Show your $400 and below bass gems!

[Bob Growler]

On Father's Day, 2012, I responded to a CL ad: 1975 Jazz Bass, $300 drove about 50 miles and picked up this. Rattle can refinish, neck issues, never plugged it in, just handed the guy $300.

Get it home and find: Serial number 371xxx and pots dated 3047239 ( a 1972!), original - unresponsive pups, Special stamped on neck w/ J Torres, spent truss rod and original black paint. Sent it away to Luthier in Greer SC in mid June.

He called Saturday. Said my Bass was "headed to the buffer-about done and did I want the pickups replaced or rewound?" I said rewind and let's start with a Tort Pickguard.

Good news: I pick it up Friday.
Bad news: Repair bill's will disqualify it as a $400 bass.

[gimp]

Forget the bass. Nice beer collection.

[drummer5359]

I picked up this Schecter C-4 XXX last year for $150



And this MIJ P-bass was $200. I puut a guard, knobs and strings on it and still have less than $300 in it.

[Luke19Boarder]

Got this from a friend for free!



A couple hundred bucks for paint/finish (and the time it took to repaint/finish), new pickup (nordstrom - love it!), inlay decals, new tuning peg (one of them was clean snapped off), and a setup (it'd been in a pile of junk in my buddy's garage without a case). But after all that, LOVE it.

[JxBass]

Here's my 1966 Guild Starfire I. It cost me $400. Of course, that was in 1966

[fourstringbliss]

Here's my SX MM/J:




I bought it for $190, put a $30 bridge on it, a reclaimed set of G&L Tribute tuners, and redid the wiring. The body is American Swamp Ash, the fretboard is quilted maple, I leveled the frets so that the action can be really low, and it weighs just over 9 lbs.

[oddgrowth]

G&L tribute L-2500 (2 1" scratches on back) = $400 on CL

[BoxOfficeNights]

MIM Fender P-Bass £350, excuse the poor iPhone picture.

[TolerancEJ]

My wife got me this 1985 Squier Katana bass this past Christmas for $249.

NBD Wife's Xmas gift - Squier Katana bass

[bassphreak]

Updated family photo. All basses except the Warwick were $400 or less.

From left to right: Fender Frank Bello Jazz, USA Schecter P, Schecter Avenger (floor), Epiphone 'Vinnie' Les Paul

[lakefx]

None of my current basses cost above $400.

Forgive the crappy cell phone pics. Camera battery was dead.

First up on the left is my USA G&L L-2000 body with brand new fretless neck from a luthier in Arizona. Got if off ebay for $365 a few weeks ago and love it.

Next to it is my Bass Collection (during the SGC Nanyo years) fretless with EMG P/J pups. Got it used for somewhere around $400, but don't remember exactly.

The second picture is a brand new Godin Freeway 5 that I bought new for $400. I played it for a few weeks have since decided that I don't like 5 strings or frets.

[sgiacomo]

Fender USA JP-90, local CL find $325, mint w/OHSC & candy. Love it.

[kurosawa]

I read a post on here that said a minimum setup is a passive 4-string and an active 5-string. Made sense. I prefer passive 4s, but any B string can definitely use the clarity of actives, so I plunked down $250 for this used Korean TBJ52 found on the GC site. It's missing a knob top, but that's the only annoyance. Swamp ash body, light as a feather, and sounds great for an active.

[Cougmeister]

Here are mine. Never spent more than $350 on any bass.

Up first is my MIM Fender Jazz Deluxe V. It was given to me by my church when I first started playing bass.


Next up is my Peavey Citrus BXP 4. My bass mentor talked me into this one (he's a die hard peavey guy) and I snagged it for $350 at guitar center over a forth of July weekend. I bought this with the intention of giving the jazz back to the church, but they wouldn't take it back.

[Cougmeister]

Third in line is my Olympia OB3CE. I bought this one off of my mom's coworker when we started playing acoustic sets at church. Bought it for $250 including a gig bag.


Following that, I bought my Schecter Stiletto Extreme 5. This one was purely an impulse buy, but it was a steal at $350. Really enjoyed playing it as soon as I got it. Very wide range of sounds out of this one.

[kurosawa]

Originally Posted by ggvicviper

under $400 - used or new!

You chose an excellent cutoff there. Even the folks who scream that a bassist won't get hired without a Fender decal on the headstock would have to admit that a huge number of good used MIMs are out there for $350. And the SQ-series are still squeaking in at $400. Good call, as 10 pages of posts proves.

[Cougmeister]

Last but not least is the newest addition to my stable, my Squier CV Precision. This one was marked way down to $225, so it was hard to resist. Swapped out the factory tort guard for a white one. This one has become my main player temporarily. Super easy to play.

[Tostitos]

All of my current basses cost me $400 or less.

Spector Rebop - picked it up for $400



SSD NS-94 - around $360 if I remember right



My wacky fretless - About $100

[sequel91]

Brice Fretless HXB 405 for $260 in 2003 (although I spent a few hundred more to replace the pickups with EMG's after about 9 months).

Ibanez SR505 - found at GC for $275 in Dec. 2012. It needed a little cosmetic work...

[sobemtv]

KSD 5 strings $299 from AMS


Squier P collection. Apporx $200 ea