Help Me Buy a Bass?

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Probably a Ernie Ball Music Man Bass.
You'll get reasonable resale value if you decide to dump it.
Cheap gear... ends up being undesirable...quickly
 
I have a Squier Precision Bass (Actually a P/J) that I picked up for @ $200 a few years back... Sounds pretty good and plays well.
 
I disagree. I have small hands and have no trouble getting around the fretboard of both Jazz and Precision basses. Tal Wilkenfeld, for example, has very tiny hands and she can play the hell out of her Jazz and Precision basses. The Jazz Bass in particular is very narrow towards the nut, which is where your money notes are anyway.

Anyway, for the OP, here’s an excellent video that showcases the tones available on most of your Jazz-style basses. Lots of usable tones for pretty much every genre.


Hand smallness is a matter of perspective. If you’ve ever met a Little Person, your hands are hugemongous.
Tal Wilkenfekd is a great bassist, and she plays within her physical limits as well as to her level of experience.
IRC is not a bassist. He’s a guitarist. He didn’t grow up with it. Folks need to remember these things as they continue to bang on the battleship-sized Fender bass suggestions.
 
I ended up just putting together my own from Warmoth stuff. I've had great success with Warmoth guitars over the years and it amuses me to put them together.

Here's a P-bass I did - I've been gigging it for several years (for the infrequent times I get a chance to play bass out). Body is swamp ash, neck is Wenge.

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And a jazz bass - swamp ash body and roasted maple neck. Mike Learn did the finish work. It lights up. It's been on a couple gigs since I finished it a couple months ago.

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Fame basses are very nice, especially the Baphomet series. They're basically Warwick Corvette/Thumb (kinda in-between really) copies but with better ergonomics. And much cheaper.

Yamaha TRB100x (x=number of strings you want) are also really nice basses in that price range(at least second hand).


Also can't go wrong with Ibanez Soundgear series. I am not a fan of the stock bartolini PUs they put in there (usually the BH1 or BH2) but that's a matter of taste and they can easily swapped for different ones if you desire. The instruments themselves are well build and have nice ergonomics. I'd look for ones of the 500 series and up.
 
So I'm late to the party, as iaresee has already bought a bass (congrats Ian), but for anyone else wondering which bass to go for I'll toss my opinion in there and join the choir that preaches to go with a P-bass.
They just work as Leon said, both live and in the studio, and they just sit in a track better than everything else.
Jazz basses are nice as well and have smaller necks, but I clearly prefer P-basses, I have small hands and I can make it work no problem.
I'm absolutely primarily about guitars but enjoy playing bass and have a really great SVL P-bass and a Strandberg master build P + M (Musician pu in the back+ P-bass pick up).
If I were to get a great bass on a budget around what iaresee posted, I'd look for a deal on or a used Fender Nate Mandel P-bass, it's an absolutely killer bass that punches way over it's budget IMO.

I am in the same market for a bass. These caught my eye but I have not been able to play one yet.
https://www.sandberg-guitars.de/basses/

Strandberg build very nice basses, really high quality materials, build and sound quality, and they play like butter.
I got a very good deal when I ordered, so I went in full on and got one of their vibration treated masterbuilds and it is a killer bass in every way, but every Strandberg bass that I've played have been really great.
 
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