I bought my dream guitar (a USA Hamer Standard) about 15 years ago & ended up selling it for exactly this reason.
I was so scared of damaging it I hardly ever took it out of the case.
This.
There are some lovely used basses available for around £400.
I bought a Japanese Bacchus Craft Series jazz style bass on Basschat last year for £450.00 & it's up there with the very best basses I've owned.
I had a Sub Ray 4 for a while last year & I thought it was an excellent bass for the money.
I actually thought it was a better bass than the US Stingray 5 I had a few years ago.