15. "Just get a used bass. They hold their value incredibly well..." In response to In response to 0
I say that as a bass player who has had dozens of basses over the years, and in almost every case I sold them for more than what I paid (exceptions being when I bought new.)
On top of that the quality of basses available on the lower end of the market is INCREDIBLE vs. what it was 10 years ago. Fender Squires are great basses now. I bought a 5 string Squire P bass as a backup to my main Sadowsky and MTD basses for the gigs where I don't want to bring a $5000+ instrument to a random bar, and that Squire absolutely still gets the job done.