1993 Vester Clipper 4 string for £75. Just needed a good clean,new battery and strings...brilliant beast
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What’s the cheapest bass you’ve been/are amazed with?
- Thread starter Inconnu
- Start date
Cheap for some players is $500 for myself it's $200 or less I've been amazed by 95 peavey fury bass, $125 2001 squier p bass special $200. SX ursa 3 pj bass $105 + shipping Harley Benton PB50 120€ all suprised me on quality and tone I changed the pups to alnico5 which made them even sweeter the harley benton comes stock with a Roswell VTN4 vista alnico 5 pb single coil which sounds amazing.
I agree...The Affinity series are really well crafted..almost as good as a Fender!
Bought a used Squire for $200. Works and sounds great. Only complaint, to get my favorite tone, the balance between the two pickups has to be EXACT. If I could put some electronics in it so one control was master Volume and the other was a limited range balance, maybe one pickup +/- 3 dB relative to the other pickup, would be a lot easier to get my favorite tone.
I have 2 American Fender jazz basses, an American P bass, a Stingray, a Standard Fender Jazz (MIM) and.....a 90 dollar (used) Squire Jazz Bass in black with rosewood neck and white pickguard. It’s like a small dig with a Napolean complex. This thing is ALIVE!
I just bought a Hofner Ignition B-Bass (Beatle Bass). They claim it retails for $599 but really sells for $399. It is supposed to be the upgraded model that is $50 more, but the only upgrade I can see is the teacup volume controls. It looks like they make around 10 models of this bass. Other than the cheapest ones not having a spruce top, and the most expensive (near $3K) having ebony fretboard and bridge, I don't see much difference in the online descriptions. There could be a difference in playing all of them for comparison. I was surprised at how good this bass is. It weighs nothing compared to an Elite Jazz bass. It sounds good, and I have been able to do quite a lot with it in different styles of music. It came with flatwound strings which I am not used to, but I don't mind them. It is just a very different bass, with the short scale, and it weighs almost nothing. The controls are goofy. I am playing through a Hartke KB12 with a 12" Neo speaker. That amp weight only 28 lbs. I am in lightweight bass heaven!
I won a bid for a palette of stuff that was apparently stuff PayPal got stuck with from guaranteed deals gone bad. Among the stuff was a Squire 5 string Active Jazz. It's the sunburst one hanging over the M3 in the pic on the left. I wasn't expecting much compared to my Fender MIM 5 string Jazz, but I was quite pleasantly surprised. With very little tweaking it set up very well, the action is great, way better than my MIM Fender was at that point (before I replaced the messed up original neck on the MIM), and I can get any kind of tone I want out of the active electronics. I can get it bright enough to sound like I'm using a pick when the tune requires it, even though I'm fingering. I've gigged it, for exactly that reason (had to do "I hate myself for loving you"). Two things disappoint me, I think it looks cheesy with the sunburst but no pickguard, and my snobby rich bandmates that spend stupid money on their gear for all the wrong reasons get miffed when I pull out a squire. But it just works, it works very well. It's been work to make my relatively expensive Fender MIM Jazz 5 to play as well as this Squire. Huge bang for the buck. Maybe I'll dress it up and throw a different decal on the headstock. The bandmates wouldn't know the difference anyway 
. Who says if you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig? This thing was a very capable instrument all along, just sold as a cheapie so as not to compete with the high dollar Fenders. Gotta give Fender credit, they went out of their way to provide a student priced instrument that performs like pro gear with this one. They still provided a choice for the cash strapped beginner, just like Leo Fender did back in the day. I'm seriously impressed with it. At least sometimes, their entry level gear is really very good, it just doesn't impress the snobs.
What did it cost me? I won a whole palette of gear at auction. Well, there was a Kanstul trumpet (I don't know trumpets, but these things draw dollars like Gibson Custom Shop) in the same palette of stuff, that had acquired a small dimple in the brass in transit, and was rejected by the buyer, so it ended up in the auction bin. BFD, I've pounded dents out of old Chevies before, with pretty good results thankyouverymuch. Same principles apply. . Half an hour's work and it sold for enough to pay for the whole freaking palette of stuff. The wife got off my back. After that, the Squier Active Jazz 5, the gorgeous custom strat with Warmoth neck, Spergel gold locking tuners, and Fender American gold plated trem bridge (haven't lifted the pick guard to see what the pickups are), the vintage Harmony H82 Semi-Acoustic guitar, that were all in the bin, they're all hanging on the wall, already paid for as far as I'm concerned . That's a deal. I just wish I could remember how I stumbled into that auction.
The other cheap bass that continues to please? Also in the pic on the left. Dad took us to London in 1970 for a restaurateurs convention. Had a great conversation with the real Colonel Sanders on the plane. Really nice guy. He achieved the title of Kentucky Gentleman. You know the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in black neighborhoods sell more dark meat, the restaurants in white neighborhoods sell more white meat? Straight from Colonel Sanders mouth. I still prefer dark meat .
I broke away for an afternoon in London and went shopping. I had $150 burning a hole in my pocket (well, $150 was worth something in 1970 dollars, and I was a cash strapped 16 year old kid) and I wanted to buy a bass that I couldn't afford back in the states. I figured there had to be some cool sh**t in London. I quickly found out that most stuff in the music shops in London was made in the states and costed twice as much over there due to import duties. Anything Fender, Gibson, or Rickenbacker, costed twice what it cost in the states. Huge dollars. I wished I had taken something American with me to trade. I felt some compassion for musicians in the British Invasion that didn't have the relatively affordable instruments that we had. What I did find is my Hofner Beatle Bass. Used. Made in 1964. I bought it for the same reason Paul McCartney did back in the day. It worked, and was affordable. It costed me $96.00. I ran down the street and bought a hard shell case for another $50 and went back and picked it up. Still have it.
. Who says if you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig? This thing was a very capable instrument all along, just sold as a cheapie so as not to compete with the high dollar Fenders. Gotta give Fender credit, they went out of their way to provide a student priced instrument that performs like pro gear with this one. They still provided a choice for the cash strapped beginner, just like Leo Fender did back in the day. I'm seriously impressed with it. At least sometimes, their entry level gear is really very good, it just doesn't impress the snobs.What did it cost me? I won a whole palette of gear at auction. Well, there was a Kanstul trumpet (I don't know trumpets, but these things draw dollars like Gibson Custom Shop) in the same palette of stuff, that had acquired a small dimple in the brass in transit, and was rejected by the buyer, so it ended up in the auction bin. BFD, I've pounded dents out of old Chevies before, with pretty good results thankyouverymuch
. Same principles apply. . Half an hour's work and it sold for enough to pay for the whole freaking palette of stuff. The wife got off my back. After that, the Squier Active Jazz 5, the gorgeous custom strat with Warmoth neck, Spergel gold locking tuners, and Fender American gold plated trem bridge (haven't lifted the pick guard to see what the pickups are), the vintage Harmony H82 Semi-Acoustic guitar, that were all in the bin, they're all hanging on the wall, already paid for as far as I'm concerned . That's a deal. I just wish I could remember how I stumbled into that auction.The other cheap bass that continues to please? Also in the pic on the left. Dad took us to London in 1970 for a restaurateurs convention. Had a great conversation with the real Colonel Sanders on the plane
. Really nice guy. He achieved the title of Kentucky Gentleman. You know the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in black neighborhoods sell more dark meat, the restaurants in white neighborhoods sell more white meat? Straight from Colonel Sanders mouth. I still prefer dark meat .I broke away for an afternoon in London and went shopping. I had $150 burning a hole in my pocket (well, $150 was worth something in 1970 dollars, and I was a cash strapped 16 year old kid) and I wanted to buy a bass that I couldn't afford back in the states. I figured there had to be some cool sh**t in London. I quickly found out that most stuff in the music shops in London was made in the states and costed twice as much over there due to import duties. Anything Fender, Gibson, or Rickenbacker, costed twice what it cost in the states. Huge dollars. I wished I had taken something American with me to trade. I felt some compassion for musicians in the British Invasion that didn't have the relatively affordable instruments that we had. What I did find is my Hofner Beatle Bass. Used. Made in 1964. I bought it for the same reason Paul McCartney did back in the day. It worked, and was affordable. It costed me $96.00. I ran down the street and bought a hard shell case for another $50 and went back and picked it up. Still have it
.
Tried an SX JB (don't remember the exact model) and it was very playable, good sounding and was crushing most JB like or Squier basses I tried.
Pickups sounded a bit dark and muddy but by putting some good PUs, it could have been a killer JB.
Pickups sounded a bit dark and muddy but by putting some good PUs, it could have been a killer JB.
Yes I picked up an RBX on ebay for £80 (about $100) and took it with me to Jamaica as I didnt want to risk taking an expensive one with me. Sounded great and the locals who tried it also loved it. Action was fine and it stayed in tune, nice and lightYamaha RB170. Bought it with a 20w Drive amp as a package for like $179. That was at least 10 years ago. What a value! Not as pretty as an Ash SRX, I'll admit to that
I've owned many cheap basses in the past and one of the best cheap basses I've ever owned was a douglas sculptor 5-string bass. this bass cost $170 and it sounded like a high-price bass. sorta has that spector kind of vibe. band mates from a previous band nicknamed the bass dougie mainly because of the brand name. recently I've been interested in getting the new dean edge 1 5-string bass. I found this one on zzounds for about $220 and I've been curious about it because of the musicman-styled pickup. plus it's passive. and I have been in the market for a passive bass. other than that, I currently own bass guitars that costs under $500.
+1 on schecter stiletto basses. I own a schecter stiletto extreme 5-string bass and it has been my main bass guitar for the past 5 years. loved the bass and it is staying in my arsenal.
A few years ago I got a STEAL on a 2004 Squier "Standard Series" Precision bass. I bought it off of a guy I used to jam with for $50. Granted, it was covered in about 3 mm of grime, it was missing a string and I'm fairly certain his dog pissed on it. I took it home, disassembled it, cleaned the hell out it and set it up properly. (I also added the green pickguard and the bridge/pickup covers.)
Super nice bass, I love Yammies.I am a tight-wad so I've paid little money for basses.
Most are USA made Peaveys ..including a G Bass with a really nice graphite neck.
Also lucked into a really clean Guild Pilot, and a great USA made Musicman SUB bass.
But the real sleeper bass here is a Yamaha Attitude Custom.
It's a 1990 model which I think was the first year of production for the Billy Sheehan Attitude basses ..they were made in Taiwan the first year or two and Japan after that.
This bass is as well built as any production bass I've seen.
I feel like I stole this bass...
Guitar Center has a used Yamaha Attitude LTD II for sale right now at $1699.99 and new Attitude LTD's are $2599....I paid what a used VM Squier costs for this bass.
The Attitude Custom has the normal split P pickup, but there is also a Dimarzio X2N-B humbucker pickup hidden under the pickguard up at the heel of the neck, and four piezo pickups in the bridge saddles to boot.
The body is alder, the neck is a meaty beast that can accommodate very low action, and it has a unique super strong neck attachment design that allows access to the last frets easily.
It also has two jacks for stereo or mono output mode to split the pickups to two amps if you choose.
I think it's pretty amazing ..and I got it stupid cheap.
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While I will admit, it has had some modification, I bought a Squier Vintage Modified Short Scale Jaguar Bass a few years ago, and never looked back. The fit and finish are way nicer than the $179 price tag, and with a good setup, a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound P/J set that I had lying around, and a set of LaBella flatwounds, it sounds amazing and is so much easier to play than my Ibanez and Yamaha long scale basses. I doubt that I will ever go back.
