Stagg BC300 3/4 BK

Made 2008 in China. 'Fusion'(Bass Collection) style solid alder body. Bolt on maple neck 30" (762mm) scale, satin finish. 24 Frets on a rosewood board. 2 'JB' style fully covered pickups. 2 Volumes & 1 Tone. Heavy duty P/J style bridge top loading with tracked baseplate. Sealed Stagg branded hipshot style tuners. All hardware 'Black Chrome'. I must say I was pleasantly suprised by this little bass. It is suprisingly well featured for the money.

I bought this mainly for my son to learn on but also as a home recording tool (as I don't keep my basses at home). There is a golden rule when buying a cheapie that I was told by a wise man. Try as many examples as you can. When we tried it in the shop I wasn't completely won over by the sound (but it was the best constructed example)so I had earmarked a pair of Wilkinson pickups I had taken off a Vintage VJ96 to replace the stock items. But after changing the awful factory strings to set of Fender 5250XL's to my suprise it turned out that the stock pickups weren't all that bad. Admittedly there are only really two useable sounds - but that's two more than I was really expecting!! The neck pickup gives a warm earthy p-bass type tone and is usuable in an old school kind of way - not exactly classy but more than adequate for demo's of the indie/punk stuff my band does. The bridge unit is frankly too thin sounding to be of any practical use on it's own but it does add a welcome bit of sharpness to the overall tone when blended with the neck unit. The tone control is typical for cheap guitar - it does nothing for 3/4 of it's travel and everything in the last 1/4. A real suprise to me is the sustain. It really does ring, which I wasn't expecting at all. I will, at some point in the future, replace the pickups (and change the capacitor on the tone control) to give it a bit more versatility for recording, but for a beginner it would be fine.

I am old enough to remember the terrible entry level basses of days past and thankfully things have changed for the better. The fit and finish is very good for the price. The action was reasonable from the factory although there was some margin for improvement but five minutes with the supplied allen key took it down a bit (incidentally my son, who is just learning to play, prefered the action as it came from the factory!). All the frets are well seated and level - a real suprise at this price point. The tuners were OK but needed tightening a little as they felt a bit sloppy which made tuning harder that it should be - although once in tune it stayed there. The neck is well finished in satin poly and is slim and comfortable especially for the smaller in stature , who are who this bass is aimed at. The pickups suffer from typical single coil hum but are no worse than I remember my old Jazz Bass being. They were well adjusted and the controls - whilst not of the highest quality - work fine without any crackles etc.

Whilst this bass is by no means of a professional standard it is not a toy either. As I mentioned before we tried a few examples and this was the best from a construction viewpoint. The hardware is quite adequate for the price, the bridge in particular being a heavy duty piece of kit. The body is finished in a thick coat of black poly and whilst it's not subtle it looks fine and should be hardwearing. The strap buttons are of the standard Fender style and are solidly fitted with felt washers between them and the finish. I have only had to adjust the truss rod once, when we first got the bass, as it was too tight and there was inadequate neck relief (as is often the case on far eastern instruments). I must say I have no intention of gigging this bass and it's only public outing will probably be at my son's school talent show but I wouldn't gig this bass without a backup, but then I wouldn't gig any instrument without a backup - too many potential disasters.

I've never had an instrument made by Stagg before so I have no idea what their customer support is like. It does have a limited lifetime warranty on materials and construction but I suppose that will be void after I swap out the pickups.

I have been playing for over 30 years and I have basses by Gibson, Hamer, Aria, Peavey, Vintage and Rickenbacker. I also have guitars by Gibson, Fender, Hofner, Hohner, Ibanez, DeArmond, Daisy Rock, Epiphone and Squier (love my P90 Tele custom). I am not a brand or origin snob. If I like the way an instrument plays, sounds and is put together then I don't care what name is on the headstock or where it was made. I had wanted a short scale bass to use a home for a while and my 11 year old son's desire to play bass made me decide to get one. In the UK there isn't that much choice if you want a short scale bass in the budget area. We tried the Epiphone EB0 but the sound was dissapointing, the Squier Bronco had very cheap and nasty hardware but sounded ok and the Dean EvoXM bass was quite nice but was nearly ??80 more expensive from my local dealer (and at this end of the market I really believe that you should try before you buy, as differences between examples of the same instrument can be quite extreme.)So the we decided on the Stagg. On the plus side I think this bass is well screwed together and plays nicely. It looks good in its black finish and the hardware is better than I would expect for the price. On the downside the pickups are only adequate and we had to try a number of examples before we found one that was put together as we wanted. If it were lost or stolen I would buy another as it exceeds my expectations of what an entry level bass at this price point can deliver.