I found a Shen SB80 on eBay that's not too far from me. It looks to be in good shape and comes with a case and bow. What do you guys think would be a good price to pay for it? Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...id=p2759.l1259. I've inquired about the setup and playability, as I've heard these can be quite expensive to correct, just waiting for a response. Thanks for your help!
I play a Shen SB80. The general feeling on them is that they are one of the few good chinese makers - a decent bang for the buck.
As far as the setup expenses go - I would ask the seller who set it up to begin with. I purchased mine used, but the seller was able to give the name and info on the luthier that imported them (he is a member here - and very reputable). I think most shops that carry the line do complete setups on them before they put them out for sale. So unless there's some funny business going on with the seller, I wouldn't think it would need a ton of money in setup work. The seller should be able to give some info on this though.
As far as price goes, I would say probably not more than $1000 for it used from a private seller.
There's probably a few pro luthier types around here that can give an even better idea on these as well.
Last edited by sevenyearsdown : 11-07-2009 at 05:05 AM.
Thanks for the input. The seller says he got it from a music major so he assumes it's set up. The auction ends in about 2.5 hours, but I'm still not sure if I should bid. Any more thoughts? Thanks
Thanks for the input. The seller says he got it from a music major so he assumes it's set up. The auction ends in about 2.5 hours, but I'm still not sure if I should bid. Any more thoughts? Thanks
Sounds like the auction is done but...
That line about assuming it was setup sounds a little fishy to me. My experience so far with DB has been that people generally have a good idea what has and hasn't been done to thier instrument, unless it's one of those ebay $500 numbers. Especially with something like a Shen. At least where I'm at - there are only a handful of shops that import them, so it's usually easy to follow the trail back to the original shop with something that's only a few years old.
