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Double Bass There goes the neighborhood
- Thread starter LouisF
- Start date
Oh good...if this investment stategy takes off, finding a decent instrument at an attainable price will be even harder. I wonder how many fine instruments will eventually be destroyed by these asset grabbers who have no idea how to properly handle and maintain them.
I doubt there is a bass on earth that is the equivalent of a Stradivarius violin.
I don't think this will affect regular people looking for instruments in a regular price bracket.
Rare violins are worth money because of the rarity. There are a fixed number of Stradivarius violins, and they are all known, and the number can't increase... but it is all speculation and rarity.
And people who buy this type of thing as an asset don't just stick them in a cupboard and wait for them to increase in value. They have them stored and maintained and insured; and they often have a relationship with a world-class musician who is lent the instrument for concerts, thus increasing the cachet and prestige of the particular instrument.
Rare violins are worth money because of the rarity. There are a fixed number of Stradivarius violins, and they are all known, and the number can't increase... but it is all speculation and rarity.
And people who buy this type of thing as an asset don't just stick them in a cupboard and wait for them to increase in value. They have them stored and maintained and insured; and they often have a relationship with a world-class musician who is lent the instrument for concerts, thus increasing the cachet and prestige of the particular instrument.
Can't we just take pictures of our basses and sell them as NFTs?
Oh, I absolutely agree, but since it is supply and demand based I was just thinking of what the combination of people with more money than sense just trying to jump on a trend and people who think just because an instrument is old it's now worth a ridiculous amount could cause. The collectables market can be a bizarre place sometimes.
But what it does do, I think, is adversely affect the down market in that (symphony basses now) what was a respectable instrument at $40K gets pushed up to fifty or sixty; and 80 or 90K instrument goes for over 100K, etc. Bracket creep. Small, but unstoppable, I think.
I think it's a far bigger issue in the world of guitars, so unless you have your eyes on a classic one of those, you're probably safe.
At the end of the day, guitars are much more liquid and visible market. No bass will ever command the values that the original Les Pauls will - even though the Les Paul has some huge flaws as guitars go.
I suspect that we'll ultimately see Les Paul valuations drop, although not as bad as 60s muscle cars.
Yes. As we baby boomers die off, there will be fewer and fewer who grew up salivating over Les Pauls and the like - and who could afford to buy them when they reached financial comfort. I don't think younger folks have quite the yearning ... for them, 1980 is vintage, and they may not even know who Les Paul was.
... which makes the vintage electric-guitar market different from the violin market.
Frankly, I think Fender and Gibson really need to figure out a way to get the youth market interested in actually making music with a physical guitar. They're both large enough to be the biggest beneficiaries of any resurgence in guitar interest.
Prices coming down on 60s muscle cars?? Maybe I'll be able to afford one someday - although it might be a "wall-hanger" (static display piece) if gas pumps have gone the way of the dodo by then...
Short muscle cars, go long European sports cars from brands with race pedigrees.
Actually, if it gets enough publicity it definitely can affect the ordinary working folk trying to buy an instrument of moderate quality. No, those instruments won't ACTUALLY be investment grade objects, but their sellers will think they are, and start demanding exorbitant prices.
I did some work years ago with a world-famous violinist who had a Strad on loan. He literally never let it out of his sight. It was interesting to me partly because I didn't like the sound of the fiddle all that much. It seemed very dry and edgy. I worked with some other players who had instruments that had lesser pedigrees but sounded better IMO. I know that collector value is a different thing but as a player I didn't think that much of the actual sound quality compared to others I actually heard live.
Bows the same. I have two famous maker's or collector's bows which are pretty, but my go-to bow was given to me as an afterthought when I bought the instrument. A definite player's bow, priceless as far as I am concerned. Pedigree doesn't equate to sound.
Just a few years ago young Min Kym was having coffee with her boyfriend at a cafe in London, and her Strad was silently stolen from under the table. She had bought it herself by mortgaging her apartment. Her music and emotional life took a hit because of the theft. The Strad has not been recovered.
Speaking of bows, an award winning gold bow wins gold without being played.
Playing the bow is not part of a bow competition.
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