Hi and welcome aboard! There's a ton of good information for you to read in the links at the start of this forum, and that'll tell you why cheap ebay basses and guitar shop basses are both to be avoided. The basic story is that the cheap basses are made out of substandard materials, and show very poor quality workmanship.
For example, a bass neck is under tremendous tension from the tension of the strings, so it's important to use good stable wood and to have the neck/body joint to be a really precise fit. Many of the cheap basses use cheap wood prone to warping, and there's many examples of really terrible neck joints with all the gaps filled with a hot glue gun!
Many of these basses have been know to just implode after a few months use, or to need so much work on them just to get them playable that it's really not worth the effort. I once borrowed one of these basses from a local school, and returned it the following day as unplayable. I'd rather have no bass than to try to do something with that junk.
Guitar shops have good intentions, but they can only order what they see in a catalog. Basses take a lot of work to get them set up properly, and it's all old-school craftsman stuff, there's no screwdrivers involved here. As such, they're totally out of their depth, and have no idea what to look for or what to do to make their customers happy. For example, you can order a new bridge for your bass, but it will take a lot of cutting and carving of the wood, all by hand, to make it fit the profile of the front of the bass. There's no "one size fits all" bass bridge, it's not like buying parts for a Fender Precision.
So, it's worth spending a bit of money on something that's set up properly by a shop specializing in stringed instruments, and at this stage your money would pay you better by investing in wood rather than paint.
Other than that, have fun!
Cheers,
Tony
For example, a bass neck is under tremendous tension from the tension of the strings, so it's important to use good stable wood and to have the neck/body joint to be a really precise fit. Many of the cheap basses use cheap wood prone to warping, and there's many examples of really terrible neck joints with all the gaps filled with a hot glue gun!
Many of these basses have been know to just implode after a few months use, or to need so much work on them just to get them playable that it's really not worth the effort. I once borrowed one of these basses from a local school, and returned it the following day as unplayable. I'd rather have no bass than to try to do something with that junk.
Guitar shops have good intentions, but they can only order what they see in a catalog. Basses take a lot of work to get them set up properly, and it's all old-school craftsman stuff, there's no screwdrivers involved here. As such, they're totally out of their depth, and have no idea what to look for or what to do to make their customers happy. For example, you can order a new bridge for your bass, but it will take a lot of cutting and carving of the wood, all by hand, to make it fit the profile of the front of the bass. There's no "one size fits all" bass bridge, it's not like buying parts for a Fender Precision.
So, it's worth spending a bit of money on something that's set up properly by a shop specializing in stringed instruments, and at this stage your money would pay you better by investing in wood rather than paint.
Other than that, have fun!
Cheers,
Tony
