No name or unknown brands from China

Looking good and low prices are great but.......you will very likely get lousy fretwork, substandard electronics, poor quality pups, hardware and build quality.
Chinese builders are contracted to hit a price point. Known brands will pay for a certain build quality and even at the cheapest end these guitars are usually playable and come with warranties that are honoured by your local dealer. Mail order no-names and knock-offs are a complete gamble. Sometimes they're ok, sometimes they're little more than a pretty wall hanging.
Keep in mind as well that even minor work needed in the future might mean major $$$ because the components are proprietary to the local factory and proper replacements may require serious work to fit.
Aliexpress is the largest online retailer in the world but they will sell anything with anybody's trademark regardless of any laws. IMO this makes them criminally untrustworthy and the very last place I would spend my money.

 

Go for a seller with reviews, a lot of them don't use pictures of the bass you'll receive.

That said, many of them are open to custom orders. Get them to build your dream body/neck on the cheap, then fit your own hardware/electronics to avoid the crappy stuff they generally use.

 

You will hear good and bad. Pretty expensive project if you aren't prepared to do any necessary work yourself.

 

1. Quality and QC are all over the place. Plenty of threads here where the pic on the site was not even the instrument they were selling.
2. If there is an issue, you often are SOL.
3. Many of these builders have no respect for IP. If they screw the companies, what makes you think they won't screw you?

You get what you pay for. A Yugo looked a lot like a car.

 

I try to avoid MIC stuff, given their almost total disregard for our patent, copyright and trademark laws. I'll leave it at that, since to go any further would start to stray into geopolitics, which wouldn't be appropriate here.

Though I did buy a couple of SX basses (used), which I suppose makes me something of a hypocrite once-removed.

 

At least the SX came from a reputable dealer, which gives the original purchase some protection, and was legal.

 

"At least the SX came from a reputable dealer, which gives the original purchase some protection, and was legal."

I agree, Kurt Zentmaier‏ is a very straight-up guy. And some of his merchandise (Brice, some Douglas) is MIK.

 

The only one I’ve actually played is a Chickenbacker Ric bass clone. Decent fit and finish, but crappy electronics and weird hardware. Fretwork passable with a polish job. It didn’t sound much like a Ric though. About what you’d expect for $300. There are European and Canadian distributors of some of the Chinese knockoffs that are more legit and reliable than Aliexpress or DHgate, Logical Guitars and The Top Guitars a couple examples. No comment on the legality/morality issues, up to your conscience and risk tolerance.

 

It's a big gamble. I've seen/played some amazing ones that were on par with popular brands, and some that needed a ton of work to be playable. But any problems are easily fixed in my experience.

I'd take a chance on one but I don't know how much extra I will get charged when it comes through customs. Afrer a certain price point, I might as well get a Schecter or Ibanez