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How's the bass selection in your town?

#41
In the City of Philadelphia, it's surprisingly weak for basses. There's a Sam Ash in the Northeast section of the city, but the only good new instrument shop in Center City moved across the river to NJ several years ago, and another cool shop in the Northeast section closed. And many of us are still mourning the closing of Bass Specialties, which was just outside the city.

We do have a few cool instrument shops, though they're all much better for guitar than bass. For used, Bluebond Guitars is good, and the DiPinto company shop is fantastic for DiPintos (of course) and has cool used and vintage stuff as well. Then there's Roxy Guitar, which is an amazing boutique guitar shop in the Roxborough neighborhood, but unfortunately he doesn't stock many basses. The few he has are good/great, but it's very few.

The metro area has several GC and Sam Ash shops, plus a local chain called George's that focuses on Fender and Ibanez. For basses, none is fantastic, but the GC in Wilmington, DE is great as GCs go. My favorite is West Chester Music, but it's about 45 minutes from the city.
 
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#42
at a local L&Mcq store (Canada's big box store) they have 2 Fodera basses @ $7100 & $15,800 , been there for a few years now...they'll never sell IMHO...stores are going to stock what sells and what the market can afford or will pay
....I'd have to be hit by lightning, like in a Disney movie, and acquire alllllll of Geddy's, Jaco's & John Paul Jones' skills and abilities before I'd pay that kind of cash for a bass....
the usual suspects of Yammy, Ibby, Epiphone plus Fender/Squiers around here...my local L&Mcq has 2 beautiful used EBMM's for under a grand each...never seen brand new though......very tempting
 
#46
Mostly zero, because I don't play mass manufactured instruments.

There was one exception, though. I did find a Pedulla in Guitar Center recently. It was in the "Used" section. I'm approximately 30 minutes away from Michael Pedulla's shop, so I don't know if that had something to do with it.
 
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#47
Bass Viking said:
In another thread I posted that I thought many bassists haven't played enough different brands to know what they really like, due to limited availability in local stores. I got in some hot water for that :D but I still stand by my statement. In my own city of 1 million people, the selection is not great. It's mainly Fender, Squier, Ibanez, Yamaha, Epiphone, etc. There's nothing wrong with these brands but it's the tip of the iceberg.

Brands I used to see, like Warwick, Lakeland, and G & L, have disappeared. You seldom see even a Gibson bass. You do come across a few Rickenbackers, Musicman, and the occasional Fender Custom Shop. Boutique? Forget it! Not even the Canadian stuff like Dingwall or F bass.

I currently own 11 basses. Only 2 were purchased in Ottawa stores. 2 I bought used and the rest I ordered from the USA. Even Club Bass in Toronto has reduced the number of bass brands they carry and changed their name to Club Bass & Guitar. :eek:

The store where I bought my Taylor guitar has a fantastic selection of acoustics and electric guitars, with high end Gibson, Fender, PRS, Taylor, Martin, Collings, Suhr. As for basses: Last time I was there they had 5. :(
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I live in Los Angeles. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but all I ever seem to see for sale new are Ibanez, Fender/Squier, LTDs and Schecters, and generally the lower-end models at that.

I posted in another thread about the lengths I had to go to to try out an LTD/ESP bass.

When you want to demo a relatively expensive bass...
 
#51
BD Jones said:
There are 2.5 million people in in our greater metro area and there are TWO big stores: Sam Ash and Guitar Center. Sam Ash has the largest selection, but it has your basics: Fender/Squier, Ibanez, Yamaha, and Music Man. There are a couple of Rics, Jackson, ESP, Jacksons, Deans, Hofners, and Schecters. Out of all of the brands, they mainly focus on having a wide range of Fenders and Ibanez. Everything else is either out of most peoples price range (Rics) or the very bottom bend of the line (everything else). GC has squat. Usually it is a lot of the same model. Pawn shops and thrift stores are bare. The mom and pop stores cater mainly to guitarists. There are some local chain stores (one is actually part of the Music & Arts brand, which is also owned by GC), but they have horrible selections.

Oh, and forget about any sort of "specialty" instrument such as a fretless or medium or short scale. I've only seen the Squier VM fretless and the new Ibanez semi-hollow body fretless at Sam Ash. And there was only one of each. But, stores are only going to carry what the bass buying public recognizes. They recognize brands Fender and Ibanez. They've seen the distinctive style of Rics, Stingrays, and Hofner "Beatle" basses.

It's also funny you mentioned Warwick. I took my Warwick RB Starbass into Sam Ash a few months ago to see if I could find a gig bag to fit it. You have to check it in at the front desk so they can tag it and make sure you aren't stealing the instrument on the way out. The guy at the front desk had no idea what the brand was. In fact, no one knew what the brand was. One guy even said, "Oh, it's one of those kit basses", referring to Warmoth.
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You must live in San Antonio
 
#52
Oddly said:
I just did a quick online search for the three main stores in Dublin city centre.
MusicMaker, Waltons and X Music.
Plenty of Fenders and Squiers, some Epiphone, Yamaha, Musicman, a couple each of Gibson and G&L.
No Warwicks or Ricks but I guess not a bad selection overall.
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THREAD HIJACK!!

(Don't worry; I'll be brief)

Every time I see "Dublin" or Waterford, Galway, Ballyshannon, etc.)
I am reminded of the all-too-brief time I got to spend in Ireland.

What an incredible place, and IMO-whether they have lots of basses or not- Went to (1) Music Store in downtown Kilkenny-

DUBLIN is one of the coolest cities in the World!

Ok- back to basses.
 
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#53
Here in Paris there is a great selection of 4 string basses, mostly centered on Fender and Fender-like (Musicman, G&L, Sandberg... ). Besides the new shops, there are a handful of really nice vintage-only stores for instruments, effects, and amps. Most of the shops are on 2 long streets next to each other, very convenient.

There is an extremely limited selection of 5 string anything.

Some decent deals can be had at pawn shops when you get lucky.

For new stuff you can get almost anything you don't find in stores from this one very reliable German online retailer.

Prices are higher than in the US, but not by an equal factor across the board. Some brands are just a little bit higher, others like Mesa Boogie are just crazy marked up. Depends on the distributors I'm guessing.

Anything American that's rare in the US is much more rare here of course.
 
#54
swafran said:
Here in Paris there is a great selection of 4 string basses, mostly centered on Fender and Fender-like (Musicman, G&L, Sandberg... ). Besides the new shops, there are a handful of really nice vintage-only stores for instruments, effects, and amps. Most of the shops are on 2 long streets next to each other, very convenient.

There is an extremely limited selection of 5 string anything.

Some decent deals can be had at pawn shops when you get lucky.

For new stuff you can get almost anything you don't find in stores from this one very reliable German online retailer.

Prices are higher than in the US, but not by an equal factor across the board. Some brands are just a little bit higher, others like Mesa Boogie are just crazy marked up. Depends on the distributors I'm guessing.

Anything American that's rare in the US is much more rare here of course.
Click to expand...

Bet there's good deals on Vigier, LeDuc, or WILD CUSTOM though!:smug:
 
#55
The local store here has a few Fenders from when they were dealers (so NOS) and a lot of Peavey and cheaper stuff. Useful in a pinch, for strings or a cable.

About an hour away in Flagstaff is a great store managed by a guy who was Poco's touring bassist for a decade. There's a signed pic of Carol Kaye, among others who've shopped there, on the back wall. Great selection, and they're got a climate-controlled vault for the good stuff. I bought my DB there. :thumbsup:
 
#56
In my town, the music store is open a day or two a month, with no rhyme or reason as to when, at best they have 2-3 basses. Last time around, he only had a lower end Yamaha, and a Squier VM Jazz. BUT the owner has a pretty stellar selection of strings, 4,5,6, multiple brands even on flats, and even the odd piccolo set.

The music store in the next town over just closed up for good. A great shop for guitar players, but little more than Traban and Jay Turser for basses.

A little further in the opposite direction puts you in a good town for music. 3 good music stores (a full line Fender dealer that also carries Epiphone and Gibson. Another deals almost entirely used/vintage and builds customs as well, and the third is a Yamaha showroom that also has some other brand pressence.)

Nearest GC is roughly 100 miles away.

Edit: spelling errors.
 
#57
100,000 folk in the district. Music shop has 2 entry level Tanglewood basses, pawn shop never buys anything it can't sell for £150 so expect SX if there is any basses.

Edinburgh/Glasgow are half hour away for the usual fare and not cheap. RIC 4003 will hit you £2000+ ($3150),ain't happening :laugh:
 
#59
Very limited - as in very.

Fortunately, I'm an hour outside NYC by metrorail so it's not that big an issue. I'll just head in, go shopping, grab dinner, and then come home.

Bad thing is that all the really good mid and downtown shops keep closing everytime you blink an eye. So I'm guessing that'll dry up on me too before too many more years.
 
#60
Here in central NJ it's much the same as the rest of Suburbia. Big box stores with loads of middle to low end stuff. And that's not limited to music stores but retail in general.

As someone else recently posted Bass Specialties closed up 5 or 6 years ago.
We still have Russo Music in Hamilton. A nice independent honest shop that holds their own in the age of GC, Sam Ash and the Internet.

Another often overlooked local gem (depending on your perspective) is NJ Guitar & Bass. Small Shop (very small). Amazingly huge selection of guitars and at least 25% of his inventory is bass related, so nothing to sneeze at. He's got everything from $100. beaters to Sadowsky, Dingwall and F-bass, Warwick, Music Man, Fender, Ibanez etc. Downside is that his selection is so huge...the place is small....it gets cramped in there.
But there's something to be said for carrying the inventory he does in this day and age. He's got a web presence, if you're within driving distance or can catch a train....it's an option.
 

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