Maybe work out a deal with your dad and your teacher. Your dad puts up the money he'd spend on the ali bass as a downpayment, and you work and earn money to payoff the difference in monthly payments over 6 months or so.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Back on the MM issue
- Thread starter Algo
- Start date
I think there's some confusion here. Is the bass for you or your dad? If it's for you, why not just tell him you're afraid your teacher might not continue to give you lessons if you show up with a counterfeit bass when he offered you a good deal on a real one?
Ask your dad if he would fly in an AliBaba plane or even drive an AliBaba car. It looks like a bass, but it doesn't play like one nor feels like one.
If you want the US made SUB bass. You need to find a way to get the money and pay for it. You might want to approach your Dad for some type of loan and work out a way to pay the money back. Also, if you do this your Dad may see how sincere you are about wanting this particular bass and he might loan you the money. I wish you luck.
Iphones are made in China too. But quality standards and quality control are everything. You may get a half decent bass to upgrade but most probably a piece of unsellable crap. Even if you get a decent one you'll have to sell it for nothing. Resell value is also an important thing
nah, rather I don't have my own yet. But when I do he has no saying in it (although he tries to have it but I shrug it off)
I'd be worried about re-sale if I were your dad. The SUB is (I believe) the lower end of Music Man but at least it has that leg to stand on. I see you own a few basses. Maybe sell one to pay for the difference in price?
Have a saxophone player who uses a real instrument like Selmer or Yamaha assess it. Chinese wind instruments often can't even be repaired, they are a picture of an instrument. A symbol or metaphor, not real. Like a dead parrot.
My dad was an engineer, and he attempted the same with a derelict Hondo (plywood). After all the upgrades, it was still terrible.
The aliexpress stuff is utter crap. Who knows what wood it's made out of, the bridge is a cheapo imitation, the fretwork is substandard, the preamp is a piece of garbage. By the time you spend the money fixing all those issues you are into it for way more than the cost of the Sub. Get the Sub.
Time to work for it. Being independent is a good feeling. A Squier jaguar bass is a pretty decent one for not much if you can find it there.
The money required to “fix it up” , if that is at all possible, would cancel out the $$ difference and you’ll end up with something with far less resale value.
So my bass teacher is selling his Sub in nearly mint condition at $394.7, they go new for 567.71 here.
But my dad, who holds the money is adamant in thinking an Aliexpress counterfeit would be just as good. I mean both are china made, right?.
How do I convince this ignorant fella
MM makes a great product and has QC measures in place to make sure that even their lower end models like the SUB satisfy customers. After all their name is on the bass.
That said for somewhere between the price your teacher wants and what these sell for new you can buy a USA made SUB (discontinued in 2006) and have a very high quality product made in the USA, effectively a no-frills USA 2B Stingray. That’s what I would do if I were in your shoes.
Get these instead of AliExpress, cheaper, and probably as good as the SUBs:
Invalid Link Removed
https://www.thomann.de/intl/ca/harley_benton_mm_84a_sb_deluxe_series.htm
Invalid Link Removed
https://www.thomann.de/intl/ca/harley_benton_mm_84a_sb_deluxe_series.htm
