My Budget Bass History

[parker_muse]

I've been thinking - i've done pretty well for myself gear wise for very few £££.

My gigging rig is an Ashdown Superfly 500, bought off soundslive for pennies of the original RRP. I get an excellent tone from it and plenty of oomph when needed. I'm running it into a peavey 2x10 which has two non-original uprated speakers in it and it's pumping out at 4 ohms. So i've had a 250 watt rigg with a suprising amount of bass for not much.

Now i'm adding a non-brand 1x15 from WarPig on here to it for a 500 watt balanced powerhouse.

I've been playing a Vintage Stingray copy for a couple of years which hardly broke the bank too - yet this is being replaced by the unbeatable Fender P.

It got my thinking. Do you really need to spend £££ to get what you're looking for? I've had everything i've ever needed and never spent more then £180 or so on more then one thing until now. Is it more a placebo to us rather then twice as good for twice the price?

[waynepunkdude]

I think the point is you can get a perfectly good stuff for low prices or you can pay more for something special.

I used to play through a £40 Peavey MkIII but now I have worked up to an Amppeg SVT it's amazing I mean I can get a perfectly good tone from the Peavey but the Ampeg gives me something special.

[parker_muse]

Point taken - but is that 'something special' worth that thousands of pounds price tag?

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='parker_muse' post='824284' date='Apr 30 2010, 06:26 PM']Point taken - but is that 'something special' worth that thousands of pounds price tag?[/quote]


It is if that's what you want to do with your money.

If you're happy with the Superfly and Vintage SR copy then awesome but I have nothing better to spend my money on and you can't take it with you.

[bubinga5]

this really is a subjective thing...the phrase 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' is also true for bass tone...

the tone of my Sei is not a placebo, but its only my opinion that it sounds good......

i also loved a fender 24 that i had which was a lower priced bass..its how you play it....for want of a better word budget or lower priced instruments can give sooo much

if your happy thats cool!!

[lemmywinks]

My practice rig is an Aria Jazz (£45), Superfly (£199) and a homebuild cab (£50), sounds great and i'm really happy with it for rehearsals. Will be adding another homebuild (this time my own) cab to it soon too

I'm perfectly happy playing cheapo basses through old but good rigs, there's something that appeals to the cheapskate in me!

[bubinga5]

[quote name='parker_muse' post='824284' date='Apr 30 2010, 06:26 PM']Point taken - but is that 'something special' worth that thousands of pounds price tag?[/quote]
I think so, but it opens up the world of GAS, and its dark world of temptation and human deprevation...

try the forbidden fruit and thee shall see..

Edited April 30, 2010 by bubinga5

[parker_muse]

I am! Cue incoming Fender 50's Reissue P! Can't resist the Fender logo now can I.

[OutToPlayJazz]

Again, it's all subjective and down to the individual player. I know pro players that only have the one bass and one sound, but others like myself have a bass for every occasion. If you're just pumping out the bass in pubs and clubs, then anything you're personally happy with is great, whether it costs pennies or the earth.

When people are paying you serious money on a recording or on a tour, you want the best sound you can get & the most apt sound for your employers. When I do the mini big band stuff for the Strictly Tour I use a Status S2 5-string. Not only for the sound I want to hear, but because those basses cut through the mix like a scythe. The brass section usually pitch off the bass, so they need to be able to hear the whole spectrum of the bass frequencies clearly. It makes them happy, anyway

So yes, you can cope forever on cheap basses, but if you're doing it for a living, it becomes a different kettle of fish.

There's also personal preferences. I like my gear as it gives me the sound I want to hear. It's constantly evolving as well, so maybe there'll be an Aguilar rig appearing in the next year or so. We'll see. At the moment, I'm very happy with what I've got.

[lojo]

All true, there is also the stage of life issue

When I was a teenager I played an old home made bass through an old PA speaker and amp strangely it produced a good 60s garage type sound, or so we thought at the time

Now at 41 I am buying some expensive gear just to play pubs clubs and living rooms, not needed, but i've worked hard and wish to enjoy a few things I only dreamed of owning when I was younger

Much like the keen weekend golfer who overspends on clubs

Never spend what you have not got on anything you don't need, if you have a little spare, spend only some of it on things you don't need, and with the right basses (unlike sports cars), its a cash asset and not money wasted anyway

Amps is a different matter!

Edited May 1, 2010 by lojo

[Dom in Dorset]

I think this rule applies to many things , not just bass : every degree of improvement requires a larger amount of money than the previous one.
ie - you spend increasing amounts of money chasing ever smaller improvements, but if you've just got to have that perfect "whatever" you'll find a way of paying for it.
My most used rig: 300W Laney Combo (£200 second hand) , Home made acoustic fretless (£150 ish)

[Daquifsta]

This is the good old 80:20 rule of thumb in action. Have a look at [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle[/url]

In the business world, you can spin it many, many ways:

80% of your profit will come from 20% of your customers
80% of your complaints will come from 20% of your customers, (and it won't be the big spending 20% in the rule above, it'll be the buggers that bought one thing, five years ago )
20% of the company's staff will be paid 80% of the available cash.


In the context of basses and rigs, you can get 80% of 'the sound' for about 20% of the cost, hence all of us (me included) who can live quite happily at the budget end of the market If you want to get to 100%, it's gonna cost ya!

[luckman67]

If the sound that YOU hear from your bass/amp, is what you like then it does not matter if you paid £100 or £1000 for it. One thing I have always belived in it does not matter if you play a Squier or a Sadowsky you will only ever sound like you fact.

[Mog]

A cheap rig will do the job in most situations. Tone is more than just bass and amp.Good technique can make a cheap bass sound great and vice versa. I wouldnt go into a studio with cheaper gear unless it was something really good. Touring with unreliable gear is a bad idea too. ££££=reliability.

[Dom in Dorset]

In my experience quality kit takes less fiddling to get a good sound in the studio.

[MuseMatt]

I have my Ibanez Roadgear 600 which is an amazing bass for the money. And it still surprises me how well it does! It's a matter of luck and indeed: 80:20

[alanbass1]

[quote name='parker_muse' post='824284' date='Apr 30 2010, 06:26 PM']Point taken - but is that 'something special' worth that thousands of pounds price tag?[/quote]


Yep

[Vibrating G String]

[quote name='parker_muse' post='824272' date='Apr 30 2010, 10:08 AM']It got my thinking. Do you really need to spend £££ to get what you're looking for? I've had everything i've ever needed and never spent more then £180 or so on more then one thing until now. Is it more a placebo to us rather then twice as good for twice the price?[/quote]
Hi, you seem to be happy with what you have, congratulations, you're not controlled by ads and hype Nothing wrong with being content and not drooling over fancy trinkets. Nothing wrong with fancy trinkets either

I would go so far as to say often more expensive means a worse tone and less playability. To me a good setup and fret job means more than any nearly extinct rainforest wood species or picture of the bass being played by Victor Wooten. Look at all the bass heros who made their name on cheap gear that was not boutique at the time. Jaco, Jamerson, etc...

Gear is fun and cool and artsy but after 30 years I've found killer tone can be found at any price point. A little time learning the knobs on your amp and you can change your tone more than any luthier can. IMHO of course

So yeah, I think placebo or psychoacoustics play a bigger part than most will admit.

[Count Bassie]

Aha, I've found my thread! Windy post, but hey. It's a forum and no one's over my shoulder!

Exhibit A: I have a parts-assembled FrankenSquier P-Bass that took its own time and process to come together. A little bottom-feeding on craigslist and some parlance with cronies on forums came up with an old Duncan P-p'up, a super-fast (and mildly dinged) Squier P-neck and a bargain deal on a set of new Thomastiks. Time and baby-steps have made this bass a real dynamo of sound and playability. A Precision pickguard that got a custom paintjob years ago by a local street artist finishes it up for presentability. I had kept it just for sentimental reasons... It's a cool bass, and although I've toyed with selling it I think that would be a mistake.


Exhibit B: I got a Dillion 5-string that had been on a wall in a local hole-in-the-wall shop for about 6 years. It's a MM Stingray copy, Dillion model VMB-500 (now discontinued) that I got for about half-price, and it plays beautifully. The (?) pickup has its own kind of dark growl to it, a real signature that stands out well in a mix when you get the mojo working on it. The strings don't line up real well with the pickup at the outside of the spread, but it seems to make no difference- and conveniently, no one notices! I'm picky about stuff like this, but simply because it works I'm leaving it (lessons learned). The high-G doesn't appear to be diminished, as is a complaint about the real Stingrays (it's designed for slap I think, in the first place) and the low-B is present and resonant.


Exhibit C: 2x Bag End cabs, S15-D. CL bottom-feeding run- $100. It's got some overspray from a painting project on it. Fixable, sounds fine. Got the other through a trade for a bigger Avatar 2x12 cab (very nice by the way). These two cabs are small, not heavy, and stacked theyre lound and punchy, very clear-sounding. And are a perfect match for Exhibit D)...


Exhibit D: Trace-Elliot AH250SMX. You guys know this one, and you either like it or you don't. I got it for $200 US, and it had a tube rolling around inside. It had been beaten on, but it passed good signal and the front panel wasn't damaged. I had to take it from its sleeve and end up rack-mounting it... Admittedly I've had a minor issue, expressed in another thread, which I'm fixing, but you don't always score a clean A+ if you're going second-hand. I might have offered a bit less for it in light of the standing issue, I'm still alright with it though.

Point is if you use ears first, and if you're inclined to be handy, you can come up with a grand-slam. It helps to not be able to afford high end gear in the first place, of course! But my rig is first-rate. I really want to find a "Grail" bass, which neither of mine are- but I've been playing since '79 and feel I deserve it! Been a long road to admitting that kind of thing in fact, but I'm on the page now. I'm going to end up with a nice Precision at some point... until then I'm able to function and dig in without compromising my ears- and that's really where you want to be.

[neepheid]

I've never spent more than £400 on a bass. My head is a Hartke 3500 which I picked up for £140 with a dodgy valve preamp section which I repaired. I'm happy with my lot and I'm happy with the results which come out of my rag tag collection of wood and electronics.

[harvey1-8]

A guitarist friend of mine has Tone Acquisition Syndrome (at least that's what I've been calling it). He’s forever trying different stuff to re-create that tone he has in his head. He's spent quite a bit getting there.

[Earbrass]

[quote name='parker_muse' post='824272' date='Apr 30 2010, 06:08 PM']It got my thinking. Do you really need to spend £££ to get what you're looking for? I've had everything i've ever needed and never spent more then £180 or so on more then one thing until now. Is it more a placebo to us rather then twice as good for twice the price?[/quote]

I'm all for using the cheapest gear I can. However, extreme feebleness has forced me to compromise on this principle when it comes to amps - you just can't get cheap, loud [b]and[/b] light. I use a MarkBass CMD 121P because I can carry it without strain yet it has enough power for any situation I might reasonably expect to encounter. The moment Behringer bring out a <30lb giggable combo, though, I'll gladly trade down to that.

[Count Bassie]

[quote name='Earbrass' post='833137' date='May 10 2010, 10:25 AM']I'm all for using the cheapest gear I can. However, extreme feebleness has forced me to compromise on this principle when it comes to amps - you just can't get cheap, loud [b]and[/b] light. I use a MarkBass CMD 121P because I can carry it without strain yet it has enough power for any situation I might reasonably expect to encounter. The moment Behringer bring out a <30lb giggable combo, though, I'll gladly trade down to that.[/quote]

Really? I can dig the ethic of low-end (look at my basses!), but why trade down from something pretty dang nice? But you bet Behringer will come out with a micro. They're always somewhere in line, back a few spaces, watching...

Tell you what, I want a Fender Precision, and I'm going to have one. Cheap is not its own purpose for me.