Sue Ryder Basses - Just Curious!

[thebrig]

Thanks for the interesting replies guys, I never bought one at the time which is why I'm curious about how they have stood the test of time.

If they were still available now I think would would take a punt on one because I just love messing around with basses, and at around £60 one of these would have been ideal 😉

[spectoremg]

11 hours ago, thebrig said:

Thanks for the interesting replies guys, I never bought one at the time which is why I'm curious about how they have stood the test of time.

If they were still available now I think would would take a punt on one because I just love messing around with basses, and at around £60 one of these would have been ideal 😉

Keep an eye on eBay for our friend who shall not be mentioned, he'll have a 3 string version any time now. 

[Maude]

I thought everyone sold them on to facilitate the purchase of the next craze, the pink Westfield P. 

Or was that before the Shaun Ryder P? 

[Hobbayne]

On 26/06/2020 at 10:57, mcnach said:

 

Is this your experience, or what someone who knows someone who played one said

I played one quite a lot for about a year and I can't say there was any sign of fretwear, and no, I don't mean the fretless one

 

 

No, I read it on here so it must be true!

[TorturedSaints]

I bought one to see what the all the fuss was about P basses, having only played Jazz basses before.  I still have it, it comes out occasionally, it records quite nicely and plays well enough without much tweaking, but I haven't felt the need to buy another P bass.  Would I get rid of it?  Probably not unless it was a local sale as packaging costs/courier costs would make it uneconomic for the buyer.

[KevB]

20 hours ago, Maude said:

I thought everyone sold them on to facilitate the purchase of the next craze, the pink Westfield P. 

Or was that before the Shaun Ryder P? 

I think the next cheapo craze was Harley Bentons but I might have missed a fad somewhere.

[Maude]

2 minutes ago, KevB said:

I think the next cheapo craze was Harley Bentons but I might have missed a fad somewhere.

Ah the Deko debacle of 2015, I can see four and half from where I'm sat now. 

[jimmyb625]

I've got one, still with the film on the pickguard and the barcode label on the back. I keep it at the theatre I'm involved with, just in case I get bored during a show where there's not much to do.

It's great as a backup and doesn't sound that bad.

[mike257]

There's definitely a history on here of everyone mobbing round whatever budget bass is found to be slightly less bad than you expect a cheap bass to be. Remember the SX craze? I think this forum must have bought most of their stock over the course of a few months. 

There'll be another one along soon, there always is!

Edited June 30, 2020 by mike257

[mcnach]

11 hours ago, mike257 said:

There's definitely a history on here of everyone mobbing round whatever budget bass is found to be slightly less bad than you expect a cheap bass to be. Remember the SX craze? I think this forum must have bought most of their stock over the course of a few months. 

There'll be another one along soon, there always is!

 

To be fair, I think SX deserves to be in a slightly separate chapter. They can be pretty good. I bought a SX Les Paul type guitar with set neck, P90s, etc back in 2005.. as decoration. Yup. I had collected an unexpected £100 and that guitar was £120ish and looked great and I wanted to put it on my wall (I got enough paintings  ). To my surprise it was really good. Just the usual little things, needed a basic set up o make it play nice and it sounded very good stock. I went to a guitar get together with it and was compared favourably to a Gibson LP Jr reissue someone else brought, sound-wise.

After that experience I got curious about them and although I did encounter a handful of disappointing instruments (and some very heavy), they were generally quite nice and a little attention turns them into very decent instruments. If you like the vintage tint lacquer necks, they really had no rival on the budget end of things. Because of that, during the lock down I wanted a Telecaster but as it's just for home use only to record demos etc for the band, I looked at SX among other options and went with it mostly because of the tinted lacquered neck (I am a sucker for lacquered maple fingerboards)... and I'm very impressed with it. 

In short: I consider SX to be very valid budget and midrange instrument brand (they do more than just the budget ones, although over here we seemt o just get the cheapest offerings), alongside Squier, Vintage and probably Harley Benton.

 

[thebrig]

I have to agree that SX's are towards the top end of the bargain/budget basses, certainly the older models, can't comment of the newer ones though as I've not tried any, but I had a short-scale SX Precision a few year's ago, I think I paid about £90 for it and it was a really great sounding bass that played well, I sold it on here for around the same money and now wish I still had it, you can't do much with £90 these days but that bass was real fun to play