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03-01-2006, 06:59 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: arlington va | | | Why are EUBs so expensive?
They should cost more like what a solid body costs--there's no need for an acoustic box or fancy carving, acoustic tone isn't the issue--every time I look at one of these, I'm stunned by the cost. You can get a decent MIM fender bass for 350 bucks--why is a EUB so expensive?
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03-01-2006, 07:05 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: arlington va | | | I should add I know about the dean EUB--my personal interest is in an EUB I can maybe use on gigs but also for silent or quiet practice at night--so it has to be full scale and feel like a "real" double bass
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03-01-2006, 07:15 AM
|  | Unprofessional TalkBass Contributor | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Brighton, England, UK, Europe | | How many MIM Fenders are they churning out with cheap labour...  ?
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03-01-2006, 07:34 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: arlington va | | | right but the labor is less and less the reason why MIM fenders are cheap--cnc machines cut the parts extremely precisely. Frets take a good deal of handwork, but you don't need those on an EUB. The nut would probably take some handwork, buthow much? I suppose the market isn't large enough for anyone to do the tooling
I mean, look at it this way--a made in the US fender bass is under $1000 dollars. Why are long scale EUBs typically more than twice that?
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03-01-2006, 08:26 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Cuyahoga Falls, OH | | | Supply and Demand
It is all about supply and demand. There isn't the demand for EUB's that there is for a fender guitar. If companies where selling as many EUB's as they were EBG's, they would surely be cheaper.
Regardless they would be a little more than the EBG's due to the extra wood they take and the longer more expensive strings. |
03-01-2006, 09:12 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Bel Air, MD | | | Strings, hardware, and a big Ebony board have a lot to do with it. Finding lumber in the appropriate size can be troublesome. The elecronics in an EUB are more complicated than the passive magnetic systems on bass guitars. But I would say that overall demand is the largest issue. There often times isn't enough demand to lower the price of fabricating your own parts, and a similarly small demand for aftermarket parts raises the price of them as well.
Also, something that can't be overlooked is that DB players are used to paying alot of money for thier instruments. EUB manufacturer's are trying to legitimize themselves. So, they feel that they have to charge a substantial amount in order to be taken seriously. Its sad but true that people are more inclined to be satisfied with something that they paid a lot of money for.
Chad |
03-01-2006, 12:16 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: The Geordie Delta, UK | | Quote: |
How many MIM Fenders are they churning out with cheap labour...?
| FWIW Bruce, Fender Mexico employees are paid a very competitive rate. It ain't a sweatshop.
The guy I bought my EUB from is a one-man band. He does all his own R&D, manufacturing and marketing. Because of that, he has to charge a little more to make it worth his while, I think. |
03-01-2006, 12:18 PM
| | Unprofessional TalkBass Contributor | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Brighton, England, UK, Europe | | | It's still the same point - the reason Fender produce basses in Mexico is precisely because they can save so much money by doing it!
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03-01-2006, 09:35 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Southeast Michigan | | | As noted, a BG-sized piece of ebony- or even rosewood- isn't cheap. BGs can get by with a 1/8" slice; a UB fingerboard is a lot thicker, wider and longer. The Azola baby bass is one of the simplest EUBs around, at least from a design standpoint, but you still have some massive slabs of wood there.
It takes a certain amount of space- which has to be purchased or leased, insured, heated, and equipped whether you're making one bass a month or 100. You need staff, advertising, sales, and so on. And the kind of automation needed to make those $250 P-Basses that Fender sells today requires millions in up front capital investiment.
There's a general rule of thumb that says manufactured items need to sell for about 5x the marginal cost of production- so a $1,500 EUB might cost $300 to make before you add insurance, marketing, rent, and all those other factors. Could you build one for $300 in your home shop? |
03-02-2006, 09:51 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Emden, Germany | | Hi,
I recently bought my Palatino EUB for about 450,- Euro from german ebay, so I can't see your problem .. 
O.K., it's a cheapo EUB, but imho the MIM Fender is a cheapo too 
Greetz
Ingo
Last edited by ingo62 : 03-03-2006 at 04:25 AM.
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03-02-2006, 10:41 AM
|  | I Know Nothing... | | Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Columbia River Gorge, WA. | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by PB+J They should cost more like what a solid body costs--there's no need for an acoustic box or fancy carving, acoustic tone isn't the issue--every time I look at one of these, I'm stunned by the cost. You can get a decent MIM fender bass for 350 bucks--why is a EUB so expensive? | They would cost more like a nice solid body BG -- if they sold in the same numbers. Supply and demand, same as it ever was.  |  | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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