Ever find your cheapest bass has the best tone?

[Wilco]

5 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Most people who have owned/ do own a Bass Collection Nanyo will probably agree...

I certainly do, now being the owner of three of them! (Including one of Pinballs old 335's)

On 17/05/2018 at 22:45, Lozz196 said:

The answer from me is no, however my backup Vintage Tony Butler Sig Precision at (new) about a fifth of the price of my my US Standard Precision isn`t as far away as the price gap would suggest. 

 I find this. My Maruszczyk's are better instruments than my back up SGC Nanyo's, but not by the 4 - 5 times the price difference! However, that's more of a reflection of the low perceived market value of the SGC's rather than the M's being priced too high. The M's are worth every penny & the SGC's are just a fantastic used bargain!!

[Ed_S]

I recently had a few loyalty points to spend so picked up an Ibanez GSR-180 for the princely sum of £150 to set up with flats and leave in the corner of the living room for unplugged plonking whilst watching telly. I wasn't really fussed with testing the pickups as I wasn't planning to plug it in, but I thought I'd give it a proper try out when I'd done oiling, fettling and setting it up with a slightly worn-in set of 9050s, so I plugged into my Rumble 500 combo and got a very pleasant surprise indeed; it sounded absolutely great and what followed was an unplanned play-along with several Dire Straits CDs until my fingers were more than ready for a rest! The bass felt great, sounded great and stayed perfectly in tune (a clean score-card as far as I'm concerned) and if I had to put a price on it blind, I'd have been happy to offer £600 there and then. Maybe I fell lucky with that particular instrument being on the top of the pile in the warehouse when I ordered - who knows - but it just goes to show what's out there for comparatively little money.

[Paul S]

I had a Squier 'Silver Series' Precision some years ago that kind of set the bar for me for tone and playability.  Believing I could improve upon it I stupidly sold it on and I have been trying ever since to find that same tone.  Which I did - I had a 32" Squier P, still have a couple of Squier JV Ps and now my Maruszczyk Jake 5 - they all have that classic P bass tone that I have in my head - but i could have saved myself a lot of effort, angst and money by sticking with the 'Silver Series'   Although, to be fair, the Jake 5 is a better fit for me for lots of other reasons aside from tone.

[CameronJ]

Not technically the best, but my Sandberg Electra VS4 is by far the cheapest of my three basses and yet it easily hangs with the other two for tone and playability. Admittedly I’ve spent a bit of money on it - had the neck de-glossed, added a passive tone control etc. but still...at its core it’s just a fantastic instrument. And it’s allegedly Sandberg’s budget line!

Edited May 19, 2018 by CameronJ

[oldbass]

I do think there is a case for saying..if you spend say two grand then ur expecting two grands worth of tone quality. My Squier gives me a tone which is probably only worth £150 ie, its ok ,maybe a bit mushy at times but then I'm happy to support the band, I don't need tone that "cuts through"  like its a solo instrument.

[Machines]

I recently bought a 2nd hand Cort GB35J for £150. Played it in the shop and it sounded pretty awesome, almost on par with my old Lakland 55-60.

I've just put some new Wilkinson pickups in (cost £26) and now it's even better. It now has flat wounds on it, and just isn't worth enough for me to part with it. I'm even thinking about dumping my Fender Deluxe Jazz, as this just has better classic tones, and my Dingwall does the modern stuff.

[Ben Jamin]

I'm still loving my Sue Ryder P-bass!

I'm taking it into the studio this weekend. Original pick-guard and proud.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Ben Jamin

[bassbiscuits]

My Yamaha BB604 that cost me £200 secondhand absolutely wiped the floor with the £2.5k Lull PJ4 I had at the time.

Ridiculous, but sadly true.

And it was better set up.

Sold the Lull last year. Still got the Yamaha.

[uk_lefty]

2 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

My Yamaha BB604 that cost me £200 secondhand absolutely wiped the floor with the £2.5k Lull PJ4 I had at the time.

Ridiculous, but sadly true.

And it was better set up.

Sold the Lull last year. Still got the Yamaha.

When it's right, it's right.

My 90's Mexican jazz should be the worst bass in the world of you believe everything you read. It's actually my main bass for almost everything. Makes me think "upgrading" won't give me the return I'd expect from the outlay

[bassbiscuits]

1 minute ago, uk_lefty said:

When it's right, it's right.

My 90's Mexican jazz should be the worst bass in the world of you believe everything you read. It's actually my main bass for almost everything. Makes me think "upgrading" won't give me the return I'd expect from the outlay

Yep. The Lull was clearly really high quailty in the sense of expensive little details and refinements etc. But play the two side by side and the Yamaha was clearly the better overall player and sounded much more powerful and versatile.

I have no idea what the spec of the Yamaha is - generic Far Eastern pickups and pre-amp etc - but I've got no intention of changing any of it.

[discreet]

I've had many basses over the years including some fairly expensive examples, but my current go-to is a modded HB P-50. Admittedly I upgraded the tuners, electrics, bridge and strings but all you really need to do is buy one and put some decent flats on it. The necks on these are remarkable and very playable. Real old-school vintage thump, for peanuts.

Edited May 22, 2018 by discreet

[thisisswanbon]

On 21/05/2018 at 14:33, bassbiscuits said:

My Yamaha BB604 that cost me £200 secondhand absolutely wiped the floor with the £2.5k Lull PJ4 I had at the time.

Ridiculous, but sadly true.

And it was better set up.

Sold the Lull last year. Still got the Yamaha.

I bought one of those new years ago for £365, couple of surprising quality issue with loose pots and wobbly input that wouldn't tighten... That tone though! I've never been as satisfied with a tone before or since that bass...

[Bass V]

I've come to specialize in cheap / inexpensive basses, under $200 US, and I find costlier pieces are the ones which get the dustiest. my '65 Fender, L2KT, and T-40 are great but my stable of no-respects hang just as well and my latest, a $200 foreign Peavey Zodiac BXP cleans out the entire lot! weight, comfort, feel, tone, you name it and we have another winner! but then, I've either been lucky with the cheapos or who needs to pay over $300?

[Mcgiver69]

My Aria STB5 after a Bartolini MM5 and a new preamp?

Definitely YES, before that the sound wasn't bad but not what I was looking for.

Having said that it has always played great.

[pmjos]

No,  you get what you pay for.

[Machines]

1 hour ago, pmjos said:

No,  you get what you pay for.

Quite frankly that's just not true. It's totally possible to buy something cheap that feels and sounds good. Of course what good is is totally subjective. I have a 150 quid Cort and a Dingwall that's 10x as much. Is one better? No,  just different tools for different jobs.

[Bass V]

1 hour ago, Machines said:

Quite frankly that's just not true. It's totally possible to buy something cheap that feels and sounds good. Of course what good is is totally subjective. I have a 150 quid Cort and a Dingwall that's 10x as much. Is one better? No,  just different tools for different jobs.

a fact which has stood for decades, my minty $150 Squier VM P/J is 2nd only to my $160 Lotus L-250, or my $180 Epi Toby Std. IV, or the similarly cool $220 Cort Curbow Retro, and $260 T-20FL, etc., but my new $200 Peavey Zodiac is favored over everything, even my wonderful L2KT and T-40. admittedly, I'm in no rush to try anything pricier. 

[paul_5]

Sadly not. ☹️

[Wilco]

5 hours ago, pmjos said:

No,  you get what you pay for.

Not really no. Over the years I've had a few basses under £500 for example - some were worth just that, others I would have been happy if I'd paid twice what they cost. 

There's also diminishing returns the more you spend. Many players would deem themselves equally happy with a current MiM Fender vs it's US counterpart despite an £800ish price differential. If i think of say a higher end new Sandberg or Maruszczyk or even a Fender Elite all around the £1800-£1900 mark, to me those types of basses would be everything a player needs & makes a nonsense of spending on anything over £2k.

[josie]

Let's distinguish second hand bargains from list prices.

My cheapest bass is an old Encore P (£79) that lives in my office and gets played through a c**p guitar amp at drunken after-work jams now and then. It feels pretty good to play, but I put it through a decent bass amp for the first time recently and was shocked at how dull  and flat it sounded. Ok, it does what I bought it for, and I wouldn't leave anything better at work.

My cheapest "real" bass is my GMR fretless, bought here, which has build and tone quality which should cost at least three times what I paid for it (£350). The only change I've made is to re-string it with chrome flats.

[bassbiscuits]

Broadly I would like to think more expensive basses are more consistently better made from better materials than cheaper basses. 

However that doesn't mean cheap basses can't be equally well put together and play nicely.

Nor does it mean all expensive basses are automatically better. 

And certainly when you factor in rarity or vintage pedigree into that expense, that makes it even less "you get what you pay for." 

Sadly not all basses made in the good old days are actually any good, whatever the price tag might suggest. 

[mep]

I'm afraid not. Although my Aria Pro 2 fretless sounds good and was cheap so almost makes it but not quite. 

[josie]

1 hour ago, bassbiscuits said:

Sadly not all basses made in the good old days are actually any good, whatever the price tag might suggest. 

It would also make sense that the older a bass is, the more its tone and playability will vary with how well it's been treated. I went hunting for a Gibson EB2 a while back and found two, same year (1966), same price (US$2k), in very similar condition to look at. One was dull dead wood, the other warm and resonant and a complete joy. I'd be surprised if two much newer basses, originally so similar, were so different to play. (Unless one had been seriously trashed.) 

[casapete]

As a Danelectro fan , I’m bound to agree to a certain extent! Does my Longhorn have the ‘best’ tone of my basses? Maybe not, but  it’s probably my favourite nevertheless. There is a lot of pleasure for me to be had from getting good results from stuff that hasn’t cost an arm and a leg , and the arguments over where instruments were made / materials used can get tedious. You just know when something feels and sounds good to you, and can hopefully see beyond the hype that often surrounds buying an instrument. The gap in quality has narrowed so much over recent years between budget / medium to upper end basses, and it’s a great time to be starting out buying kit now.  

[bassbiscuits]

It comes down to what 'better' actually encompasses.

Super smooth, refined, hi-fi sound quailty might not be what some players are looking for, while for others it might be top of the wish-list.

Over the last couple of years I've abandoned any prejudice against Far Eastern equipment in the face of overwhelming evidence that there's some excellent, affordable gear out there (which currently comprises most of my instruments).