upright bass buzz... its driving me nuts

[drinkincococola]

i just purchased an upright bass off craig's list, i got it for 200 bucks. the bass buzzes right around the E and the f# on the A string.. i am caught in a bind because i dont know if its fixable or not because im new to upright basses. the bass is a Prima- Violmaster, model p-98, size 3/4... im guessing its a relatively cheap kind... but my questions are? do you think the buzzing is fixable? and if so how much? and what could be causing the buzzing? the A string is just a tad bit bend... could that be whats causing the buzzing?what do you guys recommend i should do? i really need help...feel free to ask me more questions as well..

[bpclark]

For $200, it could hardly be anything but a cheap kind. The buzzing should be very fixable. Also, at the price you price you paid it's likely the instrument has never had a proper setup. Take it to your friendly neighborhood bass luthier for an evaluation. As far as cost, it's hard to say without knowing precisely what the problem is. When I had the fingerboard and bridge on my Kay shaped, it cost me $150. A full setup will cost more than what you paid for the bass. In the long term, it's well worth the cost however if the bass is built reasonably well, which is why you need to have it looked at by a luthier.

[Silversorcerer]

When you say the A string is "kind of bent", is the A string bent where the buzzing occurs? I have seen strings like that. Usually that is called an "out of form" string. That certainly could be it. Get a new A string first. If it is still buzzing you may need a fingerboard dressing. A new A string metal wound might cost anywhere from $25 to $50 for a good string.

I once got a bass for $250 (from Mars Music when they bankrupted) and the strings were like that and were horrible. Well the whole bass was pretty bad, but it sounded fine once I replaced the strings. For a couple hundred problems are about all you can buy. But it would be worth it to have it looked at by a luthier that specializes in DB's. Prima sounds to me like it's more of a bass shaped object than a bass. Seems like there have been posts about those basses before.

[Bass]

A search on Prima only returns 3 or 4 results. Prima is the brand sold by Freedom Guitar.

A friend of mine has one of these, and the top is just beginning to separate from the ribs after a year and a half of abuse.