The $99 bass experiment

[bluespenny]

There's a little music shop in the local Chinatown, soon to go out of business, selling a selection of guitars, cellos and basses. Prices have been slashed to $99 for a jazz bass, with a gig bag, and my assumption -like yours - is that these must be pretty awful.
But they're not. Branded "Blue Rock", most are actually decently put together. Most, meaning some are indeed dogs, with poorly aligned parts and sharp frets, but they were the exception. After testing about ten basses right out of the box, I found a red one with a really decent neck and everything screwed down in the right place.
I originally wanted it to harvest the ashtrays and thumb rest (I have a 1971 Ibanez Jazz lacking these) but after getting the Red Jazz home and running it through my Ampeg, I was half annoyed/half impressed.
Annoyed because it dared play so well with my Fender P and Jazz looking on in disgust, and impressed that $99 can buy a very usable bass.
I think. Usable to me means reliable, stays in tune and handles the pressures of a live show. On Saturday, we're playing a four hour bar gig, and Red is coming along as my main bass. I'll report back after the show.

 

[shawshank72]

Cant wait to hear about it.

 

[kodiakblair]

Excellent.

I'm watching this thread

 

[Spinal Tapper]

Pretty cool

I actually dig the tort pickguard.

 

[Syxz_ML]

Cant wait for the report. But man that Color and pickguard combination is killer even if this bass turns out to be just wall decoration. And I hardly ever dig tort

 

[Duplo42]

I'm not fully a fan of jazz basses, specially not with tort pg but this combination with red body is really kewl

 

[bassbully]

For what you gave for it that is a great looking bass. I like the headstock allot. I understand why you are annoyed for I have been there a time or two when a budget bass played and sounded as good as a bass that cost me a grand.

This is why I fix up cheapies today. Rock that thing and let us know who she does.

 

[Fat Steve]

Subb'd

 

[Runlikegregg]

chinatown nyc?

 

[holdfast]

Nice Buy! I can hardly wait to hear how it works at your gig.

I'm not impressed at all by high priced instruments, nor do I automatically assume cheap stuff is garbage. Low-priced instruments have come a long way quality-wise since I started playing. (Sez the guy who bought the Bronco with a bad neck! Oh well, sometimes you really do buy somebody else's problem, and you can't fix it.)

 

[MTFD24]

A "cheap" Mikro, with some "cheap" upgrades to tuners and bridge is one of my favorites for just simple playing at home, and it sees some stage time with our Worship and Praise team. There is as much "love" for the SX's as "disregard".
Besides, when there is less $$$ invested, there is less worry attatched too!!!!!! My nervess level would be a lot higher carrying around a $2,500 bass than one for $250!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

CNC machining now rules the world, anybody with a basic factory setup can produce a viable instrument, which isn't surprising when you consider how simple a machine a bass really is.

 

[raventepes]

Very nice looking bass you have there!

True, there are some gems out there that can be bought for dirt cheap, if you know where to look, or even just plain get lucky!

 

[Red Four]

That's a great looking bass. Even the headstock works, which is one of the hardest things to get right. Best of luck!

 

[tangentmusic]

Love me some cheap (but playable) basses to mess around with modding and the like.

Yours looks really nice.

 

[Kryptonite]

What's the name of the store?

 

[Fat Steve]

OP, you in Calgary?

 

[tedious1]

View attachment 517852 There's a little music shop in the local Chinatown, soon to go out of business, selling a selection of guitars, cellos and basses.

Golden Music perhaps? If so, I bought one of your basses siblings (mine has the rosewood fretboard.) Sure sounds like Golden Music anyways...

First thing that caught my attention at rehearsal was how light the bass is, with absolutely no neck dive on a 2" strap.

Second thing is I hate tort, but this pg is a thing of beauty to me.

Third thing, yes it's a very playable instrument, I slapped some EB cobalts on 'er gave 'er a quick setup and I'm very impressed, the neck is a little chunkier than my VM, but very comfortable and playable. Mine is going along on a gig this weekend, but in the backup role.

I originally grabbed it to have a bass to mod without putting my main player on the bench, or worse still, without mangling my main player on the bench...

Edit: If I have cause to use the Blue Rock on this weekends gig I'll update, otherwise assume my Squier survived another show unscathed.

 

[joe vegas]

great bass (and great color!) and great thread.

my 20 year-old Fodera AJ6 is my holy Grail,
but my $300 Rondo/Brice 6 gets a nice chunk of recording and gig time. inexpensive and a great bass.

 

[Maxdusty]

Nice! Watch out for the neck though when it comes to truss rod adjustments. I bought a Dr. Tech $99 special on ebay last year or two ago. Nice sounding for the price (it's the one that looked like the Stingray). Played fine for a while then the neck started to go on me. It would require constant tweaking even though it had light strings on it. I don't know if the neck was late in settling down or if this was a precursor to future neck issues and it would get to the point where I wouldn't be able to adjust the truss rod any longer so I sold it as is. Also the finish was beautiful but then started to separate from the bass and buckle or bubble in one spot. Yeeks.
Hopefully your bass is better than that one.