| What's the value of the bass, fixed? Any other damage?
The first move I made, in a similar strait, was to get a luthier's evaluation and cool assessment of repair costs and options. +1 on Uncle Toad's experience and wisdom. Having a pro look at the thing helped me put aside the emotion/loss and think of the challenge as various sets of options.
I did a rough-and-ready cost benefit analysis, including the value of time spent replacing vs. repairing (thinking about lost "opportunity costs" of missed gigs, rehearsals, etc.)...I tried to be realistic about how long the shopping could take for a new DB and attempted to put a dollar value on that. How much is time worth?
I recently went through some version of this and went with the "replace" option, because my old, damaged bass was cheap, crude, in poor condition, and the damage was extensive (neck, multiple cracks in top table, loosened bass bar, and more). I needed something to play, quickly, and the repairs were going to outstrip value.
In order for the equation/decision to work, I had to move with a relatively cheap bass, bought quickly, as a "place holder" until I had more time for the shopping bottomless pit. This has its own costs/nuisances, but got me into a playable instrument fast. I wouldn't recommend it except as a last resort.
Another thing that helped was having bassist friends. I was able to borrow other folks' "second" instruments while waiting to get my new instrument picked up. The same thing would work with repairs. Some luthiers have loaners or rentals to keep us going while things are getting fixed, or perhaps your friends can help you out for a couple of weeks (?).
If you like your bass reasonably well and it is worth more than a couple of grand, fixing it wins, handily...as Uncle Toad says, if you want to sell it later, more folks will want it fixed, for more money.
Last edited by Eric Swanson : 12-13-2007 at 09:18 AM.
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