Don't be a bass snob!

[geoham]

For the past couple of years, I'd been looking for a lightweight 5 string bass. My current 5 string is a little on the heavy side for 3 hour gigs where I often dance about like a prat. I've been mostly just sticking to my 4 string 'P', weighing in at 4kg and tuning down when required. 

 

Overwhelmed by internet research, I popped in to Guitar Guitar on Saturday to actually try some and get an idea what I wanted to buy. I was expecting to find something like a Spector to my liking, and to make the purchase down the line a little. I've got a steady enough income that I don't need to scrimp on something substandard, but dropping four figures on a bass isn't my top priority at the moment.

 

I browsed the bass department - which was a little less well stocked than my last visit - and nothing jumped out at me. I was on my way to the exit, when a sales guy offered assistance. I explained what I was after, and he convinced me to try a £370 Ibanez SR305. I seen it when browsing, but didn't even consider it - a 5 string costing so little couldn't be up to the job.

 

I immediately noticed it was very light, and I was blown away with the quality of it. Active preamp, nice sounding dual humbuckers with a coil tap - very versatile. A really slim neck with no high or sharp frets. Well set up too - intonation bang on, just enough neck relief and action only a tiny bit higher than I'd have liked. (In contrast to the Fender Vintera I bought a couple of years ago, which wasn't set up at all and had to spend hours on it)

 

Anyway, I left the shop with the bass. I had it at a rehearsal last night, and I was very happy with it. I'll need to tweak the pickup height a little to balance the volume across the strings, and maybe tweak the action - but other than that it's good to go. I've not weighed it yet, but it's a similar weight to my Strat - around 3.6kg.

 

I've learned a valuable lesson!

 

George

[TheGreek]

I think this is why Bass Collection Nanyos have such a strong following.

[JoeEvans]

Ibanez make great basses.

[Jono Bolton]

The best bass I've ever owned was a Squier Matt Freeman Precision that cost me about £200. It's the one bass that I truly regret selling, particularly when I see how much they go for now in the rare occasions when they actually come up for sale! It played and sounded brilliant, and looked the dog's unmentionables as well. I had a couple of snide comments at gigs about it being a Squier but I never let it bother me. I could have had something fancier and more expensive but I didn't feel I needed it.

[mr4stringz]

1 hour ago, Jono Bolton said:

I had a couple of snide comments at gigs about it being a Squier but I never let it bother me.

I’m often told I don’t look it but I’m a very, very placid chap, but any snide comments about gear from anyone to anyone at any time grinds my gears sufficiently that I do let it bother me and become something of a mouthy runt. I may or may not have deliberately misspelled that…

 

Annoyed with myself to this day that I didn’t check out one of the Freeman sigs when they were released.

Edited February 1 by mr4stringz
Typo!

[Lozz196]

35 minutes ago, Jono Bolton said:

The best bass I've ever owned was a Squier Matt Freeman Precision that cost me about £200. It's the one bass that I truly regret selling, particularly when I see how much they go for now in the rare occasions when they actually come up for sale! It played and sounded brilliant, and looked the dog's unmentionables as well. I had a couple of snide comments at gigs about it being a Squier but I never let it bother me. I could have had something fancier and more expensive but I didn't feel I needed it.

Agree, great basses. 

[Greg Edwards69]

27 minutes ago, mr4stringz said:

I’m often told I don’t look it but I’m a very, very placid chap, but any snide comments about gear from anyone to anyone at any time grinds my gears sufficiently that I do let it bother me and become something of a mouthy runt. I may or may not have deliberately misspelled that…

 

Annoyed with myself to this day that I didn’t check out one of the Freeman songs when they were released.

Indeed. I'm a placid guy too and dislike confrontation, but it really winds me up when a complete stranger dares to make snide comments about my gear. 

 

I'm the one with the gig. If you're so great, why are you here watching me play on a Saturday night when you could be gigging yourself?

[Bleat]

I'm not in a band or gigging at the moment but looking to get back to it in the next couple of years or so. Being one who has always gone for what pleases me and not given a crap what other bass players / musicians think of me, my abilities or my gear, I'm really looking forward to turning up with a Laney rig, Washburn LP copy + Epiphone Les Paul. I might even add an ancient Zoom multi effects pedal just to really get on peoples tits.

[Greg Edwards69]

Anyway, yes, inexpensive instruments are incredible these days. My G&L Tribute JB2 (their equivalent of Fender's Squier brand) has become my No.1 bass. Heck, even my diddy Jackson Minion is a joy to play and sounds great.

[Len_derby]

All true. One of my favourite gigging bases is my Harley Benton short-scale P bass. £79, brand new. Any snide comments from band members about whether I could afford a ‘better’ instrument is met with “it would have been a waste of money playing with you.”

[asingardenof]

These days, with the proliferation of CNC machines and whatnot, there are very few completely terrible guitars and bass brands around. Where not so long ago the likes of Squier, Ephphone, SBMM, etc. might once have only been considered beginner instruments, you could quite happily have one and gig it regularly - Mike Rutherford using Squier Affinity guitars live is a good example of someone not fussed by the brand name (although his are modded somewhat, I'm sure). When I bought my Squier Precision in 1998 I actually chose it over a Mexican Fender Jazz because I thought it was a better put together (and better sounding) instrument even though it was about half the price. As has been mentioned elsewhere, eventually you start getting into the realms of diminishing returns as the price goes up, where each incremental improvement in quality seems to come with a bigger and bigger price hike. The trick is to know how good is going to be good enough for what you need. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Come on, we all know that the most important thing about a bass is the logo on the headstock.

[thisisswanbon]

I've had everything from Rickenbackers, Jap precisions, Spector, EBMM sterling, Workshop Ibanez, and currently still in possession of a Sandberg California II HCA bass...

 

Despite all this I'm currently gigging a Squier classic vibe Mustang with the Sandy and a Site V5R for backup and I've never been happier.  The Squier neck doesn't feel any less playable than the plek'd sandy neck, and the sire neck is unbelievable!

 

On the flip side of this, I also have a Harley Benton M4SBK (I think), and that came with unusable tuners (not just poor stability, actually wouldn't turn) as well as a lot of nasty sharp fret edges.

 

I do think that there's a psychological thing where you FEEL more professional playing high end gear, but in reality - No one knows, no one cares, and the difference in price is rarely justified.

Edited February 1 by thisisswanbon

[itu]

It's a bit complicated to talk about price. I want - because that's what works for me - a five with 19 mm string spacing. Selection is pretty limited. When I found a suitable one, the price was not the first specification. 

 

I am slightly amazed that everybody should play a £80 bass. If that's not my thing, I don't care what others think about my instruments. After all, an electric bass is still very cheap compared to a quality double bass. Alembic, maybe they are pricey, but who cares. If you find a good one, it's your choice, not your friend's.

[geoham]

1 hour ago, Jono Bolton said:

I had a couple of snide comments at gigs about it being a Squier but I never let it bother me.

I've had a few of those even with a Fender headstock. "Is it an American?" followed by a judgemental look of disappointment at my response!  

[Rich]

1 hour ago, Len_derby said:

Any snide comments from band members about whether I could afford a ‘better’ instrument is met with “it would have been a waste of money playing with you.”

[Cato]

If I got a gig tomorrow I'd take my Epiphone Embassy and the Squier Bass VI and leave the Precision Deluxe at home 

 

I'm sure my preferences will rotate through my small herd as they always have but the moment those are the 2 basses I'm enjoying the most.

 

Congratulations to the Op for finding at great bass at a great price 

[kodiakblair]

3 hours ago, itu said:

I am slightly amazed that everybody should play a £80 bass.

This is a lovely bass and I'm thrilled to own it 🙂

 

While nowhere near as pretty it's this £80 Harley Benton which gets played. The Benton neck is far more comfortable than the Fender's and it sounds better too, thanks to that brilliant (discontinued) Wilkinson single coil 🙂 Apart from changing the strings for TI flats this PB-50 remains as it was when Thomann shipped it, April 2014 😎

 

[White Cloud]

4 hours ago, geoham said:

I've had a few of those even with a Fender headstock. "Is it an American?" followed by a judgemental look of disappointment at my response!  

I'm genuinely surprised about this. Honestly, I've played gigs forever and nobody's ever cared a jot about my gear. Maybe it's because of my playing 😂

[Misdee]

Relatively inexpensive basses have been a revelation to me since I got my Harley Benton Shorty. Okay, so the tuning pegs fell off when I went to change the strings for the first time but so what? For £80 it's got a right to self-destruct at some point. In the meantime I have had all kinds of fun playing it.

 

If your a proper muso then playing a cheap bass is a bit like riding a moped  i.e it's very enjoyable until someone you want to impress sees you doing it.

 

👍🙂

Edited February 2 by Misdee
Puritans

[Norris]

I'm getting tired of keep spelling it when people keep asking about my bass that sounds so great, so for the last time it's S-I-R-E

 

[badger]

if I ever get better at playing than my Squiers are at being basses then I might consider something more expensive. 😁

[Chienmortbb]

My first bass, about 25 years or more ago, was a candy apple red Squier P Bass. I did not realise then how good it was. Cost £100 second hand. 
 

Then I got a Westone Thunder 1A, yes it was heavy but it was a wondrous bass. At that time it was definitely 1 in 1 out. That was also second hand and cost about £100. 
 

A few basses later and my first “real” bass, a Fender Aerodyne, the one in my avatar. Personal import from Japan, cost about £500 all in. At the time they were £995 over here. It is fabulous BUT.. 

 

I have continued to buy and sell basses but I now have a Marcus Miller M2 £270 ish and I alternate between the Fender and the Sire Marcus Miller. 
 

I also have a second hand Peavey P Bass (£50) and have gigged that several times. 

[LeftyJ]

19 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Come on, we all know that the most important thing about a bass is the logo on the headstock.

 

Good luck with that 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

My main instrument of choice, a lowly, but very much beloved, Ibanez Mikro Bass :

 

Though admittedly with the stock pickups, which I wasn't exactly a big fan of, pulled out and replaced with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, which took the bass from decent to amazing sounding (had a DiMarzio Model P pickup installed at some point too, but while that actually also sounded pretty amazing, I just personally prefer the more open, less compressed, tone of the Geezer, and I think it compliments the natural inherent sound of the bass better).

 

The neck is extremely stable, and had as good as perfect fretwork from factory, with no fret buzz whatsoever, even with low action and minimal neck relief.

 

Also I do ponder installing the J pickup, from the EMG Geezer P/J set that the P pickup is from, to a separate jack output socket, utilizing one of the redundant pot holes, as the current P pickup is wired directly to the output jack socket, as well as I also ponder on installing mono rail bridge pieces, milled from solid brass, and doing so reducing the string spacing from the current standard 19mm to 17mm too.

  

Edited February 2 by Baloney Balderdash