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Some people even prefer it.
There are loads of great budget basses these days. My own personal recommendation is a Yamaha BB414.
The Tonerider-made pickups in Squier Classic Vibe instruments are perfectly serviceable but I always suspect that there is room for improvement.
Fender MIM Standard series pickups tend to be of the slug polepiece and underslung ceramic bar magnet persuasion. These work well enough but do not respond to dynamics as nicely as pickups with rod magnets.
The red bass guitar in my avatar thumbnail is a Squier VM Precision with EMG-GZR pickups and a Gotoh 201B bridge. For my purposes, the P pickup is the sound. The J pickup is along for the ride, partly to introduce occasional notch filtering, mainly to fill in the rout. The recorded sound is indistinguishable from an all-American instrument.
There's your answer. Pre-owned Squier Affinity P or PJ Bass. Pickup(s) and controls upgrade. All for under £250.
Warwick‘s „Rockbass“-line models are being sold cheap, at least here in Germany. Excellent quality.
Yamaha are also worth checking out particularly the BB series.
Used are your best options for both in terms of being cheap.
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb376/musophilr/PhilBass2.jpg
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
I took a bass playing mate along when I bought mine and it seemed to have the edge over the Squiers at the time. I think that was just before the CVs though, which I believe are fine instruments.
In answer to the OPs original question - yes, the quality of basses at the cheap end of the scale has improved dramatically, just as it has for guitars - there's loads of really great basses out there now for not much dosh at all.
Play a few in the shop - find one you like and one that seems comfortable. Don't forget - the same bass on its own can sound very different to how it sounds in the mix..
https://youtu.be/0a_F2vIZn1I
The best was the Fender Deluxe at (then) £1200 or so. Second best was a Squier Classic Vibe at £240 so that's what I bought. The neck is just so comfortable, with a nicely rounded shoulder.
The Deluxe did have the edge on tone, but new pickups would fix that.