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I think I stop believing in expensive basses!

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#182
Gizmot said:
Sorry pal - I don't agree at all. In my experience, you can buy something that will deliver an acceptable level of performance for cheap or mid-money. But I can hear and feel a difference with more carefully-crafted instruments.
Every time I try to cheap out, I end up regretting it. Every time I step up and buy something really good, I love it and keep it.
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Agreed. Almost completely. Only reservation is that my Squier VM Jazz happens to be a killer sounding bass with a tight neck pocket and good fretwork. But buying high end/custom means consistancy in build and excellent customer service. You can buy a boutique bass sight unseen and feel good about your purchase turning out. The same cannot be said about cheap instruments(unless you are expecting them to need work). I have had a lot of really nice basses. Sadowskys, F-Basses, Modulus, etc, and the quality is just plain off the charts compared to low cost production line.
 
#187
Hey just thought I jump in with this discussion

I am actually a little person and a professional bass player for 25 years
To give you guys some insight litlle people are actually offended by the term midget
In context it is the same as calling an african american the N bomb ....
The term midget goes back to vaudville circus time and was referred to people who were perfect proportion ...
The actuall term refers to less than and is a derogatory comment
My opinion is this most people need to be educated once you explain that it is not a funny situation then MOST people understand got it MIKEBASS ....
 
#188
I saw a add for a $30,000 and a $8,000 bass yesterday. So expensive basses do exist. Lol.

To me the only reason I'd get a bass that costs over $1,200 would be if I had the extra desposable income and it was a case of "why not, is pretty and nice and gotta throw some money anyway jus because". Lol. If I was making over $40,000 yr take home income, Id prob get such a bass again just cause can. Lol. But overall I think todays upper end imports by many mfg are so good that theres no need for more expensive basses for me. No real tangible reason other then to spend the extra money jus because. But thats just me.

I dont think anything bad or odd about those who only buy expensive basses of course. I'm sure they get an extra something from the luthier customer relationship in the bass making. Thats not got in buying availabe nice mass market basses.
 
#189
To me ... well to start off, don't get me wrong I would really really love to have a Ritter or a Roscoe ...but hey! I'm not made of money so that's kind of an impediment for me .... Each and every bass I own I own it because I like how it sounds, my ibanez gsr206 that I defretted , and hasn't had a change of string since I bought it , in recordings sounds great to me , even if it looks like something you find in a garbage can , my sterling is my to go bass , gives me every tone i want/need but it weights a ton (literally) , my (recently sold) squier 60's Pbass was great and well I sold it because I want to move up to a mtd Saratoga 5 ... that also sounds great

to me money is an issue , but great sounding basses are not directly related to money in any way

yeah I believe in expensive basses , but I also believe in cheap awesome basses
 
#191
SactoBass said:
My recommendation is, buy what you like!

If you like economy priced basses, buy those.

If you like moderately priced basses, buy those.

If you like expensively priced basses, buy those.

Life is short. Buy whatever bass you like, and play it to your heart's content!
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Couldn't say it better

+1
 
#192
i believe in instruments that are superior and more expensive. i dont believe fodera, and some of the other names that are associated with "boutique" fall into that category. a lot of large names with huge pricetags are sort of giving a bad name to "boutique." dont play a ritter and judge the whole scene based on that one $12,000 bass that sounds worse than your average fender.
 
#193
kerrycares said:
i've owned teisco del rays and i've owned foderas.
i much prefer the fodera.
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And I'd rather be writing the check for the Teisco!

Everyone here seems to be looking for some quick and dirty rule like: More money = better bass. I hate to be the one to tell you guys, but life is more complex than that!

One needs to carefully analyze just WHAT that extra money is buying you! Consider the following cases: You buy some junk Fender in a pawn shop for $50. 25 years later you buy the same junk Fender on Ebay for $20,000. Wait! It's the SAME bass! So what is all that extra money buying you? It buys you the fact that now the bass is rare and valued whereas before it wasn't. Is it worth it? Well only the market can decide that. If you really want an old bass like that, then I guess it is worth the extra money. If you don't, it's not.

Money can buy you many things. You can make any bass worth a fortune simply by covering it with diamonds! Will it sound any better? No. Will it play any nicer? No. Is it worth it? Well, if you are Paul Simon with loads of cash and want to make some big splash on stage playing "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes", it may very well be worth MORE than what you paid in hype and advertising buzz alone.

And here's another item. Basses are variable. I've seen Squier basses that blew the best Fender Americans out of the water! But they are rare. You can't just make some rule that says if you go buy a Squier it will be one of those great ones. Yours will probably be one of those buzzy nasty jobbies. So did the guy who lucked out "get what he paid for"? Nope. He got much more than that just by luck.

And the final item is you can't put music into a box. Yes, big money on a Sadowsky will get me an instrument tweaked to Roger's vision of what a great bass should be. I may agree or I may not. If I agree, I buy one and I get that tone and playability. Some things in an instrument require some big cash to get. Symphony guys spend thousands upon thousands to get that final certain "something" out of their instruments. But what if the sound I want is NOT that certain "something"? What if the tone I'm looking for comes from the masonite of a Longhorn or out of an old Radio Shack violin bass? Now we've set forth a totally different problem. The tone I seek may be some uber expensive "vintage" instrument or it may be some garage sale junk. Cost is really irrelevant. What I seek is a certain sound I have in my mind. So, do I "get what I pay for"? Well to get what I need I guess I do. But if I just start throwing money at the problem, it all may be just wasted once I have what I seek. Because I really don't need anything beyond that. And I'm not sure anyone can give me anything beyond that.
 
#195
Adrian Juras said:
Squier VM Jazz happens to be a killer sounding bass with a tight neck pocket and good fretwork.
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A tight neck pocket is not a good thing (particularly on a Fender design). There should always be some full-depth clearance on the sides. Tight fit on the face matters. Tight fit on the sides is a negative. FMIC gave up trying to educate buyers about this, because bubbas saw tight pockets as quality issues, which they aren't, and kept griping about it.

Good fretwork is a good thing, of course -- though exceedingly rare under ~$2500 MSRP. What you actually have is a luck-out when everything went right with a production routine that didn't include actual fretwork as we know it. Long-caul alignment, which is what is used on cheap instruments, precludes fret leveling. Sometimes it works great. Usually...eh.
 
#196
Of the three basses I currently own, the one I know I will carry with me until the day they crimp on the toe tag is the Alembic I bought 12 years ago this past Monday.

The level of service that boutique makers usually (and always should) offer is quite extraordinary. A few months after I bought my Alembic, the neck developed a horrifying stringsward bow. I called Alembic and was immediately transferred to Mica Wickersham. I described the problem, she explained what needed to be done and why, and that if I sent the bass back to Santa Rosa, everything would be taken care of under warranty at no charge.

I sent the bass off, and it came back with a perfectly straight neck (after a heat reset - necessitated by the fact that ambient humidity is highly variable in Minnesota, unlike in NorCal), a better case than I had shipped it in, a fresh set of strings and the tools that GC had lost while the bass was in their custody.

It has never required anything more than semi-annual truss rod tweaks (to account for humid summers and dry winters here) since. Not only that, it is the best sounding, best playing and most beautiful instrument I have ever owned.

Try getting that kind of service and support out of Fender, Gibson, et al.

And when I do my final shuffle off to Buffalo, my baby is going home to the Mothership in Santa Rosa.
 
#199
what bums me out is watching a fellow bassist wait one whole year for a custom/ boutique bass that costs $3-5k.

a few months later it's in the Classified's with the following claim:

"i guess i'm just a P-Bass kind of guy" or "it just doesn't nail that J-Bass growl"

the bass gets sold,.... then it get's sold again,... and again, etc.

moral of my sad story is, Fender will always help you find your way back to earth. they'll always leave a light on for your sorry ass!!! ;)
 
#200
pacojas said:
what bums me out is watching a fellow bassist wait one whole year for a custom/ boutique bass that costs $3-5k.

a few months later it's in the Classified's with the following claim:

"i guess i'm just a P-Bass kind of guy" or "it just doesn't nail that J-Bass growl"

the bass gets sold,.... then it get's sold again,... and again, etc.

moral of my sad story is, Fender will always help you find your way back to earth. they'll always leave a light on for your sorry ass!!! ;)
Click to expand...

:D


Well said!!



and a huge...



+1
 
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