Lowest Priced New Basses Ever??

[bassbenj]

I really can't fathom how anyone can sell and ship basses all over the world for less than price of the strings on the bass. There has to be something up with this...

Labor, parts, strings, paint, packaging, shipping...

No.

But I'll be here to see who the fools are. The ones who did? Or the ones who didn't?

Well for one thing you haven't seen the "strings" on them yet. I never saw a Chinese bass that didn't need strings as soon as you get it. As a big fan of cheapo Chinese basses (for me it was SX basses and I own quite the herd of them. I have these comments. Generally I find the more expensive models are better worth the money. The super "bargain" ones tend to very marginal hardware (though usually will sort of work) and fit and finish may be a bit off. Necks can have problems. etc. My problem with these is they are all 4 string. If I wanted a 4 string, I think I'd consider them. The other problem is they are all basswood even the higher priced ones. I really do not like basswood for passive basses. I think it sounds too "foofy". Now if I were going to mod one of these basses to make it active then maybe I'd give it a go. And I totally agree with the guy who ordered a bunch to give away to beginners etc. Yeah, makes perfect sense. $20 bass, you check it out and set it up so it's playable and then gift them to your favorite newbies. Win all around. Maybe I'm just spoiled with my SX but I do prefer cheap Chinese basses in ash or alder tonewood. Sometimes you can even find them in mahogany but those seem to cost MUCH more.

 

[Volker Kirstein]

As long as the buyer can afford to be without that money for a month and change...

Fortunately, I can be out $19.21 for a month. ...

This.

I have many basses, necks, pickups, pickguards, etc "laying around," and almost always have varying amounts "floating" in awaited packages. (I've been waiting for the cat's lions mane wig for weeks.) This would be just another one.

 

[GretschWretch]

Y'all stop your bellyachin' over $$. I spent between $50 and $75 on mine back in 2017. Even plonked down $99 for a couple of them.

 

[Mike N]

Just ordered another one.

I've got a blue one and a sunburst on the way..... I hope.

My plan is to play them right out of the box.

 

[GretschWretch]

Damn you Talkbass. Just ordered a black one and a green strat. Under $40 total. And will be getting two useless amps with those which I'd prefer to skip but there wasn't an option to skip the amps.

I have fender neck and some MiM fender P pickups. I wonder if they would fit into this? Was thinking of selling the neck but hey....

Play seated like a classical guitarist and use the amps for footstools.

 

[GretschWretch]

Looking at the ad gives me the same feeling as pulling up to a hole in the wall restaurant on a cross country trip and seeing "All you can eat chili, $0.25". At that price, the quality is such that you probably don't want a second spoonful.

Yeah, but you probably could blast through the runs like never before.

 

[GretschWretch]

I'm in the midst of staging a sell-off of almost all of my basses (need to fund a stalled drum room build, among other things!) and counter-intuitive as it seems, I decided to pull the trigger on a blue one. I figure with a couple hours of fret-pulling, sanding, &etc. it should make a reasonably serviceable fretless - which will allow me to add my seldom-used but quite valuable 'house fretless bass' to the chopping block. So net gain of a few bux, maybe!

Bluebass to Talkbass in reference to the other color choices: What's the matter with THOSE guys?!?

 

[mikewalker]

Bluebass to Talkbass in reference to the other color choices: What's the matter with THOSE guys?!?

...the blue one was marked down to $14

 

[frustum]

Seems to me China is dumping inventory for the cash flow due to the Caronavirus.

Hah. This is one specific seller on ebay. You can find pretty much exactly the same basses from many other vendors on ebay for $65-$95. China isn't going to solve any financial problems through the subterfuge of one ebay seller with a feedback rating of 55.

 

[CatchaCuda]

My plan is to play them right out of the box.

, yeah right. Looking forward to your LS swapped P bass.

 

[Mike N]

, yeah right. Looking forward to your LS swapped P bass.

I've done it before........ back in the mid 90's I was frustrated with the current Bass I had, so I stopped at a music store on the way to a gig, bought a new MIM P Bass and played it that night, straight out of the box.

Kinda wish I still had that P Bass.....

 

[Playbyear]

I really can't fathom how anyone can sell and ship basses all over the world for less than price of the strings on the bass. There has to be something up with this...

Labor, parts, strings, paint, packaging, shipping...

No.

But I'll be here to see who the fools are. The ones who did? Or the ones who didn't?

$2.79 per set

 

[Beej]

Another sucker here. I'll see what arrives and report back once I've reshaped the headstock to a tele-style and put a Fender decal on it, just because I like the look of Fender decals better.

 

[rushfanforlife]

Have to say I cancelled my order. Some of the discussions at work about the CoronaVirus thing came to mind. It is reported that the virus lives on inanimate objects for up to 28 days (conditions permitting). I don't know that I need a basically free chinese bass that desperately that I'm willing to endure that possibility.

Would like to see the source for 28 days. This new virus is said to be similar to a cold virus. The cold virus is able to live on hard surfaces for about 7 days:

The viruses can sometimes survive on indoor surfaces for more than 7 days. In general, viruses survive for longer on non-porous (water resistant) surfaces, such as stainless steel and plastics, than porous surfaces, such as fabrics and tissues. Although cold viruses have been shown to survive on surfaces for several days, their ability to cause an infection reduces rapidly and they don't often survive longer than 24 hours.
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[Joe Nerve]

$2.79 per set
View attachment 3724879

I'm impressed!

 

[felis]

View attachment 3724154

You got yours already?

 

[J_Bass]

I'm impressed!

You should be. They're "profeesional".

 

[Playbyear]

Shipping from China to the USA (or other countries) is heavily subsidized by both countries.

This has a lot to do with Universal Postal Union - Wikipedia.
Basically it cost the same to deliver a package or letter from China to a US address as it would within China.
It does cost the receiving country plenty!

China has manged to get itself classified as class three country. So it’s the lowest cost for them to ship out.

USA is classified as a class one country, so the highest cost to ship out.

 

[Playbyear]

The scale and size of guitar production is incredible. This county in China was set up by the government. Capital, talent, tax breaks and incentives to bring industry to poor area.
They produce six million guitars a year. They can make a lower end guitar very inexpensively. If your pumping out six million guitars, there are going to be excess stockpiles at times. Someone’s is going to be dumping them (or something less honest)

Music for world, no strings attached - Chinadaily.com.cn

 

[DJ Bebop]

And now they have your address, email, and payment info. Watch that identity theft and enjoy all your free spam as the seller passed your information along to some sketchy data collection operation.

/tinfoil hat