Has anyone "downgraded" from a boutique bass?

[alembicbones]

While I'm by no means a player that needs a boutique bass, I'm fully down with them. I've owned my custom Alembic for some 20 years now and it is a joy to play. No other bass quite sounds like it. The Fodera I picked up a year ago is a true work of art. The tone is rich and very satisfying. I don't think I'll be downgrading anytime soon.

Bones

 

[Kerem Koseoglu]

I decided to part ways with my Fodera due to the anxiety of carrying such a high-value instrument around. Nowadays, I regularly play a P, PJ, and J bass, and their combined price is roughly equivalent to that of the Fodera, I believe. Plus, they are financially replaceable in case of any unfortunate event.

That doesn't feel like a "downgrade" either. They all play and sound great!

 

[c-ba55]

Boutique basses are not just ordinary but nicer (well, some are - like various makers of Super J) but typically trying to be something pretty specific and out of the ordinary. So that may or may not work for you if you weren't looking for exactly that thing. When I was younger and looking for my first nice bass, I went through a few that were "supposed to be good" but they didn't really fit me.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

I recently had to put my boutique bass for sale due to an unforeseen financial situation. It's my sole bass, so my intention is to grab a cheaper bass in the US$1,500 range when it sells.

I went to the store today to try some basses and came away disappointed... Basses I happily owned years ago seemed unplayable. 7.25-inch and 9.5-inch radiuses felt odd and uncomfortable. Action and string height felt miles apart from my bass's neck relief of 0.010" and string height of 2/32. Strings were stiff. The Fender Jazz Ultra's preamp sounded metallic and sterile.

I guess a lot of these issues could be fixed with a proper setup, but I don't know. I guess I've been spoiled.

Has anyone "downgraded" from a boutique bass? How was your experience?

Well you don’t have to struggle with an onboard preamp if you use a passive bass.
Tone in a bass primarily comes from pickup type and location and from its strings; devi darkly from the wood species of us made of and, maybe, from the kind of body/neck joint it has been provided with.
A good preamp is not designed to change the bass’ sound; if the bass’ tone is good without a preamp, it should also be good with a preamp.
No onboard preamp? Fine, you have the one on the amp.
There are Fender passive P-basses which have a stellar tone, whereas I found many so-called boutique basses to sound rather anonymous.
Then, concerning action, fretboard radius etc. .. well my cheap basses are well set up; I had an Elrick bass some time ago; it was well set up as well.
I swapped if for a Fender Am. Ultra P-bass.
You know what? The Elrick was a lighter instrument, with a flatter fretboard radius but the Ultra’s neck is much more playable, the two onboard preamps did both their job but the Fender’s pickups (type and position counts a lot) sounded better, sweeter and, in the end, the guy who took my Elrick was happy and I was happy too.

Here is the only tune I te order using that Ultra bass:

Jazz & Funk in C minor ..

Sounds ok IMO (preamp was off).

 

[Fathand]

Yup, during my dashing GAS days a few years back I had a few customs that could be labelled "boutique" basses and a couple of production line instruments that would be priced ridiculously high nowadays (Music Man, Modulus) - in the end they got traded or sold, and actually a friend has a few of them. He got good dealing skills.

I do have one Warwick masterbilt now (a bargain grab from Thomann's used/showroom sales), but otherwise all my basses are valued under 500€. One of them is my main gigging bass.

I never gigged the boutique basses bac in the day (too expensive / hassle / stress to look after them at gigs) and in the end they were decorative items for just home use, which is the reason why I got rid of them in the end. Did get to play and own some awesome instruments though, which was nice.

 

[Berrolo]

Not me but my father had a Jerzy Drozd some years ago and a Marleaux custom, now we have a Marleaux betra for him and me two lakland dj 4 and 5, i´m not sure if they sounds better than Jerzy or what but we are more happy to play them. I think boutique market it is amazing but it is not for every player.

I dreamt with a fodera several times or sadowysky but i know i will not feel confortable to carry it to every gig, so i prefer "less" quality" but could go with it everywhere, few months ago i bought a sire v7 just in case heheheh

 

[Rib 13]

Yes......there's something to be said about not gingerly playing an instrument in fear of dings/ scratches or having blood pressure rise everytime somebody walks by the bass sitting in a stand on stage

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Sire, Ibanez, and MTD Kingston might be worth a look for you if you desire another 6 string.



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[Charlie Tuna]

I recently had to put my boutique bass for sale due to an unforeseen financial situation. It's my sole bass, so my intention is to grab a cheaper bass in the US$1,500 range when it sells.

I went to the store today to try some basses and came away disappointed... Basses I happily owned years ago seemed unplayable. 7.25-inch and 9.5-inch radiuses felt odd and uncomfortable. Action and string height felt miles apart from my bass's neck relief of 0.010" and string height of 2/32. Strings were stiff. The Fender Jazz Ultra's preamp sounded metallic and sterile.

I guess a lot of these issues could be fixed with a proper setup, but I don't know. I guess I've been spoiled.

Has anyone "downgraded" from a boutique bass? How was your experience?

If a bass is set up poorly it's going to feel like . I had to go from my Roscoe to another bass due to relocation and CITES rules on Brazilian RW. I'm come to love my P-bass with TI flats. Fenders just sound right because we've heard them for so long. Passives also work great with pedals so that is where the fun is for me now that the bass is a non-thought. GL with the "downgrade"

 

[HMZ]

I have had Sadowsky, Modulus, Musicman but I always come back to Fenders. I even have a Player series P bass that I love.

 

[kerrycares]

I went from Fodera 5 string basses to Fender Marcus Miller 5 , Sadowsky UV70 5 string basses and Bassmods 5 string basses.
Same 70’s Jazz bass tone at a fraction of the price.

 

[Indiana Mike]

I’ve not stepped down from boutique, but from ones such as a Stingray, bongo, MIA fender etc…. Sold them all during a divorce and bought a squier P and a J.

I’m now back the other way.

 

[brocco]

I'm cheap yes I do have my older EBMM's Stingray5 Bongo5 Sterling5 Sterling4 play the 5's at church mostly.
On gigs I play a Fullerton Fallout ( plays like 32" scale ) Sire U5 (the best $500 bass out there). I just bought 2 Squier Sonic Precision's. 1) Two tone Sunburst I did install the Geezer PU. 2) Limited Edition Lime Green on Fender's web site for $175. I like the Ceramic pu in this one. Both are very good quality, very good players, 1.5 neck and for $200 a steal!

 

[el murdoque]

It depends, really. I can offer the following thoughts on the topic:

FSO's are a league of their own. The design was meant to be simple from the start. Leo designed the P and J basses as an alternative to the double bass that can be easily mass produced and therefore is much cheaper.
I know a guy who bought a $400 strat from the "Vintage" brand more or less for fun - but he ended up selling his MiA strat a year later because he did not touch it any more. There are many of these tales. Vintage Japanese knockoff FSOs sold for $250-350 all through the nineties and early 2000s, and many of them easily rivaled the Fenders of that era - and several players owned their US made counterpart before, but played these exclusively.

I myself bought an Ibanez that retailed at $1200 which was less than half the price of the cheapest bass I owned at that moment, but it became my main player for several years.

However.
All of the above happened by choice. "This cheap thing plays so well, I sold my super expensive one because I don't play it any more" is one form of downgrade, "I had to sell my boutique instrument for financial reasons and have to make do with a cheaper model" is another.
The mind set can be drastically different here. It is the difference between "I want to" and "I have to".

I spent some time searching for a bass that does not cost boutique money (sub 2k preferred), so I have a backup for my main player and maybe something that does not scream "I cost more than your car" at people when you're not playing white collar events. I wanted something cheap that I enjoy playing just as much as I enjoy playing my main bass. I'm kind of still in that process.

What I found was that there is a niche market for what has been the cutting edge ultra boutique market in the 90s. Some of those brands don't exist any more, and some of them never made it on the global market and are only known locally.
In my case, I look at German builders - and there are quite a few really good basses from 25 years ago that have been loved and played and carry their scars, but will sell for less than 1500. They are handmade builds that were either customs or came out in tiny series.
Brands like Basslab, Bassart, Bassline, Eyb, Hotwire, Magnus ... just to name a few. I'm quite sure every western country has such a list.
Their ideas from the 90's really still work for today and most of them are fantastic instruments that are hard to sell for what they should be worth and so they sell for what people are willing to pay.

 

[iTzPrime]

I keep my 5 string customer 32 inch Torillo bass.
For 4 string, I use an Ibanez SR and am fully happy, but I prefer the Torillo. it sound extraordinary and is just great.

 

[BWB]

You'll notice the most common response is a variant of "Yeah, went back to Fender ...."

I'm a Fender believer, despite mostly playing a Lakland currently.

 

[Al Rivera]

Get over yourself,it's just music and the bass is merely the tool.....

 

[Boneless]

Well you don’t have to struggle with an onboard preamp if you use a passive bass.
Tone in a bass primarily comes from pickup type and location and from its strings; devi darkly from the wood species of us made of and, maybe, from the kind of body/neck joint it has been provided with.
A good preamp is not designed to change the bass’ sound; if the bass’ tone is good without a preamp, it should also be good with a preamp.

It depends really. For instance, I'm dead against "transparent" preamps. What purpose do they serve? The amp is bound to have a better, cleaner EQ anyway. Or even a stompbox. I see no utility whatsoever in having just a regular "onboard EQ". On the other hand, a preamp that actually makes use of the active electronics to do something that you couldn't do without active electronics (a proper blend between pickups, passive tone controls that do not interact with each other, even a crossover maybe to get the lows from a pickup and the highs from another one while taking care of the phase interaction in the mids, etc.) or a preamp that actually provides a "tone" (no true flat setting, some light saturation that feels like compression, etc.) now that's something I approve of.

 

[roccobass]

Downgraded? Ah, how do I answer this?

IMO, the moniker of “boutique instrument ” applies to the custom, rare and or the specialized made to order to you from a particular maker.

The two that I used to own that would fall under these categories, were a prototype Status and a Birdsong. Both were beautiful but both of which I ended up selling. I just couldn’t warm up to them.

I am currently happily playing 3 modified Fender Jazzes. I guess you could say I say I specialized them, but they’re not boutique. I started with a Fender (and never really left) and ergonomically, they are the most comfortable to me.

Maybe I haven’t played the “right” boutique, but that’s ok with me. I wouldn’t say I downgraded. Mine get the sound I want. I’m sure they’re are exceptional boutique ones out there. To each their one!

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

It depends really. For instance, I'm dead against "transparent" preamps. What purpose do they serve? The amp is bound to have a better, cleaner EQ anyway. Or even a stompbox. I see no utility whatsoever in having just a regular "onboard EQ". On the other hand, a preamp that actually makes use of the active electronics to do something that you couldn't do without active electronics (a proper blend between pickups, passive tone controls that do not interact with each other, even a crossover maybe to get the lows from a pickup and the highs from another one while taking care of the phase interaction in the mids, etc.) or a preamp that actually provides a "tone" (no true flat setting, some light saturation that feels like compression, etc.) now that's something I approve of.

Proper blend between pickups and tone control .. for those you don’t need boutique basses with which you pay for high-grade woods and, supposedly, top notch workmanship.
Moreover you can always buy a nice sounding external preamp, even in the form of a pedal, such as the latest one from Ampeg, and pair it with your otherwise conventional P-bass.
In my opinion, unless one is specialised in using the instrument as a sort of modern harp with tons of tapping, chords etc. (but it is no longer a bass, and tunes are generally boring containing only one voice), with a correctly set-up run-of-the-mill bass, the OP will not feel deprived of his/her former instrument provided that a sufficient amount time is left for a smooth transition and get reacquainted with a simple (but otherwise effective under all respects) instrument.