You don't say. You should tell that to the sales person the next time you want to buy a Fender. No... wait.... tell it to potential buyers when you try to sell your Chinese Squier for anything close to a non-laughable price.
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Do Americans need more expensive basses?
- Thread starter topo morto
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You don't say. You should tell that to the sales person the next time you want to buy a Fender. No... wait.... tell it to potential buyers when you try to sell your Chinese Squier for anything close to a non-laughable price.
Come to think of it, funny how I've sold half a dozen American-made basses to European customers in the last year. And they all outbid American buyers on ebay.
There is a lot of lutherheggs hat in this thread. o
Do Americans _need_ more expensive instruments..? Of course not... but if they are available... and they are affordable .. then why not. If Brits were in the same position many of them would do the same thing. Nowadays there are some very good relatively in expensive instruments out there .. I have an SR505 that is about 10 years old give or take.. but the SR505s being produced today are better instruments but just because there are better, relatively inexpensive instruments out there does not mean that the higher end stuff is not better still but it is all relative. I have several Korean made basses.. and they are all good basses.. but I have no doubt that an American made bass from the same manufacturers would be an overall better made instrument than it's overseas made counterparts.
Also many of the differences may not be as obvious when the bass is new but will manifest itself as the bass ages in scratchy pots or broken solder joints and such.
Do Americans _need_ more expensive instruments..? Of course not... but if they are available... and they are affordable .. then why not. If Brits were in the same position many of them would do the same thing. Nowadays there are some very good relatively in expensive instruments out there .. I have an SR505 that is about 10 years old give or take.. but the SR505s being produced today are better instruments but just because there are better, relatively inexpensive instruments out there does not mean that the higher end stuff is not better still but it is all relative. I have several Korean made basses.. and they are all good basses.. but I have no doubt that an American made bass from the same manufacturers would be an overall better made instrument than it's overseas made counterparts.
Also many of the differences may not be as obvious when the bass is new but will manifest itself as the bass ages in scratchy pots or broken solder joints and such.
philvanv
Gerbil Turds, Kitsap County Turd Core
- Jul 2, 2012
- 530
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- and at the bottom it says thank you, and now you can shag off
Why so concerned with how others (Americans) spend their money?
Here's the answer; Those who can, do. Those who can't, question the ethics of those who can.
No, it's just that we haven't figured out how to act like a properly conquered nation. You know, like the Welsh.
I think they take the VAT pretty seriously in Europe. I don't know how they'd check, but they probably have some sort of declaration you have to make. You could probably get away with it once, though. I'd be game to try.
On the OP's question, Americans often have more disposable income to spend on stuff, consumption is not taxed as heavily here, and credit and products are readily available.
Americans are also more obsessed with the status their belongings convey. If you want to see the difference, watch the U.K. version of Top Gear. The hosts there can afford to buy Ferraris and Porsches, but they go on national television dressed as if they shopped at thrift store. I just don't think you'd see that in America.
Personally, I only buy American, and preferably made in California (Fender, Music Man, Taylor, Santa Cruz Guitars, etc.) I'm of course biased toward California because it's my home, which is completely emotional and not rational.
But the labor and environmental standards in California are some of the strictest in the world and we have decent wood importation rules here, so I know my money isn't going toward exploiting workers, polluting the air or buying illegally logged wood. When Gibson got raided by the Feds for illegal wood, I personally stopped looking at their products for a while. They're probably back into compliance now.
Since basses are made just about the same way everywhere, we can assume the difference in price reflects international cost differences for labor (which, aside from some macroeconomic monetary theory crap, mainly flows from how well paid and protected workers are) and from allowing pollution and the use of questionably obtained wood.
I don't care to support that if I have a choice. If I can't afford to buy from a country where people and the planet are treated well, then I can't afford it. I would have no problem buying an instrument from the U.K., Germany and Japan, if I dug them.
But all of this is a luxury that I enjoy living in America. I have nothing against people who buy foreign instruments if it's all they can afford. I do encourage them to buy second hand though, because it saves you money and it's better for the planet to keep an old axe going than to cause a new one to be made.
To the OP: I buy what I can afford when I can afford it. Thus I have a Fender Hwy One Jazz (USA), a Pedulla Pentabuzz (USA), and a Squier VM Jazz (China? Korea? Indonesia? I don't actually know or care where it was made), that I'm upgrading. They're all different, and they're all fantastic, as far as I'm concerned. I'm an equal opportunity bass consumer. If I like it, I like it, and where it's made and what it says on the headstock are just two additional factors that go into the buy-or-not-buy equation.
This is just ignorant.
While it may be relatively true today, the "always" part is simply dead wrong. There were a couple decades (after WWII) where the U.S. was the world's center of quality products, and Europe and Asia built their best products by making obvious copies of U.S. products. Of course, the fact that the other major manufacturing nations had their production capacity bombed into nonexistence had a lot to do with that.
My main point is: whenever you make definitive statements referring to an endless timespan . . . like "always," you will almost invariably be wrong.
(note the "almost" in my statement that prevents it from falling victim to the same flaw as the one I'm pointing out)
philvanv
Gerbil Turds, Kitsap County Turd Core
- Jul 2, 2012
- 530
- 17
- Disclosures
- and at the bottom it says thank you, and now you can shag off
The thing is, high quality usually means high price. But high price doesn't necessarily mean high quality. Those who can't tell the difference - and who also have the means to buy whatever they want - will usually go for the costly instrument, assuming (hoping) that it is also high quality. Those who can tell the difference focus on the quality itself - and are willing to pay the high price IF they feel that the quality justifies the price. 
There's a scene from the film Goodfellas that illustrates the principle nicely: Several years after Henry & Karen have been married, and Henry is pulling down huge bucks from the drug trade, they have a dinner party at their new home with some of their friends. Karen is eagerly showing off all the new accessories and decorations in the house - completely oblivious to the fact that everything is in horrendously bad taste: ghastly, garish, gaudy and gauche.
The message? Despite all their money, these nouveau riche gangsters have no real sense of decorum, taste or style. Money can buy a lot of things. But it can't buy good taste or good judgment.
MM
There's a scene from the film Goodfellas that illustrates the principle nicely: Several years after Henry & Karen have been married, and Henry is pulling down huge bucks from the drug trade, they have a dinner party at their new home with some of their friends. Karen is eagerly showing off all the new accessories and decorations in the house - completely oblivious to the fact that everything is in horrendously bad taste: ghastly, garish, gaudy and gauche.
The message? Despite all their money, these nouveau riche gangsters have no real sense of decorum, taste or style. Money can buy a lot of things. But it can't buy good taste or good judgment.
MM
Even better, we like to take shiny stuff and make it look old and worn out artificially.
I'm not big into paying a lot for basses, either. Most I ever paid was $1500 and I'll likely never do it again. That said, if I could get an Alleva Coppolo P for $1500, I'd certainly consider it
I have lived on both continents (US and Europe) and can confirm that from personal experience.
The thing is, high quality usually means high price. But high price doesn't necessarily mean high quality. Those who can't tell the difference - and who also have the means to buy whatever they want - will usually go for the costly instrument, assuming (hoping) that it is also high quality. Those who can tell the difference focus on the quality itself - and are willing to pay the high price IF they feel that the quality justifies the price.
MM
And, I would confirm your premise with my collection of U.S. Peavey basses, and my BMW motorcycle (bought used for about 1/3 it's MSRP).
Because by the time most high end (usually american made) stuff reaches Britain. Its much more expensive. Even less expensive stuff. As for the made in america thing, my american jazz bass beats my other 2 basses straight up in everything.
I have a $2000 Stambaugh and a $150 Squire Jaguar. The Stammie is without a doubt better in every way (except one). I could mod the Jag with the same pickups (nordy NJ4s) and same strings (TI J44s) and I bet the sound would be 80-90% similar enough that most musicians would not know the difference... nevermind your average Joe listening to my band in a pub.
Most of us would agree that tone is one of the, if not *the* most important aspect of a bass. So there is that. Is that 10 - 20% tone worth $1800? Not to me.
Where the real difference lies is in fit and finish. The Stambaugh is a handmade bass that plays very nicely. I have yet to come across a bass that matches it and frankly I don't have any interest in other basses as the Stammie killed all bass GAS for me.
That said, though I would not want to, it would not be extremely difficult to me to let go of the Stammie and just use the Jag as my one and only. The reason I don't is because #1. I **really** like the Stammie and at this point have no reason to part with it. #2. If I did ever need money in a most desperate fashion I could sell the Stammie and confidently flip it for $1000 perhaps more. This makes it almost like a safety net or emergency fund for me.
The only way the Jag is better, the 'except one' is its replacement factor. I could ride a motorcycle with it on my back or play in adverse weather or play it in a really scuzzy bar and I would not be heartbroken if it were damaged or stolen.
So ultimately playing the $2000 Stambaugh is just an unnecessary, decadent luxury when the Jag will get the job done without issue. I bet if I ever had to make the switch between the two I would not ultimately miss the Stammie that much as I acclimatized to the Jag. Kind of like going from a big screen tv to a smaller one. You get used to it after awhile.
Most of us would agree that tone is one of the, if not *the* most important aspect of a bass. So there is that. Is that 10 - 20% tone worth $1800? Not to me.
Where the real difference lies is in fit and finish. The Stambaugh is a handmade bass that plays very nicely. I have yet to come across a bass that matches it and frankly I don't have any interest in other basses as the Stammie killed all bass GAS for me.
That said, though I would not want to, it would not be extremely difficult to me to let go of the Stammie and just use the Jag as my one and only. The reason I don't is because #1. I **really** like the Stammie and at this point have no reason to part with it. #2. If I did ever need money in a most desperate fashion I could sell the Stammie and confidently flip it for $1000 perhaps more. This makes it almost like a safety net or emergency fund for me.
The only way the Jag is better, the 'except one' is its replacement factor. I could ride a motorcycle with it on my back or play in adverse weather or play it in a really scuzzy bar and I would not be heartbroken if it were damaged or stolen.
So ultimately playing the $2000 Stambaugh is just an unnecessary, decadent luxury when the Jag will get the job done without issue. I bet if I ever had to make the switch between the two I would not ultimately miss the Stammie that much as I acclimatized to the Jag. Kind of like going from a big screen tv to a smaller one. You get used to it after awhile.
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