Which £200 - £250 Bass

[Peter Train]

Hi Bass Chaters,

I'm planning to upgrade from my very cheaf Fender P Bass copy to a better bass. I've a budget of about £200 - £250 and I'd like to get a jazz bass as I'm told it has a greater range of tones.

I've seen 3 that I like which are:
Ibanez SR300
Squire Modified Jazz Bass
J&D Guitars JD-S4

I've seen reviews of the Ibanez and Squire but I saw the JD bass in a local shop. It has a though neck construction and passive pick ups and I liked the look of it. I can find them all for £199

My questions are:

Has anyone used any of these and can they recommend them or not?
Can anyone recommend any other bass in the same price range for me to consider?
What would be best active or passive pickups?


Photos below:

[Jarhead]

I would try them all out, but I would also look out for any second hand bargains. I managed to get my Fender MIM Jazz for £250 because my music teacher was selling up, so I had it off him sharpish. If you look around, you could probably find something worth much more for much less.
Zach

[Sean]

Those Squier Vintage Jazz basses are gorgeous and by all accounts very well made. With Ibanez you can't really go wrong - that one will have a fantastic neck and the pre-amp coupled with those Bartolini (?) soapbars will make it even more versatile than the Squier. If I was buying with my ears, I'd probably go for the Ibanez and if it's all about cool, then it's the Squier. I don't know anything about the other one.

Of course £250 gets you a hell of a lot more second hand...

Edited November 11, 2008 by Sean

[metalmickey]

Not a fan of Fender/Squire myself - decent enough basses, but massively overated IMHO.

Ibanez offer the best value for money you will find on the high street; the ATK range is around 50 squids more than your budget, but is an awesome bass for the money - Stingray qualities abound. Failing that, the SR300 is a good bet as well. It has Ibanez stock electronics and the slimmest neck you will find on a bass (at least in my experience).

Not sure about the J&D though, not much exposure to them....

[Deep Thought]

If Fenders do it for you, I understand the Squier Vintage Modifieds are excellent. Also keep your eye on the Sale page here, you can get a lot of bass for not too much second hand-I paid £265 for a MIM Precision with Wizard Thumpers in it a while ago. Failing that you can't go wrong with Ibanez, or Yamaha. I think I'm right in saying that J&D thing may well be based on an Ibanez-you're better off buying a real one.

[waynepunkdude]

How about a Rondo SX?

[gafbass02]

depressingly im selling my squier VM jazz right now in the ads

Edited November 12, 2008 by gafbass02

[lowhand_mike]

the ibanez is alot of bass for the money, i have the 500 which has slightly better wood/electrics. but i would imagine the stuff in the 300 to be not far off. from mine i can get a fairly convincing P tone and jazz, plus alot of others too so the EQ is very versatile.
but then if you want a jazz go for something like the squire or look at second hand as like has been said you'll get more bass for your money.

[Mike]

I'm selling a Dean Jeff Berlin Signature model for £250 - definitely worth going 2nd hand, in my opinion.

[Bigwan]

2nd hand is the only way to go so weigh-up what basses are in budget s/h and get out there and try a few to decide which style of bass best suits you.

The new squiers seem great, and as somebody has already said the ATK is awesome for the money. I A/Bed with 2 Stingrays in Guitar Guitar (Glasgow). The Ibanez won hands down for me.

[Tait]

[quote name='lowhand_mike' post='327691' date='Nov 12 2008, 03:44 PM']the ibanez is alot of bass for the money, i have the 500 which has slightly better wood/electrics. but i would imagine the stuff in the 300 to be not far off. from mine i can get a fairly convincing P tone and jazz, plus alot of others too so the EQ is very versatile.
but then if you want a jazz go for something like the squire or look at second hand as like has been said you'll get more bass for your money.[/quote]

+1 the SR range is absolutely excellent.

whoever said about the ATKs, + another 1. i don't think ive ever played an ibanez i don't like actually.

EDIT: just realised i don't like ibanez guitars, but i meant basses.

Edited November 12, 2008 by LWTAIT

[BassBunny]

Hi Peter,
Some interesting choices but you will certainly get "more bang for your buck" going 2nd Hand.
Ibanez is a good choice and also have a look at the Cort range. They make a lot of Ibanez guitars as well as G&L, Lakland and some Fenders. Massively underrated.
In the interest of pushing a sale. How about:
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=28919&hl=Aria"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=28919&hl=Aria[/url]
If I was still playing 4 String basses this would not be up for sale. It has one of the nicest necks i have ever played and the 3 band EQ is fantastic. But as I only do 5-String these days, it is sitting around doing nothing.
Gives you a spare £100 as well.

[MB1]

[quote name='BassBunny' post='327847' date='Nov 12 2008, 06:54 PM']Hi Peter,
Some interesting choices but you will certainly get "more bang for your buck" going 2nd Hand.
Ibanez is a good choice and also have a look at the Cort range. They make a lot of Ibanez guitars as well as G&L, Lakland and some Fenders. Massively underrated.
In the interest of pushing a sale. How about:
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=28919&hl=Aria"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=28919&hl=Aria[/url]
If I was still playing 4 String basses this would not be up for sale. It has one of the nicest necks i have ever played and the 3 band EQ is fantastic. But as I only do 5-String these days, it is sitting around doing nothing.
Gives you a spare £100 as well.[/quote]

MB1.
+1 on the Aria!

[Sean]

[quote name='metalmickey' post='327604' date='Nov 12 2008, 02:01 PM']the ATK range is around 50 squids more than your budget, but is an awesome bass for the money[/quote]

+1 I have one and it is fantastic. I did a review it on it [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=12612"]here[/url]

I'd definitely buy another and I'd sell my grandmother for a US ATK but that's another story.

[Bassmonster]

With regards to the J&D i'm pretty sure it stands for jack and danny bros, their made in the far east somewhere, i've seen the same bass appear under various brand names, they usually appear on ebay. You can't go far wrong with ibanez though

Edited November 12, 2008 by Bassmonster

[Buzz]

If you're buying new, go for the Ibby. The VMJ's are great, I have one, but I think if I was going new again, I'd be looking seriously into an ibby. Very impressed by their guitars when I've had a widdle.

And Fender's are flavour of the month on the pop scene so you'll see loads of them around anyway.

[Peter Train]

Thanks for all the advice, it's really useful to get others views. I must admit that the one I like best is the Ibanez and I've seen other people comment very positively about them. I particularly like the look of the SR 500 but its out of my price range.

I know you can get more second hand but I'm always wary of buying something second hand when I've not had a chance to see and try it in case I end up with someone elses dud.

For the same reason, I'd prefer to visit a shop to try out new ones rather than just order them over the internet.

Someone also pointed out this one in a mag. It's a Washburn T24 which won an award in Bass player but again I've not hear of the make before.

Keep the advice coming please.

[OutToPlayJazz]

Everytime a thread like this comes up I always say the same thing...

[b]Yamaha BB614[/b]. You're getting a great jazz sound, a great precision sound & 3-band active preamp into the bargain. I've got one knocking around at the moment & it's fab!

Rich.

[MB1]

MB1.
Buy Bassbunnys Active Aria for £145 and get Very Very Very Drunk with the change!

[tauzero]

If you're near whoever's logging that Antoniotsai 4-string, it would be worth going and checking that out...

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='328003' date='Nov 12 2008, 10:33 PM']Everytime a thread like this comes up I always say the same thing...

[b]Yamaha BB614[/b]. You're getting a great jazz sound, a great precision sound & 3-band active preamp into the bargain. I've got one knocking around at the moment & it's fab!

Rich.[/quote]

I own a VMJ and an Ibanez SRX700. Both excellent in their own way.
And still I thought of Yamaha BB 414 or BB614.
It seems I am not alone.
Try them.
Try them all.
Then buy something even better 2nd Hand...

MIM Jazz
ATK
Musicman SUB?

[Tait]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='328003' date='Nov 12 2008, 10:33 PM']Everytime a thread like this comes up I always say the same thing...

[b]Yamaha BB614[/b]. You're getting a great jazz sound, a great precision sound & 3-band active preamp into the bargain. I've got one knocking around at the moment & it's fab!

Rich.[/quote]

+1, i tried one of these when i bought my old precision. it was a bad choice going for the precision over this, as the yamaha was just an all round better bass. you might want to try one out first though, although it does seem like me to go for the precision over a much better bass, i get the feeling there was a reason i didnt go for the yamaha eventually. if there was i cant remember it.

[Geek99]

I would have bought the VMJ - it was just pipped by a cheap CIJ 62 reissue off OldGit of this parish. My [b]only[/b] regret is the pickup noise but it does have a wider range of tones as you said and its easy to get close to PBass tone with a Zoom unit.