Premium price for premium sound?

[/\/\3phist0]

All kidding aside, I own and play a Squier VMP5.
And a Warwick Dolphin. I love both, but they are as different as a custom built hotrod, and a Toyota Corolla. I'm in no way "embarassed" playing my Squier, nor do I care that 99% of the patrons have no idea how special the Dolphin is.

 

[jd56hawk]

I have more than a few Levy's straps, but I have to admit I never even noticed that they have a logo on them. Thanks for pointing it out.

I contacted Levy's and asked if they could send me a leather logo piece to sew on my strap but I thought $25 was a bit too much.
Seriously, though, I really like the ergonomic straps they make with the cutaway contour so it feels better against your neck.

 

[Shortie]

You can spend $200 and luck out with something that's perfect for you, and you can spend $5000 on something you can't stand. Pay attention to the instrument (and not only the sound and playability - there are other factors, as mentioned) not the decals or the price tag.

So: Figure out how much you're willing to spend, scout out that price range, find something that you like (you should be able to do that, unless you're going for less than $100), and FORGET ABOUT IT.

 

[obimark]

I have owned practically every bass their is. From MIA Fenders (Jazz and P) MIM Jazz and P, Warwick, Spectors, Ibanez, Ric, MM Stingray, MM Sterling, Sterling Ray 34, Squier Jazz, Squier Classic Vibe P.

I could buy whatever I want south of the $2K price point, but the two CHOOSE to play right now are a Sterling Ray 34, and Squier CV 51 P. Got no complaints with either, get the sounds I want, and every band I try out for asks me to join.

Play the bass, not the headstock.

 

[joebar]

there are some brands that never seem to disappoint in their build qualities and you rarely even have to question it-
german warwicks come to mind.

with some makers, they can be hit and miss.
the biggest challenge is having enough experience/knowing what to look for to spot these things.
sometimes ignorance is bliss.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Guys. I'm not asking if low price will equate to best in class quality. I'm asking if you think shelling out extra money for a certain rig is really worth it or if you think a low price for good value is good enough.

I always go for quality, you usually can't loose that way. Sometimes I have come across some nice gear for relatively little money, but I don't necessarily go looking for that, they just happen when they will.

Something to keep in mind is that many of us came to musical age in the '60s and '70s where there wasn't the deluge of gear that is common these days, so we all bought nice gear. Fortunately, all that nice gear was cheap compared to the same, now. We mostly had just Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson (not much bass-wise, though), plus the Japanese imports which were all pretty crappy compared to the generally much better quality imports you find today. Since my first bass was a late '60s Jazz Bass for $175 (outside of the cheap Japanese "trainer" bass I got for $40 to make sure I was truly interested in playing) I always bought a top quality instrument.

I cannot say what I would do if I were starting out today, maybe I would buy a cheap bass, but I also prefer to buy an instrument made in my country so that would knock out a lot of possibilities. The only non American (as I am American) basses I have owned were two Yamahas (BX-5 and BX-1), Höfner (2007 500/1V63), and a 1996 CIJ Fender Mustang Bass which was really very nice, actually. Other than those, I have owned one each Gibson (mid '70s Ripper), Music Man (2013 Stingray), G&L (2010 JB-2) and several Rickenbackers, Fenders, Zons, Alembics, and Martin Keith basses, ranging in age from 1967 to 2015.

 

[lfmn16]

Just like my other posts.stop complaining and just answer my question.

You don't get to control the conversation. If you can't handle that then stop starting these threads you know will turn into train wrecks.

 

[Son of Wobble]

I watched a video of a tour of the Corona factory. Mexican employees, amongst others, were present (actually, quite a few). It made me chuckle because I thought of that very same trope.

I owned an MIM. Called it "el bajo de mí gente" (the bass of my people). I'm half Mexican, so I thought it appropriate.

I had the good fortune to visit the Ensenada factory some time in the nineties, and I am currently proud owner of a mim precision, love it as I do Ensenada itself, for I used to weekend binge drinking there as a teen in the late seventies and early 80s. Seriously friendly and fun loving bars and cabarets then. Used to gorge tacos, shots and beers for twelve hours and collapse in a rented room. Two nights three days on a 40 dollar bankroll including gas for the jalopy from LA (Mim cigarettes were forty cents, shots half a buck, tacos four for a buck).

Ah, misspent youth. Oy, inflation.

 

[twinjet]

I had the good fortune to visit the Ensenada factory some time in the nineties, and I am currently proud owner of a mim precision, love it as I do Ensenada itself, for I used to weekend binge drinking there as a teen in the late seventies and early 80s. Seriously friendly and fun loving bars and cabarets then. Used to gorge tacos, shots and beers for twelve hours and collapse in a rented room. Two nights three days on a 40 dollar bankroll including gas for the jalopy ftom LA (Mim cigarettes were forty cents, shots half a buck, tacos four for a buck).

Ah, misspent youth. Oy, inflation.

Misspent? Sounds fun, really. I was a good young chil'.

The most rebellious thing I ever did was tell my dad that I was going to tag along with a sound guy I knew to work stage crew at a show in a town some distance away. I actually ended up partying with a girl friend (great friend and crush). Her mom had just dropped off alcohol for this group of 18 year olds and I was trying my first vodka lemonade. Mom was gone, a few girls were playing strip poker and my crush was busy getting porked upstairs. I just sat there not knowing what to do with this strange feeling of disorientation.

Anyway, Ensenada sounds fun.

 

[Flaked Beans]

I have owned practically every bass their is. From MIA Fenders (Jazz and P) MIM Jazz and P, Warwick, Spectors, Ibanez, Ric, MM Stingray, MM Sterling, Sterling Ray 34, Squier Jazz, Squier Classic Vibe P.

I could buy whatever I want south of the $2K price point, but the two CHOOSE to play right now are a Sterling Ray 34, and Squier CV 51 P. Got no complaints with either, get the sounds I want, and every band I try out for asks me to join.

Play the bass, not the headstock.

I certainly play the bass, not the headstock but believe it or not it's right there (at the top of the neck). It says Fender.
Just sayin'..

 

[Nev375]

You don't always get what you pay for.
But you always pay for what you get.

 

[Captain Chaos]

What is premium sound exactly? Sounding like Jaco?

 

[Camaro69]

What is premium sound exactly? Sounding like Jaco?

Jamerson

 

[Captain Chaos]

Jamerson

Nahhh, I can get that sound with any bass.

 

[Facebook user]

People have been making amazing music for many years for on much worse instruments than any of the modern big brand budget models. The new stuff is all pretty good. It's all just personal choice these days as far as the music is concerned. If you want to play on a $200 VM or a $20,000 boutique custom with a dinosaur bone nut and metorite magnets in the pickup's as long as it stays in tune the whole song no one is going to notice in the mix how fancy or cheap your instrument is.

Point being spend as much or little as you want, doesn't matter to the music.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

More true for amps than basses.

 

[Planespotter]

The last time I bought a brand new bass was 2000. I was looking for a "lifetime" Precision Bass and I found it in my 2000 American Series Fender. Back then the MIMs and Squiers were intentionally placed well down market from the USA made stuff with less desirable colors, cheapo tuners/hardware , mediocre electronics and so on. In the 16 years I've owned it it has given me zero problems whatsoever and although it is jst about due for a refret, it has held up extremely well and only needed a couple of neck adjustments in the time I've had it. At one point it was my only bass and I gigged it 6-8 times a month and and beat the crap out of it and did lots of dumb stuff like dropping it and throwing it around in a failed attempt to be punk (hehe) not to mention countless rehearsals and many hours of solo practice and it has never let me down. I'm not sure a Squier or MIM from the same era would have held up as well. Anyway I paid around a grand for it back then if memory serves correctly. I definitely do not regret spending the extra money.

 

[Gizmot]

The essence of this argument can be compared to cars: Why can't a Kia drive like a Mercedes? Because its not made of the same grades of steel and aluminum, the parts don't fit together as well and the overall engineering quality is simply lower.

Kia sells a lot of cars and a number of people are happy with them. If its level of performance meets your needs, by all means save the money and get one.

In my experience, not only will the Mercedes drive much better, but it will deliver its performance for a much longer time.

So it is with basses - one made with better materials will simply sound better and be more satisfying over the long run. Some low cost instruments may be a good deal, but can hear, feel and appreciate better quality instruments. I don't mind paying extra for something better

 

[friendlybass]

Its one of those things where value is in the eye of the beholder. Take my instruments for example.
I own six basses, the most expensive one was right about 800, the cheapest was 150. Does the Mexican jazz V deluxe that was 800 sound better than the gretsch jet that was 150? Not in any sort of objective sense. Its totally different. Shoot I have more people complementing my Jaguar that cost me 400 than my 750 Gibson sg bass.
If your squier is your ideal instrument, the feature set, the tone, the feel, if that all works for you and you like it, then don't you dare let anyone tell you its a POS. However if a 10k alembic is what YOU want, then hell that's what works. We all have personal tastes, some of us gotta have those big price tag basses and some of us just want the 300$ squier.

 

[Ron Johnson]

It all depends on how much work you're willing to do yourself. Americans live in a service economy now, and have lost the sense that they can still do things for themselves. My main bass cost me less than 100$ including the parts I put into it. I bought it all beat up and nearly unplayable, put a few bucks into finding good parts and electronics, and a little time into fixing it myself. This <100$ bass serves me just as well as a brand new 600$ bass, if not better. Now, most people (typically Americans) would rather just make things easy and pay 1000$ for a new bass, or pay somebody else huge sums of money to upgrade their current bass rather than put in a little extra time into getting a used bass at a low price and upgrading it.

Simply put, people pay others outrageous amounts for services or brand new items, and in return spend many more hours working than they need to. It is a paradox because people pay more for goods and services than necessary because they don't have the time to do things themselves, because they work long hours, because they need to afford the things they pay for in order to save time since their jobs take away all their time.

Anyways, I've seen some amazing basses that were not expensive, and I've built some amazing "premium level" instruments for 1/10th the price of "premium".