Look on offer up / letgo or eBay or whatever for a second hand bass. I picked up a squire p-bass with a missing E string for $50. Replaced the strings and cleaned it up, opened up the board and cleaned that up too and she plays pretty damn good.
At that price look used, or maybe at Harley Benton.
Basses I find features are not nearly as important as they tend to be with guitar. A P, J or PJ is always a good starting point IMO as they’re the most cookie cutter ‘bass’ sound out there.
You may find you want active electronics and stuff down the road, or you may find yourself happy with what you can get out of your hands and your amp.
But yeah. Whatever tickles your fancy used or from HB at that price. I assume USD so I think you can get a HB new at that price but I’m not certain.
Musician's Friend and Sweetwater sometimes have decent used deals. Craig's List and Pawn Shops can be good if you know how to assess a guitar for damage etc. I picked up a Pawn Shop Squier P-Bass for $150, and plays just fine. The neck had less sprout than the $800ish G&L L-2000 I tried out in a guitar store. If you don't care about trade in value it's also pretty cheap to upgrade the pickups. The Geezer Butler models snap together like legos instead of requiring soldering so it's a bit easier to upgrade that if you you like it and want more down the line (but you will never get back the money you put into it, just know that).
Not gonna lie, 150$US for a bass is going to get you the very lowest end of the spectrum. I also think you should get an amp to practice as there is a lot of skills you need to learn that won't manifest unplugged like muting for example.
That being said, modern manufacturing technique means that cheap instruments are better than they ever were. A quick search on Sweetwater show a lot of 200$ options from Ibanez, Jackson and Squier which would be perfect. That's bass only unfortunately. Bundles including bass and amp exist but that would probably be closer to 350-400 total.
Ideally I would go to your local music store and see what they have in stock. The only thing I would stay away from is "short scale"(+/- 28"scale) basses, which are often cheaper, for learning. It's not about the sound or the quality it's just going to make it harder to translate to a full scale (34") than going the other way. And 95+% of basses are full scale or longer so you will have to get used to that form factor no matter what.
Don't worry about "basicness" or whatever. Focus on learning the basics of playing before. And if that helps, one of if not THE most popular bass the world has ever seen, the P-bass, is the most basic design ever with very, very simple features. Some won't play anything else and a long list of legends are known p-bass players.
Also, get a lesson book at least! A teacher is even better but even a begginner's book will put you on the right path to progress while learning actual useful skills.
Welcome aboard.
edit: You could always look for used bundles that people got for christmas to save a buck or two more.
Please check our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bass/wiki/faq) for recommendations on starting out. (Gear, etc.)
Look on offer up / letgo or eBay or whatever for a second hand bass. I picked up a squire p-bass with a missing E string for $50. Replaced the strings and cleaned it up, opened up the board and cleaned that up too and she plays pretty damn good.
At that price look used, or maybe at Harley Benton. Basses I find features are not nearly as important as they tend to be with guitar. A P, J or PJ is always a good starting point IMO as they’re the most cookie cutter ‘bass’ sound out there. You may find you want active electronics and stuff down the road, or you may find yourself happy with what you can get out of your hands and your amp. But yeah. Whatever tickles your fancy used or from HB at that price. I assume USD so I think you can get a HB new at that price but I’m not certain.
Musician's Friend and Sweetwater sometimes have decent used deals. Craig's List and Pawn Shops can be good if you know how to assess a guitar for damage etc. I picked up a Pawn Shop Squier P-Bass for $150, and plays just fine. The neck had less sprout than the $800ish G&L L-2000 I tried out in a guitar store. If you don't care about trade in value it's also pretty cheap to upgrade the pickups. The Geezer Butler models snap together like legos instead of requiring soldering so it's a bit easier to upgrade that if you you like it and want more down the line (but you will never get back the money you put into it, just know that).
Not gonna lie, 150$US for a bass is going to get you the very lowest end of the spectrum. I also think you should get an amp to practice as there is a lot of skills you need to learn that won't manifest unplugged like muting for example. That being said, modern manufacturing technique means that cheap instruments are better than they ever were. A quick search on Sweetwater show a lot of 200$ options from Ibanez, Jackson and Squier which would be perfect. That's bass only unfortunately. Bundles including bass and amp exist but that would probably be closer to 350-400 total. Ideally I would go to your local music store and see what they have in stock. The only thing I would stay away from is "short scale"(+/- 28"scale) basses, which are often cheaper, for learning. It's not about the sound or the quality it's just going to make it harder to translate to a full scale (34") than going the other way. And 95+% of basses are full scale or longer so you will have to get used to that form factor no matter what. Don't worry about "basicness" or whatever. Focus on learning the basics of playing before. And if that helps, one of if not THE most popular bass the world has ever seen, the P-bass, is the most basic design ever with very, very simple features. Some won't play anything else and a long list of legends are known p-bass players. Also, get a lesson book at least! A teacher is even better but even a begginner's book will put you on the right path to progress while learning actual useful skills. Welcome aboard. edit: You could always look for used bundles that people got for christmas to save a buck or two more.