Darin Huff Basses... Worth all that?

[AltGrendel]

I doubt that it's stolen, since there are a finite number of pawnshops here, and the state requires a lot of verification before they can buy anything. A cop told me once that most stolen stuff gets trucked out of town immediately. You have a good point about the resale value. I may try a stupidly lowball offer... Hopefully I end up with an NBD photo for this thread!

Wouldn't hurt to try, the pictures of his complete work, what little there is out there, looks beautiful.

 

[40Hz]

So much legitimate and excellent competition in the custom/semi-custom market dulls my enthusiasm for his work.

^This.

My GF rides. In the horse world there’s a general bit of advice given whenever somebody is thinking about buying an iffy horse: “With all the perfectly good horses out there for sale, why would you ever want buy something with a problem?”

 

[Gorn]

But taking all factors into consideration, how much credence would you be willing to give any answers you received?

Depends on the information and the rest of my research. I've never spent that much on a bass, and probably never would, but a call or email to the builder would be one element of my research. I wouldn't necessarily accept what he said as truth and ignore the threads on him here, but I'd still ask.

 

[Crash 56]

Thank you all for your thoughts! Good points made by all. For some reason, I seem to be much less enthusiastic about this deal when I'm not holding the bass in my hands!

 

[Garret Graves]

WARNING: if you go through the Huff thread, you will see that once he gets a bass in his possession you may never see it again. One of the posters had a Huff bass, he was happy with it, there was a tiny issue that the poster could have lived with or solved through other means, but he sent it to Huff, and it was years before it came back, if ever. If you buy the bass, never send it to Huff, unless you are fine with it being on his bench for 7 years or so.

 

[AltGrendel]

Thank you all for your thoughts! Good points made by all. For some reason, I seem to be much less enthusiastic about this deal when I'm not holding the bass in my hands!

Probably not a bad idea. If that "Pawn Stars" nonsense of numbers is correct the best you could hope for would be 75-80% off while they paid probably 40% of the asking price.

 

[Garret Graves]

Depends on the information and the rest of my research. I've never spent that much on a bass, and probably never would, but a call or email to the builder would be one element of my research. I wouldn't necessarily accept what he said as truth and ignore the threads on him here, but I'd still ask.

One of the heart breaking things about the Huff thread as you go through it, is he is very good at the initial hustle for cash. He knows how to explain away his past behavior by ‘eating crow’ and acting humbled- he has a lot of enthusiasm for new projects, and convinces people he is on the fast track for production, Basses are going out the door, etc... then after the buy, you realize what you bought into was his delusional vision of what his business COULD be, but never ends up being. My point is, I wouldn’t advise anyone to talk to him at all- because all a con man needs is an open door and a person with cash in hand.

 

[Gougedeye]

Ran into a D bass here in a pawnshop, great woodwork, neck and sound, but 3400 dollars? I would almost do it, but probably could not get any support from the builder, after reading the online stuff out there. Opinions?

Darrin Huff lives in Spokane. Why don't you hunt him down and ask him about the bass?

 

[jamro217]

$3400 will buy a P, J and a Rumble. Maybe that will put it into perspective.

 

[gsquare]

Ran into a D bass here in a pawnshop, great woodwork, neck and sound, but 3400 dollars? I would almost do it, but probably could not get any support from the builder, after reading the online stuff out there. Opinions?

did you do a search of previously sold D Huff basses? Seems a bit high for a used one, isn't this what he was charging for new when he was selling promises? Pawn shops are notorious for pricing in the stratosphere when they think they might be able to cash in, they might not have anywhere close to that much invested, I'd low ball them and see their reaction.

 

[40Hz]

I've never spent that much on a bass, and probably never would

I did. But only once. Doubt I ever would again.

 

[Honch]

It's the closest equivalent to a mothman bass. You know the mothman prophecy/urban legend? Some claims to have seen one, but others doubts it exists. Just as scarce and rare. And frankly I think they look like offshoots/offspring of that mothman bass.

 

[AltGrendel]

It's the closest equivalent to a mothman bass. You know the mothman prophecy/urban legend? Some claims to have seen one, but others doubts it exists. Just as scarce and rare. And frankly I think they look like offshoots/offspring of that mothman bass.

That's because the Mothman bass haunts Darin's dreams.

 

[groooooove]

there are too many good luthiers out there that don't rip people off - the bass is priced fairly i guess, but for that money you can get a lot of bass from many places.

 

[five7]

Never mind the builder or his lousy reputation, I wouldn't hand a pawnshop $3400.00 for anything.

i gave a pawnshop $7500 for a screamin eagle harley softail worth $10k. Couldn't pass up on a good deal like that.

 

[MEKer]

Its not that he would be expected to do anything, but It would be good to be able to get information about the instrument, and\or hire him for further work on it if necessary.

HALT HALT HALT............"...hire him for further work on it if necessary." Really? Yeah, he is dependable all right. Just have some lube when you try that out.

I would not give 2 cents for anything made by him. Too many better things out there (especially at THAT ridiculous price) and I'll bet my $300 2006 Washburn DB-30 proto-type would sound just as good anywhere, anytime.

YMMV, but that is my .223 cents.

 

[allenhumble]

Looks like he is still building basses on his Facebook page. Just seems like every one he sells is "for a friend". I wonder if that's a new sales tactic. Build a bass and sell through pawn shop. Did he ever make everyone whole?

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Looks like he is still building basses on his Facebook page. Just seems like every one he sells is "for a friend". I wonder if that's a new sales tactic. Build a bass and sell through pawn shop. Did he ever make everyone whole?

Nope. It’s just a perpetual middle finger to those who paid him.

I don’t believe in bad juju. But that pawn shop bass? Probably dripping with bad juju.

 

[Honch]

They look a lot like luxory Wishbasses

 

[silvertone]

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Just 33 Benjamins and you can take it off the lot:
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