PB-20 SBK Standard Series : Amazing.

For under a hundred quid this thing is astounding. I'm not a bass player, but have owned a few in the past, the last of which (a 1976 Fender Precision) I sold to a friend and bandmate who loved it and will give it a lot more use than I do. So, with the wad of cash one gets for things like that, I thought I'd get a cheap replacement to tootle about on and this looked worth a shot. Bought Fender strings to change them immediately (though the others were OK). Drop of oil on the very dry fretboard. On first play I thought there must be a mistake: this didn't feel a great deal different to the Fender. Some reviews on here say it's got a wide neck: it didn't feel wider than the Fender. Without any other work, I lowered the already perfectly acceptable action about two full turns on each string, lower than the Fender. No buzz or choking anywhere. Then I put it back up a little to a sensible height. The pickup doesn't growl quite like the P-bass, but is fine for now. I may use some of the leftover money to upgrade it. Even then I could still buy a whole bunch more HB guitars. I currently have two amongst other, more expensive brands and they're excellent as well.

Downsides? The satin matt finish is going to show every finger mark and the supplied strings aren't great. That's it. Maybe I was lucky and got a good one, in which case I was lucky with the two 6-strings I bought too.....

For the price you really can't go wrong.