Has anyone "downgraded" from a boutique bass?

[selowitch]

I had an Alembic Spoiler I just wasn't bonding with so I sold it and bought a Fender Precision Plus (90s) with which I was much happier.

 

[tb-player]

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?

I tried downgrading and it didn't take. I'll always play Elrick, MTD...etc. To me (to ME), they're just better basses.

 

[SteveC]

I tried downgrading and it didn't take. I'll always play Elrick, MTD...etc. To me (to ME), they're just better basses.

Yeah, my G&L - for an affordable bass - is a nice bass, but it isn't a NICE bass like my Roscoe. Or have rolled edges on the neck like a nice jazz, fretwork, etc. all play a part.

 

[oren]

I've got a wonderful Roscoe and some vintage Fenders, but these days on the rare occasion when I play a gig on electric I usually grab the PJ I put together from parts during the pandemic for less than $700. But don't try to talk me out of my carved Hungarian upright!

 

[Lowbrow]

I own a very nice Fender Custom Shop bass, yet my go-to is a Fender MIJ

 

[logdrum]

I am sure if I get to be a Walmart greeter or parking lot attendant retired status, that I will downgrade to one or two bases that will fetch low - 0 $ and will sell off the basses that are worth something. It will be mentally freeing I bet.

Honestly -- I will play any electric bass. Mentally open to any downgrade.
Upright -- there will ne no NBD if this is still playable,
Saxophones. I am happy with mostly my Selmer Paris and Yamaha. It could be considered a downgrade, only because my vintage Selmer Tenor is now priced out of reach, but the modern Yamaha is actually an upgrade.

There are probably a handful of true boutique saxophone makers and the price is up there. Many buy from Taiwan or even China and just refit analogous to a Warmoth build.

 

[GTHintz]

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 you really love that bass you should think hard about selling it. You'll be in the huge club of guys that did it and now pine for it even when they buy the same brand or model. But if you really must sell it try to find the closest bass in terms of feel and specs as you can. If you have a Warwick thumb you're selling try a rock bass for instance. Or if it's a Lakland maybe a sire Marcus Miller bass or metroliner sadowsky would be similar. Best thing is to keep what you got though.

 

[evanrunyon]

I've never liked the look or sound of "nice" basses—I don't know what that says about me, ha, but if it's all perfect, ringing and crystal clear with no junk in the sound it doesn't sound like a proper bass guitar to me.

 

[Antares]

I did, had a bunch of boutique and custom basses and had to sell them off for financial reasons and lack of time to play.

I do love custom/boutique basses but I'm perfectly happy with my Ibanez SR405. I am not nearly a professional level and cant find any thing that i am unable to do with most mid level basses.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

I don't know if my Spector Euro 6LT qualifies as a boutique bass, but it's my main gigging bass. I took it to a gig along with my Fender MIA Standard Precision Bass, and switched back and forth throughout the gig.

Both basses sounded great, and they're setup to play without a lot of effort, so I enjoyed playing them both.

My P-Bass could easily cover any of the local bar gigs that I play.

 

[stringthrough]

I've owned basses from Sadowsky, Lull, Elrick, Ken Smith, Fender Custom Shop, and MIA Steinberger. Most of the basses I own today are in the $700-1,500 range. I've come to this not for financial reasons but as a practical and "sanity" matter. Once set up well there is little difference in playability and sound between a $1,000 and $5,000 bass. I'd rather have a variety of $1,000 basses than 1-2 $3,000 basses.

 

[gillento]

Interesting. One of the basses I'm looking at (but unfortunately can't try) is a Lakland DJ5 made in Indonesia. Do you have any experience with those? Thanks.

No, sorry. All the Laklands I played were early ones from Korea.
All the DJ 4 and 5 strings were great.
The JOs were not my cup of tea, though.

 

[Hounddog409]

Pull up a chair.

I owned two Alembic five-strings, a rare, red-tinted Series shape Spoiler, and a custom green tint Elan Five I had built for myself. Boutique with a Capital B.

They're everything you think they would be. Wood rarely seen anywhere else, and the woodworking and quality are in a class by themselves. They make their own hardware (even their own truss rods) and of course, mil-spec bespoke electronics and pickups. Who else specs stainless steel pickup screws so as not to disturb the magnetics in the pickups? And on and on. Nobody goes to the lengths they go to as far as building a lifetime instrument.

Some years ago, my wife's back problems backed us in the corner of requiring surgery. And as often happens, back surgery doesn't always go as hoped. She couldn't work any more, filed for partial disability, and we lost her income. And as anyone who's been there knows, Uncle Sam takes your money every week or quarter relentlessly, but file for disability and you're just gonna wait.

We were scrambling for money, and it became obvious that selling the two of them would pay our bills for several months (seven, as it turned out), so that was that and off they went. I'd bought them smart, made money on one and broke even on the other, so I'd owned two Alembics for free, couldn't complain about that ! There's no bass that's worth getting behind on bills or short-changing her, and thank goodness I could play those two cards. She comes first, and I'm glad I could do it.

But . . . . now I didn't have a bass in the house. And the play money budget was much tighter.

So I bought (the first 4 string I'd owned in 30-odd years) a Squier James Johnston Jazz Bass, as I was a sucker for that matching head Lake Placid Blue look. Then later I bought the Squier Active Contemporary Jazz 5 and the Squier P5. Amazing axes for the price, I'm in all three for a little over a grand. Wow.

So what did I find out?

While I sounded like a better Me on the Alembics, I still sound like Me on the Squiers. They're solid, stay in tune, they're quiet, and they feel right. And I enjoy playing them possible a little more as I don't have to worry about a little mark or bumping into something with an axe as grand as the Alembics. I've been around long enough to do my own setups and know what it takes to make a good bass solid, so they're fine. And the idea that I would derail our finances or put my wife out for a couple of basses was a non-starter.

It's the enjoyment, the buzz of doin' it that's simply not price dependent. It's just not. I have a ball with them and that's all that really matters to me, and were I still playing out, I would not hesitate to gig with them.

We buy instruments for hundreds of reasons, and a lot of guys ego would probably not allow them to go to Squiers after Alembics. I could, and I'm glad I did.

You dont actually equate mil-spec with quality???? Mil-spec insures conforminity, not quality.

 

[Robert Gross]

The boutique's sit in their cases. I gig with a couple cheap basses I picked up used. Get a used Squire, put a Warmoth neck on it (they have a couple different neck profiles), new pickups (I use Delano) and pay to have someone set it up (I had mine Plek'd). You'll get a great gigging bass for less than $1000.

 

[Steve Park]

This is analogous to how I think about boutique bicycles. I've owned many of the very best custom bikes, but I've sold almost all of them in favor of a couple very nice production bikes that just feel better. I've learned things:
1. Instagram is powerful bait.
2. Custom is just a collection of my own choices, and that is rarely more enjoyable than a high-quality production unit.
3. Not buying the boutique item allows me to feel free to try out the wonderful variety of less than boutique gear.

 

[Dlew919]

We're in a golden age of instrument production. The incredible prices you pay for instruments that are much better quality than they were fifteen or twenty years ago is unbelievable to me. I gig with 300 AUD instruments. My most expensive guitar is a gretsch. Then my squier jazz cv. The gretsch was somewhere round 1000. The squier was 800. I'd put them up against any 2k instrument.
Certainly I'm not disparaging boutique instruments particularly if you love it. But cheaper instruments aren't necessarily poor instruments.

 

[KellyC]

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?

My experience has been that the new Fenders at the Guitar Centers I've visited are so poorly setup that they are virtually unplayable. But they are also very easy to setup yourself (unless you get a vintage with a heal truss rod with no neck-on access), and you can get them playing like a fancy bass within 30 minutes.

 

[apener]

Definitely !
I owned, Alleva-coppolo, alembic mark king, vintage fenders, a 77 stingray, smith, elrick etc etc …
I still own some boutique instruments (fodera, wal)
But
I mainly play "regular" factory made instruments (fender p and j)…

there is nothing inherently better in boutique instruments unless you are looking for their specifics sound wise ergonomics and looks. A simple j-bass can carry you your whole career.

 

[2thAche]

So I'd recommend spending some time with your retailer's setup person and the bass(es) you're interested in. Most shops don't have any of their instruments setup worth a darn, and Guitar Center should be publicly flogged for the consistently awful setup of any bass in stock.

This is true. Moreso if they don't have a pro at the store, find one who can do fretwork and hopefully knows basses, or learn it yourself.

 

[SteveC]

The current set list has 2 songs that I can't cover without a 5 string. The rest are easily done on a 4, or my "Eb" preset on my stomp or a quick D tune of my E string.