what is the worst bass you have ever played/heard?

[Leftybassist4]

So, it seems pretty much ever bass gets positive attention here on TB. I want to here some negative reviews. what is the worst bass you have ever played or heard someone play? For me, it has to be the ibanez gsr200 or the Daisy rock heart bass. How 'bout you?

[BKuettel]

Haha, anything by Dean both basses and guitars. Some of the cheapest and weakest sounding instruments imo. Others are Drive basses, you cant even order replacement parts they're that cheap.

[RSmith]

Carvin Icon 4, a friend traded me his Icon for my MIM Jazz with Lindy Fralins. He said he could never find a tone he was comfortable with. I grinned all the way home, thinking the bass gods had favor on me at last... put new DR Hi Beams on it, changed the batteries and plugged it in. After a few different sessions with it I could never find a single decent useable tone. My wife even noticed and commented at one point.

I listed it here for a few days then I took it and sold it to GC for $437.00. I didn't want to take a chance on selling it or trading it on TB and someone feel like I did about it...disappointed.

[Barkless Dog]

Guild B302 fretless- just dead sounding

[Wallace320]

Hi everyone,
it was a traditional looking Precision copy by Arrow, I think, in black, 3ply white/black/white pickguard and maple fingerboard.

Apart from the above...
nothing felt in its place!

Deadspots, fretbuzzes, uncutted edge frets, emerging glue signs below some of them and even dings along the neck...

A mess!

Any "pro"?
Oh yeah: the price!

New Item €. 98,00!

Cheers,
Wallace

[Duke21]

Most basses in a shop are not sett up in an optimal way, so I usually avoid thinking about how good or bad they play or sound....

[Rip Topaz]

I won't say it's the worst bass I've ever played, but I was extremely disappointed in my Dillion 5204 when I first received it.

The auction was just dead wrong. The bass was supposed to be an alder body, it's pine. The finish was supposed to be nitro, it's actually the same catalyzed crap they use on most Chinese knockoffs. The tuners weren't the same as pictured in the auction either.

But the bass itself plays and sounds great after a bit of setup. So I guess I can't complain. Plus, the seller threw in a free hard shell case when I complained.

[Zooberwerx]

Originally Posted by RSmith

Carvin Icon 4, a friend traded me his Icon for my MIM Jazz with Lindy Fralins. He said he could never find a tone he was comfortable with. I grinned all the way home, thinking the bass gods had favor on me at last... put new DR Hi Beams on it, changed the batteries and plugged it in. After a few different sessions with it I could never find a single decent useable tone. My wife even noticed and commented at one point.

I listed it here for a few days then I took it and sold it to GC for $437.00. I didn't want to take a chance on selling it or trading it on TB and someone feel like I did about it...disappointed.

Now, this kinda surprises me. We're not talking about basses that are jacked up & unplayable due to functional defects but rather modestly priced gear that fails to yield any passable tonal quality whatsoever.

If my wife noticed it, the condition would have to be pretty severe!

Riis

[Matthew_84]

A Stagg jazz copy. Everything was horrible on it: the nut was cut too low on the E string, the tuners kept loosening, the body was made out of what looked like particle board, it wasn't that bad, but it was some sort of compressed glued together wood, the bridge was so cheap that the saddle screws actually made a groove on the plate causing crazy rattling and intonation issues, and the pick-ups/electronics were just ridiculous, the tone knob did nothing. It wasn't until I got another bass that I was able to appreciate what a tone knob. Can do. I really just can't imagine a worse bass that was bought new from a store.

[Duke21]

Actually I came with a candidate. There is a cheap p-bass copy in the rehearsal room in our school. It have some rounds on it, but not all are as old, some are very old, some are just older. The neck have lots of relief, the action is high, the whole instrument is sticky (burger fat etc, I guess), and the knobs are gone. The frets are sharp and the tone is like rubber band....

[Mtnman]

Dean Hillsboro. Setup horribly out of the box, E & G strings buzzed from being too low. A & D too high. Also, sharpest fret edges I've ever felt - was like a steak knife. Pups had uneven output.

[Jimmy Stump]

I played a bass named an "Anjo". I think it was supposed to be a Precision clone. Turns out, it was a P.O.S. clone instead.

[packhowitzer]

Every Acoustic Bass Guitar I've ever picked up. I'm sure there are good ones out there, but none that I've ever played were. blechhh!

[Rip Topaz]

Originally Posted by packhowitzer

Every Acoustic Bass Guitar I've ever picked up. I'm sure there are good ones out there, but none that I've ever played were. blechhh!

Totally agree. And I used to work at GC, so I've seen a bunch. The only acoustic bass I ever played that sounded half decent was a Breedlove, and that took some major amp tweaking to get a good tone.

[rtslinger]

Lyon by washburn bass guitar pack at Target it was there and plugged in so I picked it up (I'm a Bass Player lol) And I checked it out.You could have shaved with the frets!
The tone was really bad tinny for the lack of a better word and it's frets buzzed like an electric razor. Would not stay in tune period and oh yeah nothing was shielded, the hum was as loud as the notes it produced.

[spade2you]

I've played many bad guitars and basses. Just remember that one man's trash might be another man's wife.

[zackthompson]

Anything dean. But the one that takes the cake.... Keep in mind this is my experience. Idk if they are good basses or not.

I live in a very small town. So my only option for instrument related things is this one store called finchers. It's a music shop/appliance shop/tv shop/Internet and dish network provider shop.
I walk in there one day and they have a Johnson bass. It's a p copy. I went over to play it. It was horribly set up (didn't really expect it to be). So I Rested my thumb on the pup and it moved. It was so loose that I could shove the pup all the way into the body and it would spring back up. The sound was awful too. The worst part? The price. I know this shop sells stuff over priced, but it was $320!!! I can buy a Mexican fender for that!

[soundsource]

i had a 72 Fender Telecaster Bass and the neck played like a log. I don't care what they say about vintage basses it ain't the year it's the bass.

[smcd]

A old Eko just like this -





So bad it was memorable. The sound was thin and transparent and the build quality was cheap. An incredible piece of junk.

[MVPBASS]

A tie, Fender Stu Hamm Urge and a Schecter Pbass copy. Both were not mine, I was sitting in with a band. Terrible tone