Come one, come all! Post pics and/or comments of that terrible bass you aquired somehow. My bad bass is a Behringer p-ish. It is the very worst bass I've ever touched. It came in a bass / practice amp / gig bag / teach yourself book / cable and tuner starter kit I bought for my lil' bro. Show the world your own bottom of the barrel!
I tried one of those years ago when I was just starting out on bass and even then I knew it was horribly built and I was just a beginner. For me the worst bass I ever purchased was a Jay Turser Sting Ray copy. Action was horrible once I took the stock strings off and could never get the action to stay the way I wanted it. I replaced most of the hardware (tuners, bridge, pots, etc.) but could never get it to play the way I wanted. I was one step away from putting a Warmoth neck on it when someone else said that they would buy it off me. It was gone within the hour.
Not my finest moment on eBay: {} The photo doesn't do it justice (obviously) but if you look close, yes, those are nails holding the side veneer down near the neck joint.
No picture, but the worst bass I ever had in my hands comes down to a toss-up between two. First, a whole series of Wasbhurn basses from the '80s. Symetrical double cutaway, just like the guitars they made then. Good wood, necks, electronics, so they should have been nice instruments. But the 34" scale on those bodies made it about impossible to play them. The strap button put the 1st fret about 3' away from your shoulder so standing up was a pain. And the body shape was so small that sitting down was almost impossible too. Second, a particular Fender Jazz bass. Maple neck with pearl blocks, Antigua finsih, no tone, big clumsy feeling neck, and just about everything done wrong. It was so bad that when people broke into our store and stole a pile of instruments, they left this one sitting in the parking lot. Even thieves wouldn't take it!! John
With the exception of being new (and so not knowing what you're buying) and getting a POS on Ebay, why would anyone own a really bad bass? I've owned a ton of basses, and while some were better than others, none were really bad...
My Rob Allen 5 string. Only because I have become 6er. (naturally I'm joking and still love it, but would have been better to get the 6er in the first place) Do I still play it? Hell yes. Will I ever sell it? Hell no!
The worst bass I've physically played was some low end Yamaha at Best Buy (my city has a new music section they're testing out...not bad selection, just bad prices). I'm sure the higher end Yammy's are great, but this thing was just painful to play. Same thing goes for any brand though...can't expect a $199 bass to feel as nice as a $500 plus bass.
I actually owned one of those Fender Bass V..they actually sound just like a vintage P. Actually pretty rare and collectible now.
My first bass was a Hondo P copy that sounded and played like crap, so that gets my vote. However, I got the bass for free, so, if it didn't exist, then I'm not sure when or if I would have ever picked up playing bass...
This was one of the first if not the first production bass with a low B string. The problem is the extra low you gain were offset by the high notes you lost. I played one of those in the early 70s. Not a bad bass at all. Just not a good design by today's standards.