expected to find anything I felt was better at considerably less cost. That said, I've owned two Jolanas of the same model and the other one was quite different and not as nice to play so I think I just lucked out on the first one.

[kevvo66]

My fave bass is my active yamaha bass I cant remember what model it is but I love this bass and I've had lots over the years its all in set up I reckon myself

[synthaside]

I think that sometimes .... despite the name on the head-stock .. or lack of one in the case of my little bargain bitsa jazz ... the stars align in some god forsaken sweatshop and a damn good guitar gets put together ... quality pickups and tuner can be changed easily so the thing stays in tune and maybe has more tonal options .

This is if something that just really works for you it means that you end up picking it up a bit more, and feeling comfortable using it which in turn leads you to better play , better familiarity and perhaps tone and style.

[Grahambythesea]

I think we have technology to thank for this phenomenon! As commented above Fenders were designed to be mass produced but years ago "cheapies" were hacked out in dreadful factories by unskilled workers, but now computers can do much of the work so a factory in a developing world with low cost labour can make just as good an instrument as a skilled craftsman in the western world provided they a careful not to skimp on the quality of the materials. Often the frets let "cheapies" down, poor quality metal put in badly and not properly dressed. After all where are Squiers made these days. I have seen some horrors from that stable where the necks just keep bending, frets buzz etc. I once heard the Precision described as the electric plank and that probably sums it up. The same philosophy does not generally apply to acoustics though where the wood plays a much larger part.

[tom1946]

I bought a P with my name on it (Legend) off ebay for 40 quid delivered. Plywood body and generic everything but the neck is fabulous and has the worn in feel to it, and it's maple!

So I was bored and sanded the 3 colour sunburst down and sprayed it post office red, firred a gotoh bridge, fender tuners and a usa pickup. The result is a superb, easy to play bass with some real grunt.. weighs 7.8 lbs...

but you've heard all this before haven't you? So I won't bore you with it.......

[uk_lefty]

Yes and no... I started on a tanglewood p copy that was blown away by a Kramer fretless from the musicyo days. That Kramer was cheap, less than £225 delivered I think, but good woods and well put together. Wearing decent strings its a real different beast to anything else out there and bands over the years have loved it. Despite its looks being very inappropriate (black metalic paint, reverse pointy head) it's one I'm told to bring more often. This is the bedt value bass Ive had.
Having said that I felt that from what ive owned certain cheap basses were not for band use: Westfield p copy, hohner pj, Brice six string. But I bet one in a thousand from any cheap basses model is a winner.

[dannybuoy]

I think the cheapo basses out nowadays are miles ahead of the £10 starter basses available when BRX was just a nipper! There are some quality basses out there for not a lot of dosh. The best low B I've ever heard comes from my cheapest 5 string too, a Warwick Rockbass Streamer that has a quarter-sawn laminated neck that's stiff as anything and only cost £280 new.