£50,000 Flea Bass

[MEKer]

If I was rich enough, and the charity or whatever was worth it enough, I'd publicly directly donate the money, publicly sand off the paint as a "bad paint job" and repaint it myself and then give the bass to a poor kid along with an amp. Just to dampen down the involved individuals who are so full of themselves. And then challenge them both to double my donation (if they have not already donated) for which I'd give them each a pair of my used socks (complete with DNA) on which I had decorated a "fantastic" pattern with glitter glue.

 

[GeneralElectric]

I do enjoy how no one has read the actual article before bitching about it. You'd probably do far better to buy the bass and give it directly to the kid. He'd make a lot of money selling it.

 

[smcd]

Why the hate? He's just trying to do some good in the world.

Because it's insulting and stupid. Asking someone to fork over £50,000 ($77,000!!) for that? Why not ask $1million? Neither price is less horrific than the other. Better yet, why not have this "artist" order one of his students to blow his/her nose on a paper towel and ask £50K for that?

What you have here are two lazy slobs - Flea and whatshisname - putting up nothing on their end, and asking some schnook to cough up $77K for it. Very poor form.

 

[cnltb]

Link Removed

Any takers?

That's funny.

 

[GobBass]

If Damien Hirst puts his name to anything, the price increases exponentially.

 

[knumbskull]

Because it's insulting and stupid. Asking someone to fork over £50,000 ($77,000!!) for that? Why not ask $1million? Neither price is less horrific than the other. Better yet, why not have this "artist" order one of his students to blow his/her nose on a paper towel and ask £50K for that?

What you have here are two lazy slobs - Flea and whatshisname - putting up nothing on their end, and asking some schnook to cough up $77K for it. Very poor form.

i don't understand how this is something to get upset about. the basses are being sold as art combined with a way to donate to charity, both of which are personal choices, presumably being made by a very wealthy person

plenty of more expensive stuff gets bought every day and the money goes to far worse places.

 

[smcd]

i don't understand how this is something to get upset about. the basses are being sold as art combined with a way to donate to charity, both of which are personal choices, presumably being made by a very wealthy person

plenty of more expensive stuff gets bought every day and the money goes to far worse places.

No one is getting upset. Least of all me. Even if I had the money I'd find a better charity to fund.


The whole thing is ludicrous, that's all. Taking a $250 guitar and having "art" put on it by some famous artist's intern is one thing. But to turn around and ask $77k for it is gross.

For example - say *insert famous person's name here* wanted people to donate $77k to a foundation he supports. He might take a few people backstage to a concert and then take them out to dinner. A little effort on his part gets some well heeled fans to cough up some cash for a unique experience.

But this Fleabass thing is an insult. Like saying "Hey, a**hole. Gimmie a ton of money and you can have this POS guitar painted by some poor unpaid slob that works for this jerk". Who wants to be that guy?

 

[Darkstrike]

I'll take two, you know, so I can defret one.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

It's art dude, can't put a price on art. . . .


haha, aye, something like that.

 

[Ben Noblit]

Because it's insulting and stupid. Asking someone to fork over £50,000 ($77,000!!) for that? Why not ask $1million? Neither price is less horrific than the other. Better yet, why not have this "artist" order one of his students to blow his/her nose on a paper towel and ask £50K for that?

What you have here are two lazy slobs - Flea and whatshisname - putting up nothing on their end, and asking some schnook to cough up $77K for it. Very poor form.

First of all, Flea at least (I know nothing about Hirst) has contributed millions of dollars to this cause already, let alone all the other causes he supports.

Second, let me fill you in on what a charity auction or sale is supposed to be. Essentially, the "buyer" is makes a donation to a charitable cause, and return they get a cool item of some sort, in this case a Fleabass with weird artwork.

I don't think anyone on either end actually believes that the bass is worth that much. If they did, I'm sure Flea would be selling them for his own personal profit. The only reason its going for that much is because they are trying to raise money for a charity.

I'd think people would be supportive of helping underprivileged kids get some music in their life.

Sheesh.

 

[smcd]

First, what Flea has done with his money isn't the issue here. Here he's asking for other people's money.

Second, I'm well aware how charity fundraisers work. Almost always the items up for sale have some intrinsic value within the realm of sanity to the price being asked. In this case, you have a sweatshop-manufactured trinket painted by an unpaid anonymous drone. A donor would be better off handing a check over without having an embarrassing memento to deal with.

 

[Baird6869]

Think about the children.

Someone buy it.

Seriously, almost $100k for a bass like this is insane.

 

[GeneralElectric]

First, what Flea has done with his money isn't the issue here. Here he's asking for other people's money.

Second, I'm well aware how charity fundraisers work. Almost always the items up for sale have some intrinsic value within the realm of sanity to the price being asked. In this case, you have a sweatshop-manufactured trinket painted by an unpaid anonymous drone. A donor would be better off handing a check over without having an embarrassing memento to deal with.

Do you really think that whoever buys this bass is actually going to play it?

Would you rather he used a modulus? This is mostly a Hirst piece done with Flea (and what would be better than Flea using his sig bass, or one that'll most likely go to the students) used to raise money for a music charity. Hirst has reached a point where his interns and assistants do a lot of his simple stuff for him. A quick google search says he's worth 215 million british pounds and that he designed the latest RHCP album.

There are also cheaper versions of this bass being sold for 10K. There are more of them (150 of each of the cheaper runs) and for those who want to donate more there is a slightly fancier one.

If Eric Clapton signs a strat to sell for charity, its not a custom shop model. Its just a normal strat. Not one thats costing 2500$ and has limited production.

If anyone actually scrolled to the bottom of the page they have other artwork by Hirst. Check out this small skull selling for almost as much as this bass. So again, for a Hirst piece, this is dirt cheap.

Link Removed

 

[bigalbass]

I am not looking to collect art. The customer for these basses is. Those strings are just for decoration now as these are wallhangers for rich folk.