I need your oppinion on a bass

[GregRichardson]

Hi, Greg again.

I was searching through every guitar shop in Darwin to find a very cheap bass guitar and I mean VERY CHEAP, after much searching with no success I turned to my worst enemy Ebay and there I found an obvious strato-copy by a brand called Freedom, the bass costs $127+p&P (total around $150)
here is a photo [url="http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j111/ccashcon/wholesale/WEB1-RED-Front.gif"]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j111/cca...1-RED-Front.gif[/url]

the specs from ebay are:
Condition Brand New
Level All levels & ages
Body Solid catalpa with red finish
Neck Maple wood with rosewood fingerboard
Style Vibrato
Pick-Ups 3 Single Coil
Controls 2 x Tone, 1 x Volume
Strings 4 x Steel
Length 1100mm
Accessories Shoulder Strap, Lead
Packed Dimensions (HxWxL)118x40x8cm
Weight 4.665kg

if anyone has ever owned or used one of these monstrosities can you please tell me how good they are, I dont care if the sound is a bit tinny or anything like that (I have a $50 amp for gods sake) but I just want to know if it will break in my hands or if it will last a good while (with good care)

thanks a lot if you can help
Greg

[s_u_y_*]

Better technology has become more widely available so building basses can be cheap yet not completely crap. So I think it is safe to say it won't fall apart in your hands. Of course, you get what you pay for in terms of tone and playability.

Good luck with the search.

[Prosebass]

It looks like a Generic Chinese made bass as I imported a few very similar to check on the quality.
There is nothing wrong with the bodies and necks as these need to be made to a minimum standard so the thing is playable.
What you will probably find is a bad set-up, cheap and nasty pots with no shielding,crappy wiring, low output pups and probably not much variation in tones.
You will also find the bridge and tuners won't be brilliant.I even came across some that looked as though they had a substantial bridge only for it to be a plastic cover over a bent piece of tin. They are almost as well made as a shall we say "more recognizable" brand.....but as a bass to get started they are fine and with a few pounds spent on better tone controls , a better bridge and decent tuners you will have the basis of a good bass.
You will get what you pay for , its just these days its a hell of a lot more than it was say 10 years ago.
£75-£80 is hardly a fortune to pay for a new usable bass so give it a go.....

[rjb]

There's cheap and then there's cheap and nasty.

I'd personally stay away from these obscure brands. You're pretty much in Squier Affinity territory, so that's what you'd be best going for in my opinion.

Squiers are perfectly decent instruments for the money.

Here's an example from a random web store:-

[url="http://www.rockingrooster.co.uk/product_info.php?PID=355"]http://www.rockingrooster.co.uk/product_info.php?PID=355[/url]

Edited July 3, 2008 by rjb

[Jono Bolton]

Are you in the States? I'd suggest an [url="http://www.rondomusic.com/bassguitars4.html"]SX bass[/url] then.
If you root around on here, a lot of folks have imported them from America and there's a lot of good stuff said about the build quality. A few folk use them for modifying as well, so later on when cash allows you could stick in a new pickup, or a better bridge. Apparently the ones that come in the starter packs aren't so good, but the rest are meant to be very good indeed.

Go to the Gear Porn section and type SX into the search, you'll find loads of good reviews.

Edited July 3, 2008 by jono b

[Bassassin]

Greg's Down Under, I think - and $150 Australian is about £70, I think, so a Squier Affinity's probably a bit more.

Quality control's the big problem with the really budget end of the market - pot luck whether you get a straight neck with a decent fret job or one like a broken fire escape. This bass looks OK to me - it looks broadly like an Ibanex SRX knockoff - although thinking about that, a secondhand SRX200 would probably be in a similar price range, and these are generally regarded as good first basses, and are well put-together for the money.

Greg - if you consider secondhand, there will be a lot more choice available. Do you have car boot sales in Oz? I picked up an old but perfectly playable bass for £12 at my local booter at the weekend - my partner has a friend whose son wants to take up the bass, and with a bit of a clean & a set of strings, this will be ideal.

If you picked up a "project" bass, not only would you save a lot of money, but you could use it to learn about the nuts & bolts of how it works & setting it up, etc - and there's plenty of help & advice available here.

Jon.

[GregRichardson]

To Jon
No we do not have carboot sales here and that is one of the things I miss most about England, I used to go the the Hambleton booties (*giggles like a school girl* booty ) every week, its where I used to get all my bargains (I always used the line "but I only got XX pounds for my birthday, so can I have it for that amount" ) including my first game console (ahhh the Genesis, why oh why did you fail). But getting back onto the topic, the closest thing we have here to carboot sales is eBay (my worst enemy) and what makes it worse I live in Darwin the 'poo-hole' of Australia, I looked on eBay for everything being sold within 200 miles, there was an old blue rug and a plank of 4x2 .
I was kinda gonna use the budget bass as a 'project bass', I would replace all the wiring and pickups (unless they surprise me with their quality) and the strings (which look very dodgy) and that is also the cheapest bass I can find even cheaper than the ones in Cash Converters (they really rip you off)... You bought a bass for 12 quid! (Don't waste the 12 quid, paint the word fender onto the head and sell it to your parters friends child for 240 quid, you'll be making a profit )

Jono, sorry, don't live in the states (and sorry for the short reply but I am going out to lunch in about 5 minutes )

rjb, I was kinda going for the cheap and nasty, and you dont ALWAYS get what you pay for, for example I paid 100 quid for a new crystal xbox about 5 years ago and they sent me the box, I contacted eBay and they said it was o.k because they didn't actually mention the console (dang), I know that wasn't what you meant by the statement but I just had to have my moment.

thanks for the information prosebass, I knew it wouldn't be great hence the price tag but I'm thinking of buying it just because I'm not sure if I'll stick to bass or if I'll just give up in a year or so, like I do with everything else , I'll probably steal some a few parts from my dads old electric guitar as he has no intention on fixing it.

My brother is planning on buying one of their electric guitars, so I could just wait until he buys that to see at what quality their guitars are made

thanks for all the responses
Greg

edit: and sorry for all the smilies

Edited July 4, 2008 by GregRichardson

[robert43]

Hi dont buy a Freedom guitar or bass a freind of my son had 1 I went to adjust the truss rod ( de tuned & the allen key spun in it ) The allen key was ok I has to use a screw driver in the end Pups are crap etc. How much do you want to spend ?
Yes Iam here in Oz

[GregRichardson]

I don't want to spend anything , but my budget is around $150-$200 as I have no fixed income (no income at all actually) it is just to be used as a startup bass which I am going to use until I decide I really want to play it (I'm very lazy and usually give up on everything within weeks )

sorry to sound so cheap
Greg