There's no such thing as a "beginner" bass.

[Pings Bass]

Way back in the stone age there were student and professional and sometimes step-up models. Then came CNC, and none of it matters anymore. I've seen pros playing shows on squiers. Most hobbyists could play their entire life on a cheap import and never be held back by its playability and sound.

 

[iTzPrime]

I enjoy watching good bass review videos. But one thing that always irks me is when the reviewer refers to a budget bass as "suitable for beginners" or "aimed at beginners" or "for beginners". Manufacturers do it too in their ad copy. They'll say things like "it's affordable and lightweight with a comfy smooth satin neck and minimalist configuration which is great for beginners!". Hell all of that sounds great and desirable for ANY player.

Or "these features make it great for beginners or a great backup for more experienced players." As if more experienced players automatically want more bells and whistles. Maybe some of us want comfort and simplicity! I get it. They need "tiers" so you'll keep buying more basses to get to the next level. Like a video game where the final boss is a $10,000 premium deluxe boutique yacht of a bass. Sheesh.

Anyway, bit of a lighthearted rant. I don't knock what anyone likes. I just often prefer cheap "beginner" basses (but not always) and I've been at it 25 years. Sue me! Over!

Because these budget basses are aimed for beginners. Now they can be perfectly fine to play for longer, but generally because it is low cost - they have to save money somewhere.
Either the electronics are not great (as is the case often even in mid tier basses - Ibanez is a good example here), the pickups aren't, the frets aren't, the wood isn't as resonant or the hardware is rather lacking. Add cost in QC and you go the reason why some models are more expensive than others.

They are aimed at beginners, because most people who start out are not willing to pay 1000$+ to start with an instrument. Yes there are of course exceptions, but most of the people I know start on cheap guitars like Harley Bentons. That doesn't mean that you can't play a professional gig with them, but it is just who the target market is for.

If you play various instruments you start to feel the difference after a while. How the wood resonates by itself, how the bass note decays, the neck joint, frets etc.

There are always singular exceptions, but most of the cheap basses felt and sounded worse than more expensive ones.

 

[project_c]

I agree with the OP, this annoys me as well. Short scales, basses with simple passive electronics, Fender copies etc have all been passed off as ‘beginner’ basses at various times - until they became vintage and boutique builders started making expensive copies of them.

‘Beginner’ is just another way of saying ‘badly made’, but a poorly made instrument is likely to have a negative impact on a beginner’s progress, and they are likely to give up before making it past the beginner stage because their bass is unplayable.

On the flip side, there are definitely specialist ‘advanced’ instruments which a beginner wouldn’t know what to do with. A headless 6 string boutique multiscale fretless with ‘tone woods’, 2 coil taps and a 4 band eq with action so low that the strings are laying flat on the fretboard would definitely not be the right choice for a beginner either.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

I guess the idea is that a beginner shouldn't pay too much for an instrument, in case they give up playing within two months.

The problem is of course that many of these "beginner instruments" are so poorly set up that they can be extremely hard to play and WILL make you give up playing within two months.

This doesn't mean these cheaper instruments can't be great though, but like I always say: The best investment a beginner can make when buying a bass is to pay someone to do a professional setup. And I don't mean the silly xx point inspection from the likes of Sweetwater. I mean an ACTUAL professional setup, done by someone with the right tools/skills. Things like filing the nut slots to correct heights and leveling/crowing the frets.

Unfortunately most beginners don't know this and often end up with a sub-standard instrument that could have been great if the manufacturer had actually finished building it, instead of saving on manufacturing costs and leaving the last steps of the manufacturing process to the end user.

SOME "beginner instruments" are simply junk too of course, but if you stick with the established brands most entry-level basses can be pretty good these days, with a little bit of work.

 

[Funkycheese]

I lightheartedly disagree with OP - there IS a „good“ beginner bass: Every bass that
1.) makes it not harder to play than necessary
2.) looks good so it motivates you to practice
3.) has little sunk cost in case you decide to sell.

Probably the motivational aspect is most important?

 

[pepj]

Poor inexpensive basses can hit the mark and you get a very good one..but they are cheap for a reason.
Just like the % of good ones on a low price point, you will get a % of bad ones getting out on expensive ones...
You just need to decide what level of compromise suits you.

 

[Micha84]

Here is why a used MIA Jazz Bass is the perfect beginner bass:

A beginner needs an instrument that doesn't put obstacles in the way of learning. A beginner's instrument should set up well, stay in tune and generally just work as intended (no failing electronics, no dead spots, no raised frets, that sort of thing). Chances are you have to deal with these things on budget basses.

A beginner may later find that the instrument (or playing in general) isn't for him and he wants to sell it. There is a very good chance that an MIA can be sold without any losses. Bonus points when the instrument already had a few dings to start with, so a kid can add some more without worrying about it too much.
If a beginner sticks to playing and likes the general sound and feel of the instrument he will not have to invest later on to upgrade.

A beginner wants to experiment. A Jazz provides two pickups that can be mixed together, so the beginner can start fiddling without being overwhelmed with too many knobs and choices.

 

[tsarter]

I have a large number of basses. All are great instruments that are well loved and played a lot by me. Many are rare and/or expensive.

Right now the one that’s totally blowing my mind is a $139 (brand new) squire Bronco bass. Bought it fully expecting to have to set it up well and replace the pickup, but it kills!! I’m doing all my hugs with it right now and it sounds as good as my favorite P-Bass! Only thing I did is change the strings.

It’s completely changed my mind about budget basses, particularly modern Squires.Maybe I got lucky?

 

[Watchootognbout]

Considering that My beginner bass was a Pre Ernie Ball MusicMan '79 Sabre.
Something that seems to be highly prized and sought after today.

 

[lomo]

Companies offer basses at different price points. They have to justify prices at the top of the line, so admitting that a less expensive model can play & sound just as good as on that's $$$$ runs contrary to their prime directive, which is the bottom line.

 

[hrodbert696]

Beginners can learn on expensive gear and pros can make budget gear sound great. Same as you can learn to drive in a Mercedes as easily as a Pontiac. It's just that, typically, beginners are less willing to invest thousands of dollars in instruments they don't know too much about yet. They may not know if they'll stick with it to make the investment worthwhile; or it may be that they want to understand what they're doing and what they like in an instrument before picking which one to pour that much money into.

 

[Deleted member 394181]

Yes, there are inexpensive basses and there are really expensive basses. Inexpensive basses are usually bought for beginners because, if it doesn't work out, the person buying doesn't have all that much invested. Inexpensive basses as well as band instruments play and sound amazing compared to what they were like when I started playing back in the late 60's. .

When anyone asked me to teach them what I know on/about Bass. I always said I would, IF, they bought the best Bass they could afford. One, they'll be more motivated because of how much they spent. Two, I think its easier to play a great Bass. This was more important before CNC's. Three, it would probably be better looking, drawing them to it more.
I never have taught anyone what I know because the idea of "Beginner" Basses is so prevalent.

 

[Gervais Cote]

I tried probably around 100 basses in stores and one that blew my mind was a Squier passive Contemporary jazz bass.

In the store, I compared it against 2 MIM and 1 USA Fender jazz bass and the Squier was always the winner according to me and the 2 salesmen. Quality, assembly and setup were good enough.

This bass was half price of the MIM and 1/4 price of the Fender Pro. Definitely a "beginner" bass.

Guess what ? Squier no longer makes this bass ! I guess this would have jeopardized their sales of USA basses !

 

[Kokoskaka]

One very important reason to sell products at different price points, as mentioned above, is that they appeal to different buyers with varying amounts of disposable income. People tend to buy what they can afford, regardless of whether there are any significant advantages to spending more money or not. Plenty of people buy expensive cars despite them being unreliable and objectively worse at getting you from A to B than a cheaper one would be. The same is true for clothing and many other items.

A more expensive instrument can use more expensive parts and labour, and potentially be better than a cheap one, but diminishing returns is very much a thing.

A different reason to pay more is to consider the working conditions of whoever made the instrument. Wages and working conditions are a lot better in for example the US or western european nations than in china or some third world country. Playing something made in a sweatshop somewhere when i can afford better just dont feel very good to me.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

When they call it a “beginner bass” they are advertising to the parents that are likely the ones buying the instrument for their kid that wants to try it out. It means, good enough to get started, cheap enough that the parents won’t mind when their kid switches to an interest in piano in three weeks.

 

[DrBnz]

When I hear Beginner Bass. I'm thinking a relatively inexpensive bass that is not of the quality that an experienced bass player would desire. Its more an instrument to see if you can play and/or stay interested in before dropping any serious money on a quality bass

 

[dune]

Whenever I've seen the term "beginner" bass applied in whatever variation, while it may occasionally reference size, scale length, etc. it's most often referencing price point. Rarely, if ever have I've heard someone apply it to a bass costing north of $500 and I'm pretty certain that I've never heard it applied to a bass north of $1000. From what I've seen, "beginner bass" almost always means: "entry level price point". I think it's just semantics.

 

[FullumMusic]

"Beginner Bass" does not preclude nor disqualify that bass from also being an "Experienced Player's Bass" at the same time.

Square are also rectangles. Two things can be true.

--

At the same time, i get the "pet-peeve" aspect about it. There's a lot of baggage around the term "Beginner Bass". Even though being a good Beginner Bass can also be a good Experienced Player's Bass, IMHO most humans don't see it that way. They think a Beginner Version of something is inferior and something to be graduated from, even when that's not the case.

I've seen it when i used to teach motorcycle safety. People think of lower displacement bikes as beginner bikes they need to buy and then ride for a little bit and then sell. And it's like, well, displacement doesn't equate rider ability. Yes, beginners should probably avoid too-powerful bikes, but a low displacement bike isn't necessarily a beginner bike. It's just a different bike with different characteristics and different uses.

Similar goes for rock climbing shoes. There are flat shoes and really aggressive, downturned, curled-toe shoes. They're often sold as Beginner and Expert shoes, but really, they're just different styles, flat being better for stepping on certain surfaces and aggressively downturned for hooking toes in overhung areas and precise toe placement. Beginners often prefer the relatively higher comfort of flatter shoes. But they're not beginner shoes. Very advanced climbers use them all the time, especially for that shoe's area of expertise.

 

[Funkycheese]

Here is a good example of a BAD beginner bass:

As you can see, it has bad ergonomics so the poor guy cannot properly hold it, which obviously slows him down.
But the guy is bravely fighting it with a smile.
With that attitude, maybe one day he will make it onto a stage, nevertheless?

link (Vincen Garcia)

Seriously, seeing this, I feel we are all beginners, some with more and some with less money for their basses ... all the same.

 

[BassJuju]

May have been said, but they are just looking for a way to politely say cheap and lacking.