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Expensive vs inexpensive basses

#502
I think a coffee table is equally good as an analogy. You can get utility at IKEA. You can get something a little more upscale at Horchow. And you can get something priceless at a Sotheby’s auction.

If you want to tell the world that you can fulfill all of your home decor needs at IKEA, then more power to you. But if you go negative about Horchow or Sotheby’s and the people who buy from them in the process, well then you simply look small and insecure. Utility isn’t the issue because utility is satisfied at every level.
 
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#504
I bought a Sire V7 5 string with Alder body. It was a very nice bass a bit heavy at 10.7 lbs. I played it as my main bass for 3 months then picked up my StingRay 5 HH. I fell in love with the StingRay again. The Sire is an excellent bass but with 7 knobs it is hard to figure out where to dial tones in. A bit heavy as well. Very well built and good sounding. When I went to the open mic jams, many other bassists wanted to check it out. I decided to sell it and priced it at $1 more than I paid for it. I had a guy drive 140 miles to see it and paid me my $1 price over what I paid for it in a heartbeat without the expected dickering and he had played bass for 40 years. You can find low price basses that are great values if you look. You can also find some very, very expensive basses that suck.
 
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#505
TKnights said:
I've played both high end and low end basses in my day and I have to say I'm getting a pretty good sound and feel out of some less costly basses . The latest addition to my arsenal is a very inexpensive bass . An Ibanez GSR200SM . My wife bought this for me for Xmas a couple of years ago . I don't know what she paid for it . I think it was a "Stupid deal of the day" from Musicians Friend . She said she liked the way it looked . So did I for that matter . After disabling that crappy active PhatII EQ (The pickups are actually passive) it's turning out to be a very good bass . The construction is solid and it feels and sounds great . I find myself using it more often than my other 4s . Furthermore , it came out of the box completely set up . The action and the intonation were on the mark . So you can keep your Foderas , Alembics , etc . I'm happy .
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Most active basses have passive pickups.
 
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#507
Mustang Surly said:
As with most things, the closer you get to the really pricey stuff, the more you have to spend for each additional increment of "better". So, while it may not be quite as good as the the super-pricey stuff, moderately-priced stuff it is WAY less expensive.

Based on this assumption, I stick with moderately-priced gear. As a rule, I've found that the materials used in particular tend to be superior to that used for the cheap stuff (though, with CNC machining, the workmanship on cheap stuff is generally far better than it was "back in the old days").

Everyone else is free to do as they please.
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I started a thread a few years ago asking at what price point does "bang for the buck" start to diminish significantly. I think the consensus was somewhere in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. Almost all my basses fall well above that, but I still play my Fenders.
InternetAlias said:
An active pickup is literally just an underwound passive pickup with a strong preamp 4 inches closer. Though the major difference would be that active pickups have a preamp per pickup which entirely changes how the pickups' outputs mix if you have more than one pickup.
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Alrighty then.
 
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#508
I have a 2nd cheap stingray clone / faker. This is an SX stingray. The original neck was badly s curved and the original preamp was bad, so they got replaced. Then this month I replaced the original pickup and put in an Audere 4 band preamp. With the balance sweep I can dial between the front and back coil or in the middle it is a parallel humbucker. OMG … this bass rocks now. On single coil it kicks butt and it has a nasty snarl. The pics below show the old preamp and pickup. I think the body is solid Elm and the neck is maple. The original neck had 21 frets the current neck has 20 so the bridge had to be moved back 1/2". The neck is an sx replacement neck, the body and tuners are original, as is the pickguard, and the neck plate, so it is now a frankensteined parts bass that rocks. It has a killer low B.

sxmm02.jpg


sxmm04.jpg
 
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#509
What I need to do is put some pics on this thread. I can put photos of ALL my Bassaxes on here; did you guys know I only own ONE expensive Bassaxe and at present it is rubbish? Fender Precision Bass Special; only works with my ancient Laney RBW300 Richter series amp. On my Roland Cube 60XL and 120XL amps it sounds sterile and rattles no matter HOW I try to set it up. Could be 1000 GBP down the gurgler...
 
#510
I don't have any expensive basses as I'm a lefty and haven't found a music shop yet that carries any (I need to play before I buy). I have 2 Ibanez Soundgears (SR-300L & SR-500L) that I used to gig with regularly. I now have a '92 MIJ '62 Reissue Jazz Bass (<$600) that plays and sounds awesome.
 
#513
DigitalMan said:
I think a coffee table is equally good as an analogy. You can get utility at IKEA. You can get something a little more upscale at Horchow. And you can get something priceless at a Sotheby’s auction.

If you want to tell the world that you can fulfill all of your home decor needs at IKEA, then more power to you. But if you go negative about Horchow or Sotheby’s and the people who buy from them in the process, well then you simply look small and insecure. Utility isn’t the issue because utility is satisfied at every level.
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You nailed it. I have no problem with someone who wants to fix up their $50 yard sale bass and play it. The problem is when they pass judgment on anyone who wants to have an expensive bass. Playing a cheap bass doesn't make you any more special than playing an expensive bass.

Funny how I never see threads from the people with expensive basses disrespecting the people who have cheap basses.

homer thinking.jpg
 
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#518
darkinners said:
I think both works, I believe we all came from a cheap affordable bass, did we despise that bass?
No, that bass probably the most important bass to you or you spent the most time with, learning the scale, learning how to do ghost notes, slap the poopie out of that bass.

Do expensive bass better? Sometimes even most of the time.
I have mostly mid or top dollar basses and guitars now, I don't think I have anything cheaper than $1000.

That's how it is, you were young and piss poor. You'd be super excited with the Squire bass your mom got you for X'mas, you don't even want to sleep. You just stay at night and learn all the songs you love from your favourite band.
As we grow older, have a nicer jobs. We want something nicer, that's only natural.
Some people buy a Rolex watch, some people buy a Mercedes
But yeah Citizen and Prius can both do the job nicely.
We just happens to buy a Fodera or Sadowsky instead of those.
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Brilliant.
 

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