A lot of good thoughts in your reply. If I can present a simile to sort of illustrate what you just said...Yep!
For me, it depends on the bass in my hands at that time.
Neck feel, resonance, intonatable. Those things first, then price and last manufacturer. Country of origin never figures in for me. I will support whomever provides me the best bass at that moment out of the basses I'm looking at, regardless of the location of the human that build it.
True some series may be built with better parts and inprovements, however those inprovements don't always transfer from one piece of wood to another. You can have 25 examples of the same model in a series but find a few klunkers. Might have a better time finding good basses in a particular series or line but each one should be evaluated on it own merits and not on name or place of origin.
A number of years ago (1998 ish?), my daughter an aspiring flautist needed a piccolo (as she was studying with a MAJOR symphony player). I actually sold my 1966 Gretsch Country Gentleman to help finance the purchase. I had budgeted $2000 for the piccolo (somewhat low budget for a top quality piccolo).
In that year the National Flute Fair came to town. Every flute manufacturer was there. Tons of flutes and pics to try. I didn't expect to spend a penny less than the $2k. We had a friend, a professional piccolo player accompany us who really knows piccolos and had recently purchased one for $6500. Over the course of several days we auditioned somewhere in the neighborhood of SIXTY FIVE piccolos, almost none less than $2k. Almost all except one were dissappointing and the mfr wouldn't sell us that one and wanted to make one of the same model. No thanks. To cut to the chase, on the very last day, last hour of the fair we came across a refurished, middle level piccolo, brand and model with two head joints! . This pic blew the doors off of every other piccolo we'd tried for days and days. To listen to the sound after becoming acclimated to some really expensive pics I was stunned. When I asked how much.... $750. What else was there to say except "what form of payment do you take"?
Bottom line: It's not about brand or model or even price. It's just about the stars aligning and sometimes having the experience to know when something "sort of good" can, with just a little knowledge can be made incredible with very little extra money.
