The one potential issue (and I have no first hand experiece, just what some luthiers say) regarding very inexpensive basses is the neck.
Neck might be fine for a number of years, but you might start having issues later on in life.
I haven’t owned any basses for more than two years, and the only cheapie one is the Squier 70CV Jazz, and it has what I would say is an outstanding neck (tuning experience wise), but again, only 2 years.
Could be a myth, but what I hear is it is very hit or miss on cheap bass necks.
That said, lots of great older Squiers that are still thumpin, but the older ones also were built to different standards and considered ‘better’. So who knows.
Can happen to pricey basses too, depending on how they are cared for.
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Ditto on that! I don’t have a MIM but my Telecaster is MIM, and it’s perfect. I don’t see any reason to pay for a California Fender.
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I believe that would be a British Pound.
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And we have a winner! I’m sure that made @Barney ‘s day, you took the bait. Thanks for being a good sport.
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I think a used Fender still represents reasonable value. If it doesn’t work out you’ll be able to sell it for close to what you paid for it.
Also don’t forget Fender owns Squier and those guys are pretty good value for money IMHO.
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Fender knows this so the added a couple of cool features like neck profiles, compound radius fingerboard and angle adjustment on their USA Ultra series. A little extra neck carve here and body carved there makes for exceptional playing comfort. Not to mention that they make beating up the bass into a fine art and highly fashionable. Plus they have predictable resale value. Lol, that the main reason I own fender.
Sound wise, they are about the same
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When you start looking, be sure and try everything. You will probably be surprised at what feels right for you and what you expect to feel great but doesn’t feel right after all.
I never expected to like a jazz bass but when I tried one, I knew I had to have one.
This opens up another can of worms since big companies, like Fender, have so many product lines that you may hate one and love another. I like most jazz basses but I love my jazz bass. For instance, the pickups on my model (Custom Shop 60’s Jazz Bass Pickups) sound exactly like what I wanted. Whereas, I don’t really like most other Fender Jazz bass pickups. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with them, but they aren’t the sound I want to make on my bass.
Picking an instrument is very personal. For every bass I picked up and thought this is NOT the one for me, somebody else has posted how much they love it.
The more you play, the more all the little details will stand out to you. Good luck finding the one that will be yours.
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I echo what others have said, there is no definitive answer to this. You can get a great bass that is perfect for you that is inexpensive, but for someone else it might be an expensive one that hits the spot. However, I think it is worth talking about averages here.
From my personal experience, if looking at quality of the instrument and tone, there is a curve that is steep early on and then you get diminishing returns fairly quickly. What I mean by that is that there is usually a bigger difference between a $100 to $200 bass than a $800 to $900 bass, even though they are both $100 apart.
Also, from my test of many basses in shops, I personally don’t think you get better quality/tone once you go over the $1.5k-$2k range. After that price, what you are mainly paying for is cosmetics, exclusivity, rare woods, etc. One exception I’ve seen is chambered bodies to make the bass lighter, but this is usually not the case.
But again, you might play a bass and it is perfect for you and it is only $500. Go with it. I’m not saying there aren’t quality basses under $1.5k-$2k. I’m just saying that over that amount, you are generally paying for things beyond quality and tone.
Lastly, I am speaking largely as an amateur here. The more you play a bass, the more you pick up on nuances in how they play and how they sound. To us, two basses may sound the same. To a maestro, they might sound different. To a maestro, they might hear that 1% better tone in an original 60s Jazz Bass, which makes it worth it for THEM to pay more for it. But even then, another maestro might hear the difference, but prefer their $500 bass sound.
So, I’d say there are some general averages that can help you budget, but ultimately only you will can identify a great bass, whatever price that may be at. Hope that helps some.
P.S. - I consider a “great” bass to be quite cheap compared to the cost of some other instruments, like a “great” violin. Acoustic instruments generally have quite a different curve.
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Another point … someone above said you can always upgrade components by modding a cheaper bass. I do this constantly, but it is not for everyone. Many folks just want to play a bass they buy and not fiddle with mods, etc. I like to tinker, others don’t, which is totally cool.
But if you don’t like to tinker, then that means you are evaluating the bass as it is wholly. And that might mean spending more on certain components that sound good or feel good.
As @eric.kiser points out, pickup swap outs can completely change a bass - and I totally agree with him on the CS 60s jazz pickups. I put them in my Squier and it made it one of my favorite basses, for $189 more.
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There’s no real answer to this question, mainly because the concept of ‘good’ or ‘great’ instruments is subjective.
Many users here mentioned middle tier basses (just as categorized for their vendors) as great basses and maybe they are for them, that’s the magic what could be great for others maybe not great for you.
Taking that out of the plate, is a fact that buying used instruments will be far cheaper than buying new (you need to check the instrument, to ensure is in good condition, so you don’t end expending a lot in repairs) and that ‘known’ brands have a better resell value, so it’s easier to sell for an upgrade if that’s your thing.
That being said, most boutique basses start at the 7-8k range.
Are those basses great? Are those 5 times greater than top tier Ibanez/Yamahas? That’s your own question to answer.
Many famous artists use boutique bases (Victor Wooten with Fodera, Lee Sklar with Dingwall, etc), while others use a good’ol Fender P or even Squiers.
Imho, there are a few things you have with boutique basses:
- A LOT more room for customization (you want this or that pick-up config? you got it, you want that rare Brazilian wood? you got it, you want fanned frets? you got it… …well you get the idea).
- Most of this boutique basses use top quality stuff (great tuners, bridge, frets, wood, etc etc).
- The chance of factory problems, is lower, since this factories do each bass by hand and there are multiple quality control (ie I never heard of a Fodera or Sadowsky with a factory-bent neck, but I heard and saw it several times with Fender and Yamaha).
- The “status” tied to a boutique brand (even if there are more people that will recognize a Fender than a Fodera, an F base or a LeFay, there’s some status associated with the boutique basses… …is like wearing those particular jeans or shirt that makes you feel more confident? same thing).
tl;dr: a 15k Fodera won’t make you play like Victor Wooten. Try to find an instrument that feels good in YOUR hands. Go to your music store, look around and try stuff. Nobody else could say what you will feel like an upgrade nor what will be good/comfortable for you
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Maybe they’re a lot cheaper over the pond. But here you will find awesome Sires and Ibanez for around 200-300(Great British Pounds), but the equivalent Fender is 800 or 900+. Most you will see will be a 1000 or more. I don’t think they have the great reputation here that they have in the States.
Resale value doesn’t factor into the equation for me.
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I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. The best value for money is in that early 200-400, thereabouts, sweet spot. Then it rapidly tails off.
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@JT and @leo hit on an excellent point in addition to @John_E and @eric.kiser points.
Human touch. The most expensive component on a bass is labor. The amount of time someone touches your bass determines how much your bass would cost the more experienced the person who touches your bass the more expensive. If only one person touches your bass from start to finish then expect to pay a boat load for it.
CNC machine is getting very good where the end products only need a few touches of correction from leveling and smoothness before it goes to paint and assembly. Modular build like most modern basses are like Lego, it’s pressed fit for the most part.
This is my bass, while it has a lot of fancy Cnc but the bass actually had more than 150 hours of human labor from start to finish. If this were made in the US it would have been way out of my price range, lol.
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I counted what, 12 touched on your bass 
. I might have missed one or two.
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Made in Mexico Fender is the entry level Fender. I think you could reasonably argue that a MIM Fender could last you your entire playing life (if it’s the right bass for you). Cheapest new price I found was GAK at 629 pounds or about $840 US / $1072 CAD which is about 70 bucks more than list here. So slightly more expensive, but not by much.
I think used MIM Fender should be available for about 500 quid in the UK. Outrageous? Maybe, some might think that, but if you consider that very few people buy a bass and keep it for their entire lives then resale value has to come into play. Unless you have so much money and then who cares about any of this.
Are there ‘better built’ basses out there from Yamaha, Sire for less money? Yes. But not everyone wants a Yamaha. Buy the bass that’ll make you want to play it every day.
Lastly there’s a reason why the Fender P Bass and Jazz bass are the most recorded and copied (shape wise) basses in the world. To say that Fender doesn’t have a great reputation in the UK is a bit of stretch.
Onwards, BassBuzzers!
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History Side Note - For all my Canadian and American friends who didn’t get taught this in school. Why is Britain called ‘Great Britain’?
The name Britain comes from the the Roman word Britannia. So to differentiate it from the much smaller French region of Brittany, the word ‘Great’ was used around the 12th Century. Later on in the 16th Century, King James I was the first royal to refer to himself as King of Great Britain.
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It’s the miracle of editing. I was sent pictures every steps of the way and boy it was weeks in between them, I guess watching the glue dried and cured wouldn’t make for an exciting YouTube video, lol.
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I was joking, it was more like 12,000…
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I believe Brittany was an independent kingdom for a time, and was known as Little Britain.
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Yes, originally it was called ‘Britannia minor’ or Lesser Britain. Brittany is the modern name for it.
It was an independent kingdom, then a duchy, then part of France.
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