Highly Modified Does Not Equate To Higher Prices

[Nakoatron]

Depends on the bass and the mods. the import dingwall basses are fantastic instruments but the stock hardware is lacking, if I can score one upgraded with babicz bridges and hipshot tuners I’m definitely willing to pay a bit more, and did, to have those upgrades.

 

[dave64o]

I have a HEAVILY modified SX Jazz bass, as in I spent about 4X-5X the original cost of the bass in upgrades and labor. I know I wouldn’t get much more than the original cost of the bass if I sold it whole. However, I could probably get about 2/3 of the total cost back by parting out the pickups, preamp, tuners, and bridge. Then I’d just throw out the rest of it, including the string tree, bone nut, pickguard, and strap locks that I put on it.

Thankfully I love how it turned out and have no interest in selling it or parting it out. It won’t replace my Stingray or L-2500 (or, hopefully, the new-to-me Stingray Special that I’m picking up in about 2 hours ), but I’m using it more and more these days. My band loves how it fits into our mix, too.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Sure. If you put $150 pickups in there etc, that seems very fair. Ultimately the buyer can part out the bass and sell, I've done it with loaded bodies bought here. This isn't about profit that being said, it's just recouping a small fraction of your original cost.

Say I bought the instrument new for $1000 and upgrades cost me $300, asking $900 is not pushing it, in my opinion.

In the same way, if I bought a beater for $150 and put $150 into it, asking $200 is also not pushing it.

That said in the above scenarios of me selling I would include original parts and/or put the instrument back to stock and include the new parts.

Just my 2c though.

I was looking at: $150 bass + $100 fretwork (...and trust me, not unheard of when addressing a $150 bass) + $75 (decent used P pick-up) = $325.

Riis

 

[truand85]

I was looking at: $150 bass + $100 fretwork (...and trust me, not unheard of when addressing a $150 bass) + $75 (decent used P pick-up) = $325.

Riis

If you're a professional and that's backed with warranty, $325 is fair. Otherwise if selling used, I wouldn't ask more than $220, but personally knowing how $150 basses come out of the factory I would have no problem at all paying $70 extra considering the frets are perfect and the pickup is much nicer.

 

[dkelley]

It really is too bad that highly modified often gets less than a pure original. It's like this with many things, cars also. I personally have never understood why it's so consistently like this.

But it seems to be the way it is, so just remember that customizing something is done for you, the player, not for resale. It's often a good idea, if possible, to keep the stock parts and swap them back in before selling, and then sell the custom parts separately for more money, or keep the custom parts for another use.

 

[sonojono]

I disagree. If I spend $150 on a cheap bass, then have the frets dressed

I wouldn’t call that a modification. I would call that a correction

The rest is a modification of its original content imo

 

[ToneMonkey]

If I’m buying used (which I don’t often do), I want it to be dead stock and show pride of ownership. Taking care of stuff is a thing.

I have a good friend who is always buying MIM Fenders, which are very serviceable instruments, and plowing hundreds of dollars of upgrades into them. He’d be better off paying up for a top quality instrument and leaving it dead stock.

 

[GrooveTheory]

I could upgrade a Honda Civic to my hearts content… and it might end up being great car…unlike no other out there… but it’s still not a Porsche et al, no matter how much money I put into it. Not only will it probably not withstand the test of time, but the market for it would be very small.

 

[Texican]

The seller calls them upgrades. But the real word is modified. In general basses are not investments. But as a rule when I make a change I keep the old parts so can make it whole. Bottom line a $500 bass plus $500 mods is worth $350 and without the mods it’s worth $500. Partscasters are never worth the sum of their parts. I make mods. But I do it for my use only.

So a Squier Classic Vibe with Hipshot tuners CTS pots, and Fralin pickups is worth substantially less than the same bass with the crappy self destructing tuners and “bleh” pickups and pots?

The problem with threads like this is that their are a bajillion different scenarios to consider, but we always just think of one and then form an opinion that we treat as absolute.

 

[sethlow3]

Wait a minute… people are charging more just because a bass had its frets dressed? I guess I should start documenting every setup I get and charge extra from now on.

Really? Wow…absolutely ridiculous

 

[tbz]

One of the few exceptions to this rule: non-USA Spectors and preamps.

Replacing a Tone Pump or OBP pre in a Spector euro, with a Haz 9v will generally get you 80%+ of the haz price ($600 now iirc) in additional resale. If you replace a Tone Pump with a SNC haz clone you’ll generally get higher resale as well.

Outside of that. Yeah. They’re only improvements to the original owner and or a very niche buyer. To everyone else they’re modifications. Which always detract from resale.

 

[GrooveTheory]

So a Squier Classic Vibe with Hipshot tuners CTS pots, and Fralin pickups is worth substantially less than the same bass with the crappy self destructing tuners and “bleh” pickups and pots?

The problem with threads like this is that their are a bajillion different scenarios to consider, but we always just think of one and then form an opinion that we treat as absolute.

…. not at all trying to start something here personally…just elaborating on the perspective… but… was the “Squier Classic Vibe with Hipshot tuners CTS pots, and Fralin pickups” constructed by the same methods, same qc, does it have the same woods, same cuts of wood, same truss, nut/cut, alignments, and were the “mods”’installed by someone with experience, or just slapped on there with questionable soldering and stripped screws etc? Point is there are a lot of “pieces” and checks that go into an instrument, it’s not just about the physical shape of an instrument, decal on the headstock, and slapping items on wood. All instruments (even “high end”) instruments aren’t created equal.

 

[Grinderman]

Just because someone installed beige wall-to-wall carpet and gold plated bathroom fixtures in their house then they list it on the market for sale doesn't mean it should be assumed buyers will offer more for the house.

How much buyers will offer for a property depends on the size, overall condition, the location of the property and supply and demand in the market.

//Besides the point that real estate can be and generally is an investment, or at least a hedge, if you're doing it right. Bass guitars, broadly speaking? Not so much.

 

[cataract]

I get where OP is coming from, if the seller is pricing their modified instrument to boutique level pricing I would agree, but I see reasonably higher priced used basses that have been modified for sale here all the time & don’t personally get upset at the seller’s asking price, or think they’re deluded in putting it up for more than it would cost dead stock.
One fair example would be the Jazz bass up for grabs with an Alembic preamp & pickups installed— to see that for sale priced @ $500 would be insane.
Ultimately the whole scenario is between the seller & any potentially interested buyer and having an opinion about it is fine but really it’s none of our business what anyone would be willing to pay for what they want. Right?

 

[Texican]

…. not at all trying to start something here personally…just elaborating on the perspective… but… was the “Squier Classic Vibe with Hipshot tuners CTS pots, and Fralin pickups” constructed by the same methods, same qc, does it have the same woods, same cuts of wood, same truss, nut/cut, alignments, and were the “mods”’installed by someone with experience, or just slapped on there with questionable soldering and stripped screws etc? Point is there are a lot of “pieces” and checks that go into an instrument, it’s not just about the physical shape of an instrument, decal on the headstock, and slapping items on wood. All instruments (even “high end”) instruments are created equal.

My point (and what I was replying to specifically) was that I don’t think having stock Squier parts will get you substantially more resale than the same cheap bass with “industry favorites” installed. You aren’t going to lose a third of the resale with the upgrades I referenced. Note that I didn’t say it was worth MORE… just not substantially less either.

Now if your “upgrade” was that you chiseled a giant hole in the body to install a Filtertron in the mudbucker position, then yeah, good luck finding a buyer.

 

[whero]

I learned that years ago.

If you take a $350.00 bass.
Drop in $275.00 pickups.
Install a $300.00 preamp.
It does not equate to a $925.00 resale value.

And realistically,one should never expect it.

Totally agree, although I've seen a lot of people who seem to think it should be. But my question is: is it possible to work out a fair value, e.g. $350 bass now used (say, $250), pickups and preamp depreciated at around 50% (say, $135 and $150 respectively) so total $535? Or is it worth less than the original $350 paid because it's used, and/or "messed about with"?

So, hypothetically & for sake of argument, you’re telling me that if I were to post my very freshly modified Classic Vibe P in the classifieds for $600 (new EMG GZRs + new gold anodized pickguard + new Hipshot Kickass bridge + new DR Sunbeams) you wouldn’t be interested in buying? Absolutely NO ONE would be at all interested?
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I'm sure plenty of people would be interested, but you shouldn't be expecting the price of a new Squier CV P plus what you paid for pickups and bridge (BTW, I am not paying one cent for someone replacing strings or a pickguard).

 

[Deleted member 365158]

I modify for personal reasons but have sold one “highly modified” bass. I charged for the cost of the original bass and the parts involved for the mod. I did not charge for the time involved…..
I probably lost some money on it but the person who bought it loves it. Would they have loved it before the mods? Maybe… but it didn’t sound or look as good pre modded.
Did the modding turn the bass into a very expensive bass? No, it turned a<$80 Harley Benton shorty p bass into a <$200 Harley Benton shorty kick butt P bass+!!!

 

[jamro217]

Does a '94 Ford Thunderbird increase in value by thousands of dollars because you put in a new engine, transmission, exhaust system, catalytic converter, radiator and five sensors? No. It just looks like a rebuilt, worn out, run of the mill Ford from the '90's. Same with basses.

 

[Grinderman]

Does a '94 Ford Thunderbird increase in value by thousands of dollars because you put in a new engine, transmission, exhaust system, catalytic converter, radiator and five sensors? No. It just looks like a rebuilt, worn out, run of the mill Ford from the '90's. Same with basses.

If 9 were 6...

You could sell it and buy a nice '64 Fender Gibson Thunderbird, maybe two.

 

[jamro217]

If 9 were 6...

You could sell it and buy a nice '64 Fender, maybe two.

Yeah, but if you included the original parts it would cost $2500 for shipping.