Should I put $500 worth of electronics into a $400 bass?

Why not, at least bass play well and feel comfortable to you.

 

Well you can always remove/salvage the electronics if/when you upgrade the bass. So its never a real loss for doing this. Just keep the old parts.

 

I will probably be in minority here and some may feel offended, but I feel big brand bass guitar pickups and electronics are brutaly overpriced. Pickups are made from extremly inexpencive materials, made by simple machines and inexpancive labor. Almost the same with preamps, it just takes a little more trained employees to assemble them.
So to answer you, no you should not put $500 of electronics in $400 bass guitar, unless that is some unique equipment (like midi pickup).
If you are not happy with stock, just get inexpencive replacements that cost 1/10 of that. Trust your ears.

 

All my instruments (5 basses and 2 guitars) are kinda cheap and I have updated all the electronics and most of the hardware.
So, if you like your instrument, go for the update.

 

Guilty as charged…..

I bought an ESP LTD fretless bass for $100. It needed a nut, no problem. But as good as it plays, the electronics were kinda crap.

So I did some digging and came up with using Nordstrand Big Rig pups and a Nordstrand 3-band preamp. Eeek! $350 worth.

I went ahead with the project and this bass has turned out much nicer than expected, I gotta say. The bass still sells for $649 new at the usual places, so I feel like that, for a change, I got a crazy nice deal on a fretless bass. With some effort on my part, which was fine. I was able to do the electronic work and had the nut replaced for $45.

I’ll probably never get nearly $500 for it if I had to sell it, but that’s okay. I’m just not one of those folks that looks at a bass and my first thought is “what could I potentially sell this bass for?”.

 

Absolutely. Money is immaterial. Tools for artistic expression are priceless.

 

If it were as simple as paying for inexpensive materials and the elusive next-to-none-existent “inexpensive labor”, everything in life would be much cheaper. There’s so much more that a manufacturer has to account for than those things. Not to mention, if a manufacturer can’t make a….a…(dirty word alert!)….profit on the products they are making and selling, then what’s the point?

Of course, I respect your views on the cost of pickups and preamps, totally fine. There are cheaper alternatives out there, but then, you could opening the quagmire of foreign products and start a whole ‘Nother debate.(not by me, mind you)

We need to be careful about accusing manufacturers of price-gouging. Especially manufacturers making products for the music industry.

 

Sure, why not? But I'd keep the original pickups / electronics to return the bass to original condition if I decided to sell.

 

Fralins and TI Flats outpriced my $175 pawn shop bass by a little.

 

I was going to post this almost word for word!

 

I mean let’s be real, the electronics “are” the sound of the instrument, so if you have an instrument that you like and it plays well for you why wouldn’t you upgrade the sound so that’s equally as enjoyable to you?

Keep the boxes so you can salvage the electronics if you ever sell the instrument.

 

Only if you plan on keeping the bass. I had a guy want to trade with me and he wanted a ridiculous amount for a MIM fender deluxe. His argument was that he put new pickups and a bridge on it. I said your bass is worth what the market will bear and it's like when you make your house the most expensive on the block with renovations. You place is still worth what the neighborhood is worth.

 

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, especially if you’re really digging the feel of a bass in the price range

 

No problem as long as you understand mod-math. $400 bass + $500 mods does not equal $900 bass.

 

The value of a bass isn't the dollar amount. It's the music you make with it. If you like how it feels and plays, but want certain electronics in it, why not?

The alternative would be trying to find a separate $500 bass that has $500 worth of electronics in it, which leaves little room for any of the other parts.

 

If the bass was bought cheaply, and you like it, upgrade! 400 + 500 will get you an instrument you like as much as a 900 go for it! You can revert the changes before selling if that's the case. I think the opposite: It's not the upgrade that's expensive, it's the bass that was cheap! Luck!

 

Not sure if it would always be "electronics" but definitely "alternative accoutrements", for sure. Mea culpa! I was about to select "no" but remembered my "guinea pig" on the bench: worth maybe $400 but now sporting Hipshots, new nut, really expensive strings, Audere preamp, Gotoh bridge shipped from France, Dunlop strap-locks. The only thing not replaced = pickups. If it's a solid platform, really feels comfortable, and has a real or perceived deficit, go for it! Beats the hell out of selling & replacing instruments in search of your holy grail...I feel like I'm chasing my own tail!

Riis

 

Only if you are keeping it as a working tool. Odds are you are going to love the upgrades.

Further, it's going to be worth a lot more to you than somebody else, so don't expect to get much out of the investment other than it's utility. Have fun!