Bassists, this one's for you – 9 great Black Friday bass guitar deals with up to $250 off Fender, Yamaha, Darkglass, Line 6 and more

For the beginner bass player in your life (or you yourself, if you’ve yet to take the plunge), you can’t say fairer than the Debut. It captures the P-Bass vibe at a bargain price, with that trademark split-coil pickup and an easy-playing comfortable neck. In our review, we noted you might need to give it a bit of TLC when it comes to string height, but with 20% off the usual price, you can afford a quality setup.

Read more: Squier Debut Precision Bass review

The Am Pro IIs sit on the upper branches of the Fender family tree, so a discount like this is rare. Playability is the big seller here: rolled fingerboard edges, Super-Natural satin finish and a sculpted neck heel make this one smooth drive. In our 4.5/5 review, we hailed the harmonically rich pickups and range of refinements. In fact, the only thing we had to critique was the price… which is a lot easier to stomach with a $190 discount.

Read more: Fender American Professional II Precision Bass review

How often do you see a discount on Fender’s perennially popular Player II range? Hardly ever. But for Black Friday, Guitar Center is clearing out this limited-edition British Racing Green beauty with $140 off. Player Series Alnico 5 single coils deliver that cutting Jazz tone, while a satin-finished neck with rolled fingerboard edges makes for a comfortable, ahem, player. Did we mention that finish? This deal won’t hang around long.

The Music Man StingRay is one of the all-time great bass sounds, and this budget version adds some neat upgrades. The three-band active preamp gives you control over the bass, midrange and treble coming out of the two Alnico humbuckers, and there’s a five-way pickup selector. If there’s a tone you can’t get out of this baby, it ain’t worth having. And mmm, roasted maple neck. $200 off.

This Yamaha TRBX304 is a great shout for beginner bassists who want a great playing bass guitar with outstanding build quality. The humbuckers feature oversized magnets which deliver titanic tones, and a powerful 5-band EQ means you sculpt your sound however you please. With a $50 reduction at Sweetwater it's insanely good value for money.

With three different amp voicings and four effects, the Boss Katana-210 Bass amp is seriously versatile, delivering vintage warmth, modern grind, or a flat setting that's a perfect pedal platform. With chorus, flanger, octave, compression, and dirt tones to add to your signal chain, you can eke out pretty much any tone you like from this one. Add in a stonking $200 discount and you've got yourself a great bass amp for a lot less.

With 500 watts of power, the Darkglass Microtube 500 v2 is a proper gigging workhorse designed to output monstrous low end tones. A built in VCA-compressor delivers smooth playing dynamics, while the space to upload three custom IRs makes it a versatile tone machine for the studio. It's currently got a huge $250 reduction over in the Sweetwater Black Friday sale.

This Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth is an absolute playground of sounds, covering everything from Moog synths to some properly out there creations. With four completely independent voices that are all mixable you can craft tones like no other pedal, and the $113.70 discount just sweetens the deal.

For bassists, this is the cheapest entry point into the world of Line 6 effects. The POD Express Bass gives you amp modeling, distortion, compression, synth, modulation and – if you’re brave – delay. Plus tap tempo, presets, an onboard tuner and a dedicated headphone output. It uses the same tones as the full-fat Helix, and even has its own editing software. Basically, it’s an entire bass rig in a tiny pedal, and a no-brainer at this price point.