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Guitar Player looking for a bass.. suggestions?

C

CPerk

Oct 17, 2014
3
0
48
#1
Hello all

Longtime lurker.. Wondering if I could ask you guys what the most comfortable and versatile 5 string bass for under 1800.00 would be. I know this could spark all kinds of debate but to help matters I've narrowed it down to a few things.

The bass must cover

styles: Slayer, Led Zeppelin, Opeth, Mastodon, Elton John, Black Sabbath, ZZ Top, clean up for acoustic ballads

electronics: Passive or active.. I'm not really sure it matters. On guitars, I can get a lot more varied tones out of my passive pickup axes. Actives compress, which is good for extreme gain. I would prefer two humbuckers, coil split/tap at a minimum.. but thats just what I like on guitars.

Woods: open for suggestion.

Feel: I would prefer a flatter faster neck, close string spacing and no flubby B string. Ive noticed most basses still use 34" scale for 5 stringers. I would be using a plectrum 70% of the time.

Re-sell: I would like the item to hold its value.. so korean made imports are a no no. It's important to me that if I keep the thing for 25 years I could give it one one of my kids and it still be worth something.

Aesthetic: Anything but a solid flat or gloss paint color. Natural finish is ok, Im actually kinda leaning towards it, or a vintage burst.

========

So here are my thoughts..

The gibson eb 5 string: Reviews seemed mixed, but more and more are coming around
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Fender dimension
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Warwick rockbass - Its made in china, which I hate.. but I do hear great things about them
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Fender American Deluxe Jazz V
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And of course.. the stingray
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Im leaning between the jazz and gibson eb
 
#2
$1800 is out of the price range of most of my basses, so I can't advise from much experience other than what I've tried in stores. Of the ones you list, I would definitely favor the Dimension or the Stingray myself. I'm not fond of Warwicks (though some love them) and didn't like the Jazz V, don't know anything about the Gibson but while they make great guitars, never saw anything bass-wise from them that blew me away. Others may have better advice.

PS you may also be aware of Carvin, which will really let you define the specs you want. The only one of your criteria it would come up short on is resale value - why buy someone else's used dream bass when you can design your own dream bass for a few hundred more? But they do make great instruments, very happy with my SB4000.
 
#5
The Gibson may be a good pick. It has coil tapping and gives you plenty of versatility. The biggest plus if you are a guitar played is the Gibson is amazingly light, It does not have any neck dive, can be picked up used at GC right now for $699, U.S. Made, nitro Finish, case, likeley will be out of production (so far 2015 only has the T-bird with the EB pups and the SG standard). At the current price point it will easily keep it's value and the Gibson's that are odd balls have a tendency to go up in price after 25 years (80's flying V's are pushing $4k). Having said this I am a 4 string guy so I cannot speak to the B string performance. Hopefully someone with an EB5 will chime in.
 
#9
I'm a passive Fender guy (but can be really aggressive if taunted:mad:) and am not as familiar with a lot of the others as many here. So my opinion here may have little or no value.

I think the Fender, Music Man , and (not one of your choices) G&L will retain value best. These are all Leo designed bassist' basses. You didn't mention the MM Sterling. Smaller body, narrower neck, but still has the Stingray aesthetic. Might be an easier transition for a guitarist. Many MM purists don't like the pickups, but then, I'm a passive Fender guy, what do I know.
 
#10
+1 to Ibanez. I know it's not on your list, but I play a lot of guitar as well, and the SR 505 is the most comfortable bass to switch to/from I've ever played. Fast, thin neck, huge tonal territory, and gorgeous sound for the money. Hell, not even "for the money".
At least do yourself the favor of trying one.
 
#11
I'm another guitard coming back to the bass again. I've been looking for a 5-er, and also want an Amercian instrument if I can get it. After playing a number of the Stingrays and Fenders, I'd take the Deluxe Jazz V from your list. I found that for my preferences, I like the passive J pickups better than the N3's. So I bought an Am Std Jazz V for my uses.

Good luck in your search! But also consider used. If you're willing to look at $1800 for a new bass, that puts you in the range of some amazing smaller makers for American 5 strings. Lull in particular seems to get a ton of respect.
 
#12
CPerk said:
Hello all
Longtime lurker.. Wondering if I could ask you guys what the most comfortable and versatile 5 string bass for under 1800.00 would be. I know this could spark all kinds of debate but to help matters I've narrowed it down to a few things.
The bass must cover
styles: Slayer, Led Zeppelin, Opeth, Mastodon, Elton John, Black Sabbath, ZZ Top, clean up for acoustic ballads
electronics: Passive or active.. I'm not really sure it matters. On guitars, I can get a lot more varied tones out of my passive pickup axes. Actives compress, which is good for extreme gain. I would prefer two humbuckers, coil split/tap at a minimum.. but thats just what I like on guitars.
Woods: open for suggestion.
Feel: I would prefer a flatter faster neck, close string spacing and no flubby B string. Ive noticed most basses still use 34" scale for 5 stringers. I would be using a plectrum 70% of the time.
Re-sell: I would like the item to hold its value.. so korean made imports are a no no. It's important to me that if I keep the thing for 25 years I could give it one one of my kids and it still be worth something.
Aesthetic: Anything but a solid flat or gloss paint color. Natural finish is ok, Im actually kinda leaning towards it, or a vintage burst.

========

So here are my thoughts..

The gibson eb 5 string: Reviews seemed mixed, but more and more are coming around
Fender dimension
Warwick rockbass - Its made in china, which I hate.. but I do hear great things about them
Fender American Deluxe Jazz V
And of course.. the stingray
Im leaning between the jazz and gibson eb
Click to expand...
For versatility, I would suggest Fender Precision bass (the Duff McKagan P-bass comes with a Jazz Bass pickup at the bridge which may add some versatility), Fender Jazz Bass, Yamaha BB bass guitar, Lakland Skyline jazz-bass copy, Carvin jazz-bass copy, Ibanez Prestige bass guitar.

No flubby B string? Check out the 35" scale Ibanez BTB basses.

Slayer-type bass
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESP-LTD-TA-...K-/400777022034?pt=Guitar&hash=item5d502c0a52
 
As an eBay Associate, TalkBass may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
#13
I know you gave your reasons for not wanting a Korean made import or whatever, but I just wanted to point out there is a really great bass you would love for just under $200.00 You could play it awhile, and it would help you decide which more expensive bass you like.

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I am currently gigging with this bass (no mods other than cosmetic,) and it plays and sounds fantastic.
 
#14
As a guitar player who also plays bass my first thought on the $1800 is.... WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!

My entire bass rig cost me less than $1800. I have a Hamer 5 string, $175, homebuilt fretless P-Bass ~$500, Cort Curbow $140, and GK MB210 amp $275.

There's a ton of great equipment out there at very good prices. The CV Fender stuff is amazing, Music Man Sterling line is also great, Ibanez, Epiphone, Shector, and on and on.

Personally I would buy reasonable priced stuff and take the wife out for a new pair of shoes, one's that match my new bass ;)
 
#16
As someone who's almost exclusively a Thrash player, I'll leave you with these tid bits of info that I learned from my buying and selling of various basses and why I ended up with the 5 I've got now.
To start from the top, here are my current 5 basses.
Ibanez BTB405qm 5 string
Ibanez BTB785PB 5 String
B.C. Rich Trace Warbeast 4 string
Rebuild - '88 Neck thru Charvel 3B
Fender Jazz SR1 4 String

First off, $1800 is a HELL of a price. I think I spent close to $1,800 TOTAL for all 5 basses that I've currently got. And the only one I bought new was the B.C. Rich Warbeast.
1) Definitely aim for 35" scale.
2) Determine what string spacing you like. My first bass that I bought was the Ibanez BTB405, which has a 19mm string spacing. All the 4 strings that I play have 19 as well. When I bought a used Warwick Corvette 5 string off a guy, I found that I never adjusted to the 16.5mm spacing, and ended up trading the Wick to a guy here on TB for my 2nd BTB (the 785).
3) I wouldn't sweat humbucker or not. When I came from playing guitar to bass, I thought I wanted humbuckers as well. But now I go for different tones. My Jazz pickups on the Fender are like BUTTER. Great for anything. My Charvel 3B has a PJ setup, so it's half jazz half Precision. It's a good blend of both for the stuff that my band plays. My BC Rich Warbeast comes with these Music Man shape humbuckers, and they sound like garbage. I haven't pulled it out of the case in a while so I don't even remember if they're BC Rich pickups or what, but they definitely don't have much character to em at all.
4) Active vs Passive... All depends. My BTB405 has active Ibanez soapbar pickups and sounds great. My BTB785 has an active preamp but passive Bartolini MK2s and sounds great. My Charvel has active EMG PJs in it and it's got a lot of OOMPH. I wired an extra battery to this for even more headroom. The Jazz has passives and like I said before, sounds like BUTTTTTER. The Warwick Corvette I had before had passive MECs and sounded great. I just didn't like the spacing.


As for your list of 5, I'd say you can't go wrong with 3 of the ones you picked. You can never go wrong with a Fender Jazz. The Stingray is great as well. I haven't heard much of anything about the Gibson, and I've never even heard of that Fender Dimension.
If I were looking to play what you're playing, I'd switch out that Warwick Corvette and go for a Wick $$ Double Buck. All of the clips I hear from metal guys playing Double Bucks makes me want that for my next bass.
If you're looking to spend some high dollar, I'd look into a Dingwall Combustion. Fanned frets with longer string spacing for your low strings, SICK tone for days out of the preamp and pickups.

I think you're on the right track, but you could buy used any get sooooo much more for your money. You could buy several basses to cover different genres of music. Most of my basses are tuned down to C#, but I keep a couple off to the side tuned to B and E. If you're going to be drop tuning for any metal, you might have to do some truss rod adjustments to keep your action low and playable. Going from a low tuning back to standard isn't gonna be as fast as "Lemme tune these 5 strings real quick".
So even though you won't be able to quickly go from one tuning to the other (if you're tuning for for metal), but any one of the basses on your list will give you a great tone to cover a lot of genres.
 
#18
Bob-I said:
As a guitar player who also plays bass my first thought on the $1800 is.... WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!

My entire bass rig cost me less than $1800. I have a Hamer 5 string, $175, homebuilt fretless P-Bass ~$500, Cort Curbow $140, and GK MB210 amp $275.

There's a ton of great equipment out there at very good prices. The CV Fender stuff is amazing, Music Man Sterling line is also great, Ibanez, Epiphone, Shector, and on and on.

Personally I would buy reasonable priced stuff and take the wife out for a new pair of shoes, one's that match my new bass ;)
Click to expand...


Well I took your advice and let my wife shoe shop while I went into guitar center and played the jazz, precision, eb 5, stingray, sterling and some other wierd looking musicman.

My wife ended up with more boots... You know.. the kind all the women are wearing these days that look like theyre going horseback riding..

And I ended up deciding on the Amercian deluxe Jazz 5 in natural gloss finish. I loved the way it sounded and the active/passive toggle and stacked EQ controls were fantastic. Fit and finish was very impressive, on the PRS level of finish.. Gibson finishes have sucked the last 2 Ive bought.

I appreciate everyones feedback. After playing the gibson, I just couldnt beleive how poopy the pickups sounded and how bad of a paint job it had.. I mean, it looked like somebody spray painted it.. It was a real let down.. I honestly really wanted to like that bass. The neck profile on it was okay, but chubbier than I thought, same with the stingray, the neck felt narrower, i assume it has a smaller nut than the jazz, but it was just SOOO round, the jazz felt the flattest and thinnest, but I wish it was not as wide.

I didnt get to play a fender dimension, would have liked to, but I noticed its the same price as the jazz, but has no binding, less controllable electronics and dot inlays.. wierd...

But again thanks for all the feedback you guys are great. Ill put up soon.

Cheers
 
#19
I'm gonna save you some trouble by saying, don't go with Fender 5 strings. ESPECIALLY not the Dimension. The B strings are often bland, floppy and weak.

I would go for the Stingray. It has a strong, refined B string, and a bright punchy tone that can do any genre you throw at it. Also, there is a model with a piezo bridge which sounds fantastic for acoustic style songs. (A piezo is basically an emulated acoustic acoustic pickup in case you were wondering).

I'm not suggesting, I'm telling you, GO WITH THE STINGRAY.
 
#20
I have a 2008 American Deluxe 4 Jazz. Wisely you are looking at a 5 string for the metal, no re-tuning unless low B isn't low enough. The American Deluxe series has improved since I bought mine. It is an amazing instrument. You can't go wrong with a Fender for resale and longevity. It should come with noiseless pick-ups that still sound like a Jazz without noise. If you want buckers for the tone that is a different story. Warwick is solid, but consider a G&L L-2500. Order it and ask for the K mod. This adds a Fenderish mid switch position to the pickup selector. It will cover the metal and R&B. You can select your neck profile, I bought from Musicstorelive and they had it drop shipped to me for Christmas. I live in California about 60 miles from G&L. I had to install the Mod myself. I added a preamp but have since returned to the stock pre-amp, it cut through the mix better. I also looked at the Dimension bass, I liked the L-2500 better. The #10 neck is perfect for me. I play fingerstyle or pick, with a little slap. One major sound positive is the pickups can be switch to series for the traditional parallel. It really bumps up your volume in either active or passive mode. It also has a slap switch to brighten up the tone. Lots of options sold me on it over a Fender American Deluxe 5 string.
 

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