Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Are there any bad basses anymore?
- Thread starter tlite
- Start date
I blame the White Stripes and the Black Keys. Crap plastic guitars and junk like the Harmony H78 were sitting in pawnshops for dirt cheap before they came along. Here is the H72, H75 and H78 I owned years ago. These three cost around $3500 in 2014. Only good thing about any of them were the DeArmond pickups, the rest was junk.
I bought a cheap bass of an established though not top-tier brand. It is bad. Spent a week tweaking truss, did not help enough. Action is like an upright with the saddles as low as they will go. This is on the aftermarket bridge I put on it, the stock bridge was worse. It had a bent metal Fender style bridge but the holes for the strings were too high, so the strings did not put enough pressure on the saddles. Backing the height adjustment screws off just left the saddles floating in the air. Tried neck shims, now the nut needs lowering.
That said, on the whole cheap basses are pretty darn good. Bought a Dean for $200 that is really sweet.
That said, on the whole cheap basses are pretty darn good. Bought a Dean for $200 that is really sweet.
I think Jack White has since completely abandoned old crappy guitars. They actually fit quite well with The White Stripes’ simplistic vibe though.
Thats because there are a whole lot of bass players out there that don't know what we know.
Yes, yes there are...people have been starting threads about some of them these past few months.
I don't care if they're only $100 or whatever...if you have to change the pickups, change the pots, file the frets, change the tuners, and still, when that's all done the bass still isn't as good as a $300 Squier, Sterling or Ibanez, it's a bad bass.
I don't care if they're only $100 or whatever...if you have to change the pickups, change the pots, file the frets, change the tuners, and still, when that's all done the bass still isn't as good as a $300 Squier, Sterling or Ibanez, it's a bad bass.
Fair point, however, I would say "bad" is subjective and there are people that go into the purchase knowing they may have to do exactly what you said.
...One's expectations have a tremendous amount of sway on the perception of "bad" or "good"
Yes, and that's what modding is about, trying to make a bad bass good or a good bass better.
There have never been so many good bass available, but I still think there are plenty of bad basses, and I'd rather start with a good one if I wanted to mod something.
Hats off to anyone who buys an Ammoon, Glary, Exquisite, Tye-Ger, BCP etc...we can learn from mistakes, too.
There have never been so many good bass available, but I still think there are plenty of bad basses, and I'd rather start with a good one if I wanted to mod something.
Hats off to anyone who buys an Ammoon, Glary, Exquisite, Tye-Ger, BCP etc...we can learn from mistakes, too.
This goes back to my comment about the "bones" of the bass. I bought a Squire VM Jag with every intent of changing the bridge, Pups, the horrific "bass" boost preamp, and probably the tuners because I played it in the shop and I knew I liked the feel.
For just over $200 I got a platform where I will have zero buyers remorse about taking the above components out and I don't feel I'm "wasting" money on more expensive stock components I may still want to swap out on a more expensive bass.
I expect to spend about as much in this process as you would for a full Fender Jag, but with my own chosen mods.
Add to the fact that many after market parts made for Fender Js will work with it... It met my expectations, partly b/c I did some research first.
I've actually heard decent things about Ammoons... for the price, that is. The problem with mail order is you don't know if you are going to get a QC dud, but it seems like a possible mod platform *if* you know the bones are good.
I can make someone a bad bass if they’re in the market!
The Glarry basses are easily available, $75 shipped and pretty good quality. I liked the P so much that I bought the J. Great bones for the price of a good pedal. The Duncan pickups I’m considering for them cost more than the bass haha.
Funny enough, the really cheap bases have become great value instruments and you can expect a sharp fret or a blemish but what I see coming out of Fender factories and getting through inspection is shocking for the money they ask for this crud. Mij Fenders are and always have been the best Fenders, Squires are great, Bacchus even better and I would love to get an older SX j bass.
