Title says it all. Anybody know about these things? Are they worth anything at all for a beginner? Or just junk?
Help!
Seems like a reasonable bet! The reviews seem solid - look for consistent reports of warped necks - that would be a red flag. If not, that’s a good deal if you want a low risk way to try a bass. Good luck.
Never heard of Davison Guitars. Can’t really make a sound judgment without actually touching and playing it. Price alone would seem to indicate it’s shit, but musical instruments are funny in that a random $149 Squier Strat can play and sound better than a $1200 Fender American Strat. It’s not likely, but it happens; I’ve seen it.
I’d go to your local pawn shop and see what they have; I’m willing to bet they can sell you a more well-known brand of an instrument you can actually touch and play for roughly the same price, but maybe that’s just me.
Thanks, man!
I promised a kid I would give him my Yamaha, and I discovered it’s got a busted tuner and missing strings. Don’t want to send him something he won’t be able to fix/play. (Well, that and the completely inappropriate graphic on the back of the bass.)
Found a like-new Davison on Craigs for about half the price. I think I’ll grab it and send it along.
Seems like a worthy experiment and I sure as heck he appreciates the intent. Good luck! Make sure he gets it reviewed by a tech!
I’m very confused. If you have a Yamaha bass that you aren’t going to use anymore and all that’s wrong with it is a busted tuner and missing strings, why would you not just take it to a guitar shop and have the tuner and strings replaced? You’d be out about $30. I don’t know what the deal is with the “inappropriate” graphic on the back, but if it’s really too obscene for the kid, I’m sure it would not exactly be the Manhattan Project to remove it or cover it up.
Anyway, if I were buying a new bass for a kid, I would get him a Squier. The Squiers now are really, really good. They are only just barely inferior to the actual Fenders costing hundreds or thousands more. A decent setup and fret job will make one as playable as any bass out there, and the kid can swap out Fender components and customize it to his heart’s content down the line. Fender is tried and true.
Hard to argue with this.
if it was me I’d probably find a decent-condition used one from a recognizable brand. at that price, that thing is most assuredly coming from some Chinese mega-factory and is cheap for a reason.
Thread relocated from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Bass emergency! Bass emergency!
I second the vote for a Squier, and also suggest you purchase from a reputable dealer, with the warranty and ‘service after sale’ if necessary that entails.
Hmmm, I’d generally vote for a used Squier, too. Heck, until I bought my P/J Mustang, a Squier was my primary bass, and my guitarist’s Fender was the backup.
However! I love cheap guitars. I’ve got more than a dozen. I looked up the brand on talkbass.com. The consensus seems to be that they make totally serviceable instruments typical of budget Chinese-made instruments, but the pickups are low output. They’re compared to the SX brand, there’s even one un-cited claim they’re made in the same factory. I have an SX tele copy that I like a lot. It’s nowhere as good as a Squier, but it was about 1/2 or 1/3 the price.
But you could also buy a tuner and some strings for the Yamaha for less, and yeah you could cover/remove the graphic easily. I’m refinishing the above mentioned Squier completely (I just don’t like natural basses) in a glitter finish for about $50. That’s almost certainly going to be a better playing bass.
Okay. I confess. I didn’t want to part with my Yamaha*.
I made the promise while drinking. Go figure. But I need to come through with something. Couldn’t find a Squire on this short notice.
I picked up the bass yesterday, it looks brand new, but haven’t had time to mess with it. One thing, it and the soft bag absolutely** REEK** like cigarettes. I had to tie the thing to the ski racks to drive it home. 
I’ll look at it closer and let you all know what’s up. But I can’t play the thing. It is a China product.
Here is the * I’m pretty sure I bought this from Duff McKagan in his “down period”.
By the way, thank you all for the input, and a special shoutout to Wordman for the quick reply. Glad you were online when I posted this. Your musical acumen has always impressed me.
Thanks! Yeah, I was online right when you PM’d me.
“A genius is someone who has made every possible mistake in a very narrow field.” — Niels Bohr
I’m no genius but it’s nice to know I share their methods ;).
Ah, the subtext is clarified. Go fix Duff’s bass and get to it. I have never heard of a new instrument shipped in a bag reeking of cigarettes. That sounds shitty.
He specified that the bass in question was on Craigslist. It is a cheap instrument brand-new, and on Craigslist would have been even cheaper.
It’s ok if it smells like cigarettes, that just means it’s been “seasoned” and it will improve the tone. 
From the picture, it looks like a Fender Precision-style bass, with split-coil pickups. That’s a tried-and-true design. Honestly, if I were this kid, the first thing I’d do is start saving up my piggy-bank or bitcoins or whatever the hell else that kids use these days, and buy a real Fender Precision neck to replace the stock one on the instrument. Then at some point I’d replace the pickups.
Ah.
Yeah, I bought it from a nice young girl, and she came outside with it with who I hope was her grandpa. I swear he was the spitting image of Gabby Hayes. I figure he was the smoker.
Jeez, what a piece of shit. Almost too embarrassed to send it.
Dude. Find a Squier Precision or Jazz bass. A new one should run you about $200, used even cheaper than that. Then spend $50 or so at a guitar shop to get the action set up for easy playability, neck adjusted, and frets dressed, etc. Now the kid will have an instrument that is literally as good as the ones being played onstage for tens of thousands of people by rock stars who own Ferraris. Seriously. There is no bass on earth that’s more time-tested than the Fender, and a Squier is a Fender.
I should stop talkin’ when drinkin’…