Brain exercise - What's the best value for money bass you can buy?

[merello]

Just thinking about this. I bought a 2nd hand Fender Jazz for £320 and I think I could get my money back anytime. If I'd bought new it would have been about £500 and I'd immediately lose money. So, what is the best deal you could do. I personally think it is second hand. A guy in my work left the Army and there was an auction on his last week. He's a drummer and he bought a cracking Pearly kit, a Roland keyboard and a 1981 Fender P-bass in natural for £60 (sixty quid)!

[chris_b]

[quote]....What's the best value for money bass you can buy?....[/quote]
The one you like the most.

[Marvin]

[quote name='chris_b' post='774812' date='Mar 14 2010, 11:48 PM']The one you like the most.[/quote]
Good call, like your thinking.
I'll second that.

[Dubs]

I'd say the best value 2nd bass you could get would have been about 12 months ago when you could pick up a Warwick Streamer Stage I in good condition for between £600 - £650 off of here and eBay. A bass that retails at almost £2k for silly money.

[spike]

Buy a Rickenbacker, new or secondhand, you'll probably end up making money when you sell it.

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='Dubs' post='775367' date='Mar 15 2010, 04:16 PM']I'd say the best value 2nd bass you could get would have been about 12 months ago when you could pick up a Warwick Streamer Stage I in good condition for between £600 - £650 off of here and eBay. A bass that retails at almost £2k for silly money.[/quote]

+1..... or my 1991 natural one for £400...... The best thing about it being it's a cracking bass and i would have bought this particular one at 3 times the price, not that I have 3 times the price but you get what I mean.
I've seen some quite nice stingrays sold on here for low prices too

[OutToPlayJazz]

I suppose a lot will depend on longevity of the instrument, so as usual I'll vote for a Status S2-Classic. Yes, it's an expensive beast these days at just under £2000, but it'll still look as good, play as well & retain around 75% of the original asking price in twenty years' time. That's what I call value for money.

[Chris2112]

I feel that proper Warwick basses represent serious value for money. The Thumbs, Streamers and Dolphins etc etc...

Dolphins don't get hit too badly because they are relatively rare, but Thumbs and Streamers that aren't all that uncommon tend to sell for silly prices! I got my 1999 Thumb BO for £590, in literally as new condition - it didn't even look like it had been played! Given that they don't even make them with wenge necks now, you'll still pay three times that price for a new one! And given how bloody good Warwick basses are, you can get them for reasonable prices used and you have a bass as good as any you can buy!

On that note, I bought a beautiful white Pre-Fender (changeover) Kubicki Ex-Factor from Bassworld for £600. Traded it for a Status Stealth 6 string. The bloke who bought it off me had it on sale for something like £500! Crazy good value for a classic, rare instrument!

It was #1777, made in 1989 - just incase you ever see it!

[Nostromo]

Well, I have two 80's japanese Jazz Bass specials (one is the passive version and the other the "power" active version) I got them both second hand, and pound for pound, they've appreciated the most of all the basses i've ever owned - both are currently seen for sale for over double what I paid for mine ! . . . and they are lovely, playable instruments. Highly recommended - especially the passive one which is a joy.

[KevG]

Difficult, I picked up a Cort B4 this summer via a series of deals and it's an awesome bass very under rated (and cheap) also picked up a second hand MIM Jazz this weekend for £299 which so far (2 rehearsals only) seems great too! Guess it's really what rocks your boat!

[thodrik]

Buying new, if you find a good Squier Affinity Jazz then it surely must be considered value for money. Or a Westfield.

Buying second hand bass, you can always find some guy selling a great piece of kit for silly prices simply because they don't know what they have. Almost new Stingrays going for £400 and so on. You just have to be lucky I guess.

Always thought that the Marcus Miller Jazz stood out as a great mid-price bass that could compete with more expensive basses. I've not tried a Geddy Lee but it seems to have a good reputation as well.

I suppose it depends on your budget and what you want to get using said budget.Using the philosophical 'whatever bass makes you happiest', it could be a Six string Fodera constructed only out of the wood from the tree from the Garden of Eden.

[elom]

In terms of new, it's the law of diminishing returns. By that I mean that the cost per percentage improvement increases because those improvements become more difficult to achieve.

So the best [i]value[/i], which I take to mean quality divided by cost is at the budget end of the market. For me personally [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbb30bk_akustikbass.htm"]this cheap Harley Benton [/url]has been the best value bass I've ever had. Because it's cheap it sits in the corner of the living room and it doesn't matter if the kids play with it etc. And because it's just lying there it gets picked up and played [i]a lot[/i]. Quality is more than ok and I'm quite fond of the thing!

I've also got a pretty expensive bass which I love and is superb, but it's not better value than my HB.

elom

[tom1946]

[quote name='KevG' post='775593' date='Mar 15 2010, 07:46 PM']Difficult, I picked up a Cort B4 this summer via a series of deals and it's an awesome bass very under rated (and cheap) also picked up a second hand MIM Jazz this weekend for £299 which so far (2 rehearsals only) seems great too! Guess it's really what rocks your boat![/quote]


I have one of these too and have to say it's super for the money, very loud (Bartolini's) with a great variety of tones.

[Bigwan]

Not a fan of them, but if they're your thing, the Musicman SUB has got to be pretty killer value s/h. Or the Cort/Elrick JP5 (£300 the last one here went for!). Or, my personal fave, the Warwick Corvette Std (especially early-mid 90's examples) - best £300 a bass player could spend IMO (maybe starting to rise a little now).

Edited March 16, 2010 by Bigwan

[throwoff]

[quote name='elom' post='775878' date='Mar 16 2010, 01:36 AM']In terms of new, it's the law of diminishing returns. By that I mean that the cost per percentage improvement increases because those improvements become more difficult to achieve.

So the best [i]value[/i], which I take to mean quality divided by cost is at the budget end of the market. For me personally [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbb30bk_akustikbass.htm"]this cheap Harley Benton [/url]has been the best value bass I've ever had. Because it's cheap it sits in the corner of the living room and it doesn't matter if the kids play with it etc. And because it's just lying there it gets picked up and played [i]a lot[/i]. Quality is more than ok and I'm quite fond of the thing!.

I've also got a pretty expensive bass which I love and is superb, but it's not better value than my HB.

elom[/quote]

I have a left harley benton acoustic bass, exactly the same story here.
Sits in the lounge so always being played, its plenty loud for an acoustic and it was stupid cheap. I actually completely impulsed it, I was buying a bunch of pedals, picks and sundries on thomann and had a 500 quid budget. order came for 350 so I decided to hell with it for 150 quid you can't go wrong, and I was not dissapointed

Of course a little research soon shows that these bad boys are actually made by Saein in China who run a factory making Epiphone, Ibanez and Peavey instruments.

Which may explain this-

Compare
[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga5.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga5.htm[/url]
[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/epiphone_valve_junior_epajr_gitarrencombo.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/epiphone_valve_ju...tarrencombo.htm[/url]

For 30 some quid less not only do you get a tone control but I have heard from an amp tech who claims the Benton one has stamped Epiphone parts inside!

Edited March 16, 2010 by throwoff

[Bigwan]

[quote name='throwoff' post='775949' date='Mar 16 2010, 08:28 AM']I have heard from an amp tech who claims the Benton one has stamped Epiphone parts inside![/quote]

The PCB even says Epiphone on it, at least the one I have does... fantastic amp for the money - sounds great with a strat. Another bargain (even if it's not bass related).

[throwoff]

The worlds a Mad place when it comes to instruments!
Example 2 - The G&L Tributes are built by Cort!

Reminds me of my younger days when I used to skateboard, everyone had a favourite deck and others were rubbish. Of course as I grew up I found out there were only 6 woodshops in all of America making boards and it was amazing how often your favourite brand were made in the same one as your least favourite just with different graphics on...

Now if only it turns out AXL are made by musicman we will be away!

Edited March 16, 2010 by throwoff

[waynepunkdude]

A Squier with a Fender decal, buy a Squier Jazz second hand put a decal on it sell it on eBay as a Squier with a Fender decal watch how much it goes for.

[throwoff]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='775976' date='Mar 16 2010, 10:03 AM']A Squier with a Fender decal, buy a Squier Jazz second hand put a decal on it sell it on eBay as a Squier with a Fender decal watch how much it goes for.[/quote]


Thats not a bad idea!

[Annoying Twit]

[quote name='thodrik' post='775819' date='Mar 15 2010, 10:46 PM']Buying new, if you find a good Squier Affinity Jazz then it surely must be considered value for money. Or a Westfield.[/quote]

Not a Vintage Modified? The VMJs are going for about £220 lowest online price. Plus p&p of course. The Affinity Jazz is about £150 same deal. Surely the VMJ wins for value for money? No?

[thodrik]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='776126' date='Mar 16 2010, 11:45 AM']Not a Vintage Modified? The VMJs are going for about £220 lowest online price. Plus p&p of course. The Affinity Jazz is about £150 same deal. Surely the VMJ wins for value for money? No?[/quote]

Well, the Affinity Jazz is cheaper. If what you want is a cheap electric bass that looks like a Fender Jazz bass, has four strings, pickups and a bridge and works fine, surely that is the definition of value for money?

VMJs are more expensive, and have a few extra features. In my opinion they would only obviously be better value for money than the Affinity series if they were the same price. But the VMJs are more expensive. Its about £75 quid difference for what is still a pretty basic bass, which is about half the price of an Affinity Jazz.

I'm sticking to my original answer.

[thumperbob 2002]

Just bought a Low End Jazz bass off a nice chap on here- paid £700- a little tlc later and it plays better, looks better, is cooler and sounds better than my Fender Jazz 5 deluxe American.

Mind you, Low End 5s are 3000 dollars in the states- so I suppose it should be good, but wow - what depreciation- worse than my Warwick Thumb- and my BMW!!.

Bob

[xilddx]

Second hand Warwick Corvette $$

[clauster]

Used Warwicks = Bargain (again)

New, Squier VMJs, Epiphone Thunderbird Pro, Gibson SG faded