Why it's best: Yamaha’s top-of-the-line TRB6PII is high-end professional grade bass that has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from something in its price range, including a neck-through body, active EQ, and a 35” scale for better low-frequency response. The added b...read full review
Why it's a best pick: Music Man has moved far beyond its flagship StingRay and Sterling lines with this magic bullet of a bass, capable of myriad tone variations owing to its combination of two single-coils and a humbucker. Incorporating push-button selectors and a 4-band EQ, this bass offers eve... read full review
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Why it's a best pick: Though Spector does pretty well with their Asian and European imports, they still offer a few homegrown basses and, believe it or not, this is one of the less expensive models. What really stands out about the NS-5HS-EX is the combination of an Aguilar EQ with noiseless EMG ... read full review
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Why it's a best pick: Easily one of the best takes on the Jazz Bass ever made. The body is a combination of rosewood, mahogany and koa, three tone woods known for their excellent resonant qualities. The noiseless pickups, active EQ and 22-fret, graphite-reinforced neck add up to a pretty spectacu... read full review
Why it's a best pick: And now for something completely different: an aluminum-bodied semi-hollow bass. What’s the point? How about a bass with better sustain than most and a tone that’s both punchy and remarkably nuanced, all without active electronics. The body is made of chrome-plat... read full review
See it at:Amazon.com $1,899.00
"Best Bass Guitar *OVER* $1,900... and which average out to just over $2,500." Don't get me wrong, I've personally spent a good amount of time playing 4 out of the 5 basses on the list in various stores, currently own various models from 2 of the 5 builders listed and have previously owned 2 others during my 20+ years as a semi-professional Bassist, and 1 of the company's models is so much a part of "my sound" that I purchased three of them - a four-string, a fretted five-string, and a fretless five-string - under the span of 12 months. But it's taken me a great deal of time, changes in musical and playing styles, and a good deal of instruments of basses purchased, played, and sold to have found what works for me, and I can certainly say that now more than ever the quality of low-to-midrange is as high as it's ever been.
For the price of my first "Starter Bass" you can easily find basses at the same or even lower priced that use good-quality pieces of "real" wood as opposed to the Plywood body and Neck that eventually couldn't be adjusted to straight and therefore playable on mine, Name Brand or "Name Brand-Designed" pickups and electronics compared to the microphonic & lousy sounding pickups used on mine, and sturdy well-made hardware as opposed to loose and slippery tuning keys and barely functional bridge I ended up replacing. In essence, current "Beginner" and "Midrange" Basses are made at such a level they're not simply good for use as a backup or alternate tuning bass but can easily be used for recording purposes with a touch of modifying with Aftermarket Parts... if they're needed at all.
This is the reason I think the above list is ill-titled and makes little sense: by setting the pricepoint so high there's little reason to think you're going to get many that far under (the lowest priced is also the lowest on the list, the $1,900 Normandy, and as I pointed out the average price is over $2,500) when I and most players I know believe the higher in price the fundamental wood, parts, and Quality Control become non-issues at that high a skill level of the Luthiers building them, and that the more subjective the positives of an instrument become and turn into the small issues, the "quirks" that will attract or repel a player. But take a handful of basses from the $800-to-$1500 range and you're much more likely to see many more QC issues, where they were built (Korea, once a country known for making low-end instruments has been supplanted by China, Vietnam and other Asian countries and has moved into the stated $800+ range with great success... whereas all but one on the list above is American-made with the one made in Japan, a country with a long history of high-quality instruments), the type of woods and number of pieces used for the body, and a much greater range of hardware and electronic selections. Basically, all of the basses above are top-notch and simply depend on what specifications the buyer is looking for, while the same type of list at a lower pricerange would show a great deal more variety of "Good vs Adequate" instruments.