I just found a good beater bass; it's a DeArmond Pilot. It has all the makings of a real cheap-o: made in Indonesia, minimal controls (pickup blend, volume, tone), fair-to-middlin' fit-and-finish, mediocre hardware, etc. But when I checked it out, it balanced nicely, and is very lightweight, the tuners work, and the truss rod works. I figured I could deal with it's shortcomings later. I put some black nylon tapewound strings on it and shielded the control cavity with foil tape, ensuring the ground wire to the bridge was secure. Then I did the usual set-up stuff, truss rod, intonation and string height, and pickup height. The bass is now quite usable and actually sounds very good. 'Twas worth the $100.
(Message edited by Benson_Murrensun on November 12, 2010)