I'm with Mike,

My bud has one of those squires and though I prefer a heftier more solid bass, it's an excellent instrument as a starter bass. You could probably get a deal on a used bass from a pawn shop, but like Mike says, take a bass player with you to examine the instrument thoroghly because you wont be able to return it.

How would you be recording bass tracks? You can run it straight to your mixer without an amp, but you'd have better control of your tone with a Sans Amp.