Pricing Disparity - Help Me Understand

[spade2you]

Many threads have been written on TB about this kind of thing and often I find people saying that MIM Fender's are just as good as Foderas or Sadowsky's or Alembics, etc. But have these people ever really tried any of the upper echelon basses about which they write?

There's also the sentiment that some dudes don't need a Fodera, therefore Fodera is pointless. It's interesting how bashed they get. Having had the opportunity to briefly play one, I was amazed.

Make no mistake, however, a great bass player (which I am not) doesn't need an expensive bass to sound great.

This is always where the most arguments start. Give Lance Armstrong a rusty Wal-Mart bike and he'll probably still beat most of us, but hand him his ultralight bike and nice components and he wins le Tour 7 times.

My boutique basses don't make me better, but they allow me to do my job much easier than some basses. Since they're much more comfortable, I can play longer and practice more. Since the action is lower, I can play slightly faster and with a lighter technique that also increases my endurance.

 

[lomo]

I agree the higher you go the less obvious the difference in quality is.

+1. It's the same for clothing, sports equipment, wine, cars and virtually all else.

 

[leftymike]

I've owned a couple of $2000 + basses and 3x as many sub $1000 basses. The craftmanship of the expensive basses were amazing and beautiful, but I could never get comfortable on them. I wish I could beecause they were dream basses. Of course thats just me. Now days, a dream bass doesnt get much higher than a MIA Fender P or Jazz in some other color than black or sunburst (Im a lefty). Stingrays fit in the same category as the MIA Fenders as well. Extremely playable, comfortable etc. plus they offer a ton of color options. So around $1500 is as much as I'll ever need to spend on a bass. Trial and error has brought me to this, not reading forums or other people advice.