What are you really buying for your $25k or whatever? How much better do these crazy expensive boutique basses REALLY sound/play than say the best one from your average music store set up properly? Would anyone else really hear it?
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So what does a $25k bass actually get you?
- Thread starter FollowMeDown
- Start date
I've often wondered that myself. How much better does a bass get after $1k, $2k, $5k..... and I don't mean vintage, those were basses that sold for the normal retail price and were often made with off the shelf or cheap available materials.
You get a bass. Whether you have $25k worth of craftsmanship in your hands is entirely up to you and only you.
Supadope
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Even top-of-the-line components, exotic woods and bleeding-edge technology should only raise a price tag so high. Beyond that threshold, the only thing I’d assume you’d get, outside a functional instrument, is the “aesthetic artistry” the luthier imbues it with. That, and probably a lifetime warranty with free setups and maintenance for life.
In other words, for that kind of cost, I would expext it to be the sweetest sounding, most visually gorgeous, “work of art” that will last several lifetimes and be technically and mechanically worry-free to boot.
In other words, for that kind of cost, I would expext it to be the sweetest sounding, most visually gorgeous, “work of art” that will last several lifetimes and be technically and mechanically worry-free to boot.
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This.
How much better is a $125,000 Porsche than a $22,000 VW? How much better is a $5.8 MILLION dollar Bugatti than the Porsche?
Supadope
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Seriously though, a few years ago Mrs Dope and I took a road trip vacation. Along the way we stopped at The Low End bass shop outside Nashville, Atlanta Bass Gallery, and a few other stores.
Mrs Dope gave me full permission to buy a boutique 5 string up to $5K. I played some beautiful works of art.
But ultimately, I did not buy anything because nothing played or sounded better than my Peavey.
Mrs Dope gave me full permission to buy a boutique 5 string up to $5K. I played some beautiful works of art.
But ultimately, I did not buy anything because nothing played or sounded better than my Peavey.
25k may really be a bit over the top and "boutique" is not necessarily about "better", especially when speaking of sound. If I find my bass to be "better" sounding than someone else's, this will be my personal opinion. But this has been discussed a zillion times already.
On topic, reasons for a "boutique" bass could be:
- Quality of the wood
- Origin of the wood
- Superior craftsmanship
- Ergonomics
- Aesthetics / design
- A bass other manufacturers do not produce
- Unique / one of a kind instrument
- Custom body shape
- A particular sound
On topic, reasons for a "boutique" bass could be:
- Quality of the wood
- Origin of the wood
- Superior craftsmanship
- Ergonomics
- Aesthetics / design
- A bass other manufacturers do not produce
- Unique / one of a kind instrument
- Custom body shape
- A particular sound
It's pretty clear from the way this is worded that you've already made up your mind.
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To me, a $25K bass is a luxury bass. Luxury is up to the end user.
My father thinks that a glass bottle 10 oz Coke is a luxury because one can get a 2 liter Coke for the same price. I spent more on getting my back porch torn down a rebuilt and a new deck than he spent on the HOUSE he lives in now. To me, my back yard is now a wonderful place. He can't even go back there without grumbling about the amount of money we spent on it.
But a friend of mine, who is incredibly wealthy, thinks that most "fancy" restaurants are "hog slop".
So, what may be a wonderful luxury to one person could be a worthless waste of money to another. There is also the concept of wealth. If you are wealthy, $25K just isn't that much money.
If I won the lottery to the tune of $302 million (current powerball I think), you can bet I would buy a few things that most here would think are ridiculous expenditures. And I would think nothing of it.
Short version: You are looking for a "right answer" and there isn't one. It's an individual thing based on one's emotions toward money and basses. There's no intellectually "correct" answer.
My father thinks that a glass bottle 10 oz Coke is a luxury because one can get a 2 liter Coke for the same price. I spent more on getting my back porch torn down a rebuilt and a new deck than he spent on the HOUSE he lives in now. To me, my back yard is now a wonderful place. He can't even go back there without grumbling about the amount of money we spent on it.
But a friend of mine, who is incredibly wealthy, thinks that most "fancy" restaurants are "hog slop".
So, what may be a wonderful luxury to one person could be a worthless waste of money to another. There is also the concept of wealth. If you are wealthy, $25K just isn't that much money.
If I won the lottery to the tune of $302 million (current powerball I think), you can bet I would buy a few things that most here would think are ridiculous expenditures. And I would think nothing of it.
Short version: You are looking for a "right answer" and there isn't one. It's an individual thing based on one's emotions toward money and basses. There's no intellectually "correct" answer.
I can think of several things to do with that kind of coin - a bass ain't one of 'em.
Anther day closer to divorce and deeper in debt.
I have a list price Lakland 3TBS Hollow Body bass, list price $1999.99 I paid $1499 Sweetwater Price. I also have a Fender MIM Okoume Jazz Bass new about $800.00. I think I like my Fender a little better. I guess if you spent $25K it would give you a lot of Bragging rights. I sold the White Yamaha, wished I hadn't.
an overpriced bass so you can have a bigger than life ego. just hope that you have the chops to make it worthwhile 
Definitely not as much as 25X what a 1000$ bass gets you. I think past the point of what a Wal or Sadowsky NY retails for new (some 5-6k$?) what's strictly bang for the buck as a tool to make music rolls off, steeply. 25k is probably what a collector pays, doesn't look like what a working musician would pay, unless you're Wooten "bait" league, and even up there you probably get 25k basses for free.
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It's pretty clear from the way this is worded that you've already made up your mind.
For $25K you get whatever you want and if you think you're going to pull a Squier off the wall at the local music store and it will play, feel or sound in the ballpark of a $25K bass, I want whatever you're smoking.
is this the same thread?
