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Understanding Pricing

#23
Yeah,mahogony and ash are not exactly import from africa or hawaii,but of the main soft woods of alder,ash, and basswood? i think it was, most chose to use alder. How much gets amplified plugged in i havent tested, but we have run un amp'd test on tone and ash way blows alder away for low end.Depends what you want,my friends maple gave the expected very bright.
 
#24
Whil57 said:
well, the other day i drove 30 miles to check out the G&L. The guy in the store gave me a few to play along with the Sandberg. Its a new company he said from Germany.It actually had faster action than the G&L and the price tag was 950. You can google them, not hard to find. Wasnt overly impressed with playability but did seem very solid. As far as extoic wood, BC Rich is making mahogony bodies, ESP has ash bodies instead of alder,there's alot out there (although as one of you posted who knows how the wood gets cured). I guess its my nad for wanting a thin feeling neck, as i recently found out is not very popular. Thats part of my search problem.
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So that Sandberg had faster action than the G&L? Did the frets move up to meet your fingers??

I've owned at least 15 G&L basses over the years, and they all had super low action. Have your guy set the bass up properly next time.

There are countless brands out there with "thin feeling" necks. Google them, they're not hard to find. In the meantime, a couple things you should understand -
1. Mahogany and ash aren't "exotic" woods.
2. The reason that Sandberg, and the BC Rich and ESP basses are cheaper than a Fender is that they're made in countries where wages are 1/20th what they are over here.
 
#25
Whil57 said:
Yeah,mahogony and ash are not exactly import from africa or hawaii,but of the main soft woods of alder,ash, and basswood? i think it was, most chose to use alder. How much gets amplified plugged in i havent tested, but we have run un amp'd test on tone and ash way blows alder away for low end.Depends what you want,my friends maple gave the expected very bright.
Click to expand...

Huh...???
 
#29
OP, I've re-read your posts a couple of times, and I still don't really get what you are asking. If you can tell us what exact features you are looking for, it might help us to point you in the right direction.

As far as pricing goes, there aren't many manufacturers that are making tons of money these days. They all struggle to price at a point that will satisfy customer demand and still turn a profit.
 
#37
awilkie84 said:
That being said...even the G&L Legacy basses (also made overseas) are more expensive than THAT Sandberg.
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"Legacy" basses? What G&L Legacy? My impression is that G&L stopped making those something like 20 years ago.


If you mean the "Tribute" basses, there's no Tribute that I know of that costs anywhere near $950. Most Tribute basses retail at less than $700. And the Tributes have US-made pickups and electronics.
 
#39
All goes with the name. Leo didn't build things for high quality, he built them to be affordable and mass produced. The woods etc. that he used were what was cheap, available, and easy to machine. Same for the amps. Having said that, it was what ya had back in the day, if it said fender or Gibson it was US made and at the time was better than anything else. That's not the case today, but people who don't know better know the name. Play an epiphone and a gibson and tell me the Gibson plays and sounds thousands better.
Oddly enough, the US fender shop looks to be about 90% women and Mexican workers. The Mexican shop seems to employ more Americans. Go figure. Even the master builders at fender are young guys mainly, none have been there longer than the 90's I believe, even though there is this romantic notion that their the guys who built the originals.
From my experience Ibanez consistently builds the best instruments for a large manufacturer over the years. Their quality is and always has been top notch as with most things Japanese. Other than that most off shore brands are made by Samick or a few other builders.
The European builders are coming on strong over the past few years making amazing instruments at a good price, but most don't recognize the names with quality because their new in the US market.
 

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