Practice Bass for $200???

[hondo4life]

Get a fretless! no one will bother it!

I’d bother it

What about one of those $80 Glarrys? There is a thread about them around here.

 

[waveman]

Just got one of these and it arrived today! Can't beat it for $189

Squier Sonic

 

[meisi]

Im gonna be a devils advocate and say once you’ve tasted the goods of high end equipment it can be tricky to view the sub $200 category as anything but a toy.

I say bump the budget by 2x and buy used. LOTS of good stuff around $300-$400 and you can probably sell it for what you got it for in 1yr or 10yrs all the same.

 

[Argali]

So, let’s say you want to keep a full scale 34” practice bass around in your faculty office to twiddle with when you’ve got a few minutes of spare time. As the office isn’t super secure you don’t want to hang your valuable P-bass or Ric 4001 on the wall, but want to find a very playable, full scale bass that, if stolen/broken/loaned/lost, wouldn’t be missed much. What bass for around $200 would you buy???

Look for a used Ibanez GIO, which are pretty easy to find. I think they're also only $250 new. My wife has one and they're an awesome bang for the buck.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I am surprized at how many people here mentioning having basses at work. Don't you have to work at work?

I'd be looking for a used Yamaha RBX170.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

hmm, I generally don't twiddle around with my basses, but if I did it would probably be an older MIM Fender bass

 

[CallMeAl]

Used Squier, Yamaha, Ibanez or Peavey

 

[Smooth_bass88]

I am surprized at how many people here mentioning having basses at work. Don't you have to work at work?

I'd be looking for a used Yamaha RBX170.

yeah really! this is costing the company billions and billions of dollars annually. This type of waste, fraud and abuse comes to end RIGHT NOW

 

[Aledal]

There are some very cheap ibanez acoustics available that don't sound terrible with a decent set of strings on them.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

My Glarry is nice.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

Squier Sonic P. Yellow. Ltd. Ed. (limited to who knows how many). $200 - direct from Fender. Free returns.

BBB

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I’m gonna go contrary and suggest a semi-hollow of some kind, they are just loud enough for unplugged noodling, no amp required

 

[Smith357]

I picked up a Squier Affinity for about $80, put on new tuning machines, brass saddles and flats, sits in my office.

 

[pepj]

Its less about the cost and more about how playable it is.

I'd be thinking of a Sire...and if playing acoustically, it won't matter how it sounds.

 

[Mr Dalton]

Vintage Reissue VJ74! Righteous J style with top notch Trev Wilkinson hardware, great pups, graphite nut, etc. Can be had used for pennies on the dollar. Necks are fantastic feeling and stable. I bring mine to work and practice at lunch, resonant enough to play ampless if you don't have any other gear you want to leave.

 

[C Stone]

I’d normally say grab a used Squier when they show up in the $50-$100 range on Craigslist Offer up but with the Squier Debut series now available for dirt cheap I’d just grab this…$136

Amazon.com

 

[MuseChaser]

Get a fretless! no one will bother it!

Hahaha....the bass version of the best automobile theft deterrent against recent generations; manual transmission!

 

[Isaac_James]

Used Squier, Yamaha or Cort. Or buy a Harley Benton from Thomann, if you're in Europe.

@Bighouse is from California, according to the location in their profile page, but Harley Benton now sells direct to consumer in the US as well through their Reverb store. Lots of options here under 0!

I haven't played one but I hear these are great for the price, it's probably what I'd get if I wanted an inexpensive work bass unless I found something really great used locally. If you go this route, I agree with what folks say about older Peaveys - outside of the T40 they get slept on but they are well built and sound pretty good too, especially if you find one with Super Ferrite pickups in it.

 

[Pep]

So, let’s say you want to keep a full scale 34” practice bass around in your faculty office to twiddle with when you’ve got a few minutes of spare time. As the office isn’t super secure you don’t want to hang your valuable P-bass or Ric 4001 on the wall, but want to find a very playable, full scale bass that, if stolen/broken/loaned/lost, wouldn’t be missed much. What bass for around $200 would you buy???

I bought a Glarry GP for just under $100. Great instrument and perfect for practice.

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[bass12]

I was recently looking for such a bass. The best thing to do would be to try everything you can and then buy the specific bass that does it for you. After trying a bunch of basses the one that played best and sounded best was an Ibanez SR Gio. But I tried another SR Gio a few weeks later at a different shop and was not impressed. So a lot of it can depend on the individual bass (rather than the model). Of course, that also applies to basses at any price...