Discontinued basses. Worth more or less?

[smcd]

Instruments becoming collectable, can be the curse of great music. They get priced out of reach for the working musician.

It's said that the string sections of the top orchestras don't sound as good as they used to, as the players can't afford Stradivarius' and other similarly great instruments any more. Rather than being played, they're sitting in bank volts owned by collectors, not players.

With the value of old basses, there is supply and demand, but equally who plays them? If someone like Pino Palladino had pickup an Ibanez Musician, instead of an early '60s Precision, you can guaranty that the value of them would go through the roof.

Assuming that Stradivari do sound better than your average quality violin today, there is one big difference - collectible Fender basses from the 50s' and 60's don't sound better than common basses today. Quite the opposite, IMO.

And Pino Palladino could have picked up a Musician and nothing would have changed. Sting is a bazillion times more popular than Palladino, is well known for playing an Ibanez Musician, and that didn't make a difference.

 

[tjh]

.. as stated above, a good item in demand (when produced) will generally hold its value, and in certain cases if bought right it will sometimes maintain a value above the purchase price ...

just a couple items that come to mind with this happening would be CLEARANCED items that are making way for a 'newer' model or being eliminated from a line-up all together ... such as the Yamaha BBT-110 cabs that MF was blowing out a few years back ... and then there is always the deal with the Fender Highway 1 to ONE transition ... the Hwy 1's are holding their value extremely well, in fact they are often selling way beyond the clearance prices ... of course this is also due in great part to the lack of informed buying public that does not realize there is a difference and considers them the same and therefore continues to pay the used price of a Hwy ONE ...

 

[tjh]

I was sorta wondering this about my '10 Squier VM Precision, the trans. amber/maple version. (not that I'm expecting much, BTW) . Out for what, maybe two years, from all reports (including mine) a really good bass, now OOP as of a couple of months ago, there can't have been a whole ton of them made.

... interestingly with Squiers, I have noticed that since they raised the price on the CV Jazz, that the used market price for the bass has not really gone up at all .. of course that is still being produced, so things may change ... however, with Squier continuing to introduce products very similar in nature, at such a reasonable price point, I would think things like color preferences would certainly allow a bass to hold its 'value', closer to its original price point ... I see that happening with the blue CV P model also ... there seem to be consistently higher selling point for them over the used red models (which of course are still available) ... JMHO

 

[tdelamont]

The best overall bass I have ever owned was an Ibanez Ergodyne EBD700 (basswood, not luthite). You can buy those all day for about $350 US. Sleek, sexy, fast, light, active, slim two octave neck, and you could dial up absolutely any tone profile you wanted in seconds. Blows my mind that they didn't take over the world. So who knows what people want?

 

[AphekGreg]

Assuming that Stradivari do sound better than your average quality violin today, there is one big difference - collectible Fender basses from the 50s' and 60's don't sound better than common basses today. Quite the opposite, IMO.

And Pino Palladino could have picked up a Musician and nothing would have changed. Sting is a bazillion times more popular than Palladino, is well known for playing an Ibanez Musician, and that didn't make a difference.

At this point, a lot of people have no idea that Sting played a Musician, Spector, Steinberger, Jazz etc. He's 'always' played his old P-bass.

Maybe it's different elsewhere, but I know quite a few guys who wouldn't have been caught dead playing a P-bass 10 years ago and never touched flatwound strings, who now have a Precision with flats. A large part of that transition has been Pino's influence, along with an awareness of James Jamerson.

 

[smcd]

At this point, a lot of people have no idea that Sting played a Musician, Spector, Steinberger, Jazz etc. He's 'always' played his old P-bass.

Maybe it's different elsewhere, but I know quite a few guys who wouldn't have been caught dead playing a P-bass 10 years ago and never touched flatwound strings, who now have a Precision with flats. A large part of that transition has been Pino's influence, along with an awareness of James Jamerson.

Very very few people who are not bass players know who Pino Palladino is. P-basses with flatwounds isn't a Pino Palladino trademark. It's the classic combination from the 1950's and 1960's. I think if Palladino's name carried any marketing weight, fretless Stingrays would be much more popular than they are.

 

[ShoeManiac]

I have bought a few discontinued basses at blow-out sales that were worth a bit more a year later (10-25%), but not approaching the original retail price. I sold some, but am holding onto the Roscoe Beck IV.

The Fender Roscoe Beck basses are among some of the few discontinued instruments for which I continue to see serious interest. They'll sell for at least as much as they originally cost, if not a little more. However, it seems that there may be more interest in the 5 string model than the 4 string model.

But don't mistake the fact that the prices have gone up simply because the model was discontinued. Those prices have stayed stable or risen because it's a great bass. It's also got pickups and pickup switching that were custom designed by Bill Lawrence for this instrument. And now the supply of these instruments is limited since they're out of production. If the demand continues for this particular bass, perhaps the secondary market prices will rise.

 

[AphekGreg]

Very very few people who are not bass players know who Pino Palladino is. P-basses with flatwounds isn't a Pino Palladino trademark. It's the classic combination from the 1950's and 1960's. I think if Palladino's name carried any marketing weight, fretless Stingrays would be much more popular than they are.

All of that is true.

Doesn't change that I know at least 5 guys personally, who've bought their first P-bass and first set of flats, due to Pino.

Now that raises another question. Why did people latch onto his current choice of instrument, more than the fretless Stingray?

 

[soulman969]

All I'm hoping for is that Modulus M92-5 are going down in price so I can buy back that one I so foolishly sold for less than I got for it.

 

[Deef]

I have a discontinued bass, and one which I can find very little about.

Each one I have seen seems to be different ( Finish wise, bridge wise, neck extension etc.

It's a Tanglewood Bassmaster Funk. Value wise, couldn't tell you what it is worth, all I know is, it's an awesome bass and I would never sell it!

 

[shortbusishort]

I bought the Squier Standard PJ Bass. Don't know if it will be valuable, I just play it.