I'm still new to bass playing and have a used Ibanez GSR200 w/ passive pickups.
While I like it and it plays fine, the tone isn't all that wonderful, or all it could be. I bought it from a reputable indie dealer w/ in-house luthier so there's nothing 'wrong' with the bass other than it's a $180 bass (bought for 99 w/ case, cord, new strings).
I have a dream bass...but it's $1000 so that will have to wait. A 5 string neck through guitar - I've played a bit with an ibanez BTB and a schecter hellraiser.
While I don't expect my bass to sound that good, I"m wondering if there are some 'basic' upgrades -bridge or pickups, active pickups or ? that would tide me over until the guitar fairy see fit to reward my patience. Or would it make sense to watch craigslist for a better used bass? Perhaps a bigger better amp? (using a too small perhaps peavey 15w amp at the moment, but I don't need to rock the house down to learn to play/practice was my theory)
A better amp should probably be your first priority. A nice used one. Once you have something to let your bass speak through you'll be in better shape to know your basses strengths and weaknesses. Throwing a set of bartolini's on it now and running it through 15 watts of peavey would be like throwing z rated tires on a mini van.
