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Does price = quality/sound
- Thread starter mybassisalemom
- Start date
Sometimes people just enjoy buying instruments as a hobby, I guess. Somebody is buying all that cheaper stuff at Guitar Center...
It's easier to buy some of those oddball pawnshop instruments. They've certainly done some strange things over the years. I'm not bashing the iconic brands, but I've seen enough Fenders, Gibsons, and Martins to last a while. Oh look, another Strat. Oh, yet another Strat. Oh, a limited edition vintage Strat.
In general, I'd say:
buildQuality ∝ log(price)
Is closer to how it works for nearly anything, if you look at a large enough sample size.
buildQuality ∝ log(price)
Is closer to how it works for nearly anything, if you look at a large enough sample size.
The audience will mostly not know the difference unless the bass is so bad it won't stay in tune or something severe.
Status symbols? This tells me a few things.
1. You haven't really played any nice basses and/or can't tell the difference. If you can't tell the difference, that doesn't mean other people are making up imaginary differences.
2. You haven't met anyone playing handmade instruments. There seems to be this perpetuating fantasy that there's a guy with a $20k Fodera that can't play root 8th notes and everyone starts high fiving. I have yet to meet a boutique player who is a snob or can't play. Calling my bass a status symbol implies I care what YOU think about my basses.
As someone who's played multiple Spector (I've owned/own 3 & played about 6), Lakland (played 6 or 7, wanted to own 1), Warwick (Owned 1, played too many to count), Sadowsky (played 3), Dingwall (played 5 or 6, want to own 1), Fodera (played 2) & Lull (played 3) basses...I can tell you that a LOT of the people who hover around those basses are complete snobs about gear & what they own/play.
Your above statement just reinforces that belief in my eyes.
In general, I'd say:
buildQuality ∝ log(price)
Is closer to how it works for nearly anything, if you look at a large enough sample size.
It's not that simple. Market demand, production numbers, construction costs (including wages, accomodations, materials, machinery, etc) also play into the costs.
I can guarantee that a Fodera wouldn't be $10-20,000 if they were in rural NY, instead of urban NJ.
In general, I'd say:
buildQuality ∝ log(price)
Is closer to how it works for nearly anything, if you look at a large enough sample size.
Agreed. Just don't look too carefully at what happens to quality when the price starts to go below $1.
You have proven that you dislike boutique owners. I get that. A few of us get that. I honestly don't care what people think about my gear since it was made for my hands and my ears. I also don't care what other people play because it's NOT my hands and ears.
I have yet to meet any boutique snobs. I have met more snobs that obsess about vintage/Relics and wearing skinny jeans.
Edit: most of the boutique guys I've met would talk your ear off and would be ecstatic to talk about it to someone who wanted to listen. As it stands, I often get the stink eye when I pull out my boutique gear.
You have taken my answers and made up different questions than the one I was answering. I do not "think that the "entire history of consumer products" in the USA boils down to fraud and consumer protection laws", nor did I say so. I did not argue for consumer protection laws nor think we need more of them for basses. I was answering a specific question, not the questions you are now applying my post to. The post was a response specifically and only to a request for evidence that people are easily fooled. Please stop trying to claim I was saying something I was not.
I understand if you think the information was not relevant to the Original Post, but it was relevant to the question I was asked. If you find the question I was asked irrelevant, my apologies for answering it.
Play a bass that feels good in your hands and is the easiest route to you making music.
What's as important as a good bass to make music on?
A good solid rig that can make a below average, average, or lovely expensive instrument be heard.
It's all about making music...and to a certain extent, looking good.
What's as important as a good bass to make music on?
A good solid rig that can make a below average, average, or lovely expensive instrument be heard.
It's all about making music...and to a certain extent, looking good.
I'm glad that you don't think that, and I apologize for (apparently) misunderstanding you. But, you should perhaps choose your words more carefully, because you said something very close to that:
I added the phrase "boils down to", but otherwise simply repeated your paragraph. If you meant to say something less sweeping, different phrasing may have worked better.
Fair enough, but if you really weren't trying to connect the two, then I think your examples were dragging the thread far away on a tangent. The "stupidity" we were clearly discussing was related to whether people who buy expensive basses are stupid because they are gullible and buying a product which is merely snake oil. By arguing that humans are indeed stupid, you were pretty clearly (in my mind) insinuating the cases were similar.
Now you're saying you were debating "abstract" stupidity and not stupidity as it relates to bass buying? I have no idea how you got onto that subject...
Manufacturing cost that absolutely affect the overall feel, sound and quality of a bass: Direct labor, wood, electronics, hardware, tools .
Operating cost that does not affect the finish product but the manufacturer still needs to consider them in order to set the selling price, meaning that we paid for them: Facility (rent, taxes); Utilities ( electricity, water, telephone etc) ; marketing/selling (website, publicity, endorsements, events), etc.
Now , I am not saying that there is not difference between a high end bass - Expensive ( Sadowsky, Fodera, etc) and a low end bass - Cheap ( SX, Squier etc), of course that there are difference in quality, the manufacturing process, components and level of skills of the people that were used to build the bass are different so a difference in the quality of the finish product is expected. Do the most expensive sound better? That depends on the ears of the person listening.
Now, how much that quality worth is up to you. To me, there is a limit in quality, once you paid $1,500-$2,000 you are getting the best possible quality you can have: Top hardware and electronics, excelent wood and finish and if you are not happy with the fretboard work you can send the bass to a world class luthier for a dressing.
My last comment. Some people think that they don't need to spend too much to get the job done, some other are willing to spend a little more and get better quality and some other people likes to have the most expensive available options: Exhibition grade tops, exotic wood fret boards, custom color, be involved during the bulding process: call the builder, exchange emails, etc. Whoever you are is ok, just be sure to play the hell out of your bass.
Operating cost that does not affect the finish product but the manufacturer still needs to consider them in order to set the selling price, meaning that we paid for them: Facility (rent, taxes); Utilities ( electricity, water, telephone etc) ; marketing/selling (website, publicity, endorsements, events), etc.
Now , I am not saying that there is not difference between a high end bass - Expensive ( Sadowsky, Fodera, etc) and a low end bass - Cheap ( SX, Squier etc), of course that there are difference in quality, the manufacturing process, components and level of skills of the people that were used to build the bass are different so a difference in the quality of the finish product is expected. Do the most expensive sound better? That depends on the ears of the person listening.
Now, how much that quality worth is up to you. To me, there is a limit in quality, once you paid $1,500-$2,000 you are getting the best possible quality you can have: Top hardware and electronics, excelent wood and finish and if you are not happy with the fretboard work you can send the bass to a world class luthier for a dressing.
My last comment. Some people think that they don't need to spend too much to get the job done, some other are willing to spend a little more and get better quality and some other people likes to have the most expensive available options: Exhibition grade tops, exotic wood fret boards, custom color, be involved during the bulding process: call the builder, exchange emails, etc. Whoever you are is ok, just be sure to play the hell out of your bass.
