Double Bass Best Upright for under $1500 - ?

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Yes, but an experienced player may be able to see the potential in great bass that may need a better setup. An unfortunate problem noobs face is that due to their lack of experience, they don't have the experience to separate the wheat from the chaff. This leads to the temptation to buy based on brand name, either on-line or from a local dealer.
Noobs should do their best to educate themselves, be patient and take an experienced player with them when shopping. Even then, it is the rare player that will succeed on the first try. Establishing a relationship with a local shop that has a liberal trade-in policy is helpful when the time comes.

 

[PsychoScout]

I'm always forgetting that you guys talk in dollars, 1500 USD is about 1000 €, that's really not enough to get a decent DB. My first DB costed me 2200 USD (got a nice discount, catalogue price was closer to 3000 USD)

Now, a year and a half later, I spent 3500 USD on an instrument that is actually worth at least 5000 (perhaps even 5000&#8364. To be honest, If I'd ever had to buy another one, I couldn't settle for one in the catagorie under 5K anymore. My new (very old) DB is so much better than the chinese one (which was already a lot better than the really cheap ones)

 

[drurb]

Yes, but an experienced player may be able to see the potential in great bass that may need a better setup. An unfortunate problem noobs face is that due to their lack of experience, they don't have the experience to separate the wheat from the chaff. This leads to the temptation to buy based on brand name, either on-line or from a local dealer.
Noobs should do their best to educate themselves, be patient and take an experienced player with them when shopping. Even then, it is the rare player that will succeed on the first try. Establishing a relationship with a local shop that has a liberal trade-in policy is helpful when the time comes.

Sure thing, but if, say, the sound-post is in the wrong place, even an experienced player might take a pass on an otherwise worth instrument. Oh, the complexities!

I'm always forgetting that you guys talk in dollars, 1500 USD is about 1000 €, that's really not enough to get a decent DB.

It's all relative. For a newbie, $1500 will buy a "decent" ply bass that will be reasonably well-designed, durable, have decent hardware, and will be able to be set up well and will produce a reasonable tone. Would you or I want to play one? No, not anymore but, the way I use the term around here anyway, I'd say the basses we play are above just "decent."

 

[PsychoScout]

It's all relative. For a newbie, $1500 will buy a "decent" ply bass that will be reasonable well-designed, durable, have decent hardware, and will be able to be set up well and will produce a reasonable tone. Would you or I want to play one? No, not anymore but, the way I use the term around here anyway, I'd say the basses we play are above just "decent."

I started playing/taking lessons in october 2008, that makes me a newbie, but still, it's so much more fun to play on a nice instrument....

 

[drurb]

I started playing/taking lessons in october 2008, that makes me a newbie, but still, it's so much more fun to play on a nice instrument....

Indeed, it is! I am a big fan of getting the best possible instrument you can (within reason). The rewards gained by doing so are great. I was just trying to guard against potential misunderstandings in the way the words are used. I wouldn't tell a newbie who bought one of the better $1500 basses that are available that he/she didn't buy a "decent" instrument.

 

[longfinger]

I'm always forgetting that you guys talk in dollars, 1500 USD is about 1000 €, that's really not enough to get a decent DB. My first DB costed me 2200 USD (got a nice discount, catalogue price was closer to 3000 USD)

These conversions can't just be done using the currency markets. Currencies have market conversion rates that I can easily look up but don't really understand, and they have the real life conversion which I do understand. How much basic food, supplies and shelter cost in each region, and how many hours of minimum wage it takes to pay for them, can help us get a better understanding of real pricing differences.

For example.
A base level iMac costs $1199 USD from the Apple USA store.
same model iMac costs €1099 from the Apple Belgium store.

But today, $1199 USD cash converts to only about €838 cash, not €1099. So the iMac is actually 'over-priced' by about 32% or €261. But really it's not, as Europe is just more expensive to live in than the USA or Canada. Everything costs more in ways that do not match with currency market conversion. Wages reflect this too.

So using the online Apple Store's as a currency converter, $1500 USD converts to €1350. (ie. 2nd model iMac.)
Double basses will have their own 'currency exchange'. And the used market in each region can also vary wildly.

For $1500 USD, a good used bass can be found and bought privately, already with gig bag and strings, by someone who puts in the needed work of finding the deals and then going out to get them.

ie.
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This $950 Holbein with p/u, bag and strings, seems similar to a Strunal 50/1... That CL bass could be good, or it could be bad, but those who do the research and legwork find out, and get the deals. For the OP, that means you.