$80 BASS!!!

[Lt. Bob]

So here's the story.
I'm planning on doing a lot more band gigs this year because I don't want to end my career just playing solo gigs.
I am busy with 6 a week booked till Sept.
And some of it is stuff I've booked with bands.
Now Aunt Catfish has no problem with me taking off to do other stuff ..... I'll only make half as much doing band gigs as on my solo but I don't care. At 73 I can only have so many years left so I'm gonna do what I want.
So whenever I get a gig with someone Aunt Catfish will happily get a sub for me.

For some reason all the upcoming gigs are on bass. I have gigs with the horn band, with a trio ... a quartet .... and some black bands are reaching out to me like Sybil Gage and they're all bass.
I don't mind .... prolly for at least 25 years I gigged more on bass than guitar or sax .... have only done maybe a dozen or so bass gigs since moving to Fl 18 years ago but I've been shedding hard and starting to feel relaxed on it again.

That brings us to the $80 bass.
Basses are heavy .... my Schecter is 9.6lbs and if you look on Sweetwater most basses are up around there.
And I'm having significant back issues, sometimes not even walking well after hauling gear.
And several of the bikeweek gigs will require me to shlep my bass about half a mile ..... then do the gig and then run back the half mile and head for a second gig.
Plus just holding it is an issue.
And it has to be 5-string which makes it even harder to find a light one.
I don't want to spend big bucks and even then they're all heavy so what to do?

So I'm on Amazon and one of their "picked for you" ads was for a 5 string Klaxon bass for 80 dollars.
And it showed it as weighing 6.5lbs!

So my thinking went like this ..... I can make just about anything playable .... if it's really that light then I get the neck straightish and replace the p'ups with a set of Bartolini's .... it'll play acceptably well and sound good.
So I ordered it .... got it in ... weighed it first and was indeed 6.5lbs. YAY!

Plugged it in to make sure it worked.
I have chino gits and the p'ups range from passable to awful with almost no output.
Hit a few notes and ...... HOLY CRAP!!
It might sound better than my Schecter.

Absolutely no need to replace squat ..... sounds great! Has tiny pots which may or may not hold up but they work fine, are quiet and the wiring's tidy.
If they die then I'll replace them but right now it sounds excellent.

Got the neck straight-ish .... not perfect and has a little twist but I have the action set up where I like it and there's no buzzing so that's good enough.

I did have to move the bridge ...... could not get the 'G' and 'D' strings in tune at an octave and even with the saddles as far forward as they'd go, they were still pretty off.
So I took out the six screws ( first put some tape to make sure I kept it centered properly ) and moved it about 1/2".
Drilled new holes ..... set the intonation ....... done!!
Really minor stuff ..... did all of it while watching Spongebob. lol

Can you see the old holes? Yep
Do I care? NO!
It's an $80 bass for gods sake .... it's fucking awesome and it's light as shit!

We'll see how it holds up ....... there's a couple screws feel like they're just shy of stripping .... if they do I'll shove some wood and glue in there and that'll take care of that.

Is it gonna be buzzy with RF?
Dunno .... my house is pretty hummy but it's quiet in here.
If I get to gigging and it's noisy I'll shield it but right now it's fine.

Ladies and gentlemen I present the $80 BASS !

[JD01]

That's a nice lucky find, Bob. I assumed you'd have gone for a short scale bass.

[Lt. Bob]

That's a nice lucky find, Bob. I assumed you'd have gone for a short scale bass.

nah .... I HATE short scale basses .... in fact I hate that this one is 34" ....... for 5 strings I way prefer 35".

Don't forget .... I'm not a guitar player playing bass ...... I played bass first .... I'm actually a bass player playing guitar.

I did learn sax first and then guitar and bass within about a year of that.
And I always played all of them in one group or another.
But I started gigging some at around 12 and except for a few soul things where I played sax, most of my bands were bass gigs for me.
And those were my formative years.

Bass was my main thing from '63 until around the mid-80's. I was into it and had a succession of great bass gear including some stupid big rigs! SVT with two of the refrigerator sized bottoms.
For a while I used power amps into 4 Altec A7 bass bins!
I did the usual stuff of whatever time it was ..... Beatles/Stones/Animals/ on into Zep and Aerosmith ... pretty wide gamut. Played bass in a band doing Yes wearing spandex ....... hadn't thought of that in a while.

Around the mid 80's it switched to mostly horn/guitar.
But there are plenty of folks from BR that remember me as a bassist.
I'm moderately excited to be playing bass again.

[rayc]

As a crap player and cheapskate I'm all for cheap gear that works.
Decent looking bass, good move in shifting the bridge. If it plays n sounds good then it is good.
I started playing bass in 1973 and I didn't really start playing guitar until the end of the 80s. I've been a bass player most of the time - that explains by six basses, two bass amps, (one SS & one valve), & two bass cabinets I suppose. On that level I know that bass is my 1st reach for instrument.

[Armistice]

Nice find. Your mods will severely impact the resale value though... probably now a $75 bass.

[JD01]

Don't forget .... I'm not a guitar player playing bass ...... I played bass first .... I'm actually a bass player playing guitar.

Oh, you're the one!

[Lt. Bob]

As a crap player and cheapskate I'm all for cheap gear that works.
Decent looking bass, good move in shifting the bridge. If it plays n sounds good then it is good.
I started playing bass in 1973 and I didn't really start playing guitar until the end of the 80s. I've been a bass player most of the time - that explains by six basses, two bass amps, (one SS & one valve), & two bass cabinets I suppose. On that level I know that bass is my 1st reach for instrument.

did not know that.
Bass is a cool instrument ..... controls the band more than the drummer actually

[Lt. Bob]

Nice find. Your mods will severely impact the resale value though... probably now a $75 bass.

But my mods?!!?

[vomitHatSteve]

That's a good find! Hard to beat that price for something playable.

there's a couple screws feel like they're just shy of stripping .... if they do I'll shove some wood and glue in there and that'll take care of that.

I hear that. My main gigging bass is probably about 10% toothpicks and wood glue at this point!

[SweetDan]

...Played bass in a band doing Yes wearing spandex ....... hadn't thought of that in a while....

I think we need photo evidence. (!)

[SweetDan]

On a serious note, I'm curious to hear how this works out for you @Lt. Bob. I own four electric 4-string basses and a string bass. A few times I could have used a 5-string to reach down to some low-note goodness, but have not yet sprung for one.

[Lt. Bob]

On a serious note, I'm curious to hear how this works out for you @Lt. Bob. I own four electric 4-string basses and a string bass. A few times I could have used a 5-string to reach down to some low-note goodness, but have not yet sprung for one.

well I have a buncha gigs with it in a couple of weeks for Bikeweek so I'll let you know how it holds up .... but I'm using it for practice ....... it should be fine.

As for 5 strings:
I'm an old bass player ..... have played bass for over 55 years ..... so I'm old school and used 4 strings until about 20 years ago.
Once I played a 5 string that was it and I immediately switched permanently.

I don't use anything but a 5 string these days ..... I find a 4 string limiting and not just because of low notes.
To me, just being able to play a low E on the 5th fret is all by itself reason to use a 5 string.
But yeah ... having that low D available is awesome.