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d say paying that much gets you bragging rights and a broke bank acct.
Okay...a bit hyperbolic...maybe, but look back over the trail of rare and/or handmade boutique basses that at one time or another were stratocasteropherically expensive that ultimately end up sold for a small fraction of the original cost. It is true that when new Alembic Series were being built to sell in the $10,000 range, it was not at all hard to find pre-owned ones selling in the $1200 range. Same thing with basses built with new technologies--if you want cutting-edge electronics or innovative materials, you will pay top dollar--but if the final product fails to make it into the luthery lexicon and goes extinct, you might be left with an inert block of wood and wire that might be better sold off as parts. About 15 years ago, I bought (for almost nothing) a fretless ESP bass that made specifically for an optical pickup system with an outboard rack mount eq module with separate volume pots for each string--the bass and module were labeled as "QED". One story that came with this bass was that it was an early prototype of what eventually became the "Lightwave" optical pickup line. It was on eBay at a very low price; I grabbed it because I wanted the fretless bass & didn't care about the electronics. I still have it & still have never gotten around to setting it up properly, but it works--it certainly would fly out of here in a second if I could get a few hundred for it. I hate to think how much this turd cost to build...probably way over $25 grand if you count the R&D etc.
