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Top Ten high end basses?

#42
Ill go with the OP's intent

In no particular order and in my IME and IMO:

Roscoe
Lakland
Sadowsky
Nordstrand
Marleaux
Ritter
F bass
Alleva Coppolo
Smith

I know I'm missing one so Ill throw in Musicman as a very well made, distinctive, mass produced instrument!
 
#47
Here's my two cents;
Tom Clement
Sukop
Zon
Lakland
Roscoe
Mtd
Elrick
Fodera
Sadowski
Warwick

But I must remark that cost and what sounds good is subjective to your personal taste...and there are plenty of inexpensive production basses that are awesome...the bass itself won't make The bassist, the bassist it's what makes the bass good regardless of brand, I'm sure if you give Victor Woo10 a one string instrument he will still sound insanely amazing and better than 98% of all players out there... And the "tone" or " sound" whatchamacallit, lives within the person and not the gear itself and I will admit that takes sometime to figure that out and there's no formulas to find this, it's a personal quest... Good luck
 
Last edited:
#48
Gigio Toots said:
Here's my two cents;
Tom Clement
Sukop
Zon
Lakland
Roscoe
Mtd
Elrick
Fodera
Sadowski
Warwick

But I must remark that cost and what sounds good is subjective to your personal taste...and there are plenty of inexpensive production basses that are awesome...the bass itself won't make The bassist, the bassist it's what makes the bass good regardless of brand, I'm sure if you give Victor Woo10 a one string instrument he will still sound insanely amazing and better than 98% of all players out there... And the "tone" or " sound" whtchamacallit, lives within the person and not the gear itself and I will admit that takes sometime to figure that out and there's no formulas to find this, it's a personal quest... Good luck
Click to expand...

... nice thread resurrection! :thumbsup: ... though I don't have an opinion... :jawdrop:
 
#54
I have 3 electric basses that could be considered 'high end.'

Dingwall Super J
Drake Custom
Fender Custom Shop Jazz

I do recommend Andrew Drake. Great dude, great builder and he'll make anything you want. We designed the body shape together. Can't speak highly enough about him. He WILL build me another bass one day.

I got my Dingwall Super J after playing a friends. From what I've tried, the hype is justified.

Fender Custom Shop stuff ranges from exceptional down to total ripoff for the money. I got a great deal used. Jury is still out.

Bass I gig the most? A run of the mill Fender AM STD P bass.

Aesthetics will play a huge part I'm assuming at the higher end and most of those basses don't appeal to me personally. They tend to look like Gandolf sig models and I ain't no wizard :)
 
#57
Here's a different take:

(Basses that are also sculpture art)
Ritter
Jerszy Drozd
Wishbass
Gittler

(Basses with Graphite necks)
Modulus
Zon

(Basses with fanned frets)
Dingwall

(Basses with their own tone)
Alembic
Ken Smith
Sadowsky
Fender

(Basses with exceptional craftsmanship)
Fodera

(Custom built basses to your specs)
Fender custom shop
and oh so many others by various luthiers

(My favorite boutique basses)
SX (modded by me to my specs)
(I'm a really cheap guy)

Obviously some basses fit several categories.
 
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#58
I added Novax

(Basses that are also sculpture art)
Ritter
Jerszy Drozd
Wishbass
Gittler

(Basses with Graphite necks)
Modulus
Zon

(Basses with fanned frets)
Dingwall
Novax

(Basses with their own tone)
Alembic
Ken Smith
Sadowsky
Fender

(Basses with exceptional craftsmanship)
Fodera

(Custom built basses to your specs)
Fender custom shop
and oh so many others by various luthiers

(My favorite boutique basses)
SX (modded by me to my specs)
(I'm a really cheap guy)
 

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