Spec me a Bass guitar

I_Am_Vengeance said:
Better him know the truth now than afew years down the line. This way he can be ahead of the game. :p
Click to expand...

Heh, I'd say there's no possible worse time to hear stuff like this, than when you've just placed the order :) Seriously though, for a beginner I reckon it's a decent choice. You can spend more money and get a better instrument, but how do you know if it suits you? How do you know if you'll even stick with it? Better to have spent £150 and sell in a year for £100 than to spend £400 and sell in a year for £250, if you ask me. From that point of view it can be a good investment- like learning to drive in an old Astra :)

At the end of the day, I wouldn't have felt any of the shortcomings in a GSR when I first started, any more than I felt the shortcomings in my Standard. If I pick a new guitar or bass up now I notice the faults before I notice the features, but we don't start out that way. Better buy this than a cool-looking no-name for the same money, no?
 
Northwind said:
Heh, I'd say there's no possible worse time to hear stuff like this, than when you've just placed the order :) Seriously though, for a beginner I reckon it's a decent choice. You can spend more money and get a better instrument, but how do you know if it suits you? How do you know if you'll even stick with it? Better to have spent £150 and sell in a year for £100 than to spend £400 and sell in a year for £250, if you ask me. From that point of view it can be a good investment- like learning to drive in an old Astra :)

At the end of the day, I wouldn't have felt any of the shortcomings in a GSR when I first started, any more than I felt the shortcomings in my Standard. If I pick a new guitar or bass up now I notice the faults before I notice the features, but we don't start out that way. Better buy this than a cool-looking no-name for the same money, no?
Click to expand...

As a beginner, the bass he buys, in theory, should be the bass he'll feel most at home on, so spending little, out of fear of not getting used to said instrument shouldnt be a problem, i believe. Obviously, down the line he'll be wanting to test other basses to see if theres something better suited, i dont believe that'll be the case for the first few years. So, better to stretch the budget a little and have it for longer than replacing it within a year. Besides, i never suggested anything for £400, it was more around the £250 mark, but the jump in price was more than justified for that particular bass.

An Epiphone les paul custom was my first real guitar, sure it was a little expensive for a beginners guitar, but i still use it to this day, ten years later, along with my " real " les paul custom. As i learned to play on this particular guitar, les pauls are the only guitars i feel comfortable on, backing up my previous theory.

Buying the Epiphone was a better route to take than buying a squier strat that i would most certainly have to replace within afew years.

Better to spend lots, little, than spend little, often. I've lived by that rule with a lot of my purchases and its worked out well for me.

Probably reading into it a little too much now. :p
 
Last edited:
Yep, but say you'd bought that Epi and decided you wanted a trem, or you preferred single coils? :eek: Residuals on Epis are rotten, you'd have taken a fair old hit. It worked out for you, but it doesn't always. Plus, to some extent it sounds like you've programmed yourself :) If you'd started on a Squier Standard Tele, chances are you'd be saying the same now- "I've got an American Deluxe Tele Custom but I still play my Squier, I've put Duncans and Grovers on it and set it up nice and now it's as good as XXX".

My first guitar was a Squier Stagemaster HSS, and I still play that as well... Or I would, if I hadn't taken the pickups out of it last year and fitted them into my MIJ Fender Strat Hot-Rod Reissue :) Now it's a case weight.

Of all the dozen or so guitars I've owned, from far-eastern BC Rich rubbish to MIA Gibson and Fender, my only keepers have been the Stagemaster, a Korean Squier Tele and the MIJ Fender I mentioned- taste plays a huge part. I saved for ages (using the guitar shop pocket money) to get my beautiful SG, and sold it a year later for a stonking loss because we just never fitted- even though it was the best made guitar I'll probably ever own. My Tele cost me £50, plus £200 for its rebuild, but it was the MIA Tele I sold when i had to lose one of them.

Are you still on the original Epi switch :D TBH I'd consider any of the Epi Standards to be overpriced for what they are, and pretty unspectacular even with price set aside, but that's just me- I wouldn't recommend one for a noob any more than I would a GSR... I made a fair amount of money making them work as well as they ought to do out of the box, really...
 
Last edited:
Northwind said:
Yep, but say you'd bought that Epi and decided you wanted a trem, or you preferred single coils? :eek: Residuals on Epis are rotten, you'd have taken a fair old hit. It worked out for you, but it doesn't always. Plus, to some extent it sounds like you've programmed yourself :) If you'd started on a Squier Standard Tele, chances are you'd be saying the same now- "I've got an American Deluxe Tele Custom but I still play my Squier, I've put Duncans and Grovers on it and set it up nice and now it's as good as XXX".

My first guitar was a Squier Stagemaster HSS, and I still play that as well... Or I would, if I hadn't taken the pickups out of it last year and fitted them into my MIJ Fender Strat Hot-Rod Reissue. Now it's a case weight.

Of all the dozen or so guitars I've owned, from far-eastern BC Rich rubbish to MIA Gibson and Fender, my only keepers have been the Stagemaster, a Korean Squier Tele and the MIJ Fender I mentioned- taste plays a huge part. I saved for ages (using the guitar shop pocket money) to get my beautiful SG, and sold it a year later for a stonking loss because we just never fitted- even though it was the best made guitar I'll probably ever own. My Tele cost me £50, plus £200 for its rebuild, but it was the MIA Tele I sold when i had to lose one of them.

Are you still on the original Epi switch :D TBH I'd consider any of the Epi Standards to be overpriced for what they are, and pretty unspectacular even with price set aside, but that's just me- I wouldn't recommend one for a noob any more than I would a GSR... I made a fair amount of money making them work as well as they ought to do out of the box, really...
Click to expand...

At one point, i did want a trem, guess what i bought? An Ibanez! An Rg520qs to be precise > http://www1.dragonet.es/users/musicasa/guitarras/electricas/ibanez/RG/rg520qs.jpg Gorgeous looking guitar, lightning fast neck, but sounded like a swarm of wasps mistook my guitar for a tree and built their nest on it. After that i bought my two humbucker version 57 black beauty. Going from humbuckers to single coils would the the choice of someone gone insane. Unless of course they were a sissy and liked playing clean. :p

Still on the original epi switch, but most of it has snapped off, as they do. The jack plug likes to spit out the lead also, as they do. Sure, the components arent great on them, but they sure as hell sound an infinate amount better than a strat. :p

I'd recommend an Epi lp standard over a squier strat/tele, maybe even a fender strat, any day of the week, thats merely down to taste though. I'd also put my hates aside and recommend what was best for the individual. Tone, first and foremost, nevermind this reliability issue, that is of no importance to me. I won't buy a strat just because it wont break when you smash it into the ground. I'm prepared to spend money on maintaining a guitar aslong as it sounds and plays how i want it to.
 
Last edited:
I_Am_Vengeance said:
£150 wasted imo.
Click to expand...


So far... in your opinion maybe, not mine :p

Came yesterday (didn't realise it was next day! :o ), and I really like it :p

It's nice and comfortable, and sounds fine to me! ;)


Stupid camera is out of battery, so no pics... it's a dfarekr blue than I realised, but I love the styling... did I mention how comfortable it is to play? :)
 
Well here are a couple of pics... not very good ones, but I wasn't in the mood to set up a good couple of photos... too much effort :p


P2160062.jpg


P2160061.jpg


P2160059.jpg



Personally... I'm loving it more and more :) Taught myself a couple of very easy songs (For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Ballad Of Chasey Lain) in about half an hour earlier. And it still sounds good.... so there!
 
badgermonkey said:
Personally... I'm loving it more and more :) Taught myself a couple of very easy songs (For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Ballad Of Chasey Lain) in about half an hour earlier. And it still sounds good.... so there!
Click to expand...

That is the thing that counts, Everyone has their own tastes and opinions, I for one like the GSR (my first bass also) and wouldnt have recommended it to you if i didnt think it would suit you!

Nice colour! Do us proud! :p ;)
 
Booner! said:
That is the thing that counts, Everyone has their own tastes and opinions, I for one like the GSR (my first bass also) and wouldnt have recommended it to you if i didnt think it would suit you!

Nice colour! Do us proud! :p ;)
Click to expand...


:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom