Could you help my friend please

[The Drummer]

Hello,
My name is Robert. I am a drummer of 2 1/2 years and I am thinking of picking up the bass.

Anyway, that isnt why I am posting.
My friend is crazy about Tanglewood basses. He thinks they are great. On level par with Fender and Gibson is what he said.
To be honenst I dont think he has done any research at all and he doesnt have a good internet connection so I thought I would help him.
Now I am a drummer so I wouldnt know that much about basses but I do know that Gibson, Fender and Ibanez would be the better makes but I have NEVER heard of Tanglewood.

At the moment he has a Tanglewood Rebel 4k and he wants to get the same again but with 5 strings.

He is always on about how great Tanglewood are and my other friend who is a guitarist has never heard of them.

So I think that he is making a mistake buying another Tanglewood without doing proper research so I was wondering could you please list the top makes and models of bass guitar and amps for me.

For his sake I would prefer him to buy something with at least some idea of what is what.

As a band we play mainly rock. A mix of almost everything. Hard rock, metal, punk, robot.

Thanks very much,
Rob

 

[Juneau]

I havent heard of them either, but a little research yielded positive reviews overall. It seems to me to be a good entry level instrument. Id put it on par with a squire or epiphone, or maybe an SX bass. Personally, if he digs it, he can afford it, and it sounds decent, no reason to stick to more name brands.

If there is a problem, work on fixing it, but it doesnt sound like there is any problem here. I would suggest however, that if he is planning on moving to a 5-string, he might want to save and invest more money than this bass will cost. Typically the cheaper 5-strings dont have good B-strings, so its kinda a crapshoot. I likely wouldnt buy a 5-string for less than $500, due to quality being below par on the instruments costing less.

 

[The Drummer]

I havent heard of them either, but a little research yielded positive reviews overall. It seems to me to be a good entry level instrument. Id put it on par with a squire or epiphone, or maybe an SX bass. Personally, if he digs it, he can afford it, and it sounds decent, no reason to stick to more name brands.

If there is a problem, work on fixing it, but it doesnt sound like there is any problem here. I would suggest however, that if he is planning on moving to a 5-string, he might want to save and invest more money than this bass will cost. Typically the cheaper 5-strings dont have good B-strings, so its kinda a crapshoot. I likely wouldnt buy a 5-string for less than $500, due to quality being below par on the instruments costing less.

Thanks for that. Well I know the whole "if it sounds good to you there is no problem" and I 100% agree with it. I just wanna give him an idea what to look for cause he really has no idea But thinks he does

Thanks again

Anymore opinions?

 

[Juneau]

The Ibanez BTB series is a great 5-string bass. Its one of the few production basses with a 35" scale as well.

It really depends on his budget. The one above is an affordable, well made bass. Affordable is subjective though, its about $4-600. Id think any Mexican or American Fender would do just fine with a 5-string, but your likely talking a bit more money. Musicmans are another well made production bass. Above those, Id start looking into customs, and the sky is the limit really. If you can find out some more particulars, give us some thoughts on what he wants to spend, or is willing to save up, and we can suggest some more options.