The sss is the unsung hero of much of the greatest music to come out of the modern world. Guitarists and vocalists get all of the glory, all of the accolades, all of the attention. But very few bands sound any good without a bassist.
It takes a certain kind of person to be a good bassist – someone who is solid, someone who can hold the music to the ground, but also someone who doesn’t need to always be in the spotlight. Those people are hard to find in music. If you are that special kind of person, and you’ve decided to take up playing the bass, then this guide is for you. Here are the top 5 best beginner bass guitars.
- Squier by Fender Vintage Modified Jaguar
- 4.8 Customer rating
- Body: Alder
- Neck: Maple
- Jumbo frets: 20 medium
- Fretboard: rosewood
- Price: $
- Schecter Stiletto Extreme-4
- 4.9 Customer rating
- Body: Mahogany
- Neck: Maple
- Jumbo frets: 24
- Fretboard: rosewood
- Price: $$$
- Dean Edge 09
- 4.6 Customer rating
- Body: Basswood
- Neck: Maple
- Jumbo frets: 22
- Fretboard: rosewood
- Price: $
- Ibanez GSR200BK
- 4.6 Customer rating
- Body: Agatha's
- Neck: One-piece maple
- Jumbo frets: 22
- Fretboard: rosewood
- Price: $$
- Peavey Millennium
- 4.4 Customer rating
- Body: Basswood
- Neck: Hard rock maple
- Jumbo frets: 22
- Fretboard: rosewood
- Price: $
Top Five Beginner Bass Guitars
Squier Jaguar
Squier is a subsidiary company of Fender, known for making budget-conscious versions of Fender’s most popular instruments. This bass is designed with the Fender Jaguar Bass in mind – one of Fender’s most popular basses, and maybe one of the best, most versatile electric basses ever produced.
The Squier Jaguar, like its Fender cousin, has a P/J pickup configuration. That means that it has one split-coil precision pickup (in the front position, located roughly where the precision pickup is located on a Fender Precision bass) and one single-coil jazz pickup (in the back position, located by the bridge, where the Fender Jazz bass has its back pickup). In general, P/J basses are more versatile than either Precision-style or Jazz-style basses.
This bass is made of alder (with a maple neck), and has a rosewood fretboard. The alder-maple combination makes it sound snappy and defined in a way that, for instance, mahogany basses do not.
Schecter Stiletto Extreme
The Schecter Stiletto Extreme is in many ways the opposite of the Jaguar. It is big and heavy, both in that it is heavier physically (due to its mahogany construction) and in that its sound is heavier, more robust, and rounder (albeit less-defined) than the Jaguar. On the Fender-Gibson continuum, with Fender basses being defined and poppy-sounding and Gibson basses being big and round sounding, this bass definitely sits nearer to Gibson than Fender.
The Stiletto Extreme features a mahogany body, a maple neck, and a rosewood fretboard. All by itself, its mahogany body is enough to round off the sound of this bass, adding warmth (although maybe sacrificing a little clarity). But the biggest difference between, this bass and, for instance, the Jaguar, is that this bass has two humbuckers (and no single-coil or split-coil pickups). Humbuckers tend to have more output, distort more easily, and have a smoother, rounder, EQ-profile. This is a great bass for loud, heavy music – rock, metal, fusion, etc.
Dean Edge 09
The Dean Edge 09 is more like the Stiletto than the Jaguar, but it lies somewhere between the two. Like the Jaguar, it is made of lightweight material – basswood – but like the Stiletto, it features a humbucking pickup. Its sound is more round that clear, but it is capable of a little more snap than the Stiletto.
This bass features a single humbucking pickup, a tone knob, and a volume knob. The pickup is passive, unlike the Stiletto’s active pickups, so it doesn’t require a battery. That also means that it sounds a little cooler (as in less hot) and slightly more natural (there is a woodiness about the sound of this bass).
Overall, this is more of a rock bass than a pop or jazz bass, but it could, with the right tweaking, play just about anything. It is a great bass at an even better price, and a beginner couldn’t go wrong choosing it.
Ibanez GSR200
The Ibanez GSR200 is a workhorse: solid, versatile, great-sounding, smooth-playing. It is, like the Squier Jaguar, a Fender-style P/J bass. But unlike that Fender mime, this guitar is sleek and modern – it looks sleek, feels sleek, and sounds sleeker. Right from the smooth chrome hardware on its gloss finish, it is clear that this guitar is going for modernity, that it wants to be more than just a Fender clone.
As a P/J bass, the GSR200 is similar to the Jaguar; but there are some important differences. First of all, it is made of agathis, rather than alder, which may not amount to a huge difference in sound, certainly colors this bass’s tone a little differently. More importantly, however, this bass has an active EQ, which means that it requires batteries. It also means that the range of sounds you can get out of its pickups (using the tone knobs) is larger. In general, active EQ’s make the instrument a little hotter and a little more versatile, but they sacrifice some of that natural, woody sound that Fender-style basses are known for.
Peavey Millennium 4
The Peavey Millennium 4 is a beautiful instrument. It features a quilted maple top that recalls the image of a tiger’s eye. In that way, it seems like a bass that’s made for rockers. At its heart, however, this is a jazz bass.
The pickups on this bass – there are two of them – are single-coil. Like a Fender Jazz bass, they have the ability to be used separately or together (to cancel hum). These pickups give the guitar impressive clarity, which is great for pop, jazz, reggae, fusion and funk. When the pickups are used together, it creates a great “scooped” sound that is ideal for slap bass.
Overall, if you’re looking for a Jazz-style bass at an affordable price, this one is tough to beat.
Best Beginner Bass Guitars Comparison Chart
| Product name | Body | Neck | Jumbo frets | Fretboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squier by Fender Vintage Modified Jaguar | Alder | Maple | 20 medium | rosewood |
| Schecter Stiletto Extreme-4 | Mahogany | Maple | 24 | rosewood |
| Dean Edge 09 | Basswood | Maple | 22 | rosewood |
| Ibanez GSR200BK | Agatha's | One-piece maple | 22 | rosewood |
| Peavey Millennium | Basswood | Hard rock maple | 22 | rosewood |
What to Look for in a Best Beginner Bass Guitar
It can be difficult, as a beginning bassist, to know how to decide which bass to buy. There are so many options – good options and bad options – and, especially if you’re on a budget, looking at inexpensive instruments, it is easy to make a bad decision. But there are some things you can keep in mind to make the decision-making process easier.
- Pickup configuration: There are four basic pickup configurations for bass guitars: 1. jazz, 2. precision, 3. P/J, and 4. humbucking. Jazz pickup are single-coil. They are the most defined-sounding pickups you will find, and they’re great for all sorts of styles of music, including slap bass. Precision pickups are split-coil. They are slightly rounder sounding than jazz pickups, and they are great for certain styles of pop and R and B, among many other things. P/J pickup configurations use both a jazz and a precision pickup. P/J basses are very versatile, capable of producing a wide array of sounds. Finally, humbucking pickups are the roundest and loudest pickups, great for rock and metal (but not entirely uncommon in other forms of music). Knowing which pickup configuration is for you will help you to decide which bass to buy.
- Feel: How a bass feels in your hands is one of the most important things about that bass. There are a lot of things that will affect how it feels, including the weight of the instrument and the length of the its scale, but nothing affects it more than its action. The action of an instrument is the distance between the strings and the frets. The higher the action, the bigger that distance, the more work you have to do to make a good sound on the bass. In general, basses with lower action are preferable (however, some players believe that setting your action too low results in a bad tone, and other players prefer the way that a bass feels with higher action).
- Construction: The last thing that you need to consider when looking at a guitar is how well constructed it is. This includes the quality of the electronics, the quality control that the factory implemented when assembling the instrument, and the quality of the wood used to make the bass. In general, you want to look for tonewoods – maple, alder, basswood, mahogany, agathis, etc.
pickup are single-coil. They are the most defined-sounding pickups you will find, and they’re great for all sorts of styles of music, including slap bass. Precision pickups are split-coil. They are slightly rounder sounding than jazz pickups, and they are great for certain styles of pop and R and B, among many other things. P/J pickup configurations use both a jazz and a precision pickup. P/J basses are very versatile, capable of producing a wide array of sounds. Finally, humbucking pickups are the roundest and loudest pickups, great for rock and metal (but not entirely uncommon in other forms of music). Knowing which pickup configuration is for you will help you to decide which bass to buy.
Conclusion
There are a lot of basses out there, and it can be hard to know which one to choose. The basses on this list represent the best that affordable basses have to offer. They are high-quality, but they aren’t going to cost you thousands of dollars. If you are just starting out, or if you are a guitarist who needs a bass to play on occasion, they make a great choice. But if you still want the instrument you buy to be good, then any of the basses on this list will do.
The important thing is to find a bass that will grow with you. You may eventually want to spend some more money and get something more professional, but if you get the right beginner bass, that will be a matter of choice and not of necessity. Your first bass can still be a bass that you can keep throughout your career. If you are a more advanced player, you can also check out our article on the best bass guitars in 2017.
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