Starter Basses Today And Back In The Day!

[Dr. Cheese]

I was out and did my regular reconnaissance at my local Fender (where I bought my US Geddy,) and saw some interesting stuff today. I saw a new Affinity J5, and as usual, it is a great budget bass. Frankly, I think the Affinity takes a better set up than my Squier Contemporary Jazz V. If I bought that bass, gave the trussrod a turn and shimmed the neck, I know it would play like a dream.

In contrast, I saw a no name import, probably from the Seventies or early Eighties, that looked about like my first bass and was about as crappy. The action was bordering on unplayable and that is why I did not last long on it.

Beginning bassist's have it 100x better than folks who started when I did.

 

[micguy]

Beginning bassist's have it 100x better than folks who started when I did.

CNC machining has made a huge difference in things - nowadays, the cheap way to make wood parts for a bass is also the accurate way to do it. The resulting basses can be very well made and very cheap at the same time.

My only disagreement with your statement is that 100x may be too low.

 

[pie_man_25]

I guess I've only ever seen entry level basses being perfectly fine instruments. So chances are for at least the last fifteen years or so cheap basses have been fine.

Edit: I guess now WE'RE the only thing limiting us from being the players we want to be.

 

[arbiterusa]

Beginning bassist's have it 100x better than folks who started when I did.

True and then some. The quality of even the cheapest of today's basses rivals most basses from the 1970s and early 80s.

 

[Moving Pictures]

I certainly don't miss my first bass. It was a Raven EB-0 copy with horrible action that could never be properly lowered. On the plus side it sure ignited a fire inside me. 42 years later starter basses are more like something I would have lusted after back then.

 

[JRA]

Beginning bassist's have it 100x better than folks who started when I did.

i can attest to the higher quality --- all of mine start from the uber-budget lines and i go from there. i don't know how long the cheap prices will maintain, but it's definitely a world full of great, affordable choices! even the crap stuff is "100x" better than the crap stuff of yore.

 

[DWBass]

Is any bass really a 'starter' bass these days? Affordable seems to be a more appropriate description. Most are giggable with a proper setup. Even those Glarry's are pretty good for the money.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Is any bass really a 'starter' bass these days? Affordable seems to be a more appropriate description. Most are giggable with a proper setup. Even those Glarry's are pretty good for the money.

I can see your point DW, but some basses are clearly marketed to beginners.

 

[Doctor Morbius]

The no-name '70s jobbie appears to have a funky neck angle. Shimmed incorrectly, maybe?

 

[Hundred proof]

There was a lot of junk back in the day … but even then those Silvertone Danelectro basses were credible. Back in my guitar days our bass player had one bought for $15.00 at a yard sale played it through a Traynor tube YBA 1 and a Fender cab, sounded good bac then.

 

[jd56hawk]

Absolutely no doubt about it.
When perfectly gig-worthy basses like this are available for $130, I can't understand how people are even buying used basses for twice as much...and then complaining about the frets, necks, pickups, control pots, etc.

 

[fhm555]

True and then some. The quality of even the cheapest of today's basses rivals most basses from the 1970s and early 80s.

Peavey was my favorite bass back in those days. I didn't own anything but Peavey basses from the time I took up bass again in 1984, until 1990.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Peavey was my favorite bass back in those days. I didn't own anything but Peavey basses from the time I took up bass again in 1984, until 1990.

The irony was that Peaveys were not really starter basses, they were just inexpensive.

 

[Dabndug]

Couldn't agree more. The quality and variety of budget basses today is astounding. If you factor in inflation, the no-name gear we learnt on back on the day seems hideously expensive.

 

[Hurricane Jimmie]

So Anyway, so many options today for a few hundred dollars...very gig worthy.

 

[NobodyImportant]

Absolutely no doubt about it.
When perfectly gig-worthy basses like this are available for $130, I can't understand how people are even buying used basses for twice as much...and then complaining about the frets, necks, pickups, control pots, etc.
View attachment 4404864

That Harley Benton P has had me so intrigued for some time now.

 

[Pings Bass]

I was lucky to start on a Yamaha in the 80s, which was full scale (unlike the musicmasters a lot of kids started on at that time) and well-built. I also came from a musical family, and we bought instruments at music stores, not out of the Sears catalog. I know there was some absolute garbage out there at that time, but i was lucky enough not to have to play it. (I did have to put the Yamaha on layaway, because it was not CHEAP cheap.)

Note that today's $200 bronco is $60 in 1980 money. Not even the Sears junk was that cheap IIRC.

 

[Durham52]

Yes it's not only the quality, but the prices too. My first bass, bought in 1972 was a secondhand 60's Japanese hollow body, actually not bad in terms of build and action, but pretty ordinary pickups, I was lucky, as I knew nothing about basses or how to set them up at the time. But I paid $95 AUD for it at a time when I was earning $45 per week as a twenty year old. So it cost twice my gross weekly wage! A new AM Fender in Australia back then would have cost me the equivalent of about 2months wages...

If I was doing the same job now, for todays equivalent of my 1972 wage, one of the better built Asian basses would cost around the equivalent of two days wages and an AM Fender about two weeks worth. It's a much better and cheaper world for bassists and guitarists than it used to be. Sure we can spend eye watering amounts of money if we want to, or can afford to, but today we don't have to.

 

[DirkP]

The older one looks funky, silenced an electronic techno-disco song with his funk and has a nice mellow attack. Would like to hear and feel what happens after a professional setup?
But I agree: we get incredible good instruments now for very little money.
My first bass was so bad - a cheap nameless shortscale copy of a P bass I guess from eastern europe late 70s with a fat humbucker near the neck - that I never found a pic of it in decades in the entire internet. And I spend about 1 or 2 hours daily, searching for it since decades

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I guess I've only ever seen entry level basses being perfectly fine instruments. So chances are for at least the last fifteen years or so cheap basses have been fine.

Edit: I guess now WE'RE the only thing limiting us from being the players we want to be.

That was always the case. Lots of folks started on poopie basses and got way better.