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Has anyone "downgraded" from a boutique bass?
- Thread starter Just Wrong
- Start date
Hard to beat a Roscoe Century Standard Plus 5. That's been my #1 for years...until I got a Roscoe Classic Precision. Flats. a pick. Great rock tone. Finger style kills as well. I can't decide which one to play. I may have to just start playing both at gigs.
While vacillating between fancy and basic over the years has been my pattern (first bass was a parts P, second bass was a Warwick), I'll say that the overall take when it comes to any of them is, the quality and consistency are what kept me playing them... not the price tag.
I've played some very well built and reliable "cheap" basses and I've been let down by the overly-spendy "expensive" basses and vice versa.
The one boutique brand I will always desire again is STATUS though. It's my personal favorite of any uber-expensive boutique bass, but at the height of their success, was still coming in vastly cheaper than various other well-known boutique names.
Any time I had to sell one, I was pretty sad to see it go. The same couldn't be said for a number of others which cost me more.
That does bring to mind though, I had a Status Empathy and it was great, but my band sitch called for something more traditional. I ended up with a Fender American Deluxe with an East preamp, which was awesome and I loved it dearly as well (2003 build, probably the best era I've felt in Fenders myself). I wasn't sad to use that versus the Status and ended up moving the Status for a tidy profit.
It wasn't until I later realized that replacing said Status was gonna be very hard in general, let alone for a similar price, whereas I could get that kind of Fender much more frequently.
I've played some very well built and reliable "cheap" basses and I've been let down by the overly-spendy "expensive" basses and vice versa.
The one boutique brand I will always desire again is STATUS though. It's my personal favorite of any uber-expensive boutique bass, but at the height of their success, was still coming in vastly cheaper than various other well-known boutique names.
Any time I had to sell one, I was pretty sad to see it go. The same couldn't be said for a number of others which cost me more.
That does bring to mind though, I had a Status Empathy and it was great, but my band sitch called for something more traditional. I ended up with a Fender American Deluxe with an East preamp, which was awesome and I loved it dearly as well (2003 build, probably the best era I've felt in Fenders myself). I wasn't sad to use that versus the Status and ended up moving the Status for a tidy profit.
It wasn't until I later realized that replacing said Status was gonna be very hard in general, let alone for a similar price, whereas I could get that kind of Fender much more frequently.
Been a lot happier , it was nice to own them back then for show and tell thoughHave been happier or have never been happier?
Me personally I don't think it's all about how much money you spend, it's the player and how the instrument feels to the individual, electronics and such can be changed, I've picked up high end/vintage high end stuff and they played like poopie! also...some played fantastic! I've also played some super cheap basses that played awesome as well, measurements and price tags don't make the bass for me, pick it up, play it, and don't look at the headstock, that's me anyway, everyone marches to their own bass line lol...a Peavey Cirrus might be something to consider if your looking to spend over $1000 or two.
My main bass is a US Spector; I love Spector basses and don't see that changing anytime soon, but I'd have absolutely no problem playing a $500 bass if it did what I required.
I do know that I no longer care for Fender's traditional basses - I still love their sound and look, but I greatly prefer smaller, rounded/curved bodies and active EQ. I think Ibanez Soundgears are great for bang-for-the-buck, and if I had to downgrade, I'd be more than happy with one of their SRs (and probably slap EMGs on them). Though I also like Yamaha's BB series.
(I do have a couple of Spector Euros which I suppose are also downgrades, and I'd definitely have no problem just playing those).
I do know that I no longer care for Fender's traditional basses - I still love their sound and look, but I greatly prefer smaller, rounded/curved bodies and active EQ. I think Ibanez Soundgears are great for bang-for-the-buck, and if I had to downgrade, I'd be more than happy with one of their SRs (and probably slap EMGs on them). Though I also like Yamaha's BB series.
(I do have a couple of Spector Euros which I suppose are also downgrades, and I'd definitely have no problem just playing those).
When it comes down to it? How does it feel in your hands, how does it sound?
There is a reason the HB and Glarry axes are so popular. More ppl can afford them and they perform adequately.
I've never laid my hands on one, so I can not verify my statement.
There is a reason the HB and Glarry axes are so popular. More ppl can afford them and they perform adequately.
I've never laid my hands on one, so I can not verify my statement.
Keep your US Spector and be an happy man ! I would invest myself ($$$) in such and good bass if it would suit my needs and fit the songs I play but, eh, I 'm "vintage" guy so Fender-like design is the way to go for me.
I have a fretless J parts bass that plays like butter. As long as the parts are decent quality, most basses can be set up to play well enough that they get in the same ballpark as the boutiques.
Yes. I had a very fine Status years ago, but got laid off and had to sell it.... Now I have a 300€ Squier Precision (SK) from 1989, and I've been truly astonished how good it sounds and plays...
Not really if you know what you're doing.
If you use an opamp for the buffer, you have the same issue WRT noise as you don't actually need any gain for the onboard pre outside of the EQ boost (if activated in use). If you use a JFET buffer, and build it as a simple follower, then the variability in the individual JFETs will mean you need to spend a lot of time matching them to get consistent performance unit to unit, accept they will all perform differently over quite a wide range, or build a more complex circuit with more gain and NFB to even out the performance. JFETs also aren't cheap any more as they're a niche product.
Using BJTs will have similar, but different, issues.
Because it doesn't sound the same as an individually buffered input preamp and you still have the passive loading of the pots and the capacitance of the cable.
On the other hand, having just a simple buffer means that you can use an opamp with higher current/lower noise because you only have the one opamp (or maybe two, in two pickup basses, one per pickup, if you want them individually buffered) instead of, dunno, four?, in a more complex preamp. Also, distortion and noise concerns in general are lower since there is no gain.
I think he didn't do it just because he didn't do it, not because of any technical concerns.
It's not difficult to get opamps with SNR that the noise is not a significant issue, especially when reference to the self noise of the pickups themselves.
Using a single opamp, irrespective of the model and having 2 PUs with a blend, still brings the loading of the pots, same as using a pedal, but without the C issue. But simply putting the pre in an external case like a pedal doesn't mean it's going to have much better THD/N because manufacturers tend to use the cheapest components they can source that will just do the job well enough. This is not true for all, but it is at the bottom end of the market where most buyers are.
The reason onboard pres are noisy is because they're poorly designed and/or specified as there has been a considerable amount of development in recent years for hi quality analogue opamps for the actual money making applications like mobile devices.
I simply explained what the technical limitations might be.
I've only had batteries die on me due to my own negligence, and that was back in the 80s.....I change batteries as regularly scheduled maintenance and i havent had one die on me onstage in nearly 30 years. I change my strings very often ( i prefer them new) and treat batteries in a similar manner......Having the EQ on my bass gives me hands-on control of tweak on-the-fly adjustments faster and more efficiently than walking back to an amp ( which i dont send to FOH anyway) or stooping down to mess with pedals or my processor ( a Zoom B6 - which I use mainly for compressor, i also have a "fake fretless" patch for those songs, custom generalized shaping patches for specific basses, and I use the B6 as my DI.....yeah, I know: a B6 is overkill for my needs lol)
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I've owned MTD's, Roscoes, a Dingwall, a Ken Smith 6 and an F Bass BN6, all of which would be considered boutique or boutique-adjacent. The only one of those I still have is an MTD 535-24. It is an undeniably great axe, but it only gets about 10% of the play time these days vs. my less expensive instruments. The top 2 of those as far as amount of use are a Bluesman Vintage El Dorado V and a Fender Road Worn P-bass.
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The pendulum does seem to be swinging away from "boutique" and back to "basic" basses. I'll never sell my Roscoe 5. But I do tend to reach for it less these days.
Sean Hurley for example, used to play a Lakland 55-94. Now plays a precision (his signature even) for many gigs.
Pino has mostly played a P for years.
Yet, Jimmy Johnson pretty much exclusively plays his Alembic, even with James Taylor.
Not sure what that means other than play what you like and what works.
Sean Hurley for example, used to play a Lakland 55-94. Now plays a precision (his signature even) for many gigs.
Pino has mostly played a P for years.
Yet, Jimmy Johnson pretty much exclusively plays his Alembic, even with James Taylor.
Not sure what that means other than play what you like and what works.
The more I try out basses in music stores, the more I realize my issue isn't so much "boutique" vs. "production" basses, but that I've grown accustomed to large 6-string necks with the flatter radiuses (20") and shorter string spacings (17.5 mm).
Wonder if I should just get a 4-string Jazz or Precision and get used to that again or a 5-string Stingray (17.5 mm string spacing).
Wonder if I should just get a 4-string Jazz or Precision and get used to that again or a 5-string Stingray (17.5 mm string spacing).
