Yep. You don’t need to spend thousands on a bass. Two of my favorite bassists tour and record with BB734A’s. Solid $700 workhorse. And I would be completely comfortable doing anything at all with my TRBX. It’s actually better than the bass my bandmate used to gig with.
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I guess I want to dispel the notion that a high end bass will solve all your problems. Don’t fall for, oh this is a Fodera, it’s $6k and Victor Wooten plays it, it must be great. You might play one AND NOT LIKE IT. But you force yourself to like it, because it’s a Fodera (or Fender, or PRS, or Rick, whatever). You might really like it, and that is fine. Does it REALLY play and sound $5,500 better than a $500 Ibanez though? I’d go as far as to say for the same $6k I could get a $500 bass, an Ampeg SVT, several pedals, upgraded pickups and an 410 or 810 cab and it would sound WAY better than a Fodera with low end rig. If you like it, and it sounds better, by all means. I’d probably LOVE having a Fodera. But don’t fall for it. You can sound AMAZING and get any tone you want with a lot less, and if the bass is easy for YOU to play, that is what matters.
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Yep yep, absolutely agree. And a lot is just what you personally like the feel of. I was dead serious above when I said that right now I would prefer a $300 TRBX304 over almost any Fender, even MIA custom shop. It’s just the bass I would pick up and play - it more closely matches my style and the feel I like.
If I owned a Fodera it would be brief - I would sell it immediately and buy a different bass that I liked more with the money (and save the rest). I’d be terrified playing a $10k bass and aesthetically they don’t do it for me.
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Funny enough, I bought a TRBX304 before I even knew about B2B. I played different basses in the GC for an hour, and kept going back to it. So I know what you mean. That said, I later did something similar (after a few years of playing, gigs, recording with it) and fell in love with my Schecter Stiletto Stealth. It felt even better and sounded better than my Yamaha, which is now for sale for $250 firm, but no one is buying it lol.
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I agree with that, with the caveat that some low end models can be frustrating to learn on. The action is high, they don’t stay in tune, etc. I think you are better off buying a slightly more expensive like a $500 Ibanez. or $300 Yamaha. Starting out I think playability is crucial.
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It depends. People tend to not get a setup done on their bass, and lower end basses are slapped together. A guy at a music shop can make a WORLD of difference on a cheap bass. If you wanna go REALLY budget but get a ton of sound, get a $200 or less bass, replace the pot and pickups with some higher end ones ($90 EMG will do it) and have someone intonate it. That would come to around $400 but I’d seriously put it up against any bass in the $400-$600 range.
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It’s funny, to me intonation is the easiest part of the setup. Just need a decent tuner.
Hardest part is changing the nut, which is completely optional (unless you have a world class bad nut). But even nut filing is not bad. I didn’t even touch that for my first year or two doing setups, only recently when I broke a nut (or on my Warwicks where it was trivial and needed no filing).
I think everyone should learn to do their own setups. Taking it to a pro once might be nice to get a baseline, but once you know what you’re doing, I am pretty certain you can do a better job yourself than most pros can for you, because only you know how you really like the thing to feel, and knowing how to make small adjustments and tweak it is great. I do it all the time.
I do intonation without a strobe tuner, just a normal one, and it’s fine.
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Keep in mind, these are just lessons learned over time. I didn’t even explore tone much other than turning some knobs on the bass or practice amp, plugging into a pedal on its default settings and that it sounded better with new strings. I’d notice a difference of sound between basses.
That was before I really got to understand tone, where it comes from, how it is affected. One thing on more expensive basses, they come stock with higher quality pickups than cheaper basses. Active basses have different quality pre-amps built into them basses on price. Not being intonated properly changes the tone. And amps? Just EQ right? Bigger amps get louder! But it’s different than that. Different amps have different tones. Different CABS give a different tone! And what is a pedal? Different tones! So it goes like this.
The bass itself, Wood, neck, body. Those things you aren’t really going to change and upgrade. They affect tone. But it pretty much stops there. Pickups, setup, strings, pot, preamp, ALL those things affect tone, and you can switch them out. THEN before it gets to the amp you have preamps/pedals you plug into. Those affect tone. How you have the knobs on the bass adjusted affects tone. Then you have the amp itself. Different amps have different tones. Those amps have knobs too! Those affect tone. Then the cab that the sound is coming out of affects tone! You have like 4-5 layers of things that aren’t the bass itself that shape your tone! I didn’t even realize this fully for a LONG time.
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It’s critical to do the rest of the setup first, but really setting the intonation is straightforward on most basses. It’s definitely a learned skill, but mechanically it’s quite easy, almost trivial.
His video on the rest of the setup (that you do before the intonation) is fantastic too:
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That said - the moment I had anything that needed work on the frets themselves, leveling or a full fret job - then it’s going to a pro 
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You’re right; sometimes I forget how far off the beaten path I am. I don’t know where I could find someone to do a setup. Been looking.
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Most local music shops have a guy…if they are open.
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It’s achievable on your own. Always found pros just did a little better than I could.
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Depending on what you spend, pros may do a lot more than a basic setup, it’s true. Fret cleaning, polishing, leveling, and so on.
Simple stuff, though, like intonation - it’s a real good skill to have yourself 
I look at stuff like this and am 
That level of care is pretty solid
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We have a local music shop. They wanted to charge me almost $300 for an amp the size of a Rumble 15. They don’t have a good reputation. I think that’s the only store on the Penninsula. And they leverage that.
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Hmm…I mean Guitar center is hit and miss…depends on who they hire. There is a tutorial online if you wanna try yourself.
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The first setup you do yourself isn’t going to be perfect. The fun thing is: that doesn’t matter. You can always adjust it, fiddle with it, even start all over again if need be. It’s pretty much impossible to break anything, as long as you’re careful. And as you’re doing all that, you’re getting better at it, and you get a better idea of what you like and need in your setup. Win-win situation as far as I’m concerned.
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I always got it just a bit wrong…my guy gets it right. It’s a bit lazy, but I did do it myself for a long time, until I took it in. My guy is pretty thorough too, checks electronics and all that, polishes it up, gets the action exactly how I like it. I don’t mind paying for it, and it stays pretty tip top for 6-8 months, then I take it in after a few string changes.
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I was thinking about this one :
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I swear I remember one that was just a P pickup, P body, and J neck too, but I can’t find it.
That would be the perfect Fender for me were I to want one.
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