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How's the bass selection in your town?

#101
Teijo K. said:
I live in a tiny village with just a little over 100 000 residents. So the selection of basses in the one music store is really limited. And the sales guys don't seem to know that much about the basses they sell either. So I just roll my own. When I was a kid the local store had a single Fender Jazz and some cheap stuff. And the owner of the store used the Jazz bass with his own gigs so he kept the price really high so nobody would buy his gigging instrument. :roflmao:
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100, 000 residents only constitutes a "tiny village" in Finland? :eek:

I live in (what's considered) a city of about 78, 000 in central British Columbia, Canada. We have one chain store and two mom and pops...the bass selection at all three is somewhat "meh"...as much as I'd like to support them (and I have at times, mostly for smaller items), I just haven't been able to justify it when there are so many more interesting basses to be bought online.

(Probably the best score I have made yet was a USA Peavey TL-Five, near-mint, with upgraded electronics and hardware, shipped in an aluminum flight case, all for under $500 Canadian when it arrived at my door.)

All five of my current basses were bought this way: two via the TB classifieds, two via eBay, and the latest via Reverb.

The last time I bought a bass in this town was in early 2012, when I picked up an Ibanez ATK 200...

If one of the shops had something in stock that I was REALLY interested in, I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with buying from them, but at the end of the day I am a guy who looks to save money/find deals as much as possible. I wouldn't be so rude as to try something out in one of the local stores and then immediately whip out my phone and go "Well, I can get it cheaper via (insert Internet merchant here)", but I would definitely shop around a bit before committing to anything. And if we were talking only a difference of $25, even $50, sure, I'd probably buy local, but getting too much beyond that, well...

The big factor for me these days is that I have a hard time buying almost ANYTHING (not just basses) brand-new...especially vehicles...I'd rather let someone else take the depreciation hit...
 
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#102
HubbardsFate said:
100, 000 residents only constitutes a "tiny village" in Finland? :eek:
...
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Nah, Finland has one city with over million people, it was more like a global perspective. :roflmao: There is only about five million of us all together. :D So by local standards 100 000 makes Jyväskylä more like a mid size city.
 
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#103
I'm not sure why everyone is lamenting the "lack of selection" at Guitar Center...do you really want to buy a bass off the wall? They've been wanked on so much, mistreated, bought and returned so often that they're just used basses being sold as new...broken knobs, fret sprout and banana necks, ahoy!
 
#104
In my actual town, there's nothing, but in the greater ATL area, aside from the aforementioned incredible Atlanta Bass Gallery, there's Atlanta Discount Music, which has cool stuff coming through all the time and is always willing to make a deal, a Music-Go-Round with the most throughput of any store I've ever seen, several other small shops with varying degrees of quality and ~45 Guitar Centers, the largest three of which used to have fantastic bass selections, but now you basically have to hope for something interesting to turn up used (which, due to how much bass action there is in this city, is common enough).
 
#106
To buy the strings that I use I have to drive two hours! (one way!!!) :crying:

maybe I should put only 4 strings on my 5ers?:(
And switch brand to something less exotic!
The guy in my local shop (more department store than musicshop) doesn't know Rotos :banghead:
(happy I don't play nylons, he would send me to the fishingtackle department next door!!!)

so this is not a funny post

may the bass be with you

Wise(b)ass
 
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#107
B-line said:
Bet there's good deals on Vigier, LeDuc, or WILD CUSTOM though!:smug:
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You do come across really good deals on classifieds for Vigiers, esp. if they're not the current version of the model (i.e. Passion III is cheaper). Cheap enough you could actually afford one maybe!!! Oh, the gas.

But there are none in stores as far as I can tell. If I remember right the best place for new Vigiers is a store in London.
 
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#108
basically none. I have to drive 75 minutes to Portland Maine or 2 hours to Portsmouth NH. still minimal selections so it's Boston in 3 hours! that said, to be honest, the only bass I've bought in 10+ years was a Pedulla Pentabuzz direct!
 
#109
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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My entire country has a fabulous selection of roughly 250 (my highest estimate) entry level basses. Living in Cyprus is terrible when it comes to basses. No shop sells flatwound strings. No fretless basses. It's unfortunate that you cannot try any gear before you buy it so every purchase is basically done blind
 
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#110
Wisebass said:
To buy the strings that I use I have to drive two hours! (one way!!!) :crying:

maybe I should put only 4 strings on my 5ers?:(
And switch brand to something less exotic!
The guy in my local shop (more department store than musicshop) doesn't know Rotos :banghead:
(happy I don't play nylons, he would send me to the fishingtackle department next door!!!)

so this is not a funny post

may the bass be with you

Wise(b)ass
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Tell me about it. I once waited 6 months for 6 string flats. Now I just use online shops. :laugh:
 
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#111
The local GC has had a poor selection every time I've checked. The last locally owned music store does quite a bit better, nice selection. Better selection at my house, but not much for actual sale. ;)
 
#113
I live 30 miles out of Boston, MA. There are about a half dozen Guitar Centers in the area and they carry Fender/Squier, Ibanez, Gibson/Epiphone, Musicman/Sterling with an emphasis on low priced models except maybe at the downtown Boston store which is across the street from Berklee College of Music.

The independent stores in the area offer Peavey, G&L, NS Design :thumbsup: , Yamaha, Rickenbacker (not all at the same store, mind you) and various import brands like Samick, Jay Turser, Cort, etc. Even though Pedulla is a local company I can't think of a local dealer who has any.
 
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#115
Non existent, the small town I live in practically died out after the big mall was build.

Not much better in the biggest city in my area, with only 2 minor musical equipment stores.

I usually use Thomann (one of Europe's biggest musical equipment stores) as my go to instrument shop when I need to purchase new equipment.

Sucks not to be able to actually try out instruments before purchase, but what can you do.
 
#117
I live 45 minutes away from Wildwood Guitars, so I have a decent selection of Fender Custom Shop & Rickenbacker basses, + the usual mediocre selection offered by Guitar Center (we have 3 here in Denver).
For higher-end basses, I do my research, and then usually order from Bass Central & a few other select shops that have decent return policies.
 
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#118
I have a Guitar Center about 7 minutes from my house and it has usually had a decent selection of basses. I've seen Fender/Squier, Epiphone (not many Gibsons that I can think of off the top of my head), Ibanez, EB/SUB, Hofner, Schecter, Rickenbacker, Dean, G&L, Warwick, and a handful of others. The used section usually has some wildcards as well. As nice as it is to go in-store and be able to purchase basses, the last one I bought (last summer, and the last bass before that was 5 year prior and on craigslist) was online, and unless something changes I prefer to just buy online. I minly go into the local GC for strings, picks, and other equipment. The only bass I've ever bought in-store was my first bass when I was 16 and scraped together as much money as I could to walk out with a Squier P that I still use to this day.
 
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#119
brianrost said:
I live 30 miles out of Boston, MA. There are about a half dozen Guitar Centers in the area and they carry Fender/Squier, Ibanez, Gibson/Epiphone, Musicman/Sterling with an emphasis on low priced models except maybe at the downtown Boston store which is across the street from Berklee College of Music.

The independent stores in the area offer Peavey, G&L, NS Design :thumbsup: , Rickenbacker (not all at the same store, mind you) and various import brands like Samick, Jay Turser, Cort, etc. Even though Pedulla is a local company I can't think of a local dealer who has any.
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Speaking of used, those 2 GC near Berklee (Mass av and Boyleston st. Fenway) often get fantastic used bases and are worth stopping at for a check out, good things sell right away, so it's a matter of luck. For me the luckiest day was a prime 1982 Guild Pilot, first year of production, amazing projection due to mature wood and hot pu's, $250 six years ago)(I was shocked by the price, had they fallen so far or was it a mistake?) If I see parking (key) and I have a few minutes, I always stop. GC's have a decent used pricing policy. On Harvard Av. Allston, Mr. Music can have anything pop up as well. I've seen everything from Ovation Magnum to Spectors, anything, and real historical oddities, like old hollow-bodies. They look for interesting new lines like Dan Electro. They had 2 new pj Mustangs 2 weeks ago, I bet one or both are gone. They have a boutique section too. (and probably the best effects selection in MA except for that place far away in Plymouth)

In MA there are Lots of weekend warriors, often professionals in tech or medicine, and they all collect, trade and sell. Forty years of bands that played in Boston's clubs, people found careers that suited the same talents and allot of their equipment is still kicking around in rehearsal rooms and basements slowly being cleaned out... Craigslist is hoppin obviously.
 
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#120
Not great but could be worse. We have two local shops. One is mostly a piano store, and their guitar and bass selection is pretty weak (mostly low end ibanez and ESP, of the sub 300 buck persuasion). The other shop is actually pretty decent. They are a fender, Rick and MusicMan dealer, (and Gibson, but I've not seen many, if any Gibson basses there). But it's a small shop, so at any given time they might have 2 ricks, 4 American fenders and a couple stingrays in stock (along with some cheaper stuff). They also have Genzler, Mesa Boogie, and Fende Amps
 

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