I've been looking at these three basses and have been wondering how good they are: I don't need something that's the best thing in the world but decent enough to play at home and at small shows, it'd be mostly used for playing general rock and metal styles. Any infomation or testamonials on these three types of basses would be awesome, thanks in advance.
As well, i've been looking at a used Stage Classic Series bass, any info on that would be great.
Steve-0
I would go with the sx bass because I did A search on the net and didn't even come up with anything for, what was it, Davison? I did a search for essex and they are low in price so that is good. But I found someone on ebay who had a sx bass and said that the sound that it produced was better than most any bass he had ever heard. Go with what sounds the best and plays the best. If you cant check it out personally then I would try to find some info on the net say like someone that had one that gave their remarks about it. Good luck.
Somewhere around here I wrote a thorough analysis of my decent, but far from perfect, experiences with my SX guitar. Some of my issues stem from the fact that mine is an unusual design and not a simple copy. There is a design fault wherein the strings are too far apart at the bridge to play well on the high e string with it's p90. This would require me to get an expensive p90 custom made, or go with a Jazzmaster pickup replacement (which I will do).
Other than that, the guitar required a complete set up (except relief) on my part; it was not even slightly near proper intonation or bridge height.
In addition, the plastic nut required a little cleaning up.
On the other hand it is well crafted and is quite beautiful to look at. The finish is perfect and the neck is very nice, as long as you don't mind jumbo frets. A flamed maple neck on a $100 guitar!?!
It's also very fun and easy playing now that I have it set up. The sound is good (except for the weak high e on the bridge pickup), though it is one of those guitars that sounds better for lead or bar chords, so the nut might be a little funky (I might go with a graphite one anyway to smooth out the vibrato a little more... it is a surf guitar, so the vibrato bar will get heavy use). Mine has quite a distinctive sound all it's own.
I think well enough of it to be considering a SX short scale bass, but I would buy that with the intention of it being a bit of a project, like the guitar. That said, it is a very solid basis for a guitar project. It should be great for trying out different pickups and practicing some alternate wiring schemes. I just wouldn't take it up on stage quite yet.
On the SX basses, the Harmony-Central reviews have generally good things to say about the Jazz bass pickups and some complaints about weak e's on the P.Bass pickups, which sounds king of familiar to me.
Sorry, I guess that wasn't as short as I intended.
