Advice on buying a bass guitar?

I am a long time guitar player and as most guitar players I can play a little bass too -- lately I have been getting into it some as it has been needed at my church and I have also been playing some oldies gigs on bass too.  I have a short scale Danelectro reproduction from the 90's that I use at church and the intonation is pretty bunk on there and not very easily adjutable.
 
On the oldies gig I have been playing a bass the band has -- it might be an Ibanez, if not it is something along those lines, I am not that crazy about it either, it doesn't seem to have enough gain to suit me.  And the tone is just kind of blah.

I am a Fender guy so I already know what I like as far as style -- but my real question is about the electronics -- I'd like to buy a bass without spending more than necessary that has great electronics for recording.  I realize this is probably too big of a subject to have just a short answer for, there are probably lots of great pickups  for lots of different tastes out there.
 
But what I mean to say is I am hoping to find a bass that I can record DI and plugged straight in like that it sounds big enough and full enough and rich enough and with enough definition that it doesn't just scream out "this is an entry level bass guitar you are hearing!!"
 
Anybody got any advice for me?  Maybe I just need to go to the pawn shop and pick up a Fender that feels good to me and then put a killer pickup in it?
 
Thanks in Advance!!

I've had a few bass guitars through the years and my advice is what Mike said. 
 
Buy a good quality MIA bass.  I'd stay away from the ones with built in electronics that need a battery.  They sound good, but get a nice quality bass and it will sound good with normal passive pickups.
 
Buy used and you can save some money.

Why has no one mentioned an Alembic?
 
Oh yeah, even used you're intp the multiple thou$and$ of $ for a proper one.
 
So a used MIA P-Bass is my suggestion.

I agree you can't really go wrong with a P or J Bass but American Fenders are quite pricey. Of course they're nice but since you can get Mexican Squiers for a fraction of the price and if you get a good one they play almost if not just as well.
 
Then if you aren't digging the tone you have plenty of money left over for a high end replacement pickup. I've been using my Squier P-Bass for almost 20 years. It's been across Canada multiple times and once through England in VERY agressive acts where it's gotten beat right to hell and it's still totally solid. Most of the time it was lent out to others. The only problem is the pickup housing is busted because some numbnuts dropped it facefirst onto a sidewalk because he was skateboarding with it *edit-> withOUT a case (still p*ssed about that).
 
If I were to start spending over $1000 for a bass I'd more than likely be looking at Ernie Ball Music Man models.
 
Cheers!

Thanks everybody for the advice -- I am kind of thinking along the lines of what Beepster has said.  Find a non US P-Bass or Jazz Bass and then have some money left over for putting in a pickup a little later down the line if necessary.  I just don't have a lot of money to play with.  I have been very happy with my Japanese Strat from 1986 over the years, and I know that was a notch above the price level of Mexico and some of the others that we have now.  But if I keep watching for a used one I will probably come across one with a good enough feel to it.
 
In the meantime I can borrow the band's Ibanez as they want me to practice on it anyway  and have that for use at church and home recording -- gonna put some new strings on there the crud from previous players is visible on the strings LOL -- and I can loan the Danelectro to a friend who thinks he might be interested in checking out how to play bass.

By the way here is an example of a bass sound I really love, anybody got any thoughts about especially what kind of pickups might have been involved here but also any other thoughts about the bass recording chain on this one?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPWqe7l6JK8
 

Thanks michaelhanson, point taken and I do understand what you are saying and I suppose that (shape-ability down the line) is even more true now with DAWs than it was in the decades of old.  Even with that said, and that recording was made a long time ago, there is something about that recorded bass sound that makes me think there is something at the beginning of the chain that is responsible for a large part of the final product -- of course I could be completely wrong as at this point it is still an elusive sound for me!  I do understand though what you are saying about results will vary in all of our own experiences!!! 

bapu
Why has no one mentioned an Alembic?
... 
 

Agreed! 
 
In general, I would suggest checking out OTHER basses out there. I have become enamored with the Status Graphite (headless) and want to try one bad, including a Steinberger (sp?), but have not had the chance, since no stores carry them!
 
I, personally, find it too easy to fall into what every one else does, because the same instruments and stuff is in every store, but if you hear something different ... where did that come from? ... to me is the valuable moment, because you go after it. 
 
It's true, as it has been said, that you can hardly go wrong with a Jazz or Precision Bass, but in the end, there are some limitations that those have inherently that are not mentioned here easily enough, but they are excellent starters and not as expensive, otherwise.
 
I had a Fender Jazz bass for over 25 years. Alas, it did not get enough play, although I was fine with it, because I simply could not get the nice tone that I originally had with the Gibson EB-0 (with the pegs back instead of side!), and in the end, the desire to have that strong tone, was lost on the Fender Jazz ability for me. I have not studied or played the bass much since then, when the Fender was gone. I've never been able to get some help in trying to figure out how to get that strong tone, and depth, out of the Jazz bass, and never have tried a Precision.
 
But I want to try the Streamline one, but can't.

pedro803
The Gibson EB-0 -- isn't that a short scale bass?  Are short scale basses inherently lacking something?

I have no idea .. all I know is that it felt great and played better. Ask Bapu, he had one and might be able to take the myth out of it, but it was one of the big basses in the early English music scene, until Paul made the left hand famous with a fake violin?
 
I can remember a few bands, with it ... Caravan, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Curved Air, but you might check out Mike Howlett's modified Fender Jazz special, which was also used by Richard Sinclair and others.

Short scales have lower string tension at the same pitch. This changes the tone somewhat. If you tune a 34" scale bass to low D instead of E it's essentially the same thing.
 
 
In terms of a bass, I would say you want to get the sound you want by letting the instrument be what it wants to be, not fight you because you're trying to do something that isn't its forte. IME it's not hard to find an inexpensive instrument that does one thing well, but often they are less adaptable because of whatever shortcomings they have. 
 
I would say that the most important things are:
1. Technique, particularly right (plucking) hand technique.
2. Strings that suit the bass in question and what you're trying to achieve. 
3. A decent bass with decent PU's. Note that changing PU's in a Fender style bass gives lots of options. So does a bass with the most common sizes of soapbar PU's.
4. A good bass unplugged. Play every note up the neck and watch out for dead spots - Fender style basses typically have some sort of dead spot on the G string in the 5th to 7th fret area, but some are much worse than others.

pedro803
The Danelectro I have is a short scale bass and as I said in the first post I don't think it has good intonation.  

They are famous for that. 

I used to have a few steinburgers, but the steins broke during a move and I ate the burgers...
 
As for a Steinberger, I used to have one of his guitars with upgraded pickups - great for traveling!
 

Beepster
... 
Personally I think you have to spend a FORTUNE to get a good Gibson bass. I mean once you get a good one it's a FREAKING good one and worth the money but for the budget minded consumer there are other brands offering MUCH better basses for what you'd pay for a low end Gibby/Epi. The opposite is true for their guits though. You can get some BRILLIANT low cost Epi and "Gibson" guitars. I just wouldn't go for their basses.
 ...

I'm not sure that the Gibson EB-0 was exactly a low end product at the time. Compared to other instruments 40 years later, it might be considered so, but it was still way above average in my book, and the band I stayed with for half a year, loved to use it on many occasions because of its different sound.
 
I can not explain that, as it is not something I have studied at all.

Slugbaby
 
Important warning if you're going from a short-scale to a headless:  I bought a headless Steinberger online once, and was shocked at the scale.  Those first few frets were REALLY far apart, and that was going from a 34" scale P-Bass.  I've got really long fingers, and still had trouble reaching from the 1st to 4th frets.  I can't imagine what the difference would feel like going from a Gibson.
Make sure you try before you buy!

I'm guessing this would have been a 5-string with a 35" scale. I think all the 4-strings were the standard 34" scale.
 
Regardless, I don't think the OP wants a Steinberger for an oldies gig. 
 
But for anyone else - be aware that it is not uncommon for certain 5 and 6 string basses to have 35" (or even 36") scale lengths.

I was intending to bring up the whole truss rod thing but went off after other shiny things.
 
Definitely... if an otherwise awesome bass plays like a pig check the truss rod. It's of course important for guits but for bass (due to the longer neck) it can make a HUUUUUGE difference in playability. Also saddle height adjustments.
 
A lot of these economy basses you pickup at the music shops (and the guits too) have not been set up at ALL. Therefore a bass/guit that is otherwise really really nice might seem like a piece of garbage without a proper setup. That P-Bass I was talking about earlier actually suffered from that same problem. I had bought it used and I don't think the previous owner had the wherewithal to get it set up or do it themselves... and neither did I. It still worked great for what I was doing but it was a PIG to play. At one point after owning it for years a seriously hardcore bass nerd buddy of mine got his hands on it (we were about to go on tour and it was going to serve as the backup bass). He did a truss rod and saddle adjustment on it (and even fiddle with the nut a bit) and DAMN did that bass go from absolute PIG to playing like a dream.
 
Since then I've learned about truss rod adjustments and setting action/intonation and it's made my life much easier especially for studio work (where intonation becomes SUPER important due to all warts being exposed on "tape").
 
Point is... even if something is playing like a POS you may be holding a jewel in the rough simply due to the fact a lot of stringed instruments leave the factory floor without a second thought given to such matters (and why some stores will toss in "free" setups). Knowing the signs of an improperly set up instrument can end up getting you a better deal by way of the owner getting fed up with it without knowing how to set it up.
 
PS: If you intend to make truss rod adjustments though be VERY careful because that is one thing that can destroy an instrument. You push the rod too hard because you don't know what you are doing (or you are dealing with a neck that is actually WARPED instead of just an improperly set truss rod) you can actually snap the truss rod. Replacing a truss rod is a huge deal and likely only worth it for REALLY nice/expensive instruments.
 
 
Sorry... extra blathering. Hopefully useful in your search though.
 
PPS: Steinbergs are indeed cool but really.... they're expensive for good ones. I think you are correct in keeping it simple with the P/J Bass stuff. Then if you want to get all fancy later you can take your expereince with those models and figure out what you like better on the showroom floor.
 
 
Cheers.

bapu

Moshkito
 
I can not explain that, as it is not something I have studied at all.

And since when has that stopped you from postulating/pontificating endlessly?

Now, now, now.........THAT ^^^ was funny!!