Beginner 4 String Bass Guitar Scales For Sale (2024 Update)

Took this out of the box last week and immediately started practicing for a gig the same week. I have a Hofner , but wanted a solid body for some of the heavier tunes but still a small scale neck. Action and set-up were fine out of the box with no fret buzz. I may put flat-wounds on, but not sure yet. Tone and pick up were good. Mine was a blemish-so I got a discount. Anyway, I used it at the gig with no problems and never switched to the Hofner. Nice bass for the price. Whether it becomes my go to remains to be seen.Mike V

After playing this bass guitar I don't want to play my 30" scale Beatle bass anymore much less a 34" scale bass! Lol. It is so easy to play that it makes me wonder why Fender introduced their first bass guitar with a 34" scale. This bass runs circles around any long scale bass guitar. Add to that the super fast neck, low action, P/J pickups, great tone and Ibanez quality construction is just amazing. This is now my main bass guitar after 40 years of longnecks. Ibanez hit it out of the ball park on this one. No doubt other brands will follow. This bass has no flaws of any kind. I tried to find one but couldn't. Great job, great bass!CodSackJackson

Very informative chart to help you learn the notes on your guitar. Nice and strong well made and a very big help in learning to remember and help you to put together your own riffs . definitely a winner.wouldnt be without it.pauhackn

Great for all skill levels, breaks down everything to a point of understanding . A must have for the learning bass player or experienced , love it,Jason

Over all, this is the best Bass book out there, (that I've used) and given that it is a little vague in some areas it still isn't a problem if you read through the chapters first!Mo' Bass

It came faster than expected but it didn't have a CD with it like the description said. It's pretty good it teaches you slapping and tapping which is what I'm primarily looking for. I wish it had more reading and picture demonstrations.alysscardie0

Before purchasing this lesson book I could hardly play the Kazoo,Now I will be touring this summer with the Eagles, Replacing their Bass player. Also I can sing Much better.Im Happier too…..Wow Can you believe it?papaleo48

Known about this book for a long time, finally got it. Its title says it all: SERIOUS! Be prepared to take your time, I'm just starting to work through it. Lots of good information. Consider it as a lifetime learning and reference tool.josephdiscojoe

The book is a wealth of information concerning bass guitar scales and theory. It also includes information on how to fix minor problems with your bass.johnlosen

Same scales for guitar or any instrument tuned e a d g if you learn these scales by heart you will be able to play in any tuning , you'll see . No staff or even tab knowledge needed to eventually play by ear with this 😀B rad

Sound: The stock pickups sound great especially with high gain. Nice crunch and break up. Features: For me the reason that I bought this model is that it is the least expensive way to get a real Edge tremolo. I can do subtle things with the Edge that I can’t do on an Original Floyd Rose. The bar is easier to position and it stays where ever you put it. As long as the torsion bushings on the bar aren’t worn out, the pop in bar is neither too tight or too sloppy. Value: This guitar is worth every penny. Manufacturer Support: I did not use Ibanez customer service and I did order half a dozen sets of torsion bushings, but had to order them from different places. The Wow Factor: I love the color of this one, Desert Sun Yellow. Overall: In the last 2 months I’ve bought 5 different Ibanez guitars, both lower and higher price. I must say that this guitar is the most bang for the buck out of any of my 21 guitars that I own.Got more than 200 bucks off on mine as it was sold as a slight blemish. When the guitar arrived, I noticed it did have a hairline crack in the paint on the bass side at the neck pocket. That was the only flaw I could find and it probably would have happened anyway if I would have got a “new” one.This is the shreddiest guitar that I have. The only thing that I had to address is that the 6th fret was a little proud. Other than that the fret job was good. All the frets were shiny and smooth and no fret sprout.This is the guitar that is at the price point where if you spend more money, you aren’t going to get much better. And the fit and finish were top notch.Scott

Overall: This guitar was a total impulse buy and I’m so glad I bought it! It’s easily worth twice the price of it. Can’t get too many mid tier guitars that are neck thru with decent pickups and a 5-way switch that has a fast and slim neck at this price. I mostly play baritone 6 strings and 7 strings but I needed a 25.5” scale for drop C and this is perfect for it with 10-54 strings. I did upgrade the nut with a Graphtech tusq nut and Hipshot locking tuners with knurled tuner buttons and looks even more badass while staying in perfect tune! I have an Ibanez rgib6 Iron Label 28” baritone and this is up there with that as far as quality and playability. The stock pickups aren’t bad at all and definitely surprised me cuz that’s usually the first thing I’ll change in an inexpensive guitar. As you can see by the other reviews people say it’s a great guitar and they’re not lying so if you’re on the fence about getting it then go for it! You won’t be disappointed at all and if for some reason you are then zZounds has a return policy within like 30-45 days so you won’t be stuck with a guitar you don’t love.Josh

The Mikro bass plays, looks and sounds great. The extra-short scale length does not compromise the traditional bass tone it produces. I have played 6-string guitar for over 40 years, including many professional gigs and teaching. I own over a dozen topnotch guitars. But this is my first bass, and I chose Mikro on the recommendation of a trustworthy friend. I have been doing my own repair work on guitars for decades, and can say the Mikro bass is impressively well made, and arrived decently set up with new, good strings. Fret work, neck, nut, tuning machines, bridge, fingerboard, finish, electronics are all virtually flawless; and the tobacco sunburst color I chose looks really nice, with a "vintage" vibe. I replaced the stock chrome dome knobs (which are nice ones) with Gibson-style knobs so I can see numbers for volume and tone settings. I really like the tone of the Mikro, especially the "Precision" style pickup–the one closer to the neck, from which it's easy to get a classic P-bass tone in conjunction with the tone control, which also works great. Ibanez chose a great capacitor value for the tone knob. The bridge position ("Jazz" style) pickup is just OK–usable, and not bad, but nothing remarkable, and it's especially lackluster when used solo, without any of the P-style pickup dialed in. That is the only part of this bass, other than the knobs, I would consider upgrading in the near future (maybe also the potentiometers, but even those feel smooth and responsive out of the box). The satin-finish neck feels great, and is a breeze to play, even for someone like me, who is coming to the bass from years on guitar. The tuning stability of the Mikro is remarkably great. So the latest versions of the Mikro basses are a phenomenal bargain! I would not hesitate to recommend a Mikro to anyone considering moving from guitar to bass, or to someone with smaller hands. From what my bassist friends tell me, the Mikro is great for any bassist PERIOD.NYC Slide Guitarist trying bass

Overall: I've been playing for years, mostly Fenders, Tobias and a heavily modified Decca short scale from the 60s. This is my first Ibanez bass and I am blown away! I chose the brown burst finish, and took a chance on the "blemished" version. Been looking at it all day and I can't find any imperfection anywhere. Definitely wanted short scale, light weight and a fast neck, this one has all 3 and then some. Set up out of the box was close, very close, with only a slight fret buzz on the E string. A very small adjustment at the saddle took care of it. The stock pickups sound good, the tone knob has useful range, everything sounds quite good through everything I've played it through so far (Fender, Orange, antique Earth head, etc.). Overall, I couldn't be happier!Bryan

An utterly great bass overall. It's perfect for someone with a low budget, or someone who's new to learning bass. Also good for children or people with small hands since it's a short-scale. This was my first bass and I still play it a lot. Not only is it cheap, but it has a really good tone, a nice feel to it, and a beautiful orange finish (if that is the finish you chose). The only bad thing I have to say about this is that it got some fret buzz to it but in all honesty, it's not that bad. I love Ibanez basses, I own several and this one is absolutly great.Logan

The Squier Bronco Bass delivers exactly what I expected. It's a 30" scale bass with a body shaped like the Fender Mustang bass; it has a single pickup (I believe it's a strat pickup), is fairly light weight (mine weighs in a 7 pounds 10 ounces), and it's a fun little axe. It's also the lowest-priced bass by an actual musical instrument company. How do they keep the price down? One way is that this is the only bass I've owned that has no fingerboard. It doesn't affect anything, but the front of the neck IS the fingerboard. The hardware is okay quality. But here's the thing – it sounds decent, feels great, plays well. There's going to be a little luck of the draw in a lower priced instrument, but my tuners stay in tune, intonation was on, everything is good. There was a little too much neck relief, but that was easy to adjust. If you're realistic about your expectations, the Squier Bronco Bass is an awesome value, looks good, and it gets you playing. It's not going to sound like a Stingray or a Geddy Lee Jazz Bass, but it doesn't sound bad, either – I would do a show with one without worrying about it. I have other basses, but wanted to add an inexpensive short scale to my stable, and this bass was exactly what I wanted. I may upgrade the pickup later – I may not. For now, it falls between my 34" scale and 28.6" scale basses, and it's fun to play. I'm very happy with it.Pcake

I ended up using this bass for songs where long scale can be a bit difficult. My main bass is an imported '54 P Bass copy, Alder body and maple neck/fingerboard. It had to go into a local shop for some major nut repair, and I needed something to play around with. Off the rack, it was a pretty great bass for the price. The neck is very well crafted, no sharp fret edges like some imported instruments. It's an agathis body, so the tone can be kind of bland, but compared to older Squier Broncos, it seems that all of the bridge and neck contact one piece of wood on the multi-piece construction, so sustain isn't too bad. The bad: The tuners are pretty sorry and are an oddball size, which makes replacement with good tuners very difficult. My E and A tuners rattle some, but all four do hold tune pretty well for cheap tuners. Also, the stock pickup is a six-pole ceramic Strat pickup, so it can sound…odd when bending strings. The other bad is the bridge: although it intonates pretty well, two saddles can make proper intonation difficult to achieve along with proper radius. Also, the bridge mounting pattern is almost impossible to replace with another bridge–four hole lock-down and quick-release style bridges DO work, but the bridge is mounted a little too far forward, and intonation is almost always sharp on the upper end of the fingerboard. Gotoh 201's are also very difficult to adapt to fit. But for its price point, some of these cons are easily fixed. I have a Mojotone Alnico V lipstick Strat pickup in mine with CTS 500K pots. It sounds excellent–it fools some of my buddies about how cheap it is. This bass could probably also benefit from a bar retainer near the nut. It went from an around the house beater to a mainstay for certain songs.Isher

my dad, a professional and extremely experienced bass guitarist, bought me this for christmas last year, and i love it. this is the first bass i've ever picked up and it's easy to play, is well built, has a nice feel to it, etc. i highly recommend it for beginners. i play it in my school band class and it fits in very well with the rest of the instruments. however it can fall out of tune easily and the pickup isn't the best, but ultimately it's the most perfect beginner bassout there, especially for the low price, it's high qualityace

Purchased the Walnut version. This is the first guitar which I had to do nothing to it out of the box except an initial tuning. All screws were tight, the nut height was correct, the relief was good, the action was good with NO fret buzz, the finish was flawless, the fret ends were perfect and the intonation was spot on! I've never seen this, especially for the price point. I love the short scale of this instrument and it can be played as fast as you can do. Wow! I'm happy and impressed. I like it even more than my Ibanez Gio Mikro. Gretsch has done something with the pickups as ther is NO hum from the pickups even though they are claimed not to be humbuckers after all.John

Bought earlier today and have been playing it since getting it home. I prefer flatwound strings so put some on as soon as I could. Lowered the action to just under 2 mm at the 12th fret on the bass side. Intonation is just about spot on. Didn’t need to tweak the truss rod at all but will check it in a day or two. I’m over 70 and bought my first bass around 1965. This little bass is quite amazing for its price. There does seem to be some quality control issues reading online reviews but mine is very good. Gloss finish immaculate with no pooling or dull patches. Tone and volume are very smooth and work as they should. It’s very easy to replace with CTS or similar but at present there’s no need. Jack socket holds the jack securely. Frets beautifully finished. The flattish neck is great to play on and it’s gloss finish feels really smooth. Not sticky. Walnut fingerboard looked in nice condition but I put a little lemon oil on it when changing the strings. There has been some uproar that Gretsch were advertising these as having mini humbuckers when in fact they are single coils. I have no problem with single coils being a Fender fan. These single coils do not exhibit any background hiss through my amplifier. Some have complained that they do but mine is silent. The only gripe which has cost the review one star is concerning the machineheads. They have a little play in them which I hate. The only thing I will change will be these in due course when I find some with the correct 14 mm hole diameter. Plenty of space on the headstock so might go down the vintage style rout. Not sure. The main thing is to get good quality and ensure the existing holes are covered. All in all I’m very happy with this bass. It weighs in at 8.2lbs. Not too heavy. The bass sounds really nice with lots of tonal variance available using the pickup selector and tone control.Brian

Overall: I bought this without playing it, but was very pleased right out of the box. My fingers were black after a few minutes of playing due to the dirty strings, but that didn't dampen my opinion by any means (but good idea to purchase a new set of strings along with the bass). Bought the Walnut Finish (looks more expensive) for use with my SC-300 Boss Looper (also purchased from zZounds). It sounds great! I'm not onstage playing head banger metal, so don't need that rumbling low end anyway. But the pickup configuration def gives you a lot of low end. Even though I've been playing guitar and bass for over 30 years, I would use this bass onstage, AND more importantly, if you are introducing anyone to playing bass – this will be a much easier learning bass due to the size. It still feels like a 'bass' and it's not tiny or anything, but it doesn't feel clunky like a bigger bass does. I'm looking forward to using this for a long while, and assuming it holds up over the next few months I'll likely grab another one just to have a backup. Don't hesitate if you need for a recording bass, or onstage. And def great for a beginner to keep them from losing interest due to most basses being too large for them.Jason

This is my second Mikro. I gave my first to my nephew, and moved onto full scale bass guitars, some fairly expensive. However, I missed that Mikro. Even though it?s the cheapest bass I own, it is by far the most fun to play and sits next to my desk as the ?go-to? guitar to pick up and play when the mood hits. Love this thing.RICHARD

I'm recently retired and a beginner with the base. The Ibanez miKro Series GSRM20 was just what I needed to get started. The short scale is better for stiff fingers, and I found it quite easy to play. The quality is very good for this lower priced guitar, and it came mostly set up, needing only a few tweeks. I recommend this product to others, especially older folks with arthritis.MARK

I bought this bass because a friend had one that worked great and played great and I loved it. When I purchased mine I had it sent to my house. 5 days later and it comes in with busted knobs and I had to take it in for a refund. They had another in stock and I took it home. Well the second is busted too. Huge disappointment considering how much I enjoy playing this bass. Absolutely unreliable and I won't be getting a third one.James

Should you be in the market for a decent, inexpensive bass, you really should consider this model. Having just arrived home from jamming with six friends, three of whom (including myself) are gigging pros, I felt obligated to congratulate Yamaha Corp for creating such a marvelous bass for the price. I brought my favorite jamming bass–a Squier VM 70's jazz bass–to the jam yet ended up playing this TRBX for four hours. (The guy who owns the studio remarked that he just bought it (used), and he wanted me to try it out.) I'll admit that the controls for the pots are cheap plastic, but everything else about the bass was top notch. It's a passive bass, but the EQ is very responsive with a wide range of voicings from its P/J style pups. Beautifully finished neck, a fretboard with a generous slab of rosewood–it sure looked and felt like rosewood, despite what it's being called in the GC write-up–a really smooth fret-edge finish, solid body wood, but not too heavy. Tuners worked great, and the sunburst stain under the urethane finish was masterfully done. The studio owner bought the bass with flatwound strings, but the pups made them sound clear, with a nice degree of sustain. This TRBX will serve a bassist well as a back-up, but I wouldn't be surprised if some would use it as a main axe (maybe after ditching the plastic knobs for better-quality ones). btw, I had it input to a Tech-21 bass Sansamp (which I use all the time), and into a GK MB210-ii. Even with the Sansamp bypassed, it performed quite well. In summary: Nice surprise!BassesRBetter

After building myself an in home studio, I quickly realized the only thing i was missing was a bass. Swung over to a local store (sorry MF, i was in a rush!) and checked out their large selection. Being that i'm a drummer, I was looking for apparent quality as I didn't much know the specifics or traits that i should be mindful of. The price tag, finish, weight and balance of this thing caught my eye. I toyed around with it for a moment and purchased it about 15 minutes later. I would be lying if i said this was the most played piece in my studio – BUT whenever i do pick it up i am always impressed. Plugging it directly in to a preamp and hitting record with this thing is a dream. You can go from a very washy sound to some solid attack with the knobs. Contrary to one of the previous comments, it does have a volume knob. As i have developed my skills in the studio and on a guitar/bass I have never felt beyond or limited by this guitar. Exceptional piece, I can say with confidence that if bass was my main instrument, i would love to have this guitar as a backup. But for someone like me?…..perfect.Chris

I'm a guitar player who bought this to use for recording (and because I think bass is a cool instrument!). This is very playable, sounds great with my Spark Amp and through my Scarlett 2i2. Though this is low priced, it does not in any way feel like a compromise. I highly recommend it.SHANNON

I had wanted to learn how to play bass guitar since my early 20's so I finally decided to make it happen at age 46. After doing quite a bit of online and in-store research I landed on the Yahama TRBX 304. Rather than explain all the reasons I didn't select a different brand or model I'll tell you why I picked this one. To put it simply, it just felt and sounded right. The neck is smooth and somewhat narrow which is great for my small hands. The frets are mellow with no sharp or jagged edges and the ergonomic pick-ups with the thumb/finger contours fit like a glove. The electronics are amazing as well. Aside from my poor finger placement on the frets I don't get a lot of annoying buzz. The five EQ settings are great for allowing me to find the sounds I'm looking for without investing in a higher end accessories. My only complaint about this guitar would be the aesthetics. While I like the feel and contouring of the base, I wish they had a better color selection. Would love to see this in the old violin sunburst color the 204 comes in but I have no complaints otherwise. Having never really played a guitar of any kind I'm happy to say I've already been able to learn a few easy songs like Seven Nation Army. Yesterday I learned Tool's "46 and 2" and have a basic understanding of The Beatles "Come Together". Overall I couldn't have made a better choice within my $300 – $400 budget.JASON

I've owned this instrument for going on seven months. Possibly the most beautiful bass I've ever owned; wherever I play I'm complimented on its jewel-like stunning candy apple red finish. Combined with a superior active EQ system, it's a beauty AND a beast. Great variety of styles through a 5-way switch that actually works! Nicely finished, high-quality rosewood fretboard with a satin neck, a bit on the thin side. Currently it's suffering the dreaded winter season's sharp fret ends, but it's only slight. A feature I appreciate (especially after 4-hour gigs) is the body wood, which is substantial enough, but somehow made lighter, I guess by "chamfering" which is what I call tapering, because it's not chambered. Somewhat beefier bridge than a Fender Std American J-Bass, perfectly aligned to center strings directly over the pole pieces. Easy access to the truss rod. The bass could have benefited from a better nut, but it's serviceable. Pups are designed with a scooped out slot as a thumb rest, which I notice other musicians find beneficial (but I don't, depends on how you prefer to rest your thumb). I often use this for practice/rehearsing and sometimes for gigs when I don't want to risk losing or damaging my G&L Kiloton. This really is the only bass I'd consider gigging with full-time at the price–it's that good.MetroPlexBass

Overall: I’ve had this guitar for 10 years now. Bought it because it was cheap and needed one fast to help a friends band. Didn’t expect to love it, or even really like it. Just something to get me by for a month or so. Over the past 10 years I’ve owned easily 10 bass guitars, and this is still my favorite. It plays like a dream. The action is low with no buzz. It has a deep, punchy sound. It works for the rock and metal I prefer to play, as well as country, blues, and jazz. I strongly recommend this guitar for anyone who is starting out, or needing a great guitar on a budget.Joel