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The amazing fifty dollar bass!


J.

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Wow, looks like a great way to get into a P style bass for very little money. Even if you have to change out pots and pups and pay for a set-up you'd still not have much into it. Sweet.
:thu:


Dude U pumping a Dean anything is an improvement:D

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That's f'in AMAZING! I is the neck profile similar or is it more flat? Sorry, I'm now REALLY excited about getting this bass.

 

 

 

I don't know the profile of the SX basses necks. This one is as thin as my Washburn, around 19mm thick at the nut.

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By 'thin' do you mean front to back, or side to side?


For the record, I use thin and thick for front to back, perpendicular to the fretboard, and narrow and wide for side to side, parallel to the fretboard.

 

 

The neck is thin front to back but jazz bass wide. The fingerboard ia rather flattish but I like it all the same because it's a real nice peice of rosewood.

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Dude U pumping a Dean anything is an improvement:D



:mad: Why I ought ta'!!!!:mad:
LOL, hey, Dean makes good equipment for the price. Granted, it's may not be as good as some the the higher priced Name Brands BUT for the money you spend you get a good quality, very playable bass, :thu::wave::D

Anyway, are these $50 buck basses REALLY any good or what??:confused:

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Gawrsch you guys...

The 4-string hasn't shipped yet. But now I wonder...

1) Should I cancel the order, and instead get that 5 string for $50 more?

2) Should I go ahead with the 4 string, and maybe get the 5 string on next payday?

3) Should I just go ahead with the 4 string, and forget all about the 5 string?

4) Should I cancel my order, NOT get the 4 string, NOT get the 5 string, and just buy the Fender Precision Special Deluxe Mofo next payday, so I can be done with it, STFU, and stop buggin everyone?


An odd thing I've noticed, is that it looks like the Fender has been pulled from all the stores. GC.com says "online only item". I don't know if it used to always be that way, and the local store had a handful of returns or blems on hand (they also once had a blue Aerodyne, which are supposedly only available in Japan), or if they're trying to do a mild closeout on it. It's also $100 less, now.

Fender's website still has that bass listed, but they could pull the rug on it on the drop of a hat if that's what they wanted to do. Does anyone have any inside Fender info?

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"It might be a peice of junk. But who can complain for fifty dollars?"


Anyone with sense imo. Buying junk for $50 is same as throwing money in garbage can.

 

 

There's your problem. None of us here have any sense. :D

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Sew.... anyone buy one, and has anyone's order been processed yet? :wave:


Maybe we sank them. I placed an order last week and nothing has happened yet. Haven't even billed my card. Answered my email question. Stuff like that.

0_o

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It surprised me by showing up, and it's toadilly cool!! It actually looks neater in person. The 'red burst' is more like 'transparent crimson red'. It doesn't actually burst, which is kind of a bummer because I thought the red burst pic was neat looking. It's not ugly though- the woodgrain is nice, albeit very subtle. I never thought I'd own a red instrument after the Norma.

The neck has a nice satin finish on it, the frets are polished and well-set (no razoring of the fingers), the fingerboard is smooth. The tuners are nice too. Aside from the color confusion, the finish is well-done too. The pickguard is a little rough looking around the edges, but all in all the fit and finish of it has had some attention and it doesn't completely smack of 'cheap', if you know what I mean.

It's light! My bathroom scale says 6 pounds. Neckdive is present, but it's not impossible to balance on my leg. On the strap it takes a little effort but not a huge amount as long as I keep it at a 45 degree angle.

It plays nice. It was tuned down a step (but mostly in tune with itself) when i pulled it out of the box. I brought it up to pitch which helped it with some buzzing at the end of the neck, but there's still some on the 1st fret. The action was a bit high, but I'm not expecting a $50 bass to play beautifully w/o a setup. I'm open to instruction or links on how to adjust the neck. Fender's site has some stuff, but the measurements and instructions vary for neck radius, and I couldn't tell you what the radius of this one is.

Can't really give much comments on the way it sounds. First off, I'm still getting acclimated to the sound of a bass (versus guitar). Second off, the bass amp isn't back together yet, so I was playing it through my BOSS ME-30 into my computer's sound system. I won't expect this combination to be very representative of its true self. It sounds a bit dark (basswood body and all), and I'm sure that a lot of my guitar patches aren't really helpful either. Something I did notice though is that I was sitting in front of the computer (monitor on) with a compact flourescent light next to me, bass going into a distortion patch, no noise gate, and there was NO hum or hiss or anything. Gotta love that.

All in all, I'm very pleased with what my $50 got me.


So this morning, I loosened the strings, gave the truss rod a 1/4 turn CCW. Tuned it back up, and the buzz on the 2nd fret was gone, the buzz on the 1st fret was lessened.

So I loosened the strings again, gave the truss rod another 1/4 turn CCW. Tuned it back up, and all the buzz is gone :)


But of course, the action is a bit high now. Like 6.5mm (~3/8") between the edge of the E string and the top of the 12th fret. I presume that the bridge is for fine adjustment only, and that what I've got to decide upon is high action or buzzing fret.


Or am I doing this wrong?

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Sounds like you dunn it right. Counter clockwise to raise them. You could try adjusting the strings via bridge saddles, too. The neck on a $50 bass might have a bow in it and that's why the string action is like it is. You might try taking the neck off and shimming the end of the heel to make the higher frets have lower action, then readjust the truss rod for the frets by the nut. Adjusting the rod only makes a difference on the end toward the nut.

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Sounds like you dunn it right. Counter clockwise to raise them. You could try adjusting the strings via bridge saddles, too. The neck on a $50 bass might have a bow in it and that's why the string action is like it is. You might try taking the neck off and shimming the end of the heel to make the higher frets have lower action, then readjust the truss rod for the frets by the nut. Adjusting the rod only makes a difference on the end toward the nut.

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Actually, the neck was straight as an arrow when I took it out of the box. I thought I had heard once that every neck needs just a touch of relief to keep from buzzing. The bridge saddles don't have far to go. Is it ok to just bottom them out against the bridge plate? Won't that affect intonation?

 

I could put them all the way down but I don't want to screw that up.

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Even nicer.............5 string version!


291097.jpg

Why have no bass makers made a bass like this? I know Warwick has something similar but still.........



Where do I find that on their site?
5 strings, no pickguard, no chrome, oh baby baby!

EDIT: OK, I get it. Old thread.

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