A colleague of mine has the Ibanez GSR200, which is a very cheap bass, but it plays and sounds pretty nice. 10 years ago, my choice of a beginner's bass would have been one of the Yamaha RBX line, but the recent ones haven't impressed me at all... they have weird indentations in the tops of the pickups so you can't rest your thumb comfortably on them. Also worth looking at the Washburn XB series - it's nearly 10 years since I used to play one, but they always balanced well and had nice necks.
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