Look at this P bass....

[secondtake]

So what's the proper price for this bass? Someone mentioned 5K. Higher? It is a pretty damn old body and neck, even if everything else is aftermarket. Let's say for the sake of discussion the neck's OK.

Also, I love the "road worn" look on a Fender, but would hate to spend money to have it re-created by someone at a custom shop somewhere instead of earning it myself. It'd be like kids a few years ago buying jeans with holes pre-cut in them. I don't really get the custom shop line anyhoo - is it worth that much more than the standard price? - but that's another discussion.

 

[gjohnson441496]

E string looks far more into the neck than the G, almost as if the neck had been tilted somehow or the bridge or nut poorly placed

The Badass bridge is whats throwing the G string off. I at one time put a Baddass bridge on my 70's P bass and had the same problem.

 

[jeff62]

"There's a sucker born every minute!" is what it's screaming to me.

Seriously…$17K for a PBass? I don't care who owned it. Even assuming a bulletproof provenance could be furnished, there is no mass manufactured electric bass ever made that justifies that price tag IMO. Even as a collectable.

Oh, sure there is! Just look in the classifieds at the custom shop Geddy Lee that will be worth "tens of thousands of dollars" in the future and how the OP is gonna raise the price to what it *should* sell for if no one buys it at the low low price it already is...

Under which it's never sold.

 

[bassbully]

No way for that price. That bass should be less than half that.

 

[bassbombs84]

You guys realize there is a grateful dead connection here right?

 

[Dynacord]

For me it's mainly Fenders, and beyond that, for road wear to look cool, the bass has to be solid colored originally.


Were Fender finishes really that fragile back in the day? I don't know.

All the nitro finishes from before the manufacturers started using polyester and similar finishes in the late '60s would wear, check, yellow/discolor, etc easily. The later finishes are much tougher.

You guys realize there is a grateful dead connection here right?

Yes - and not worth that much of a premium - to me, at least.

 

[bassbombs84]

You obviously are not a wealthy dead head. There are lots out there.

 

[40Hz]

You guys realize there is a grateful dead connection here right?

Yeah. But no matter how stoned you are, you have to come down eventually. That's when you notice all your friends are laughing and you're saying: "You're telling me I paid how much for this POS???"

 

[Ric5]

Invalid Link Removed

drooldrooldrooldrool

This bass screams MOJO.

OVERPRICED ...


for that kind of money you can get a lot of really nice basses that are not beat up

 

[bassbombs84]

Don't compare it to other basses guys. Compare it to other historical pieces. The GD connection trumps the tuners and bad ass bridge.

I would also imagine that the price is not set in stone

 

[Eric Swaim]

$16,000.00 for a piece of wood??? Keys are put on crocked and not originalal, pickguard is not a 1958, Dimarzio pickup, Badass II bridge.

Two people are on crack, the store asking that price and the guy who buys it.

 

[2manynotes]

$1,500 + Jerry Garcia's Ghost = $16,999.

 

[ThuzzleFump]

There is honest playwear, which is to be respected even on the worst junker. Then there is collectibility, which too often degenerates into mania/greed. With this bass we have jumped the shark all the way over into dealing in holy relics, like St. Brunhilde's meta-tarsil. Were it not for the big F on the headstock, this bass would not be worth one-tenth of the asking price.

I could not have said it better myself. Thank you for summarizing the current state of the 'vintage' market.

 

[bassbully]

You guys realize there is a grateful dead connection here right?

So"................

 

[castlev]

One person's mojo is another "man - they really treated that bass like garbage!". If that bass told stories it would be of being burned by cigarettes. That wouldn't be too pleasant.

I have this visual of a family guy episode with a p bass tied to a metal chair wrapped in rope yelling for mercy "oh the humanity!" while being burned with cigarettes...

 

[secondtake]

Yeah. But no matter how stoned you are, you have to come down eventually. That's when you notice all your friends are laughing and you're saying: "You're telling me I paid how much for this POS???"

You overestimate trust fund hippies and Greatful Dead professionals like doctors and lawyers. They'll just say "wow, man" and keep listening to their Europe '74 box set. Phil Lesh hasn't parted with any instruments as far as I know - they'll go for a pretty penny. This is as close as you can currently get to Grateful Dead lineage. I can't imagine anyone who buys this seriously trying to play it. It's going in a closet somewhere so its owner can whip it out every once in a while to show how big of a Dead collecting dick he or she (prolly he) has.

Sucks that dude got it for free and is selling it - that's bad karma right there, for sure.

 

[40Hz]

You overestimate trust fund hippies and Greatful Dead professionals like doctors and lawyers. They'll just say "wow, man" and keep listening to their Europe '74 box set. Phil Lesh hasn't parted with any instruments as far as I know - they'll go for a pretty penny. This is as close as you can currently get to Grateful Dead lineage. I can't imagine anyone who buys this seriously trying to play it. It's going in a closet somewhere so its owner can whip it out every once in a while to show how big of a Dead collecting dick he or she (prolly he) has.

Sucks that dude got it for free and is selling it - that's bad karma right there, for sure.

Yeah that original Deadhead crowd…

My GF is still friends with two of those she went to college with. They're super successful (as in: "we didn't sell out - we bought in") who just built a lake house. They ordered a granite countertop for their new kitchen that set them back well over thirty grand. So I guess there's people who might (and could) buy a bass like that -and for that kind of money. Especially considering they just dropped $30K on a hunk of polished rock.

 

[secondtake]

There are some sharp, successful Deadheads and Phish-heads out there. Bound to be some doctors, surgeons, whatever, who could plunk down $16k on an instrument they'll never play without batting an eye.

Plus, as someone said, I'm sure the price is pretty negotiable. I'd still say no working bassist will buy this bass. Too many aftermarket parts to justify the price tag. It'd lose a ton of value the second you bought it, which is pretty rare for a Fender.

 

[Cosmo Dalton]

That's one fine piece of history.

 

[bongostealth]

Hmm.. I would reroute the cavities, stick Ken Smith pickups, an active pre-amp with 12 pots and 6 switches, a tremolo bridge, a condom dispenser, and a Betty Boop sticker on the headstock for good measure. Oh, and I would relic it even more with a Brillo pad. Who's with me???