Hey guys, I know it's not really insanity and that it all comes down to personal preference and playability. I'm mostly curious to see if any of you guys out there have downgraded from high end boutique basses to lesser, perhaps production instruments. Not for monetary reasons! But for tone, playability and comfort!
Here are my examples:
Thoughts?
No more thoughts than the famous ones out there with signatures: While on tour, what do you think Brian May will think if anything happend to his guitar, which of there are ONE only in the world? Same with Eric Johnsons 1954 strats? That's exactly why they make copies, signature series. If someone stole, or something happend to my Dingwall it would be a chore or majour dough to a) replace it (ask insurance companies what they think!) b) with the exact same model c) to the same price.
Instead of waiting forever (?) for a new Dingwall, I decided to pull the plug on the new fanned fret industry manufactured ones, and bought an LTD instead. It's somewhere between a Dingwall and a Ibanez. I want to
a) put away my bass with a thump, and not having to think twice if I bump it, or dent it.
b) it's a TOOL not a conversation piece, or artwork that hangs on the wall.
c) They do - actually - play and sound the same. Basically.
d) Don't want to guard and treat it like china all of the time.
There are things in which the boutique manufacturers haven't fixed at all anyway. Neck dive, dead spots. I am even that picky so that if I ordered one from Warmoth, AllParst, or USA Custom Guitars, I wouldn't be able to assemble one like it afterwards, again, not exactly the same way. There is more of a chance, that I can go into any music store pick one off the shelf and get a more closer one to the one that I a) lost b) got stolen or else. Eric Johnson, Pat Metheny have stated this in interviews as well as Steve Morse, that they are not that picky and paranoid about something happen to their guitars anymore. They can pull off their tricks just as well. And - the most important thing - sound the same. Chances are that the insurance company will pay something that is easy to attain through normal music stores.
C'mon it's not a Stradivarius. However, there's a caveat to this. "Boutique" basses and we're discussing upright acoustic ones, that surpasses the price of equivalent electrics ten times over. At least. They have to always take care, and few of them can afford more than one at a time. I know one friend of mine, who traveled BY TRAIN only from Sweden to Berlin, just to have his bass fixed, something in the neck that needs to be done every 20 years. Not a neck reset, but something esoteric. By that "luthier" or builder. It costs him some 4.500 USD (yes, no spell error) plus the travel and overnight stay. He still has that bass, he doesn't want to ship it anywhere, unless it "ships" with him too....
There's so much you can do on your own these days, with a regular stock - industry manufactured - run of a mill bass. You can change out pickups, have it plekked if the frets arent up your alley, re-finish, oiling/was the neck, change out tuners, so in the end it will pretty much turn up something unique. And chances are greater that they're using stock hardware that is easy replacable. Now, with most if Dingwall models, there's no 3rd party replacement pickups that you can replace, due to their rounded design. I still love/like Dingwalls, but as I think they're too precious they're not out "touring" or gigging with me, they're studio ones. Even the Combustion.
There's only so much you can do to any bass. Building it. It's not rocket science. At some point there's not that much you can better it, but dress it up in gold, or doing bling (inlays and stuff) and letting the "carpenters delight" run galore. After a certain point it starts to be something else. Brand name mostly. How about this one then, the TORUN ?
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24 Karat gold, sprayed with and it will flake off in no time. You have to cough up 8.499 USD. They have one too, with ALL of it sprayed in gold plating... guess at which price, and for what purpose? Buck neck dive? buck dead spots? Faraday cage when struck by lightning?
Go figure. At one point it turns to something else. I am all game with those things too. If someone wants to brag they'll brag. Alembic started the whole bag of boutique but today all manufacturers has advanced, stolen, and borrowed ideas from everyone, so it's not so much of a big deal anymore.
