Can you still find hidden treasures ?

[minimalist freedom]

What I mean..can you still find a bargain bass that flys in under the radar? Once I would look for Basses that people didn’t realise there value. I found a Charvel Surfcaster in a second hand furniture shop for 400. A Squier MIJ for 100 and a Yamaha BEX 4 for 500.
I’m finding it harder to find older basses that are a steal. I think the internet lets people tune in to the value of what they have and what its value could be. I picked up an ‘83 MIJ P bass delivered from Japan to Australia for 300 6-7 years ago. I’m finding it harder to find such gems. I’ve heard stories of dumpster gems. The White falcon someone bought for next to nothing from a junkie who Had forgotten it under his bed. Share your stories and thoughts.

 

[minimalist freedom]

Any hidden treasures to be found?

 

[mongo2]

I gave my mint Squier Cabronita bass away last week so you missed out on that one.

 

[B-Mac]

What I mean..can you still find a bargain bass that flys in under the radar? Once I would look for Basses that people didn’t realise there value. I found a Charvel Surfcaster in a second hand furniture shop for 400. A Squier MIJ for 100 and a Yamaha BEX 4 for 500.
I’m finding it harder to find older basses that are a steal. I think the internet lets people tune in to the value of what they have and what its value could be. I picked up an ‘83 MIJ P bass delivered from Japan to Australia for 300 6-7 years ago. I’m finding it harder to find such gems. I’ve heard stories of dumpster gems. The White falcon someone bought for next to nothing from a junkie who Had forgotten it under his bed. Share your stories and thoughts.

Sometimes a private seller or even a store has no idea that the used bass they’re selling is something special. It happens especially at pawn shops and yard sales and estate sales, but in this age of Googling something it happens a lot less.

I’ve seen some deals on ‘buya’ which is usually linked to a pawn shop.

I’ve also heard some good deal stories involving Goodwill stores but never experienced such first hand.

 

[AHaze]

Active basses with dead batteries. The only instrument I've ever been able to get below market value at a pawn shop was because of a dead 9V and an employee who knew nothing about guitars.

 

[PWRL]

Sometimes a nicer model gets confused with a cheaper model and priced super low. I've seen that. Sometimes someone has something like a Matsumoku-era 80's guitar that they just don't know anything about and undersell it. Sometimes someone is selling something super cheap because rent is due. Sometimes you have people who just don't know anything about musical instruments or equipment and sell it for dirt cheap, simply because they aren't interested in music whatsoever and don't bother to look it up. Sometimes people just chuck something in the trash because it's just not worth their time.

 

[bigsnack]

Yes, there are definitely deals. I have never had too much luck on general searches, but if I know exactly what I want, I will set up automatic searches for that item as well as items named similarly. After that it's all about patience! Deals come up all the time, you just have to be ready to pounce.

 

[ZedLepp]

Yeah, I am finding that it is getting harder to find the good deals, but they are out there. You just got to be on top of it and ready to pounce right when it happens. I check CL and Offerup like people check facebook and twitter.

 

[luciens]

for Fender and Rickenbacker, yes of course the days of the pawn-shop screaming deal are over. That's just a function of time.

"Back In My Day", in the late 70's/early 80's when I first learned to play bass in high school, what used to be the junk on the rack your average local music shop or pawn shop couldn't give away if they tried is now collector's items. You could even find the occasional pre-CBS P bass at the bigger shops for prices around $1000 if they weren't "reliced" and were all original. Otherwise, older rickenbacker and Fender basses were all over the place. And pre-CBS Fenders that were "reliced" were about as cheap as the new stuff.

Now, of course Fender and Rickenbacker have strong histories of highly collectable instruments so they're very well known brands. That Old Bass Out In The Shed doesn't have Fender or Rickenbacker on the headstock anymore. And the more beat up it is the better, which is the reverse of How Things Used To Be.

But you can still find good deals, and even some new basses that used to horrible are now really high quality for really good low cost. Cort basses, for example are really good instruments nowadays and they're dirt cheap. Ibanez were always good, but nowadays they rival almost any other mass-produced bass and they're super cheap as well.

So we're kind of in The Good Old Days today, rather than back in The Good Old Days, where it weren't so good....

L

 

[ukulelelab]

Pawn (or 'charity' this side of the pond) shops are prob the only places left to find hidden treasures. Finding that ultra-rare 1968 Sound City Mark 2 amp blew my mind few years ago

 

[Bass V]

I found a Charvel Surfcaster in a second hand furniture shop for 400

that you simply found either the guitar or bass is noteworthy, being so scarce, Charvel are serious sleepers. I can only imagine how fine these 'casters must be if they're a step up in quality compared to the the base level $100 '90s era Charvette I'm currently over the moon about. even with roundwounds it's a killer faux P bass vibe just on the J bridge PU! find a PJ or a Jazz bass that does that. having never heard of them it's one of those finds I shudder thinking how I could have blown it in the hours I took researching instead of plunking and running. good luck finding one, I guess they make even better models which are likely easier to find. but this is the first bass to remind me of a sweetheart Guild Pilot from long ago with such lively fretboard response, and this neck is more fun, a player's delight.

from the same lucky (Japan-direct) thrift store, I walked out with exactly the bass I walked in GASsing for, a '90ish Fender Power Jazz Bass Special priced at the $300 I had in my pocket. even more incredibly it came with the highly damageable headstock in near mint cond. on a body / neck that had been played for years by a beast. these come from Japan sporting unique carbon fiber-matted fretboards that extends over the face of the headstock and the finish disfigures super easily, any you find are wrecked, and they go for $600. problem is, you better REALLY like the Jazz Bass sound cos even the P PU is nothing but classic JB bridge on steroids. not my thing, it will go to the shop and be transformed into the ultimate Fender bass.

there are a million more tales of unknown treasure to be had, but a miss I'll never survive is the ultimate recovery I had to watch pass me by in a moment of fundlessness when this LTD F-4E popped up just like in my dreams for the envisioned $150... super bummer redux, a year earlier I got skunked on the 5str for $175 and had been hawking the net ever since for a 4 only to blow it badly and have a nightmare to live with. these are typically expensive now after starting life as a bargain starter package bass! but there are even more beautiful exotic wood models that I really seek, so the quest continues.

 

[minimalist freedom]

Sometimes a nicer model gets confused with a cheaper model and priced super low. I've seen that. Sometimes someone has something like a Matsumoku-era 80's guitar that they just don't know anything about and undersell it. Sometimes someone is selling something super cheap because rent is due. Sometimes you have people who just don't know anything about musical instruments or equipment and sell it for dirt cheap, simply because they aren't interested in music whatsoever and don't bother to look it up. Sometimes people just chuck something in the trash because it's just not worth their time.

The 83 Matsumoku Bass I got posted from Japan to Australia was I think as your first Explanation.

 

[sikamikanico]

This is not recent, but about 10 years ago (So very much in the Internet age!) I was buying an old hollowbody from a gear hoarder (the house and hallways were filled with piles of gear). I got the bass for a reasonable price, and then he remembered he had this pedal...and he pulled out a bass whammy. He sold it to me for $30. Back then they were going for about $600 I think.

this is also why I think he was a hoarder not a collector - he didn’t know what he had.

 

[hrodbert696]

If you mean basses in current production, the general sense I have is that a lot of the budget basses being made today are far superior in quality to those made in the 70s or 80s. I've seen guys playing Squiers in top-tier blues clubs and on TV shows and they sound great.

As far as "closet queens," the age of ebay and craigslist probably means that most people have gotten wise to how much these things are worth and you're less likely to score a pawn-shop steal. But you never know. My wife's library recently launched a "library of things" including a musical instrument collection, so that people could check out an instrument without needing to buy it, same as a book. They put out word that they were taking donations for it and this one woman started bringing in things from her attic. Her husband, who I think passed or is in a nursing home, was a musician in the 50s and 60s and all this stuff was collecting dust in her attic. Yvette brought it home for me to assess and one piece was a vintage Fender amp worth about $3000 on Reverb. And there's more like that. Now she has a dilemma: I asked her what she would do if someone donated a $3000 book to the collection, and it wouldn't be allowed to circulate, patrons would have to read it in the building under monitored conditions. But they aren't set up for someone to play amplified in the building, so they can't really do anything with it.

 

[Dan_reeves]

I am always amazed by some of the great lower dollar or deal finds that I see here from time to time. Particularly Goodwill finds.

In my area it’s the opposite. I regularly see posts on Craigslist and the like trying to sell Squiers or Deans for more than what they cost new, because they are in “great condition” and “come with a strap”. Also, I regularly see “Fender” ads when it’s actually a Squier Affinity or something like that. It’s fine- doesn’t really bother me and it’s really the sellers prerogative. But it sets my expectations very low as I casually browse.

 

[PWRL]

The 83 Matsumoku Bass I got posted from Japan to Australia was I think as your first Explanation.

Yes.
A friend of mine is great at finding hidden gems. One example is that I personally watched him buy a first year Arbiter Fuzz Face for like five bucks at a rummage sale. That was within ten years ago. Whoever was selling it was just selling stuff that probably belonged to a relative who passed away, and they just didn't care to look it up or know anything about music whatsoever.
I've fished Wurlizer electric pianos out of the trash, and a friend of mine dumpster dove a Rhodes which was thrown away over a single dead key. Other than that, it appeared to be exactly the same model as Ray Manzerek's, minus the bass thing.

 

[Ostie]

I find that sellers think that anything old is vintage and try to get ridiculous prices for instruments that were crap then and crap doesn’t improve with age. There’s a pawn shop in my town that asks way too much for Squier Affinity basses. I guess you’re supposed to make lowball offers and if you don’t, they make some extra money.

Last year I got a mint TMB100 and Rumble 25 off CL for $100. I don’t know why but the guy just wanted them gone. He was a guitar player who tried bass and didn’t like it. That’s about the only great deal I’ve ever gotten.

 

[minimalist freedom]

Yeah, I am finding that it is getting harder to find the good deals, but they are out there. You just got to be on top of it and ready to pounce right when it happens. I check CL and Offerup like people check facebook and twitter.

Pounce I did.
Found a post on Market place at 1.00 am one night. A 2x12 Sovtek bass cab.
I sent a text and made an offer on what was already a good price. He replied , he was still up like me. Next morning 10 am it was in the back of my car. It now sits on top of my Sovtek 15”. 90’s cabs sound so good with my 92 Surfcaster and 92 Yamaha.