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The RBX series is a perennial favourite on the secondhand market. When keeping the price down, Yamaha cuts the right corners. Hence, the woodworking and frets are excellent. The cheap 'n' cheerful pickups and control electronics can always be upgraded in the future.
My personal favourite is the Yamaha Attitude Plus. With an American pickup and a Gotoh 201B bridge, you have a bass guitar that will deliver professional results.
No need to apologise for that. When I first registered on this forum, gratuitously tagging Bridgehouse seemed to be a running in-joke.
This, on the other hand, might warrant an apology - certainly to the other two. They might prefer not to be lumped in with me. The only thing we have in common is the habit of answering the bass questions that others would pay to avoid. Bridgehouse favours the P. ICBM champions the Rick. I'm somewhere in between. This probably makes me a P/Rick.
My Fender AVRI '63 Precision Bass weighs next to nothing. My Squier Silver Series P Bass weighs only fractionally more. Mr. Bridgehouse has a genuine original Sixties Fender bass. I expect that it weighs very little too.
a shortscale Gretsch Electromatic G2224 Jnr Bass (bridgehouse a fan of these i think, & def on my list to try because i'm a shortscale bass fan) through a Fender Rumble 40 Bass Amp.
potentially ticks both your boxes. & prices spot on at £300-£400 each new.
I would rate the P/Rick comment as one of the funniest of the week/month/year. You always give good advice - even when you disagree with me
I have tried an Attitude Plus and it was very good so in agreement there.
My 64 P is pretty much 8lbs dead on - so pretty light. Strangely the 74 I have isn’t much more, and my recent ACG is only 7. I like my light basses.
The P/Rick was funny...
I will have to concede in this case that you can't get any kind of worthwhile Rick for £400 . (Or even £600.) Anyway, the OP wants a Jazz-type, which is fair enough. There's a lot of choice in this style/price range.
All I would really add is - I don't actually agree with Funkfingers about spending more on the amp. If it was for gigging, yes - but for home and recording you can get a pretty good amp for under £200, so I would spend as much as possible on the bass and not reduce it by spending more on the amp.
And I would also avoid active basses if possible - I know this is not a fashionable opinion, but I've always found cheaper actives *reduce* the sound quality of the signal, even if they add more EQ control. If you're on a budget you're better off with quality woodwork and pickups than active circuitry.
That said, if you go second hand you can still get a decent active bass for under £400. @AuldReekie just picked up a nice Yamaha (I can't remember the model number) for just under £300, which although not a Jazz style is a very versatile pro-quality bass, and ideal for recording even without an amp.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Indeed I think these are an excellent choice - so a solid recommendation, and not a lucky guess at all! The Gretsch is quirky but very usable, and lightweight to boot - as well as being well made. As I have commented before, I think it out Hofner's a Hofner.. and the Fender Rumble 40 is a sound choice too. The Studio 40 I tried recently was really good for the money and the biggest shock was the fact it weighed about the same as one of my shoes (!)
one here. but definitely a case of 'try before you buy'.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tokai-Bass-Guitar-Hardcase/163104300849
if you want something fendery & throughly decent used for £300 and under, there's a brand called Fenix that made some much respected fender copies in the 1990s. maybe worth watching out for locally. when they come up on gumtree (not so much ebay, which has a bigger audience) they are often underpriced as the brand is not widely known
or, working along lines of 'light with slimish neck' maybe a better quality through-neck 1980s jap? a random thing i noticed recently, by way of illustration.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Westbury-Track-4-Bass-Guitar-Project-Matsumoku-JAPAN-/163081751044
i find 'mining the used seam' far more fun & inspiring than buying new & off the shelf. & it's a good strategy around your own subconscious brand biases.
eg when you pick up something you have never come across before & know nothing of, you can't filter it through habitual prejudices, you have to approach it with an open mind & engage with it on its own terms.
you can learn lots about what you really want, not what you think you want, by going off piste.
Some of the older Japanese imitations do a reasonable job. One of my contemporaries had a Shaftsbury. My own choice would be the Ibanez 2388 or 2389 from their Seventies replica period. (Barry Adamson of Magazine used to play the latter.)
Coincidentally, on the eBay page for the Tokai, there are links to a couple Aria basses, one Cardinal/CSB and this Thor Sound TSB.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aria-Pro-TSB-400-Thor-sound-Bass/292608978824?_trkparms=aid=888007&algo=DISC.MBE&ao=1&asc=49130&meid=dbb17f5c072c443f99d4784fc2fd4693&pid=100009&rk=1&rkt=2&sd=163104300849&itm=292608978824&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982
With a P bass you can get a lot of the way there with a copy as it’s all pretty stock stuff - alder/ash routed body, bolt on standard neck, standard split coil pickup and bent metal bridge with standard cts electronics. Easy to copy and put together. Same as a telecaster really.
The sensible thing would be to have a look in the classifieds here and on Basschat and see what you can get used - 400 notes can get you an awful lot of used bass.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
looks like a satin finish on the back of the neck Looks like a winner for me. Mexican are good quality too?
But, I do also think you get a lot more used. I don’t think basses hold their value quite as well as guitars, and I’ve seen some proper bargains over recent months.
Just last year I picked up an ACG Finn - handmade custom with exotic wood top, asymmetric neck, handwound pickup and superb hardware for less than the OPs budget....
I've been using, gigging both for a couple of years now and they're good.