Does the Peavey T-40 have neck dive?

[jd56hawk]

I know they've said they won't bring it back, but if they did...exactly the same in a choice of colors they haven't done before, maybe trans black and white, metallic red and blue, Cadillac green etc. and priced them at $499, I bet they'd soon be their biggest seller.

 

[Eilif]

As everyone has said, there's no neck dive on these weighty babies. I have a '79 T-40 and an '82 T-45 (slightly smaller, more contoured body) that are ash and I had a Poplar bodied T-40 for a while. None of them had even a hint of neck dive. Even when I carved away nearly all the wood under the pickguard to lighten the poplar body there was no dive.

If you're interested in more info about the T-40, head to the link in my sig to find out more than you (n)ever wanted to know about the T-40. If you don't mind a heavy bass, they're really great, versatile instruments and even with rising prices are still one of the great bargains in Vintage American-Made electric basses.

 

[Eilif]

I know they've said they won't bring it back, but if they did...exactly the same in a choice of colors they haven't done before, maybe trans black and white, metallic red and blue, Cadillac green etc. and priced them at $499, I bet they'd soon be their biggest seller.

I dream of the same thing. However there's no way to build a T-40 in the USA for $500 and Peavey has discontinued all USA made production basses. I think you'd even be hard pressed to do it overseas without changing the pickups and hardware to more generic "off-the-shelf" versions and then would you really have a T-40 anymore?

 

[jd56hawk]

I hope to find a mint one, Sienna Burst, at a yard sale for $100...stranger things have happened.

 

[Kaden Daniels]

Aw man... i want one so bad

I love me some heavy basses. I haven't found anything as comfortable as my ATK... everything just feels "too light"...

The T-40 I think had some inspiration on the ATK ash body, maple neck, humbucker or single coil , huge bridge I really want a ATK to go with my T-40

 

[btmpancake]

I know they've said they won't bring it back, but if they did...exactly the same in a choice of colors they haven't done before, maybe trans black and white, metallic red and blue, Cadillac green etc. and priced them at $499, I bet they'd soon be their biggest seller.

Jd you think peavey could bring back the T40 for $499? I'd take out a loan on my house & buy a boatload of them then flip em,neckdive or not!

 

[JMacBass65]

Hows the weight on this bass? Does it have any neck dive?


Thanks for any information.

T 40? Neck dive?

 

[LowEndOperative]

The last T-40 I played, I fell through the floor.

 

[tuBass]

I lightened my t40 to 10 pounds, and added a 5th string. Great basses

 

[btmpancake]

I'am new to TB and all I've read about is how heavy the peavey T40 is.I actually enjoyed the jokes too! But c'on is the T40 the heaviest (4)string production bass ever? Idk but this subject has to have been covered a million times.PS love the neckdive and weight jokes-glad it's not my old lady btmpancake tampa, fl

 

[DavidEdenAria]

I recently passed on an 11 lb T40 with a warped pickguard.

I did just buy an early Fury (ash body) w slanted Super Ferrite pickup that weighs under 8 lbs....this bass I am going to keep!!!

 

[jd56hawk]

Jd you think peavey could bring back the T40 for $499? I'd take out a loan on my house & buy a boatload of them then flip em,neckdive or not!

Wishful thinking...since I'm sure any bass guitar made today that sells for $800 or $900 is really only worth $500. Seriously, I do wonder what the markup is on any mass-produced guitar.

 

[Eilif]

Wishful thinking...since I'm sure any bass guitar made today that sells for $800 or $900 is really only worth $500. Seriously, I do wonder what the markup is on any mass-produced guitar.

When I was working for GC, the markup between what GC purchased an instrument for and what we sold it for was usually between 20 and 30%, with a very few having a margin as high as 40% and some as low as 10%. That sounds like alot, but when you figure in "pack" (shipping/Handling) overhead, sales people, etc, brick and mortar instrument retail is a hard business to sustain. GC almost went under a few years ago before it was acquired by Bain Capital.

As for "worth" it's a pretty vague thing to quantify. An instrument is "worth" whatever people are willing to pay. I do agree that a $500 USA T-40 re-release is completely unrealistic though. Even if it could be done as an import (doubtful without major changes) why would you pay $500 for an import when you can easily get the real thing in good shape for $400-600 or even less!

 

[PortlandBass77]

I dream of the same thing. However there's no way to build a T-40 in the USA for $500 and Peavey has discontinued all USA made production basses. I think you'd even be hard pressed to do it overseas without changing the pickups and hardware to more generic "off-the-shelf" versions and then would you really have a T-40 anymore?

???? Rondo builds their basses in China and has many very good models for less than $200. Sire has many top notch quality basses for $500 or less. Peavey could very easily reamp the T-40 with original specs for $500 overseas, probably even in the US for $600 - $700 if they switch their strategy to increasing total sales rather than fewer sales but higher profit % per bass.

Forgot to mention, Peavey is also a much bigger company than both Sire and Rondo (probably the 2 even combined) so they would have an even easier time of it.

 

[jd56hawk]

???? Rondo builds their basses in China and has many very good models for less than $200. Sire has many top notch quality basses for $500 or less. Peavey could very easily reamp the T-40 with original specs for $500 overseas, probably even in the US for $600 - $700 if they switch their strategy to increasing total sales rather than fewer sales but higher profit % per bass.

Forgot to mention, Peavey is also a much bigger company than both Sire and Rondo (probably the 2 even combined) so they would have an even easier time of it.

Seems that Sire is selling some very good basses for very good prices.

 

[jmlee]

Mine has core dive. It wants to go to the core of the earth and take me with it.

 

[Eilif]

???? Rondo builds their basses in China and has many very good models for less than $200. Sire has many top notch quality basses for $500 or less. Peavey could very easily reamp the T-40 with original specs for $500 overseas, probably even in the US for $600 - $700 if they switch their strategy to increasing total sales rather than fewer sales but higher profit % per bass.

Forgot to mention, Peavey is also a much bigger company than both Sire and Rondo (probably the 2 even combined) so they would have an even easier time of it.

$200 SX's can't hold a candle to a T-40, so that's right out.

Sire is a better comparison, but there's some holes in that one.

-Component prices:
Sire basses use alot of standard off-the-shelf components. That brings the cost way down. A T-40 has special (and more expensive to produce) bridge, plate, pickups, knobs, etc...

-Demand:
Sire is making a Jazz Bass, one of the most common and well-liked basses in the world. There's a huge demand for well-produced and affordable Jazz bass. Is there really a huge demand for a mostly unknown, very heavy bass with esoteric controls and a p-bass width neck? I don't think so.

-Asking Price
Maybe you could make it at $700, but then you're pricing a new import for $100 higher than the vintage original and that will shrink the potential buyer pool even more.

As I said earlier you could do an import "T-similar" bass for $500 that would actually sell well by, shrinking the body and using off-the-shelf parts and pups, but then it's not really at T-40 anymore.

The appeal of the T-40 is 4-fold as it's a..
...good sounding...
...Vintage American...
...bargain priced...
...absolutely unique...
instrument.

It's why we put up with the massive weight. Take any one or two those away and you massively decrease the already small audience that this bass has. I think an import T-styled bass at the $500 could actually be a seller, but it couldn't be original specs if it were to be successful today.

 

[btmpancake]

$200 SX's can't hold a candle to a T-40, so that's right out.

Sire is a better comparison, but there's some holes in that one.

-Component prices:
Sire basses use alot of standard off-the-shelf components. That brings the cost way down. A T-40 has special (and more expensive to produce) bridge, plate, pickups, knobs, etc...

-Demand:
Sire is making a Jazz Bass, one of the most common and well-liked basses in the world. There's a huge demand for well-produced and affordable Jazz bass. Is there really a huge demand for a mostly unknown, very heavy bass with esoteric controls and a p-bass width neck? I don't think so.

-Asking Price
Maybe you could make it at $700, but then you're pricing a new import for $100 higher than the vintage original and that will shrink the potential buyer pool even more.

As I said earlier you could do an import "T-similar" bass for $500 that would actually sell well by, shrinking the body and using off-the-shelf parts and pups, but then it's not really at T-40 anymore.

The appeal of the T-40 is 4-fold as it's a..
...good sounding...
...Vintage American...
...bargain priced...
...absolutely unique...
instrument.

It's why we put up with the massive weight. Take any one or two those away and you massively decrease the already small audience that this bass has. I think an import T-styled bass at the $500 could actually be a seller, but it couldn't be original specs if it were to be successful today.

Eilif you got me thinking about how musicman downgraded their stingray lineup to overseas production,I agree about the quality of the components but from what I hear sterlings&sub's ain't bad for the $$,maybe peavey should 've called theirs a HARTLEY T40! If they did.but how much,marketing,demand, weight, just a thought.

 

[Raw N Low]

I would love to see Peavey T-40 remake with pole humbuckers, pre-amp, and a thrid tone control for blending. Go with a lighter ash body and a maple neck and we got another killer bass.

 

[PortlandBass77]

$200 SX's can't hold a candle to a T-40, so that's right out.

Sire is a better comparison, but there's some holes in that one.

-Component prices:
Sire basses use alot of standard off-the-shelf components. That brings the cost way down. A T-40 has special (and more expensive to produce) bridge, plate, pickups, knobs, etc...

-Demand:
Sire is making a Jazz Bass, one of the most common and well-liked basses in the world. There's a huge demand for well-produced and affordable Jazz bass. Is there really a huge demand for a mostly unknown, very heavy bass with esoteric controls and a p-bass width neck? I don't think so.

-Asking Price
Maybe you could make it at $700, but then you're pricing a new import for $100 higher than the vintage original and that will shrink the potential buyer pool even more.

As I said earlier you could do an import "T-similar" bass for $500 that would actually sell well by, shrinking the body and using off-the-shelf parts and pups, but then it's not really at T-40 anymore.

The appeal of the T-40 is 4-fold as it's a..
...good sounding...
...Vintage American...
...bargain priced...
...absolutely unique...
instrument.

It's why we put up with the massive weight. Take any one or two those away and you massively decrease the already small audience that this bass has. I think an import T-styled bass at the $500 could actually be a seller, but it couldn't be original specs if it were to be successful today.

I don't think it's as complicated as you think, obviously the wood would be different and hopefully it wouldn't be as heavy, but Peavey already has extensive operations overseas, and with the resources that they have I would bet on them being able to produce a foreign made T-40 reissue sold for $500 or less. They would of course have to commission all of the parts themselves as everything on the market is boutique = expensive.

For example: The Peavey Grind Invalid Link Removed is a good comparison to the cost of a T-40 reissue. Peavey would literally be replacing the neck through design (though a neck through T-40 would be pretty cool) and the fancy finish with upgraded electronics and hardware for the T-40. Which I would bet on the cost about leveling out.