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Bass brands with bad resell value

#101
Years ago, I bought an Ibanez BTB405QM. Awesome bass, I saved up for the EUR 500 it cost me, and never dreamt I would ever sell it. When I finally did, I ended up selling to a friend for around eur 200, including several cables and an instructional book.

I had a 6 string Yamaha TRB for a while. Never liked it, but I wanted a 6 string so I bought it. Finally traded it in and got a MIA marcus miller 5 string. That was my main bass for around 10 years or so. Never thought I would want or need another bass.

Then, quite out of the blue, I ordered (sight unseen) an MIA Tony Franklin fretless. It's the best bass I ever owned, hands down. I need to force myself to pick up the Marcus Miller...

Where am I going with this? I knew the BTB inside and out, before moving on to another bass. Should have followed my gut on the TRB but hey, it got me my Marcus Miller. I know that bass like I know my right hand - intimately (...) At some point I will want a fretless 6 string, but it will be years. First, I have to tame this beast that is my current fretless bass. Some interesting years lie ahead, and by god I look forward to them...
 
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#103
I played in plenty of bands with a cheapo Ibanez GSR200, my first bass. No, it wasn’t “the one” and I honestly didn’t find “the one” until about 5 years ago...about 12 years after I started playing. But man did I love that Ibanez. Without that bass, I would have never realized what I wanted out of a bass.

The more you practice with your bass, the more it will become an extension of yourself, regardless of the bass. The hand cramping is honestly normal and as you adjust/correct your technique and develop muscles in your hands and arms that you probably just aren’t used to using, you’ll find that will go away. Practice practice practice. Most basses nowadays are fine instruments. Because you have little experience, you probably don’t know what you want and therefore it is literally impossible for you to find “the one” at this point in your playing career.

My recommendation is to use the Carvin. It looks like a nice bass, honestly.
 
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#104
Since I'm someone who only trades or buys second hand, I like to keep an eye on pricing trends. I picked up a USA G&L last year for an amazing price and have since noticed what I perceive as a steady increase in the price of these guitars on the second hand market. Is the 'G&Ls are a bargain' thing a self-fulfilling fallacy (if that's possible) and indirectly pushing prices up? That would be interesting.

Anyway, other brands. In my experience Sandberg. Got one in a trade for a Stingray and sold it last year for £900, which seemed to be the going rate. I would think any J and P basses that aren't Fender would suffer. Another that I see is Warwick - couldn't believe the prices on eBay recently, especially considering the HUGE amounts of money a newly built equivalent would cost.
 
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#105
On the other side of the coin, Japanese Fenders have pretty much doubled their value in the last three or four years, at least in the UK. Not sure how many are selling at these prices (and I should know, since I'm trying to sell one at the moment), but I'd guess that Fender Japan discontinuing reissue models and the increase in price of Mexican/US-made guitars is a big part of the reason why.
 
#106
murph7489 said:
Well, I think this is a case of the guy not knowing what he has...Yes the Carvin / kiesel is hard to get your money back on, in fact you won't if you do sell it. However I think that bass is a nice bass, I'm biased because I play a C/K bass...I have played a lot of different basses Fenders, Ibanez, Rick, a washburn, those are ones I've owned and I've played about everything in between at the music shops... To me, so far mine is the favorite bass I've ever owned..Those J99 (A) are great jazz pups and the preamp should be able to dial in something you like. The preamp is a decent one..Not groundbreakingly great but certainly far from the worst. My advice, take that to a tech, get new strings and have him set up your bass...It is a nice bass
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I think I'll take your advice, it has been my main while waiting for others, and I enjoy the way it plays.
I just wish I could figure out the wood and pickups in it
 
#107
J Wilson said:
Musical instruments are like any other consumer goods: When you tally up the 10's of thousands of new basses made every year, there's only going to be a handful of best sellers that may or may not be 5 or 10 years out.

Think of the Shark Tank that is the 'Vintage' market: Gibson, Fender, Martin, and a lot more have made thousands and thousands of instruments over their histories, yet only a handful are true collectibles with big ticket prices. Chevrolet has made millions of cars, but you rarely see anything past a '63 Split-Window Vette, a '57 BelAir Convertible, or an SS or Yenko Camaro pulling down the big $$ at auction. Your uncle's C10 and your aunt's Impala she drove to church will go to the crusher without comment. Guitars and Basses are the same.

Any new bass is being bought at roughly 1/2 of retail full list price on a store level, maybe a bigger discount for the huge chains. That's roughly what it's worth after you buy it. Now having said that, some things will fare better than that in the short term (recently discontinued, rare color, demand was higher than production expected) and some of them will fare worse (virtually any custom, 'boutique' bass, or some really doggy, plain, cheapo off-brand piece).

So your best bet is to NOT get your blood up, get a bad case of GAS, and NOT shop around, take your time and see what's out there. I prefer 'open box' or barely used mint. The last thing I'm going to do is walk in a store, swoon, and pull out the card while I'm sweating, the room is spinning, and I'm deep in the throes of "I Gotta Have It Now!!!!'. If you settle on a certain piece, you'd be amazed the range of prices you can find given a 90-day period of watching the market. Buy as smart as you can. They're tools.
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Wait a minute... Didn’t we just have a thread about the rapid price increase on used basses this week? OP needs to try to sell it again. Might be his lucky day.....
 
#108
dbsfgyd1 said:
Wait a minute... Didn’t we just have a thread about the rapid price increase on used basses this week? OP needs to try to sell it again. Might be his lucky day.....
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Nah I am good, I have auctioned my euro, corvette fna, and carvin for 3 days.
this post and something inside me tells me it just isn't worth selling anymore.
I feel the more I know about it the more I feel I grow towards liking it.
sold my euro though with haz preamp.
kinda sucks, but I lost interest in it, and ended up buying a warwick thumb with the money
 
#109
SpazzTheBassist said:
Keep in mind that guitars are iconography for Baby-Boomers and Gen-Xers - the subsequent generations started caring less and less about them as time moved on....They were a HUGE part of culture between the 60s and 90s - not so much today as they slide into niche market instead of mainstream....My prediction: Within twenty years, Baby Boomers will all be senior elderly-- most of their collections will be gone on to their children or grandkids (who dont care about guitars) and the market will be flooded with vintage and boutique instruments fetching prices nowhere near what they were initially appraised at.....so goes the Real Estate Market
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That has already proven to be true, so clearly you are correct as far as I know. The vintage instrument market is virtually no more. Now, buy used, play it, sell used, buy something else, and in the long run come out net zero.
 
#110
Neal Brakey said:
Nah I am good, I have auctioned my euro, corvette fna, and carvin for 3 days.
this post and something inside me tells me it just isn't worth selling anymore.
I feel the more I know about it the more I feel I grow towards liking it.
sold my euro though with haz preamp.
kinda sucks, but I lost interest in it, and ended up buying a warwick thumb with the money
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Warwick makes a fine bass. I love mine.
 
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#117
oh, and OP, I'd recommend dividing and conquering. Pick a bass - say, the Carvin - and just keep that for learning. Great bass, and yeah, crappy resale. Perfect. Then go ahead and buy/sell other basses all you want, but keep learning on the one. As mentioned earlier, it really is two different mindsets.
 
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#119
Neal Brakey said:
Sadly I don't know what model or wood or anything that was used on it.
Makes it hard to put a price on it, so I just put it up for really low.
Kinda sucks really.
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That's an LB70. Looks like maple. That has the same preamp my Carvin B5 has in it. I love mine. I have an LB75, the 5 string version if yours. I have five Carvins, between basses and guitars. The thing with Carvin resale value is that they are so highly customizable that folks get all of these crazy tops and color combinations, and the chances of my tastes being the same as yours is pretty slim so finding someone to buy the 8 string zircote neck zebra wood purple and pink burst with gold hardware and red diamond shaped inlay headless guitar is not going to be easy. And yeah, they will build you one of those.

As it relates to the one you have, that should be an easy sell. There's nothing out of the ordinary about it. It's a nice bass.

Edit to say... dont sell it though...ROCK IT! I never buy a bass wondering what I can sell it for at a later date.

BnB
 
#120
40Hz said:
Totally insane IMO. The workmanship is impeccable. The sound is there. The playability and feel are spot on. And they have models to suit all tastes.

I just don’t get it.
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Their marketing is god awful. Nobody famous plays them (with very few exceptions). They’re not in any stores that you might see regularly and their designs (unlike Fenders, Rics and Stingrays) are far from iconic.
 

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