VeeshanVault

A little back story first. The first instrument i ever bought was a shitty Rogue bass that cost like $100 and I definetly got what i paid for. I quickly sold it to a friend of my brother and purchased a $170 Epiphone guitar and once again got what i paid for.

Basicly I am looking for a decent bass for a beginner for anywhere between 300-500 dollars. Any recommendations you guys could give that would be a good starting point for me to test out at the local music store would be greatly appreciated. As of right now i am trying to decide between the Esp Viper 4 string and the Fender 4 string Jazz Bass but i am open to any suggestions.

I am pretty partial to this Fender:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid ... id=510131/

I would love to get a Rick if I am ever wealthy or not married. I am guessing your not wanting fretless. My First bass was a Rogue, still have that puppy, cost me $82 shipped, worth every penny of the 82 bucks lol. Actually I am still impressed with how straight the neck is on mine

The Fender P Bass is the workhorse of probably 75% of bands in America, heh.

And for good reason.

Assuming you are looking at getting a normal 4-string fretted bass I would look at some of the midrange Ibanez stuff. A bassist friend of mine plays an Ibanez is a big fan of their active pickups as well.
Here is an example of a moderately priced bass with active pickups

I should have mentioned in my original post that i was looking for a 4 string fretted, something that sounds just as good in lower tunings like drop C and drop B.

Also what exactly do the active pickups do ? And can anyone recommend a good pedal/processor to maximize my sound?

Can never go wrong with Fender, I've played on various Precisions and Jazzes from 69-92ish, all of em have been solid.

Active pickups to me sound better, they are clearer, louder, brighter toned than passive. For lower tunings I personally like active better, I have passive emg's in my 5 string and the b string sounds like mud.

Kind of depends on the sound you are going for. If you like really clear, punchy bass that you hear in most nu-metal bands go with active pickups. If you like smooth, warm, jazzy sounding bass go with passive pickups.

i play an fender american p-bass, but for the price you are looking at, you would only be able to get a mexican precision or jazz. if you can find one, i would really recommend checking out a japanese re-issue fender squire. i've played a couple that play and sound better than american precisions for a fraction of the cost... or get one of these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... otohosting