Bass guitar help!!!?

i'm a beginner bass guitarist (electric) and i need some help! can some one tell me their brand preferences (examples: Ibenez, Epiphony, Squire, etc.)? and can anyone help me or show me a place to go to get a nice one for under $300? OH!! SUPER IMPORTAINT!! :
I NEED A SHORT SCALE!!! no long-scale basses plz!!!
thanks for your help!!!

I'm in the Minnesota region. we have guitar center and plenty more. if u name some music places, i probably have heard of them.

I would go with the Fender Squire Bronco :

http://www.nextag.com/bass-guitar-short-...

not sure where ur from but i got my set up at guitar center a few years ago for about 300 bucks, it came with the amp, case, a tuner, some dvd's to help ya get started. oh its an ibanez btw. like i said not sure where ur from or if the is a guitar center around ya. might also wanna check e bay might get a good deal there also

ok so wat you need to do is look up the bass players from the police and red hot chilie peppers. the best place to get a bass is gutiar center, but you have to grind dont just pay full price grind for what you want pretend to walk away and thell give it to you for what you want i bought a drumset that was for 700 for only 400. hey if you dont ask you dont get.

Dont buy anything that you have not played!

If you play 20 basses from different stores, one of them will be a better instrument than all of the others.

This applies to any instrument whether it be $300.00 or $5000.00

The brands you mentioned are all good for the price you are able to pay. I personally have owned a Fender mustang (70's made), a Gibson EBO(60's made),and some off brand made in Korea-all were short scale and I liked them a lot, especially the Gibson-looked like an SG guitar and had a great sound. I found the Gibson at a pawn shop and paid around $100 for it, after a bit of haggling. Whatever choice you make, be sure you know what you're buying to make sure the neck is straight and is set up properly.

i love fender jazz bass's but they are really expensive i think. but dont buy squire or epiphone. they are like daughter companies of fender and gibson respectively. just buy directly from fender or gibson because it will be better. but the real reason why i answered this is because this guy told me how guitar center works and i thought you really should know if your thinking about buying from them.

lets say a store gets 100 guitars. they keep 90 and send back 10 (maybe a design flaw, problem with hardware, or maybe they just dont play well). the 10 that they send back has a bad label on them because they were sent back. guitar center and musicians friend buys that and sells it to you. so you are buying what was rejected by people that know music.

just fyi.