I'm looking for a good guitar company besides the obvious fender or gibson?

What's your budget? There are a lot of companies out there.

The absolute cheapest basses I would consider are SX basses, sold in the US by www.rondomusic.com. They ARE cheap mass-produced Chinese models and quality control on them is iffy, but they are made with real wood and real electronics and assuming you get a good one, can play very well, especially with new strings and a setup (the factory strings are crap). They run from $109-189.

Next price point, I'd suggest looking at the Vintage Modified or Classic Vibe series by Squier. Squier can have a bad reputation because of their crappy Affinity and Bronco lines but they've done a lot to redeem themselves with these. They'll run $300-400.

Yamaha is a great company that makes good solid instruments. Their BB series basses (current models are the BB424x or 425x in the five-string version) are EXCELLENT. More entry-level basses are the RBX374 or 375 and the RBX170. The BBs will run you $500-600, the RBXs more like $200-300.

Peavey is well worth a look: the Millenium has a VERY slim, fast neck (if you like that), like a Fender Jazz but more so.

Ibanez is practically as big of a company as Fender. They tend to feature active electronics and slim necks. The SR200 is their entry-level model (apart from the crappy starter-pack SR100s) but I've heard its electronics tend to crap out over time. The more solid SR300 will run you $350.

I used to have a 5-string Washburn Taurus. The Taurus series is quite good, the four-string T24 runs something like $400 and the cheaper T14s are around $200 I think.

That's my thoughts under $500. Beyond that you're in Fender Standard territory, which I gather from your question is beyond your budget.

Of course, you could just go to www.musiciansfriend.com and browse. Or poke around www.talkbass.com for ideas (and folks selling used basses in the classifieds section).

Dean Guitars

I, personally, own a Johnson acoustic. And a Pevey electric. I would need more information, like: are you an experience bassist, which from this question is not likely. My suggestion: Get a starter instrument from a department store (Walmart, Target), or Craigslist. The brand tends to be less important until you get into it. But if at all possible, try it before you buy it, and if you have an experienced bassist, have them try it and see how they feel about it. :] Don't go spending $1500 on a guitar if you aren't already heavily experienced and dedicated to this particular instrument.

A $100 bass will be a $100 bass regardless of the name on the headstock. No one can point you in the right direction without knowing what your budget is.

Ibanez

Go to a local guitar shop and ask the ower or workers what they think. They'll set you up with one for sure :)

Ibanez guitars are moderately priced but good.

yamaha