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Botique bass regret?

#21
Well put.

I personally am almost the exact opposite.... I love Fodera, not a fan of Smiths and love the sound of Roscoes.

I have a thing for Carl Thompson but have never even played one. I could theoretically order a $6000+ bass to my ideal spec and end up absolutely hating it.

You really do have to play these things to avoid disappointment, but working closely with the luthier is also super important.

basschanges said:
Obviously your income is relevant. But in my case, if I plan on spending 5000 dollars on a bass, I need to do my due diligence.

Make sure you make a reasonable effort to play the bass before hand. I was lucky enough to play many boutique basses at bass stores around the country. I now know I will never buy a Fodera, love Smiths, think Sadowsky's earn their price tag, don't like the sound of a Roscoe, and have a weird thing for Pedullas.

I wouldn't have been able to form any of these opinions if I didn't actually put my hands on the basses.
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#22
roadkill2309 said:
What I regret about buying my first boutique bass is that it will likely be my only boutique bass. My Sadowsky Standard lifted my GAS list right out of my own financial reach.

Fortunately, I have a really good Fender to keep my feet on the ground.
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+1
My experience was much like that. I eventually rediscovered passive basses after playing the snot out of my Sadowsky on the road, but a 5-string version of my NYC P/J still is on the GAS list—and out of reach for now. :ninja:
 
#23
No regrets on two Sadowskys, three Laklands, one LeCompte, a Pedulla and two Foderas. Those are the ones I spec'd out, and I also own an F Bass and a Drozd that are customs. Also two former F Basses, a Roscoe and a Zon Sonus. All are superb basses. When you pay the premium price, it's fair to expect perfect craftsmanship. If the bass doesn't turn out the way you like, it's pretty much your fault for providing specs that didn't achieve your playability and tone goals. It helps to have played many, many basses, investigating what woods, pickups, electronics and shapes are likely to produce an instrument you love.
 
#24
I regret buying a Rob Allen Mouse. While it is a superbly built instrument and it sounds great, I cannot get used to the 30" scale. I was so intent on getting anything by Rob, but I should have gone with the MB2 instead. Expensive lesson learned.
 
#25
I have bought quite a few all with excellent results except for two of them. I had ordered brand new bolt on custom Dram michael Warriors and without getting into a negative thing about them (you could contact me for details if interested) lets say out of pocket $9,600 for both of them ordered at different times and both are gone. I lost more than $5000 in selling them and still I'm glad they are gone...

Before I sold them they both needed much work to be correct and fully functional which set me back a few hundred more for each I would never pass on a problem knowingly. My advise is to stay away from them unless you can play one first and pay used pricing. :spit:
 
#26
AndyW83 said:
We all know some of these fine instruments can really set our bank accounts back a few dollars. Has anyone ever ordered a high end custom bass and not been happy with their purchase? The look, feel, sound?! Just curious to see what kind of feedback this will bring.
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Not me. The last 2 years i have only been disappointed in lowend gear: An MIA Fender V standard-played like ****, and a Carvin 6 string whatever...both cost @ $1400 and they both played like ****. I had played an AC5 for @ 6years moved to LA and became broke for awhile so I sold the AC5 and bought the Fender and Carvin...neither held their value at all...i sold each for 1/2 of what i bought them for...and I had the Jazz for only @ 3 mos. Late last year i sucked it up and bought a new Xotic XJ-1T and I'm very happy. Some boutique basses have a lot riding on their looks, but the Xotic Jass just looks like a bigger Jazz bass- no fancy finish, no exotic wood...so I'm happy. I'll never buy a middle of the road bass again...Just my experience....
www.basslessonslosangeles.com
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#27
I owned a very expensive boutique that I regretted buying. I regretted it because I bought it when I was 16 and didn't know a thing about what makes a bass sound and feel the way I like. It was a very expensive lesson, but I sure did learn from it. I've been meticulously planning out a build for more than a year now, making sure that the bass I commission will be nothing short of my dream bass. I have it planned down to the last detail - I'm only undecided on the preamp at this point.
 
#28
I've had 6 Alembics, 2 Hanewinckels, a Devon, and a Roscoe over the years. Throw in my Marchlewski and you have 11 custom / boutiques.

Not a turd in the bunch. All were at least as good as I expected. Most exceeded my expectations. The ones I parted with were hard to part with EXCEPT when parting meant another, nicer one was on its way in.

Of those the Roscoe, the Marchlewski, and one of the Alembics were instruments I actually specked out and ordered. I still have the Marchlewski and the Alembic and don't see myself parting with either. My only reason for parting with the Roscoe is it was a fretless and I don't play fretless much anymore and a really good trade opportunity surfaced. Still might get another (fretted) Roscoe down the road.

The Marchlewski had a couple problems. Both probably due to my specs. I specified an 18V system. The builder had a hard time locating 2 batteries in such a small body. It generated a lot of heat, so I sent it back and swapped in a 9-V preamp. The other was that over time (a couple years) some of the higher frets started to protrude. I had order with mandolin (very thin) fret wire. My guitar tech took care of that for me.

My only real boutique disappointment was a Ritter I played at Ed Roman's in Vegas one day. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't great. I expected great. Since I obviously didn't buy it, I'm not sure it belongs in this thread.
 
#29
I went booteek last year and haven't looked back. Never had a regret from it only learned what I like tonally. Honestly the price is around the same depending on what you're looking at. If you want a decent playing instrument, you can still get a nice one for around 1000-1500 bucks used. That's doable to me.

Now if you're used to paying 200 for an instrument, obviously this would be a huge jump. I've played and owned bass in all kinds of price ranges. Love me some Roscoe, MTD, Fbass, Dingwall, Mike Browne, Musicman, and Fender!

So yea. lol
 
#31
I'd been playing 30 years when I ordered my first custom bass, so I knew pretty well what I wanted. Even then I got a couple of details wrong but the end result was a fantastic bass.

The one thing I didn't specify as I had no opionion was the frets. Turns out I'm not such a fan of vintage thin frets.

I would say that 11 lbs of bass is too much for most people and Fodera has really got that wrong. The concept design was wrong in the first place.

Nevermind, good hunting.

If you have some decent coin. I would also look at pre-CBS Fenders. They will most likely appreciate and so it's more of an investment than a purchase.

Davo
 
#32
There is one mandatory thing when ordering a custom: You will need to know what you want.

If you totally dig the tone of a P Bass and order a custom with a single bridge PU, it'll disappoint you.

But there is psychology working for you.

An instrument that was made especially for you and you alone will have a much greater disposition to be one you'll love than a standard instrument sitting in a shop with more of the same make surrounding it.

First of all, you pay a lot of ca$h for that thing which will make it hard for you not to like it.
Then, there's the personal for you thing - you did not build it with your own hands, but you configured it and made important choices - so there is a bit of your personality built into this very bass.

I own and love one custom bass and will buy another when my financial situation will allow it.
Since these don't come cheap and i have other large investments looming up in the mid future, this will take a while.
 
#33
over the many years of playing I have encountered many different basses and many different levels of craftsmanship....ranging from excellence to quite poor..specially looking at a large price tag!!...but it wasn't until I met my music prof and tried his FBASS...It was it!!...so I basically stole his specs and ordered myself an Custom FBASS...never looked back...money well spent!...I personally believe that you should do your home work before you spend $10k on a custom bass...but this is something you will play for the rest of your life!
 
#34
I think what I'm mostly worried about is the wood combinations. It was impossible to find a bass to play ahead of time which was exactly what I was ordering (swamp ash body, cocobolo top, maple/Purple Heart/maple neck and a wenge fretboard, teamed up with Bartolimi electronics. There's just nothing like it around to play first. My first concern is that I was used to a mahogany body and went to swamp ash. I LOVED the sound of mahogany but I'm just looking for a little more bark and bite in my new bass. Just hope it's not TOO bright.
 
#36
AndyW83 said:
I did plenty of homework and decided on a Roscoe. Should be ready in about two months I'm guessing. There's always the nervous factor when buying something unseen I suppose but I'm confident that I made a great purchase. I always liked the saying "you get what you pay for"
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You will be very pleased. I have three Roscoes and a fourth on the way. One "stock" and three custom. They are all very different but all are excellent builds—fast neck, wonderful balance, beautiful to look at and to play. They have improved my game tremendously!
 
#38
The only custom bass I've ever "ordered", I built myself, and I'm very happy with it. I suppose I'm pretty lucky in that my favorite basses are mass production models - a Fender Precision and a Rickenbacker 4003.
 
#39
As most friends mentioned, one has to do his/her homework prior to ordering a custom instrument; but it is most of the time impossible to try the same bass with different specs. So, unless you have, in front of you, say, 10 different versions of Fodera Matt Garrison, how can you decide on which is good for you?

With boutiques like Sadowsky, it is maybe easier, as there are less options for customization. But for more wood, neck joint, and pickup options, finding the right thing can be more challenging a task and once the production starts most of the options can be irreversible.

I have been lucky with all my customs: one Fodera MG5 and two Erkan Sizarlar Alper Yilmaz Signatures. But with the Fodera, for instance, I picked the wood and pickups based on one of Matt's basses (except the top wood, which is more cosmetic anyway), as I was studying with him at the time and I liked the action of his bass; but it took me few years to figure out that a walnut body was not my thing; neither was a neck-thru with a maple tone block. That Fodera is still one of my go-to basses in a lot of gigs and studio work, but I know I can be happier with some other topology and parts. That is how I am putting my new order for a Fodera; yet I know after a few years there will be things that I will not be 100% happy.

So it might be best to start with the simplest and then later on add some options like a preamp, etc...

Cheers,

Alper
 
#40
In the past,I ordered custom bass,which I sold as soon as I could. Combination of my wrong choice of pick ups and its placement (neverthless) and a luthier's lousy work.
Recently, I played an Fodera 5 strings in Bass gallery in London,I think it was Imperial Elite,priced around 10 000 POUNDS!!!Man, if I had ordered that bass I would be in disaster and mysery!
Not to say its bad,but not my heavy,oversized and definitely overpriced cup of tea!
 

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