So what does a $25k bass actually get you?

[Gilmourisgod]

All through my teenage years, I lusted after an Alembic, imagining how much better I’d sound with one. Years later got to try one, lol and behold, sounds like any other bass with me playing it. It was very nicely built and impeccably detailed, but at around $10k, I’d have a hard time explaining where about $8k of it was justified. The electronics were absurdly complex, not surprisingly it seemed to sound best with everything on center detent.

 

[Dr_Benway]

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?

Well... With the Bugatti you get an overpriced muscle car that's poopie in the corners.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

The Ritter Royal Flora Aurum, was built by Jens Ritter from Germany.

This luxurious bass has a body carved from a rare, solid piece of maple while the nut is carved from 10,000-year-old mammoth ivory.

The fingerboard is decorated with a floral inlay pattern made of 24-karat gold. There's even a black diamond set in platinum decorating each leaf.

The bridge, tuner buttons and knobs are cast in gold. The knobs hold an additional embellishment: they are both topped with brilliant-cut diamonds (3.3 carats)

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I like playing a tune called "The Game of Love", in the version from the Ike & Tina Turner's LP "Working Together" (1970) ... I'm wondering whether my playing style on that tune may get more soulful using a 10000-year old piece of mammoth horn as the nut of my bass .. who knows? Maybe ...

 

[Musti-koira]

an overpriced bass so you can have a bigger than life ego. just hope that you have the chops to make it worthwhile

I bet no-one told Prince that he should just gig with sunburst P-bass, instead of wasting money on that crazy Purple Special (that he never got chance to play, unfortunately). An example of matching ego and chops.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

This is one of the rare cases where spending that much makes sense. I saw the article about Jackson's Fodera build. He had very specific requirements that don't exist on any bass in the world (to my knowledge). That is a one of a kind and plays to Jackson's style and strengths. Not being at that caliber, much less half that caliber, I can't see spending over $2800, which is what I spent on a custom build. I can't make a $2800 instrument sound any better than a Squire I'm sure. It was total splurge.

Actually i believe some of the best Jackson's work can be found in the Steve Kahn collaboration albums of the 80s ... don't know what he was playing at that stage, but certainly not the Fodera you are talking about I presume ...

 

[Robert B]

I don't understand why some folks are so preoccupied with what other folks do with their money. When I was a kid, my parents taught me to mind my own business. I guess it stuck.

 

[blue4]

I don't understand why some folks are so preoccupied with what other folks do with their money. When I was a kid, my parents taught me to mind my own business. I guess it stuck.

We're on an internet forum. Nobody is minding their own business on any topic, or they wouldn't be here unless looking for specific technical advice.

 

[underwhelmist]

I like playing a tune called "The Game of Love", in the version from the Ike & Tina Turner's LP "Working Together" (1970) ... I'm wondering whether my playing style on that tune may get more soulful using a 10000-year old piece of mammoth horn as the nut of my bass .. who knows? Maybe ...

Is mammoth horn covered by CITES?
Only half joking actually, how could you convince a customs officer it wasn’t ivory?

 

[redwingxix]

There are currently 19 basses in the Reverb search results for instruments $25 and higher, some of these make me physically ill.

Bass Guitars over ,000

what is a freaking HEART in a bass supposed to do. And the switchplate is a poorly mounted jazz one? what the hell?

The Bugatti model you mentioned is Veyron not Beyron ...

That's what us Beyron owners call them, so we can recognize each other in casual conversation at the yacht club brunches.

For 25 grand, that bass better show up at the door with Jessica Alba, asking to come in for coffee.....

Coffee? I'd be expecting more than coffee, but more than likely I'd be a stuttering, drooling mess if I got within thirty feet of her.

I'd certainly be a lot more interested in a $25k bass if that was their standard delivery procedure, though.

 

[Acoop]

You talking upright or electric. Because upright basses can cost more than that. But Fedora can run $12000.

 

[lfmn16]

Its one of dem ‘rhetorical’ questions...

You are very generous in giving OP the benefit of the doubt.

 

[bassliner50]

That expensive bass will not insure more gigs unfortunately. $25K would pay 24 months of property taxes here on Long Island. I do not want any part of a bass that costs that much. However with $25K, I would consider a Yamaha C3 grand for my living room (satin black would do nicely) . Ahhhhhhhh, now we're talking!

 

[lfmn16]

I don't understand why some folks are so preoccupied with what other folks do with their money. When I was a kid, my parents taught me to mind my own business. I guess it stuck.

I think there is more than a little jealousy involved in all this negativity around people buying expensive basses.

 

[Pbassmanca]

Coffee? I'd be expecting more than coffee

Sorry, I mean....ahem...."coffee"....

 

[blue4]

I think there is more than a little jealousy involved in all this negativity around people buying expensive basses.

There's certainly some of that. But for many people a $25,000 bass is equal to a gold plated toilet seat. They may be jealous of the fact that you can afford one, but they aren't necessarily jealous of the actual toilet seat. I don't think a bass that costs $25k helps you play any better than a gold toilet seat helps you poop. It's not really jealousy that drives this belief.

 

[Bflat]

There's certainly some of that. But for many people a $25,000 bass is equal to a gold plated toilet seat. They may be jealous of the fact that you can afford one, but they aren't necessarily jealous of the actual toilet seat. I don't think a bass that costs $25k helps you play any better than a gold toilet seat helps you poop. It's not really jealousy that drives this belief.

speaking of gold toilets.....people laughed at the Saudi that has a solid gold toilet in his home, he's laughing now as it is worth 4 times what he paid for it ......good investment

 

[Goatrope]

I’m thinking that the second-hand, used toilet seat market is not so hot right now...

speaking of gold toilets.....people laughed at the Saudi that has a solid gold toilet in his home, he's laughing now as it is worth 4 times what he paid for it now......good investment

 

[groooooove]

No bass is worth $25,000. I dont care if God himself made it and played it.

I see your point - that you don't think the amounts of parts and labor of a bass guitar don't fairly add up to this sum of money.

but people (in the vintage market mostly..) pay it - so you or i can't define what a bass is or is not worth. also if it's made of solid gold it would be worth a lot more - so there's always that hypothetical as well

 

[HamOnTheCob]

There are folks who look at a $1,000 bass the way you're looking at a $25,000 bass. It's all about perspective. I'd venture a guess you could properly set up a $200 Squier and play it back to back to back with a $1,000 Fender and then a $25,000 vintage Fender and in a blindfold test, 100% of the crowd would not know the difference between any of them, even if the crowd were filled with seasoned bass players.

Almost all of us have at least one piece of gear that's more expensive than we "need", but "need" is rarely why people buy gear. If a robot is playing the bass, then the $25k boutique is a silly expenditure. But if you play it and fall in love with the instrument all over again, are inspired to create wonderful music, and spend your days with a smile on your face, who am I to say it's a silly expenditure?

Buy the bass. Post pics.

 

[Eilif]

I'm not spending $25k on anything but if I were...

What are you really buying for your $25k or whatever?

A professional quality upright.

We've each got to make up our own mind about how price figures into our equation including things like utility, aesthetics, craftsmanship. I've come to a place in my playing where what I want in a bass is going to cost me somewhere between 1 and 2k. That is not to say that I couldn't continue to play all my gigs on my much-modded and much-loved MIM Fender. I could and still do sometimes. However, the combination of features that I prefer is going to kick me into the range previously mentioned.

I'm entirely comfortable with this, not least because there are remarkable luthier-made instruments in that range, a few of which I'm lucky to currently own. It's also in no small measure because I put that in the perspective of what (aside from guitars) most other musicians have to pay to get an instrument of such quality. As my uncle what a new trumpet costs... By those measures, 1-2k for a fine instrument made by an individual I can actually speak with is a bargain.