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DOES PRICE MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

#23
Yes, there is a somewhat positive correlation. But it isn't necessarily so, depending on the tone you're after. Remember even Bill Wyman's first bass was a cheap large bodied monstrosity that he carved the body down to suit his physique, defretted it, and it became the signature bottom end of the Rolling Stones' early records.

What you get with the elements that make up good quality is reliability and stability, for example, using pickups from a manufacturer that has a quality reputation, real CTS pots, real Switchcraft or Neutrik plugs, real hardware like Schaller, Grover, ToneProsKluson, Hipshot, Badass, etc., and good quality strings, of which we all know the good manufacturers.

So, the real cheap basses may sound good because of the luck of the piece of tree that made it into that bass, but it may or may not be reliable without investing in some upgrade parts eventually.

Finally, nothing beats close inspection and playability. For example, whether a $200 Squire or a $5000 boutique bass, sight the edge of the neck to make sure the "freckle line," caused by the end grain of the wood at the edge of a slab cut maple neck where the fingerboard meets the neck, is absolutely straight on both sides, which means that regardless of make or model, the neck is less prone to warpage. If it doesn't line up, no matter how "cool" or how "great" it sounds, it won't stand the test of time due to warpage from grain "runout."

This is one reason why "try before you buy" is so important.
 
#25
Price is subjective based on economics and lifestyle that really determines what one can afford. As some have stated, cost reflects materials and workmanship along with other manufacturing cost.

But regardless what we can afford we must agree that when you hold a quality instrument, that feels, sounds, and is visually stunning that it usually cost real money. Can u get by with a cheaper instrument, well... if you had to.
 
#26
I would love for there to one day be some sort of huge blind tone/quality test for basses. Maybe talkbass could one day organize such an event. :) I think the results would be astounding.

IMO there are some high end basses that you undoubltedly know are the sheeiit! I've played a few over $3000 basses that I quickly said, yep... I get it. There are also some under $150 basses that make me immediately laugh, and say, yep... I get it. I do think there are countless basses however that would confound people. Squiers that sound better than Fenders. Peaveys that would knock some socks off... some high end basses also that I think people are insane for paying the price for. I love warwicks, but some of the off the shelf $3000 + prices are nuts, considering you can other warwicks that aren't much different at all (in electronics, wood, or construction) for a fraction of the price.

The biggest joke to me would be blind testing the vintage Fender stuff. Die hard players who are used to and only play those basses I'm sure would recognize and pick them out as they're favorites... but in a totally blind test with people who don't use them reguarly I honestly think SXs would win out. Maybe not SXes :) but countless basses that cost $1500 less than the going price of a late 60s early 70s Precision.
 
#27
There already have been a couple of those tests done here, and IIRC the consensus was that you really couldn't tell the difference. One test was (again,IIRC) between a vintage
'62 Precison bass and a lightly modded cheapy (I forget whether it was an SX or a Squier) and no-one could tell the difference. JimmyM did one too, but I don't know what the results were there. I'm sure he'd be willing to chime in with that.
 
#32
Xavier Zed said:
Price is subjective based on economics and lifestyle that really determines what one can afford. As some have stated, cost reflects materials and workmanship along with other manufacturing cost.
Click to expand...
What the market will bear is a big factor in the price of short run (read: boutique) basses. Some small shops hike the price until the demand falls to a level which is within their manufacturing capacity. It's what I'd do; having demand that far outstrips one's ability to deliver is bad for everyone.
 
#33
Style and quality are nice when you buy a bass. Would I look and feel better playing a Rickenbacker over a Squire? Sure. Would I buy a boutique bass and play country rock?, probably not. I've had a Japanese bass over 25 years and nothing has gone wrong and I've picked up many cheap made in China/Taiwan/Indonesia and none have made me pull out my wallet. I honestly think every guy on this site should always recommend that someone goes to a shop and tries some bass guitars of different prices ranges and decides if he or she can tell the quality or not...if you can't then buy away and 20 years later you still have that bass you made a good buy :)
 
#34
To me price isn't the primary factor but I think buying a bass should be driven by what you need and how much you are willing to spend or what you can realistically afford to attain your goal plus or minus a couple of hundred bucks US.

I suppose that if I made a good living by playing bass then I will have no qualms popping for a Wal, a Sad NYC, Fender CS, Alembic etc because I will want the best for my clients and chances are good that a pricey bass with a good pedigree will be a sweet money maker OOTB. As hack amateur I've set my price niche @ the low to high $1K which almost always nets a great quality instrument capable of delivering the goods for just about anything.
 
#35
I definitely agree with the "diminishing returns" comments. For me, I'm fine playing the $1,200 bass. I also strongly agree that you get what you pay for. I regretted it on the couple occasions a few years ago when I bought cheap basses thinking they were good enough. They weren't. Ultimately, it was a waste of money.
 
#37
I play Wals and a Zon. All cost upwards of $3500 each. I have them for their sounds and playability. Their sounds just cost what they cost. Also, all are of great quality...the construction values are high in every respect. There is nothing about them that says..."they went cheap" or requires me to renovate or fix.

This said...I also have an Ibanez SR1005EFM I purchased from Rufus P....it's great! Surprising quality, sound for a $700 used instrument. And its playability is of such ease.....all I did was put on new strings and set-it-up to my liking which just about all basses I've ever owned have needed as set-up is a personal thing.
 
#39
Jpeachbass said:
What do Y'all think? I have both very expensive and very cheap and with a little TLC the cheap ones have just a good of sound as the others.:hiding:
Click to expand...

Seems to depend on what one gets and how good of a player one is. Also, some dependency on your playing style and tastes in music, etc.

For example, the threshold with me is about $1000 to $1300. Above that, there's no appreciable difference in how I sound on it. My hands and musical talent are simply too limited and flaccid to coax anything out of a boutique hand-made instrument that I can't get out my Carvin, much less even other mass-produced instruments that cost more than that.

And there are even negative examples where I sound worse/much worse on more expensive instruments. I.e. on my Rick 4003, which is $1800+ new, I sound absolutely uselessly horrible at all times, with any style, strings, amp, EQ or effects. Absolutely hopeless. Even worse than I sound on Fender and Fender style instruments. On my G&L L2000 (IIRC, I paid about $1200 for it new about 10 years ago), I sound only marginally better than on my rick - serviceable under only very specific circumstances (blues bass, perhaps). Otherwise, I'm screwed on the G&L.

So there's just no reason to ever put a Conklin, Pedulla or custom made MTD bass in my hands. One of those just wouldn't provide any improvement and some likely have design problems that make me play and sound worse (i.e. horrific neck-dive with the Pedullas, incorrect pickup placement, etc that you find on some other boutiques).

And even my Bunnies (the bass I've discovered is about the best I can do at my playing/talent level) it takes me months to decide to go ahead and put down the cash on. About 6 months of deliberation on my Bunny 6, and the 4 string version I finally ordered last week (it took about a year for me to decide I needed a 4 string version). The 6 was about $1300 overall and my 4 will be a little under $1100.

But many good players can sound noticeably better when the cost goes up - i.e. Norm Stockton who has the talent/technique to really take advantage of an MTD, etc.

So really depends on the player and etc... But like I said, for me, when it gets over the cost of a totally plain-jane Carvin Bunny, it's not worth it.

LS
 
#40
In a way I can follow the above statement about players with more cash than sense, but only from the perspective that it takes time to learn how to make the most of any given instrument, and it often seems easier to buy a new bass than to put some effort into what you already have.

IMO the need for a new bass comes when your skill has improved significantly to exhaust the options afforded by your current instrument. The replacement should then be a bass that you can continue to grow and learn with, and often your new demands will only be fulfilled by a more expensive instrument.

Of course a bass that has gone through more quality testing and has higher quality components will be superior to similar instruments of a lower production standard, and I would rather own two basses that satisfy my needs than twenty that don't. Nevertheless, discussions like this one ometimes end up presenting quality as some sort of universal +/- factor. I don't believe it is. I once heard a sound-tech make this comment to a keytar-player during a soundcheck: "sounds cheap, I love it." Everyone present agreed. And Laughed. I'm guessing few TB'ers would enjoy the experience, but the fact of the matter is that his ridiculus toy instrument complimented the bands sound better than a high-end keyboard would have.
 

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