Rocket / Stag BC300-NS

[ssab]

Hi all,

Rocket / BC300-NS (About a £100 )

Anybody Know anything about these guitars ?

Ive seen a fretless going cheap and was thinking about having a go at beginning fretless playing.

Are they a an ok beginner bass or are they just rubbish ?

Any thoughts greatfully appreciated.

[kerley]

I bought one last week and for £100 it is good (a fretless) as long as you don't mind a bit of fettling though! (I enjoy messing around with basses so it is a bonus for me in a really odd way)

The nuts were loose on the tuning machines, a spring was not on one of the screws under the J pickup so it rattled and it also hummed a fair bit. And the sanding of the headstock was not as smooth as it could be and was left totally raw. However neck fit was pefect.

Within a few hours it was a lot better;

- Removed tuning machines and sanded headstock and applied a couple of coats of oil
- Sanded fretboard to give super smooth finish and applied lemon oil
- Copper shielded cavity which removed all noise (even when solo'd on J pickup)
- Filed nut slots to get strings lower (although I do this on all basses)

For such a cheap bass it actually sounds very good and the pickups are both fine with good variation between them and a tone control that actually does something. Level of mwah is easy to control with action going low enough to give more than I require.

If someone bought it who was not up for sorting it out they may have been dissappointed with it and just dismiss it as even for £100 you shouldn't really expect to have to do any work.

[ssab]

Kerley,

Thanks for the info, not really up on messing about with Basses.( but i know a man who Can)
I think i might treat myself to one .
Once again thank you. Happy new year!

[kerley]

No problem. Reading my post back I probably made it sound worse that it actually was and you may get one that had better quality control. It is definitely a good enough instrument to start playing fretless with and gauging whether it is for you/how much you would use it without any great outlay.
I have a one bass at a time rule (self imposed masochism/control thing!) and use the bass for everything rather than just 'fretless' basslines.

The difficulty will be to stop myself spending any money on it as when I sell it it will always be seen as a £99 bass to the buyer...