Best value to price ratio on >$500 basses?
 

I knew that if I made a value/price thread, it would be 3 pages of Squiers with a few SXs thrown in. So what's are the best value basses in the mid-upper tier? Used prices count.

used carvin.. if your lucky can be had at $500. usually a bit more..

guess i'm useless

one vote for SX.

Rics tend to hold their value . Many others do not .

G&L Tributes

Sterling by MusicMan. If you haven't checked these out, you ought to. I bought an SB14 used a while back for $300 with a case and sold every other Bass shortly after. Maybe I got the lucky one, but IMO it competes with many basses over 1K$

I was going to make one of those snotty posts with a link it that opens and says "let me google that for you", but then I realized that the way you phrased your request doesn't return much. But if you raise the dollar amount, you'll find that people tend to give suggestions just beneath it. So when you say you're looking for something under $1000, it's assumed that you're looking to invest somewhere close to that amount. But asking for something above a certain amount means a lot of people are going to seize the opportunity to answer your question honestly while suggesting you get a Dingwall or Fodera.
You may know this already, but it's much easier and faster to search the forums of you use google and just add "site:talkbass.com" to the end of the search terms.

Sbmm basses can be had new and are excellent value for money spent. Around that range you can even find some good Fender American standards used. My personal reference would be a used American precision but I did buy a new sbmm ray34 and it is a phenomenal bass that competes with their American made ebmm counterparts.

G&L would be my $.02. I have an L-2000 and and SB-2 and both of them are pretty awesome. L2K was $400 and the SB-2 was $350.

//edit... Ha, just realized >$500 means more than $500. Dumb.

That said... used USA G&Ls :D

Lakland Skylines are also pretty awesome... Used ones, of course.

spector

I'd say used Lakland Skylines, used USA G&L L2000/L2500's and used MusicMan Stingrays. Awesome basses all.

Tom

My vote goes for used Lakland Skylines as well.

I have a Sterling by MusicMan and they are pretty great. I love it. It feels and sounds just like a US made one. I have an SB14 which is basically a Sterling. The Ray34 is a Stingray. SbMM has also started making the SUB basses again. 250 dollars for an active MusicMan with a 2 band pre. They sound just like every music man too. Hard to beat that deal!

Another good bass is the Squire Deluxe Active Jazz. I have one of those too and it sounds so good!

+1

ESP

+1

Used Ibanez Prestiges or other MIJ Ibanez.

It is a difficult question to answer since you don't define "value" and like most of us you probably cannot describe what it is that you value in a bass in any reasonable amount of words. You probably know it when you see it though so if you want to consider new basses I would suggest looking at the $500-$2000 range because there are some very nice basses in that range and once you get above $500 the value/price ratio starts to drop off. You can get some superb basses by paying over and well over $2000 but you will start to pay quite a bit for each marginal improvement. Obviously those $2000+ basses become much better values on the used market.

As to what I like, I find the upper scale Fender MIMs to be quite good values. If I were going to spend more in the Fender line I would probably skip over the MIA standards and specials and go for one of the deluxe models but I happen to value active basses. I think the Ibanez SR500 and above and the BTBs are very nice basses and good values. I also like the upper end MTD/Kingstons. I've found some Schecters and ESP basses that I like although in the latter case especially the ones that appeal to me most are less than $500. Seriously, there are tons of great basses and good values in the $500-$2000 range so it really depends on what you like. If something above that range really grabs you then look for it used.

Ken

sterling by musicman. used musicman. find something that says musicman