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Brands that started good and stayed good?

darwin-bass

darwin-bass

Supporting Member
Mar 29, 2013
5,442
9,121
Salem OR
#1
Which brands have stood the test of time? Some have gone downhill (see other thread) but which ones have not?

Carvin?
Warmoth?
G&L?
Lakland?


Fender is an odd one. I'm thinking the stuff the build today is better than anything they've ever done so if we limit it to the last 10 years, maybe they make the list?
 
#7
Definitely not Carvin, I did a lot of research before buying mine and while it is difficult to find bad reviews of their current offerings, the stuff from the 90's had some problems.

Ampeg went to hell but they are bringing it back out. I sadly bought during the Viet-nampeg years and got soured by the failing gear.

Dingwall has been consistent but I haven't seen really early offerings, just early 2000's.

I honestly don't think anybody ever has gotten into mass manufacturing without experiencing some kind of problems along the line, the bigger you are the harder it is to control QC.
 
#13
Gibson? I'm guessing that cuz I know a lot of old gibsons are great and my new sg is great. But I have no idea if they've gone through bad times. Opinions seem to be very polarized as it is with gibson old or new, so who knows.
 
#14
I think a lot of brands went through some dark times in the 70's from my research. Gibson and Fender are often accused of this. I have certainly played some terrible Gibsons as of late. The most recent being a Krist Noveselic signature. I wanted to like this bass so much but the laquer was poorly applied, fretboard was a bad piece of wood, and frets were garbage. Not to mention the neck had a terrible amount of relief. That's not to say that gibson doesn't also have some great instruments but they seem hit and miss in my experience.

While not a bass brand I don't know of Martin Guitars ever really dropping the ball on their main offerings since they began many years ago. They have certainly produced some lemons but the quality for flagship models (d-28, 000-18, d-35, etc) seems to be consistent.

Out of curiosity, has Ibanez ever had a bad production period? The ibanez basses I have played have always been of good quality, not my thing but good quality.
 
#17
I'm a big Fender fan, but it can't be denied they've had peaks and valleys over the years. I'd say Rickenbacker and Music Man are two long-time builders that have never really slipped. G&L, too, though they're not really my cup of tea.
 
#18
Cant think of any mass produced mfg whose basses have remained great from beggining of company till present. Only boutique brands. Fender certainly hasnt had good qc at various times in its history. 70'sas main example from my time back then. Little better then gibsons was, but still not a good decade for fender imo. Modern times with automation for machines has improved qc for many companies doing mass production imo.
 

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