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.
