How do you decide on which bass to save up for?

Gear
13

I have to do a lot of sight unseen, my local shop only stocks beginners basses and I have to take a ferry to get to a bigger shop.

Price of the bass shouldn’t be the target, it should be your budget. You wouldn’t walk into a car dealership saying “my goal is to buy a car for $30k”.

First is what is comfortable for you to play. Neck profile, weight, cutouts. What are your preferences.

Next is looks, because just looking at it across the room you should be excited to pick it up and play.

Third is electronics, because honestly you can change these out. Example is my Paranormal. I am a sucker for a Fender Jazz neck, and the styling is retro and modern, so I love the look and feel. But not a fan of the pickups, so I swapped them out when I bought it. Now it has so much character.

A bass I’ve been eyeing for months is the LTD Surveyor 87. It has a Jazz body and contours which I like, a Jazz neck which is my favorite, Seymour Duncan SPB1 pickups for a warm tone which I love.

So not having picked one up, it checks all my boxes and it’s a low risk if I were to order one. @howard is the same way with the SR2400 series.

Knowing what you like in feel and sounds is important.

If you like the feeling of a Stiletto, Schecter makes some nice basses. Omens and Elites are gorgeous neck through designs.

As far as ordering, if you have access to a guitar center, they’re low risk. You have a 45 day return window for full refund, and you can order it shipped to the store, and test it out before you bring it home.

I prefer the service at Sweetwater, but GC has its uses.

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14

The other way to do it is to have enough people here speak well of something and then you end up with it. @howard and @PamPurrs seem to get me in the most NBD/GAS trouble.

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15

The other thing is to go used or B stock. I just picked up an LTD GB4 for half price which was brand new, but had a ding. And there’s some used equipment in great shape and good cost. The good thing about used is that if you don’t like it in 6 months you can flip it for what you spent in many cases. New you’re taking a hit on cost.

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16

The answer to question one is all dependent on personal preferences.
I was/am in the same boat as you.

I knew that I wanted a Yamaha bass, based on looks and the quality of other Yamaha instruments I own, so my decision was a little easier.
I then compared the features on each and went from there.

I was not happy with the first Yamaha Bass I picked, a TRBX304, and ordered the TRBX504 within 2 weeks and it was a perfect fit for me. I only upgraded to the 504 because I was not able to get the tone I wanted and I also wanted an active/passive capability, and there is a big upgrade in the electronics of the 504. Everything else was identical to the 304.

I talked to @howard about upgrading the 304 to the 504 but in the end I decided it was just not worth the time and effort.

If you have say three Basses sitting in front of you does one appeal to you more than the other two?
If one does check it out online and see if there are any issues that would change your mind.
If not I would say keep looking.

The answer to question two would be a Yamaha Bass.
I am completely happy with what I have in the TRBX504, for under $1,000.00, but there are more choices and color choices available in higher priced Basses from Yamaha. @howard is well versed in the higher end Yamahas and am sure he would help you out if you decide to go the Yamaha route.

I am a bit confused though because in your OP you said:

What is it you expect/want from purchasing a new Bass?
Do not think for a second you are going to get some thing better by paying 3X more.

Remember, as many have already said, the final decision is your choice based on what you will be happy with. From the OP at least you are not hampered from a price point of view.

Good luck and happy hunting :+1:

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17

This is an interesting question.
I agree with most of the previous suggestions.
Phil McKnight (Know Your Gear) has a guitar channel on YouTube. It’s fair, balanced and informative.
One of the constant points he makes over the years I’ve watched him is what he calls the ‘diminishing return’ problem.
There is a sweet spot with pretty much every manufacturer that gets you the best value for money.
Example - Fender bass made in Mexico is around $700. The US version is around $1400. Is it twice as good? Absolutely not. Is it better? Yes but not by double.
Ibanez is another good example where $700 will get you a stellar bass. Sure you can pay $1500 but that’s because of the wood they’re using etc.
So having bought and sold a few guitars before I got into bass. Here’s my advice.
Narrow your search down to some choices

  1. Active or Passive
  2. Pickup configuration.
  3. Body style
    So if you decided on a Jazz bass style body and pickup configuration there are dozens of options of the same quality as a Mexican Jazz for less money.
    @howard could point you in the direction of numerous beautiful Japanese basses that are head and shoulders above Fender

Good luck

18

+1 to everything already said, especially @Wombat-metal and @howard ‘s advice. Don’t set a target, set a budget. Your tastes will change and evolve.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Reverb.com for used gear (and I always try to buy used if I can), and Sweetwater for anything new.

Guitar Center is useless to me. I play left-handed. GC and music stores within a several hundred mile radius don’t stock lefty gear, especially the higher dollar stuff. Everything is bought sight unseen. And I’ve had great experiences, even with a couple of $3k+ guitars. I have no qualms about it these days if the Reverb seller’s rep is solid.

So, yeah, learn bass on what you have. Fill your “I Want a F*cking Cool Bass!” account without any preconceptions. Check out the Show Us Your Basses and Bass Porn threads just to see what’s out there.

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19

Kudos to all advices. I wish I’ve come to you guys before going nuts on my stable, lol.

There so many ways to spend your $1500. The problem is will you be able to spot or appreciate the difference in premium, not until you get the next one then you’ll really get to find out.

While it not the top of my favorite list Fender American is definitely a good way to go. Either Jazz or Precision it can’t go wrong because you can see and research how much it can sell in the used market. Usually it holds the value pretty well.

I would not do custom shop however until you know exactly what you want. You don’t really get the extra cost back in general.

I’d start with a pool of $500 and start buying and selling used bass of your interest. Every companies offer cheaper import version you can check them out before sinking serious cash into the unknown.

Don’t know where to start shoot me a pm, I’ll walk you through my experience.

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20

Looking at my rack, I seem to end up in the $700-$1000 range over and over again: new, used, vintage or otherwise. Even my Squier '70s CV is now a $950 bass after modding, and it’s fretless cousin will be there soon too.

I do have one Fender CS bass, a very selfish buy for myself, and I do love it for exactly what it is as it is exactly what I was looking for. Is it worth what I paid over my other basses in the lower range on components as a whole alone…hells no. Was it worth it to me, yeppers.

Over that ‘sweet spot’ that others above have mentioned, it starts to become like the car with a lot of ‘features’ (different wood, different hardware, different electronics) that might matter or might not, but you are paying for them anyway.

Let’s say you go to buy a house and it has a load of fancy faucets, light fixtures, and imported tile from Italy. None of those things make the water flow/light your way/enable you to walk better. But you paid for them. Now, what if you hate that chandelier in the main entranceway… Instead, what if you bought a house with the basic things above and upgraded them to exactly what you like? You still want a quality built house, but don’t need someone else’s idea of ‘upgraded’ features…unless that is what you are after.

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21

(minor nit, I have played one of those multiple times - not exactly unseen :slight_smile: )

It’s ideal if you can play the actual instrument you buy but this is not always possible.

Also note that if you buy used, there’s a lot more freedom with this, as unless you get a real lemon - unlikely from a reputable seller - it’s hard to lose money if you’re smart about the price. But that takes a little bit to learn.

I strongly dislike buying new instruments but that is just me. They are simply 40-50% too expensive :slight_smile:

This is really good advice and most notably, your $1500 “new” basses you are budgeting will be $500-$1k on the used market, unless they are rare or something.

While the idea of buying a new instrument may seem gratifying, just remember - the moment you open that box and pick it up, it’s now a used bass. You just burned several hundred dollars opening a box :slight_smile:

The two benefits are warranty and return policy, but many vendors offer these on used instruments as well.

Another good option, if you insist on a new instrument, is to keep an eye out for “outlet” or “B-stock” pricing on floor models, discontinued models, or instruments with small cosmetic defects. Those are relatively common and you end up with a new instrument (sometimes with issues, sometimes not) for a near-used price.

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22

I figure out what bass I want based on my required needs and cost/value.

My first bass I wanted something not too expensive because I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. I found a great deal on a Yamaha bass on amazon warehouse deals, I had other Yamaha instruments so I knew they made good products so I bought it.

For the 2nd bass, I’d been work on slapping but no matter what changes I made to the setup or my “style” I just couldn’t get a good sound from the TRBX174 so I decided I’d buy a jazz bass. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it so I bought a Squire Affinity Jazz, it was great for the price and it was much better for slapping.

Then I decided I wanted a 5 string bass to work on theory and sight reading. I watched YT videos, read forum posts and reviews and decided I wanted a Yamaha TRBX604. I shopped around online and couldn’t find the model/colour I wanted and in my online travels I came across the Sire basses. I did more reading and decide on a sire M7 which was a fair bite more expensive than the Yamaha but offered better features. It was available on Amazon too so it was easy to buy.

I’m always looking at guitarts/basses on the local buy/sell… I’d been thinking about getting a fretless bass and an Ibanez GRBX35 showed up for a really good price. I’d never heard of him or that bass before so I did some reading online, watched some videos and decided it’d would do the job so I bought it.

I’d been playing a lot of jazz stuff, I really liked the pbass sound but my TRBX wasn’t quite sounding the way I wanted, even with flats on it so I decided I wanted to buy a Precision Bass. I looked at them for a while, found some ok local deals but none of them had the colour or neck that I really wanted. I happened to find a nice orange player precision bass on amazon warehouse deals for a good price so I bought that. Currently that’s my favourite bass :slight_smile:

If I was going to buy a bass for $1500+ I’d buy a Dingwall Combusion.

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23

You could probably find a used Combustion in the $1500 range, yeah.

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24

@Crawlnstall what is your main hobby or instruments?

25

I only see $3000-4000 Dingwalls. I must be looking in the wrong places.

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26

Afterburners and signature models (except the Nolly combustion) are up in the $4k-5k range. The Combustions are in the ~$2k-$3k range.

27

I look at the instrument itself before even thinking about the cost. I actually have two basses - one I bought in 2003, an OLP Spector-style bass. I didn’t know anything about basses back then. The neck is really thick and has jumbo frets, which are just way too big for my puny hands. But I had no idea, I was a young 20 something back then.

The bass I currently play now is a Daisy Rock, which is far better on my hands. The neck is slim, action is nice and low, and just suits me way better. Both basses I have were under $300 each. Do I need anything else? Nah, not yet. Maybe someday. But for now all I need to do is learn how to play the notes, and play them well.

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28

Their “entry level” used are around 1400-1600. With super car color like lime green Lamborghini my favorite

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New Jersey guy sells them, the cool colors are apparently on their way in 5s…
This would be a very ‘hard to choose’ moment.

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Their purple and blue ones are my faves.

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31

I’ve never thought “I want to buy an expensive bass”; my goal is to buy the cheapest bass possible that does what i want/need it to do :slight_smile:

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32

I love that matte pearl orange! I’d probably enjoy a Moolon pbass more though.