You answered a lot of questions I didn't ask. You said $2000 is more than what six people make and suggested a $700 bass is better. That's what I'm not understanding. How is a $700 bass an option at all?
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Ernie Ball may as well be boutique now.
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
This is merely opinion. I've owned 3 ibanez's. One being over $1,000 (SR885) and it was no where near as good as my old Musicman.
You forgot to mention the fact that new Stingrays (and other EBMM instruments) don't actually cost $2000 in Europe, but close to $2900 (for the 4-string single H Stingray Special).
A new Fender Professional bass costs around $2000.
There's this concept of saving money. But saving 700e and saving 2000e isn't the same thing. So let's make it 700e instead. If you earn 300e every month and put aside 50e to buy the instrument, you'll have it in 14 months. With a 2000e instrument, that'd be 40 months.
However, the kicker is that 300e basically only covers the bills. That makes you kind of poor, so you'll have to do with an used 100e instrument. That's just how the market is.
So in order to even buy a 700e instrument, you'd need above average earnings. Let's say you earn 450e which leaves you with a bit of leeway - maybe you still can't put aside 100e, but 70 could be done. So that's 10 months. In less than a year, you can have your instrument. People with higher salaries can of course afford American made instruments, but even then you'd have to ask yourself if that's still worth it, because their own labor is worth less than American. Here, Japanese and Korean instruments are considered to be the best compromise as far as factory made instruments go. Their QC is decent and the price is still not too restrictive if you plan to save up for a (relative to the market) high end instrument.
I hope I have answered the question you asked this time. You really don't just straight up buy a decent instrument in Serbia. You save for months, if you have at least 50% above average earnings.
Yeah, good point. That's even more of an insane thing.
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Many things are subjective, though. People pay thousands of dollars for a '51 P replica, which has a pickup that you can damage by merely anchoring your fingers on it, a slab body that's not very comfortable, and a bridge that can't even set intonation properly. To different people, the concept of value of an instrument is different.
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I bought a Stingray HH right before the dreaded increase. Was it worth the price? Yes. Is it worth the increased price? No.
I agree that even good electronics used on a bass are very inexpensive to manufacture. However, while I get the point you are making, the android phone analogy doesn't really hold up because smartphones are sold as loss leaders to capture a recurring revenue stream.
It's not just Ernie Ball! Look at American Fender and their new price hikes! Or the cost of a Gibson Thunderbird. Why buy either when Sandburg, Nash and so many others are building higher quality at the same prices?
I'll stick with the foreign builders, the fit and finish of my Epiphone far exceeds that ony Gibson; at a third of the price.
Well, you're actually quite right on that point. However, even if I double the price of the smartphone (let's say you pay $200 for the smartphone that now costs $100), can you seriously tell me that it costs MORE MONEY to produce a MM pickup + preamp + pots to go with it then it costs to produce a whole smartphone with all the tiny plastic and metal parts as well as all the electronic components that often necessarily have really low tolerances in order for them to work at all? I see no chance in hell that a bit of plastic, wire, magnets and extremely simple electronics are worth well over that smartphone, even with the price doubled.
300-400e? Wow, I definitely need to plan a trip to Serbia to buy some handmade boutique basses!Well, I guess, if you live in the USA. I cannot relate to that at all, because $2000 would be more than 6 average salaries in SerbiaNo instrument is worth all earnings of half the year of one's life. Considering how people are paid in these parts, a handmade boutique bass goes for about 300-400e at the low end.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Really depends. I have two main basses. One I bought used about 33 years ago, the other I bought new about 15. I don't intend to sell either unless/until I stop playing, which hopefully will be another two decades. With that in mind, a couple of hundred dollars doesn't mean much.
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This guy makes boutique basses, through and through, for 1000-2000 euros. They are top notch quality. However, on the used market, they sometimes go for as low as 300-400e because people around here hardly trust local builders. Hell, all sorts of handmade stuff goes for ridiculously cheap just because people are poor and need to get rid of them to pay debts.
They go for cheap because handmade boutique instruments hold no value in the used market. It's the same thing here in Croatia.
For comparison:
Used Stingray and used USA Fender (Standard) go around $1100 USD (or less, or a bit more for 5 string versions, etc. Classic Stingrays go for more, Fenders tend to go for more). Get them new however, and you'll be paying double or more.
It's not helping that most things that are ordered from WoodGuerilla are extremely specific things so selling them is kind of hard. It's not like WG makes jazz and p bass copies that are just of exceptional quality, so that people would be attracted to that instead. They make very "weird" but also very boutique looking instruments, and you know how it is in those parts, the fender(ish) kind of look is still extremely prevalent (that includes MM)
Do you think there should be cheaper models, or that current models should be cheaper?
It's not helping that most things that are ordered from WoodGuerilla are extremely specific things so selling them is kind of hard. It's not like WG makes jazz and p bass copies that are just of exceptional quality, so that people would be attracted to that instead. They make very "weird" but also very boutique looking instruments, and you know how it is in those parts, the fender(ish) kind of look is still extremely prevalent (that includes MM)
Absolutely true (even though I can't stand the look of those coffee table basses, so I guess I'm guilty too lol). Anyways, even Fender-like custom made boutique hand made instruments will lose their value a lot (I know mine did when I was selling it).
Do mind however, there aren't many of them. Our boutique market is all but dead. If you'd plan to come pick one up you'd have to see an ad for it, contact the person and then make the deal. The last WG bass that was sold was sold for about 450 euros. It was for sale for 3 weeks at that price. As I said, 450 euros is already 50% above the average salary in Serbia, most people won't be able to afford it, so the price can drop even further in some cases.
There are currently two WoodGuerilla basses for sale in Serbia:
KupujemProdajem | Woodguerilla
KupujemProdajem | WoodGuerilla ABAZ 5
They are still keeping a relatively high price, and it will remain for some time, then it will keep dropping until somebody buys them for 400-500e at the max. The fretless might drop as low as 300e as basically nobody plays fretless in Serbia.
Thanks for the guidance. I may PM you for more advice on that at some point.
