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Stepping down from high end basses

#81
I’ve been a Fender and Musicman player most of my life. Recently I had the opportunity to play an Elrick 5 singlecut. Oh...my...goodness. When I got back to my Fenders and Musicman basses I kind of felt like that guy who cheats on his wife of 30 years to hook up with a 22 year old hottie. I mean, your old basses are still nice, and you still kind of like to have them...but oooooh that Elrick.
 
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#82
I think that to be "super happy" with taking a significant step down in value, you'd need to be "super anxious" over having a couple thousand dollars tied up in a non-essential asset. It just depends on your financial situation.

I personally have no problem with the money I have tied up in basses. I've got some moderately expensive stuff, but it helps that I bought them all used so I know that, should a dire need arise, I could sell and get back what I've got in them, plus or minus a small amount. But my financial situation is such that it would take a really extraordinary event for that to be necessary. So for me, it basically comes down to the option of having $10-12k in my "bass account" and enjoying some pretty spectacular basses, or downgrading to have $10-12k more in my 401k, earning a fairly tiny bit of interest. Either way I've still got $10-12k in "principal", I just choose to take the earnings on that principal in current/ongoing personal enjoyment.
 
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#83
I usually gig out with my Pedulla MVP.

But a year ago I joined a '60s tribute band, and picked up first a nice Fender American P bass and most recently a Sting '55 Precision.

The Fenders sound great, and are set up and play well.

But when I go back to the Pedulla afterwards, the ease of playing it reminds me why I bought it. OMG so little effort required.

There is a difference.
 
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#85
Bummer - I've been going about this all wrong. I just stepped UP TO a high end bass..

All kidding aside; It seems to me it's the "all you ever need" vs the "all you ever want" thing.
Same as buying a BMW 5-series vs a Toyota Camry I guess.. If the bills are paid and you can swing it..

I don't know that I'll be a much better bass player because of the $$$$ bass instead of the $$ bass but - boy - it sure sounds good and what a joy to play. Maybe ultimately I'll be a better player because it's such an inviting bass I'll just log more hours on it

Regards
Mark
 
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#87
got my alembic used for less than the price of a new high end fender. Also have a us standard p bass. I love the p bass, but man after playing the alembic for a few days its hard to go back to the p, its just so beautiful and easy to play
 
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#88
I own a couple of expensive instruments and a couple of cheap ones. I enjoy playing the cheap ones but the expensive are a different league soundwise and ergonomically. So no, unless I should need cash badly I would never downgrade.
P.s. : I brought one of the cheap ones (pimped with big name pickups) in studio and sound technician listened and asked embarrassed if I had another bass with me.
I had, one of the expensive, one minute to get a sound and tape rolled.
 
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#89
sidonbass said:
After quite a few high end basses, and the fact that I’m playing upright almost exclusively,
I’m ready to step down. Currently own a Sadowsky Metro 5.
Has anyone stepped down from a high end bass to a sub 1000 dollar bass and been super happy with the change?
Click to expand...



I normally play guitar, but I do lurk here along with playing bass.

The bass player inve played with for 25 plus years owns some unbelievable instruments.

When I first met her, she had just bought an Alembic. Significant money.

Ten years later, as she felt she had significantly learned and researched what she wanted and bought one that was exactly the way she wanted. Subtle things mostly, gorgeous woods, but this time well north of $10K.

One day, shows up early to practice, wanted to change strings on another instrument she owned. She motioned to the road case, and said give it a try. Tentatively I picked it up and plugged it into her amp. It was about twenty minutes before she finished and asked me what I thought, and if it was worth the money?

Have to say after noodling around for less than a half an hour, I was really impressed, and this one wasn't built for me! I told her that it was worth at least $8K to me and if I played it longer, likely to feel it gain value to me.

Me, while I loved it, my limit would be $4-5K on one for myself and even that would likely be like showing up at a golf course with an expensive set of clubs while just breaking 90 strokes............on 9 holes.


Being that I'm not close enough to regularly see high end basses, I'm clueless what the new high end stuff consists of today. If it wasn't for Talkbass, I wouldn't even know about many of them to even seek them out.
 
#91
chris_b said:
The Jazz was probably Fender's top of the line in 1962 but the P bass was right up there with it.

JJ didn't take care of his basses, which is a different thing, but that P bass wasn't a crappy instrument.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'll take that on the chin. What I mean, he didn't worry about his instrument, didn't look after it, had a super high action some called unplayable, he just worried about what he played. Point being, you don't need a perfect instrument to put on a great performance. But you are right about the P bass, it rocks
 
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#92
sidonbass said:
After quite a few high end basses, and the fact that I’m playing upright almost exclusively,
I’m ready to step down. Currently own a Sadowsky Metro 5.
Has anyone stepped down from a high end bass to a sub 1000 dollar bass and been super happy with the change?
Click to expand...

I currently have several basses ranging from $500-$5k.
Honestly, I play the cheaper ones more. I love my custom MTD dont get me wrong, but sometimes a good ol MIM Fender is just fun! Plus I dont worry so much about them and dont care if it gets a ding here or there unlike the MTD.
I have a couple double basses as well, and the main one is a fully carved, but the fun time one is the cheaper vintage plywood.

Also remember that just cause it has a name on the head stock doesnt mean its always going to sound great. Lots of factors to a persons sound. I will take any bass to any gig and sound like me. Cheaper basses need a little more TLC (setup, etc). But once its done, any brand can be a killer bass.
 
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#93
Dr. Cheese said:
I have a bass that costs close to $6K new that I found in a pawnshop for under $1,100. Everyone with a high end bass has not paid top dollar.
Click to expand...

That does it, we seriously need to make a thread with a list of all the pawn shops you guys are finding these scores at. There is only one I can think of in this area, and it looked like a tame episode of hoarders on the inside..
 
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#94
Mark_70 said:
Bummer - I've been going about this all wrong. I just stepped UP TO a high end bass..

All kidding aside; It seems to me it's the "all you ever need" vs the "all you ever want" thing.
Same as buying a BMW 5-series vs a Toyota Camry I guess.. If the bills are paid and you can swing it..

I don't know that I'll be a much better bass player because of the $$$$ bass instead of the $$ bass but - boy - it sure sounds good and what a joy to play. Maybe ultimately I'll be a better player because it's such an inviting bass I'll just log more hours on it

Regards
Mark
Click to expand...

I drive a Dinan Stage 3 Roadster bc it feels good to smoke M4's.
I drive better than I play, so an expensive bass I keep tuned up and ready to rock isn't going to save me from skidding off into the Pacific Ocean.

Priorities may change when I can't justify race gas.
 
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#96
I guess I can be counted as one who used to own higher end basses (MTD, Sadowsky metro, Modulus, Roscoe, Pedulla) for about a 10 year period, and for the past 5 years I've been playing nothing but sub $1k basses...and I'm happy. I've also had lots of US Fenders and haven't found any recently that are worth keeping over my less expensive basses. After owning around 40 basses I have noticed that I really just prefer a passive 4 string P or PJ bass. And over the last several years the build quality has greatly improved in the budget bass range. So I'm happy playing and gigging basses that only cost a few hundred dollars each.
 
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#97
I have a Warwick Streamer Stage II that I paid $2300 for and I have a Fender MB-5 that I paid $300 for, and I would be fine if I could only play the Fender (I would probably upgrade the pickups). I think there would be times you'll miss the Sadowsky, but I think you could be "super happy" with a nice sub-$1k bass.
 
#98
I have overwhelming GAS for one of these; like sell everything and buy one. It would be kind of like going high and low end all at once.

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#100
sidonbass said:
After quite a few high end basses, and the fact that I’m playing upright almost exclusively,
I’m ready to step down. Currently own a Sadowsky Metro 5.
Has anyone stepped down from a high end bass to a sub 1000 dollar bass and been super happy with the change?
Click to expand...

Not sure in your world but in mine a $1'000 Bass is far from being a low-end instrument !
$500 .00 down is more on the lower end stuff ! and even then you could defenetly find a decent instrument especially on the pre owned market at that price range as well.
 
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