The best bass guitars

I recently found myself in need of a new bass guitar. I spent several months choosing the best bass for the money. I listened to a lot of different instruments, talked to bass players, and looked at what bass guitars professionals play. I thought someone might find it useful to see my list of the best bass guitars.

Sadowsky NYC Modern ≈ 8000-10000$ Kikuchi ≈ 7000$ Dingwall ABZ ≈ 5000$ Atelier Z ≈ 1500-2000$ Moon ≈ 1500-2000$ Lakland USA ≈ 3500$ Momose ≈ 2000$ Xotic ≈ 3500$ Zon Sonus ≈ 4000$ Tune TWB ≈ 1000$

Nice! Were most of the bassists you asked rock/metal players? It's hard to generalize with musical instruments, obviously. The genre/style context of the recommendation is always a factor.

Lakland, Zon, Dingwall, Sadowsky sound a little more aggressive, which is why they are popular in metal music. But u can find peoples who use Dingwall to play jazz, or Sadowsky Jazz Bass to play metal. Look, this dude use Dingwall ABZ for funk https://youtube.com/shorts/JGolDnoVnho?si=RwdNP_XoR5iHwYjY Juna Serita use Sadowsky for funk, Toshiya use Sadowsky for metal, Yuchi from Sukekiyo use the same Sadowsky for experimental avant-garde music. All these bass guitars sound amazing in any genre.

I use Momose MJ2-STD with noisless Aguillar pickups for any music. Before this I had an Ibanez SR Premium and it also sounded good with absolutely any music. But I can't call the Ibanez SRs great basses.

Since I play a variety of music, I needed a versatile bass. I decided to buy Momose basses because they really sound good in any genre. They're underrated basses that no one talks about. Momose basses are handcrafted in Japan without CNC machines. Many people know Moon basses; they're incredibly cool. Zon Sonus is a very rare bass guitar, almost none in my country, but the sound is incredible. Tune bass guitars are also very popular and sound great. Atelier Z - one of the best bass guitars made in Japan, but Momose sounds better (I compared Momose and Atelier Z side-by-side). Kikuchi is a very expensive bass guitars from Japan, an alternative to Sadowsky. As far as I know, Kikuchi is made by the same people who make Sadowsky TYO. I chose Momose not only because they are very good bass guitars, but also because of the price. Of course, if I had 10000$, I would buy Sadowsky or Kikuchi. But I think Momose makes the best bass guitars for 2000-3000$. I compared the Momose and Sadowsky. The Sadowsky sounded slightly better, but the price difference isn't worth it.

yall are way pickier than I am

What part of the world do you live in, Chizuru? You seem to have easy access to the best Japanese boutique basses. Even having a chance to demo a boutique Japanese bass here in the US is becoming quite difficult/rare, and we'll pay a premium relative to what those in other countries would pay.

I'd love to try an Xotic (JP shop) bass, as every review online talks about how amazingly low and precise the action can be... and they still cater to my old fashioned tastes.

I too tend to be biased towards Japanese craftsmanship, as I have such fond memories of Fender Japan guitars from the 80s, 90s and 00s. Plenty of countries make amazing instruments, but my personal tastes seem to align best with the precision and fine detail of Japanese luthiers.

I'm from Russia, and there are quite a lot of different Japanese instruments here. There's even a Xotic, but it's too expensive (around $4,000). In the US, brands are popular, people love labels. But here people don't have that much money to pay for an inscription on the headstock. That's why a lot of Japanese guitars are imported here. I know it's practically impossible to find Momose guitars in the US, but I've found a few in Russia. Even despite the sanctions, people find a way to bring these guitars here.

yeah, sorry about those sanctions, man, I voted for the guy that laid them on, but I really didn't vote for that because economic sanctions are just a way to make ordinary people suffer while elites drink champagne and toast their body count, so F you Biden, sanctions don't end wars... it's not fair that your guy invaded Ukraine and you get slammed with hardship and our current guy (didn't vote for him 3 times) levels grade schools in Tehran and we're ok.... oh wait, no we're not, there aren't sanctions but inflation shot up again and my expenses are up 50%on average and my income is down, but we're not sanctioned, which feels odd... the suffering here is just all knock on effects, not direct financial retaliation, seems unfair, right? Sorry my Russian friend. I really feel for yall. I hate this cr@p.

I'm ready for internet based direct democracy, parliamentary democracy gives you the british empire's greatest hit and republics tke you back to the roman empire, its all richies richin' it up, killing and stealing... it'd be cool if we chose the chief executive for their shredding skills like in Eddie and the Cruisers 2

To some extent, I justify the sanctions. People in Russia truly support the war, and they deserve these sanctions. Starting in April, the internet will be completely blocked in Russia. In some regions, the state began to take away people's property and forcibly send people to war. People do nothing about it, many even support this policy. I could have been drafted into the war too, so I moved to Belarus and am planning to change my citizenship. Old people in government do terrible things. I'm on Ukraine's side in this conflict. Russia's real enemies are in the Kremlin. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, people don't feel the sanctions at all. All the brands that left the country are easy to find there. Russia still has a huge selection of musical instruments, which are imported through Kazakhstan or China. People suffer much more harm from the state.

Propagandists have taught Russians to hate democracy and liberalism. Today, the word "liberal" is an insult in Russia. As long as Putin lives, Russia will remain a fascist country. As long as television talks about the need for war with Europe, as long as people talk about the national superiority of Russians over others, Russia will not accept democracy.

As I know, the factory that made the old Fender Japan is now called Tokai. Tokai are excellent inexpensive Japanese instruments (in Russia they cost around $500). But when it comes to uncompromisingly good Japanese guitars, most people name Atelier Z, Kikuchi and Momose. I also have an inexpensive K. Yairi and it's a really good guitar. In my opinion, the neck of K.Yairi is thinner than that of Ibanez (I had Ibanez MTM). My K.Yairi was made in 1999 and is in perfect condition. So I can recommend K.Yairi instruments if you need an acoustic guitar. A few days ago I bought a Momose bass guitar to replace my Ibanez SR-1206. I'll share my impressions later.

. Today, the word "liberal" is an insult in Russia.

we're kinda there in the states too, brother... I should cut the politics out, we don't usually do that here, I was just feeling really upset yesterday about all the intolerance, death and profiteering globally. this isn't the world I want for my son

where to begin. tokai is just a label, all the Japanese brands that started in the lawsuit era are just labels, there are a couple venerable old factories like Fuji gen gaki and matsumoko gaki that did/do all of those guitars like tokai, greco, burny (I think burny merged with esp and the good japanese guitars became edwards and navigator and the korean junk became LTD)starting in the 70s... even ibanez started out as a label from various outsourced factories, the cheap lawsuit guitars were from lesser shops and the really nice stuff for the japanese market was usually from the serious shops one if which became squire and then fender japan under a deal with fender. my first electric was an early Japanese squire and it was amazing. when they switched to Korea the quality dropped like a rock. ah the 90s. memories

For an all-around genre type of bass, I've been playing a 2019 Washburn T-24 Taurus for Rock/Metal/Jazz/Funk/Prog./Grunge, etc. since I was 15 y.o., Perfectly ergonomic (Maybe 'cause I learned to play on it, but still...) and also a very attractive bass in an Alembic-esque kinda way, while still within a budget.

Only problem is:.. I don't think they've made them since 2019, so you'd probably only be able to get a used model off of Reverb .com or somewhere. I got mine new for around $750 or so.

Cliff, I checked out the T-24... I wanna play one! I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled at the shops that sell used gear around town.

I've had great luck with Sire basses, they start relatively cheap but get expensive quickly.