Bought this Ibanez GAXB 150 on a whim before thanksgiving. Paid $150 with the case. Thought I would let my son use it. He lost interest in a week. So I cleaned her up, polished out some scratches, gave it a setup, filed down the fret ends, and oiled the neck. While its not the most versatile of bases, the soapbar has a real nice trebly rock tone in the lower position and a useable pbass tone in the middle. Not a fan of the short lower horn as it can get in the way of the upper notes. But I really dig the neck on this thing. Its fairly wide (which I usually don’t like) but relatively shallow and the fretboard is pretty flat. Very easy to move around on.
I have been using this on the slap lesson but also just messing about with it. I was going to put it back up for sale, but now I think I will keep it. Not the greatest bass, but for $150 its pretty good.
@Old_WannaBe
Not that I mind having a couple of nicer basses, but I feel like I’ve had more fun with cheaper basses that have a couple effective mods to them.
Hundred dollar Affinity that desperately needed a bath. Pickguard, cheap gold one, Schaller rebranded Dimarzio pickups off ebay and some stove knobs from Ace Hardware. Never should have sold that one. Lol.
You just reminded me there is was a super cheap bass nearby that I was seriously considering buying and upgrading. The local posting has been deleted. Oh well. It had a P style pickup and looked like it had been a dog’s chew toy for a while
Yeah @Old_WannaBe this is what I was thinking the other day - mass production being what it is, you can get a perfectly decent bass like a Yamaha or Ibanez for maybe 300 USD new. There really isn’t much need to pay more unless you’re a pro player or a serious basshead.
BTW what that bass is crying out for is a picture of a skull
All my basses are cheapies. In fact, the only “expensive” bass I had was a Sterling Ray4 that I bought new, and returned. My current crop is:
Donner P-clone, which I upgraded with SD Steve Harris pups, Rotosound Steve Harris strings, a whole shit-ton of shielding and a cheapie high mass bridge (in which I had to re-machine the tapped holes and screws.
Stingumathing, which is a $160 Canuckistanian passive Stingray clone (left that one in Poland with my family, it’s going to be my overseas bass).
Peavey Milestone 4 JJ, upgraded with Dragonfire split coil J pups and Rotosound RL-66 strings.
Peavey Patriot fixer-upper bass I bought for $50. It’s got a warped neck, which I will try to fix, and then I have some Rotosound Billy Sheehan strings to put on it.
I love them all, each one for different reasons. My next two basses will be a Peavey Milestone 4 P and a Peavey Milestone 4 PJ, for the trifecta. I also have a fretless frankenjazz build that’s on hold as I’m prepping my house to move.
When all the dust settles, even when I have my planned basses, all seven will have cost me less than $1000 CAD, not counting the upgrades.
My favorite bass is not close to my most expensive bass at all. It cost $299 and I modded the pick up for $120 and a $20 pick guard.
I play it more than any other bass, including my real USA made Stingray and Fender P bass.
necrobump bc who doesn’t love one, but I have this exact same bass in sparkly blue. I bought it off a friend 20 some off years ago, covered in sparkly stickers, extremely filthy, a screw in the volume knob pot shaft.
Since then I’ve removed all but the large sparkly Tinkerbell sticker, refinished the neck with oil and lacquer by hand(and there’s already a ding lol), shielded the cavities and back plate, new jack, fret polished… up next is to wire in the new volume pot, put the huge retro space aluminum knob on, change out the tuning machines for much better ones. Kinda wish it was a short scale, but it was free!
I’ve heard EMG 40DC is a near perfect fit if you want to go with an active pick up.
None of my current basses have been all that costly. Over the past 15 years or so the most I’ve paid for one is around $600. The Squier CV models I’ve bought have all been upgraded to my liking. My G&Ls never needed any and the one Sire I have only needed different strings.
I’ve spent far more on my bass rigs which is what I would suggest to others as well. I can’t gig with a poor sounding bass rig or even enjoy playing through one at home. The current Genzler MG350 Combo I have cost twice as much as my costliest bass and after I add a second cab it will have cost 3x more than that.
Even a $6000 Fodera won’t sound like it should through a lousy amp/speakers.
