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I Bought 5 Cheap A$$ Basses (To See if They Sucked)

BassBuzz

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👉 My full beginner bass course: https://yeah.bassbuzz.com/cheapass
Do $100 basses actually work? Find out in this cheap bass shootout. No affiliates, no sponsors, no punches pulled.

Here are the five cheap basses I reviewed, in order, with some ‘interesting’ highlights from their product pages:

Glarry GP - https://www.glarrymusic.com/glarry-pr...
Good source for tech specs, plus more reviews. However, I clearly read this - “Buy a guitar and we will send a rich gift package.” Still waiting on my treasure chest, guys!

Harley Benton PB-20 - https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_bent...
You can read a bunch more reviews on this page, which largely reflect my experience with this instrument in the video. Kudos to Harley Benton (and Glarry) for posting detailed specs on an instrument this cheap.

Z ZTDM - https://www.amazon.com/ZTDM-Electric-...
“A perfect instrument for emitting wonderful bass effect” - I read this sentence weeks ago and I still think about it sometimes. My main goal is life is just to emit a wonderful bass effect.

Polar Aurora - https://www.amazon.com/Polar-Aurora-S...
Tired of basses made out of rubber and foam that bend when you’re trying to play? Fear not - “the electric bass guitar is made up of a wooden body, which is characterized by firmness that allows you to play freely.” Revolutionary!
(note: this company has already disappeared since I did these reviews)

Ebay “New Professional” Bass - https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Professi...
The cheapest of the bunch. According to this page, “To create faultless bass effect, you can not lack a professional bass guitar during guitar performance.” Can’t argue with that! Usually “professional” bass guitars have a brand name though…

In this video, I’ll take you through detailed tone demos for each bass, plus talk about playability and build quality (which is just as important as tone).

Then I’ll pick a winner, and battle it against a more expensive bass to see it’s true that “you get what you pay for.”

Finally I’ll wrap up with some closing thoughts on whether cheapos are worth it, if you should buy used instead of new, and other general bass buying tips.

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20 Comments

@BassBuzz Creator 5 years ago Pinned

What do you think? Are any of these $100 basses worth it, or should you stick to brand names? 🎸

Timestamps for this lesson:
0:00 - Do you get what you pay for?
0:48 - How I Reviewed the Basses
1:45 - Tone Battle: Rock
2:14 - Tone Battle: Motown
2:54 - Tone Battle: Pick
3:32 - Tone Battle: Slap
4:45 - Glarry GP
5:39 - Harley Benton PB-20
6:37 - Z ZTDM
7:31 - Polar Aurora
8:42 - Ebay Mystery Bass
9:14 - And the Winner Is… (+Why)
10:33 - Blind “Tone-Off” with Pricier Bass
11:32 - The Reveal: Did You Guess Right?
12:10 - Were They Any Good?
13:05 - Why Not Buy Used?
14:04 - General Buying Tips

@WellMefisto 5 years ago

One thing that is pretty much true is... A bass always seems to sound good in the hands of a good player.

@KnuckleThruster 5 years ago

Honestly, they all provide an acceptable tone.

@chuckschillingvideos 4 years ago

They all sound damn good to me right out of the box. A beginning bass player has nothing to complain about with any of these.

@armignac 5 years ago (edited)

"neck-heavy is bad"
cries in thunderbird shape

@imnowhacko 5 years ago

I was a young teenager looking for a cheap bass. I found a used one for $100, including a hard case. I had never heard of the brand and it looked a little strange, but I bought it anyway. After taking a few lessons, I realized that I couldn't learn how to play it. But I kept it anyway, which was a good thing, because my Vox Constellation IV is worth a lot more now.

@thxcuz 4 years ago

I’ve got a Glary and I love it. It’s sounds great to me. Not the model he reviewed but I still only paid 100 bucks for it. I’m not here to impress anyone. Just to contribute a little low end thump to my dad band.

I love cheap instruments. They are fun to hack up and customize

@jsgovind 5 years ago

A good bass player can make any bass sound good as long as it is set up properly. Too many people fool themselves into thinking that an instrument upgrade will make them better bass players.

@LeglessWonder 5 years ago

I’d love to see a follow up video where the basses are properly set up. To compare what they can be, at their best

@fearghal10 3 years ago

I've bought loads of cheap Harley Benton instruments and they always seem to be the best in the budget price range. I think a big part of it is that they are one of Thomann's in house brands (Thomann is a huge online music shop) so they essentially have their own distribution network and can cut out a bunch of middlemen, like Amazon but less evil. Really makes a difference at the lower levels of the price range.

@MichaelJ023 5 years ago

In the 80s if you bought a new bass for under $100 it would most likely be almost unplayable. Back in those days there was no way for a company to steal outright a digital file of the design and program a cc machine to make them pretty much exact as expensive guitars. So most of them had the frets eyeballed into the wrong place, bodies made of plywood or worse, no truss rod, pickups that were just made to appear correct but under the cover were actually a crude bar magnet wrapped with wire which were microphonic as hell, random scale length, and tuners that would seize or strip out. Oh and necks that were warped in two directions at the same time. It’s a great time for beginners to find gear these days.

@MaestorRasanen 5 years ago

Not big differences but Polar Aurora seemed to have the best tone of all of them.

@folkuey_artster 3 years ago

The amount of RELIEF I felt that my glarry bass was okay is unimaginable. I was so scared that I’d gotten a bad bass, but I didn’t so I’m glad!

@oliviercatrice5701 5 years ago

I am a Harley-Benton bass and guitar player and I confess I find these instruments are of a really high quality/price ratio. And the seller (Thomann) pays attention to their customers and always finds a solution when there are issues with their products.

@Harry777 5 years ago

I actually thought the Polar Aurora sounded pretty damn good

@diphylleia8577 3 years ago

I feel like the harley was definitely fuller and easier to hear and feel in the tone downs, but the polar aurora was pretty distinguishable in the tone ups

@Shelsight 5 years ago (edited)

Love that you donated them all. You're a damn decent bloke, Josh.

@kacklerot 5 years ago

I actually liked the sound of Polar Aurora best. It sounded aggressive,punchy,and clear.

@Weex1k 3 years ago (edited)

I bought a cheap Harley Benton PJ-4 for $100, the frets were okay. I was not sure whether I'd stick to bass and love it so I wanted to invest as less as possible. It's been great so far!

Edit after 1 year of use: During this time I replaced the strings and brought it to a shop for setup. And it's still very enjoyable to play. Totally recommend for new players!

@chalupasupremegordito5251 5 years ago

Dude, please review guitars in this same way. This is literally the best side by side comparison video I've EVER SEEN you could teach a thing or two to these musicians on YT about how to properly compare and contrast lol!