best beginning bass guitar for under $200?

www.rondomusic.net

Problem solved

 

Big +1 there. These basses blow Squier out of the water.

 

I like Squiers a lot. If you can find one used they offer a fantastic bargain. However, I'd recommend the aforementioned Essex imports from www.rondomusic.net also.

 

I'm a grumpy old bass player and I don't like nothin' no how! Today, all you young whippersnappers have all kinds of options with regard to buying your first bass! You can get your OLP's, and your Squire's, and your Ibeenhads, that play like butter and sound halfway decent, all at discount prices from Musician's Fiend. Did we have those options? No! Back in my day, if ya wanted to get a beginner's bass, ya had to spend $60 on a cheap ass Kay! That's right! It practically fell apart in your hands the moment ya got it home! And the action was so high, you could barely get the string on the fingerboard! And there was nothin' you could do about it, 'cause no repair man would touch the damn thing! And we didn't have fancy electronics like split pickups! No sir! The electronics on our basses were so bad, when ya plugged it into an amplifier, ya couldn't hear nothin'! Half the time ya didn't even know the bass player was there! And the scale length was so out of standard ya had to use the same strings that came with the bass, over and over again! And the tone controls were more of a decoration than anything, 'cause no matter how much ya fiddled with them, the damn thing still sounded like you were playing underwater! But that's the way it was, and we liked it! We loved it! Oh, happy day!

 

Yea been there done all that...God i'm glad those days are gone!

 

Does anyone remember when you could buy a starter Bass at Woolworths? I'm talking 40 years ago.

 

Great post! Like The Kid From Brooklyn meets the modern bass player.

 

My first bass was a short scale plywood model with one single coil pickup bought at the Sears Surplus Store for $25. I wish I still had it. You can buy bass kits at Wal*Mart you know.

 

When I was a wee lad, I remember going into Sears with my mom and just running over to the electric guitar display and hoping one day I would be in a rock band.

Now, of course, those Silvertones are worth bucks! Hah!

 

The best?

Yamaha RBX 170, or 270.

BOTH ROCK!

 

That guy is a "Sopranos" star waiting to happen.

 

first bass, identical to our local bass heroes JC Penny semi Hollow, double pick up. Way to cool. Shure would pay for another (provide my "money she doesn't know about" was available.

Best of Luck,
Wesley R.

 

Here are some other options:
http://www.basspalace.com/dynamic/displaybass/4StringBass/3842

http://www.basspalace.com/dynamic/displaybass/4StringBass/3611

http://www.basspalace.com/dynamic/displaybass/4StringBass/3840

 

I would start out with one of their jazz copies or perhaps a P-J set up (that would be one with a precision ("split") pickup and a jazz pickup, they are usually on a precision or Ibanez style body). At that price, you really can't go wrong. But get two pickups to start so you can have some flexibility in your tone choices.

In short, check these out at the Rondo site:

SX BG-180 TM (Ibanez style body, PJ pickups)
SX SB-301 (Ibanez style body, PJ pickups)
SX SJB 62 (jazz bass style)
SX SPJ-62 (PJ style with precision body)

Good luck!

 

4-5 days at most. Mine came from NJ to Ohio in about 4 days.

 

+1...Gigged my RBX 170 for the first time last night...I was very impressed...sound was tight and punchy (series mod and D'ad XL-170 strings)...playability was as good as any of my other basses...I also did a great job on the setup on her, which helps a LOT!

 

You will be shocked when you get your SX. They are more like a vintage Fender than a Fender. They are very upgradeable too. You can have a super bass for about $300.00 total with the upgrades. They are good with the stock hardware and pups too. Upgrade is not really necessary but you can have a bass that rivals American Fenders if you do. In Stock form they blow away Squires and Mexican Fenders.

The Brice Beatle Bass and the SG copy are very nice as well. You might not want a Fender after you checkout what Rondo has.