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I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm considering picking one of these up to learn bass on. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Squier-Vintage-Modified-70s-Jazz-Bass?sku=519639 I have been noodling around on the guitar for a while, not making much progress. Then I picked up a soprano ukulele and I've discovered that 4 strings are much easier for my brain to deal with than 6 and I have a lot more fun plinking around and learning chords with my uke than I do trying to memorize chords on a guitar.. So this led me to the idea that I might enjoy playing a 4 string bass. I went to guitar center today and plugged the Squier into a Berhenger 4x10 amp that they had set up and it sounded really great, so I'm wondering if anyone who has a better frame of reference than I could tell me how that squire compares to a MIM fender j-bass. It felt and sounded a ton better than the Squier affinity j-bass and I Think it felt and sounded slightly better than the MiM Fender.. I'm wondering how much of the sound was the amp being awesome and how much of it was the guitar being decent. does anyone have any negative experiences with this guitar? i also found a youtube review of it and the pickups really have distinct sounds, which is new to me since I'm used to playing the cheapest, single pickup electric guitar i could get my hands on. http://youtube.com/watch?v=D32xgLW-BXo
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Jan 20, 2008 23:24
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I'm going to go play the Ibanez GSR200 and compare it to the Squier and get whichever I like more at this point. I definitely see people's usual fit and finish complaints when I pick up an affinity or one of the "signature" models from Squier, but those complaints really go away when I handle the Vintage Modified Jazz. But if the GSR200 has the same range of sounds and feel or is even close I may end up with that one based on price and recommendations alone. i'm also going to cruise local pawn shops and see what i can nab used. Is there anything a used bass shopper should look for as far as abuse or signs of trouble? I'm worried about the stuff being on sale in a pawn shop because the owner didn't like it or it was broken... I found a MIM Fender jazz at Elderly for $299, http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/55U-4016.htm but the "needs work" items are scaring me away.
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Jan 24, 2008 04:37
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3toes posted:I keep hearing more and more people raving about how pleased they are with the Squier Vintage Modified basses. I think I'm going to have to try one out this weekend if I can find one. Stay tuned, if I get to pick one up I'll write up a little review. awesome, it'd be nice to hear from someone who actually plays and can bring out the flaws in the Squier VM. I spent about an hour today noodling on a Fender MIM bass and the Squier VM Jass back and forth... and I am baffled about why they're charging more for the MIM Fender than for the Squier, Clearly I'm missing something, unless this is just one of those weird "great deals" that doesn't cost as much as they could probably get for it. If I had the extra cash I'd probably be picking up this one, I played with it this weekend also and it's pretty amazing for being $400 http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-SR400QM-Soundgear-Electric-Bass?sku=511825
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Jan 27, 2008 04:00
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GetHardHero posted:Ya I always felt a little sad that I got a passive gsr200. Does the pre-amp just give you extra control over the EQ or does it make it so the pick-ups are more sensitive. I have only ever played passive. http://archr5.com/images/Ibanez%20Soundgear.mov Here's that review from the most recent guitar world magazine. Seems like a lot of bang for your buck. a lot of control over the tone. (the default video size is tiny so i'd recommend downloading it and watching it outside of your browser so you can zoom in a bit.)
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Jan 31, 2008 08:14
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to anyone keeping score, this thread has aided in the purchase of another bass. I went up to GC to get a Squier vintage mod 70's jazz bass... they didn't have one in stock. long story short the manager had just gotten a MIM Fender J bass with an SKB hard case. he pulled the bass apart, cleaned it, polished the frets replaced the strings and set it up. He even tossed in a 10' cable because i mentioned that the only cable i had came with my Epiphone SG special starter kit i bought a long time ago. and he felt bad that the Squier wasn't in stock so he didn't charge me for the strings the set up or the case! $279 out the door for the whole deal! since I don't have an amp for the bass i bought the Bass pack for my Line 6 guitarport, which worked out great too, $49 bucks for 28 amp models and 22 Cab models with 16 pre-set tones. the Sennheiser HD 212Pros I've been using with the guitarport sound great at lower frequencies so it may be quite some time before i buy an actual bass amp.
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Feb 7, 2008 04:29
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the neck on the fender jazz felt the best to me. i liked the full rock sound of the Thunderbird but it didn't seem like it had a lot of tonal options, plus the weight distribution was a little wacky (not that you'd notice if it were strapped) My advice is to get whatever one feels the best to you and sounds right, i honestly didn't notice much of a difference in feel between the fender P and the fender J... but i'm pretty sure the necks are different... the T-bird definitely looks the coolest in my book, and it sounds nice (scroll up a bit for the sound sample 3toes put up...) so if the neck on that suits you, it's not a bad buy for $300. (but as has been said you can find a pretty great used instrument for $300... there's really no reason to buy new unless you can't find what you want used.)
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Feb 8, 2008 07:38
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well the guitar port doesn't actually come with ANY bass models... the bass pack's preset tones are pretty similar, some have a little more mid-high tone than others.. and there's like one distorted preset. However, there are a LOT of amps and cab combinations you can play with, and i find that the amp cab combos let me pick a tone i like (clear tones with lots of definition for practice so i can tell if my notes are sounding correctly, and muddy distorted insane reverb poo poo for screwing around) i'd say it's worth $50 on the guitarport. I wasn't thrilled with how the default guitar presets sounded with the bass... everything except the G and D strings sounded muted and muddy.
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Feb 9, 2008 02:44
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Kynetx posted:Since it was already discussed in this thread, I thought I'd mention that I just picked up a Squire Vintage Modified Jazz and it's really, really nice. I was looking at some Jackson something or other for about a c-note less, but the J was too pretty to pass up. Turns out it plays really nice as well. $279.99 before tax at guitar center. congrats on the new bass, i love that VM jazz. Guitar Center can pretty much only deal on Used stuff these days, and that's If you luck into working with a store manager on the purchase. When I went in to get a VM Jazz the manager had just sold it the day before, and he remembered me coming in to look at it a few days prior to that... and so he found a MIM Fender Jazz and cleaned it up, re strung it, found a hardshell case, made sure it sounded good, and sold the whole kit and kaboodle to me for $279 (including tax). But the regular employees can't do anything about the prices it basically has to be on the whim of a manager who is feeling nice that day.
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Apr 16, 2008 12:59
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3toes posted:I would DEFINITELY recommend an Ibanez over a Traben. They're among the best bang-for-buck companies out there. Yeah you can get a shitload of quality in a $350 guitar
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Apr 22, 2008 01:33
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Months after buying my Fender J-Bass I've finally picked up an amp. I ended up buying the Roland Microcube Bass amp since I really enjoy fiddling with the Microcube guitar amp I have. So far I really like this. The J bass needs a little work, the knobs need to be replaced because they're all pointed in different directions when they're turned till they stop and one of them feels loose. It's too bad there's not a Bass version of Justin Sandercroe's Guitar lessons out there.
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Jan 4, 2009 01:25
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Schatten posted:The knobs have a set screw. Should be a small flathead. Loosen, adjust in the right direction, then tighten. No need for replacements. Found it, thanks. It's a Tiny allen screw on mine though... not sure if that's a MiM thing or a 2007 thing...
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Jan 7, 2009 02:38
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