It was actually quite moving and rather beautiful. There’s parts of it I still have rattling around inside my head. Dolby gets nowhere near the credit he deserves. And it’s amazing what just two musicians can do on a stage.
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Vintage basses pricing. Seriously?
- Thread starter Clifford Lee
- Start date
It was actually quite moving and rather beautiful. There’s parts of it I still have rattling around inside my head. Dolby gets nowhere near the credit he deserves. And it’s amazing what just two musicians can do on a stage.
Looks pretty cool... for some reason, I love lighthouses... always have. In one sense, I think they represent a constant in one's life, but in all reality, you know they can't exist forever. The family has plans in the works to visit at least a few, mainly along the upper eastern coast...
This!
Although I’d put my initial point of diminishing returns starting somewhere up around the $1500 mark currently.
But as you said, it’s a personal thing. And I have a slight advantage in that looks are fairly low on my list of priorities when buying a bass.
Risking going seriously OT here, the premise behind it is a meditation on the nature of memory. He remembers the lighthouse beam (visible from his childhood bedroom) as a huge illuminating beacon. But when he travels to the island as an adult, he’s surprised to see it’s rather small and unimpressive and thinks: This isn’t the lighthouse I saw from my room at all. What happened to it? Have I gone mad?
The average person would think they just misremembered. But Dolby (being Dolby) asks an interesting question. What if there are two lighthouses in two different Englands? Perhaps our childhood memories are about a distinctly separate but similar world to the one we live in as adults. And maybe throughout out lives we travel between slightly different but very real versions of what we think of as “our world” without noticing the transitions…hence there’s England - and a place called Oceania - for Dolby. And he realizes it’s Oceania that he’s unconsciously been on a journey most of his adult life to return to.
It’s a pretty idea that works on several levels, starting at poetic metaphor and going all the way up to the parallel reality concept in quantum physics.
Gotta love Tom Dolby!
I'm just glad we had lighting, as a child, as well as outdoor cable...
(Thanks for the explanation, @40Hz!)
- Aug 3, 2007
- 1,678
- 2,146
- Disclosures
- Current: Blackstar, DR strings, Nady. Previous endorsements with: GK, Rotosound, Ernie Ball, Cleartone, EMG, Dean, Dava Picks, Rebel Straps, Dickies
Just be glad there's an insanely large number of well built, great sounding instruments available for far less than vintage, Some even with vintage spec.
Vintage only offers nostalgia and "look what i have" status. If you don't care about those two things, You're going to save thousands on your basses
Vintage only offers nostalgia and "look what i have" status. If you don't care about those two things, You're going to save thousands on your basses
- Aug 3, 2007
- 1,678
- 2,146
- Disclosures
- Current: Blackstar, DR strings, Nady. Previous endorsements with: GK, Rotosound, Ernie Ball, Cleartone, EMG, Dean, Dava Picks, Rebel Straps, Dickies
Yeah, my comment was tongue-in-cheek. If anyone could convince an entire people to think the same i'd imagine they'd have loftier goals (good or bad) than buying a vintage bass.
I know all about the vintage market... I have a 69 Chevy short fleet pickup in my garage and people can't fathom what they're worth when they inquire.
Interesting thread. I remember once seeing an early 70s or perhaps even late 60s sunburst Fender in a store. Some kid wanted to learn to play bass, and his mom asked the store owner: "What about that old one, that can't be too costly, right?" 
This has bugged me for quite some time. There is a collector market that will goose up the prices of certain musical instruments regardless of whether they are any good. Once upon a time it was not so bad. Before Ebay existed. Even in the early days of Ebay you could find some deals on Fenders that were not pre-CBS. I know a few folks that scored some really nice 70's Jazz basses before the boom dropped.
I think first there was kind of a craze of collecting Fenders in Japan. If you look at the Japanese bass market it is not hard to see that they are really into the Jazz bass over there. I also happen to know a guitar store owner who lamented that he was selling all his vintage Fenders to Japan. He said this in a kind of racist way, but the money was enough to overcome his bigotry!
Then when Ebay came along it totally wrecked the chances we had of finding an undervalued Fender in a pawn shop or some other 2nd hand store. Nowadays they all just check completed listings on Ebay and make a rough average. (I think there may even be a site that does this for you now?). So you just aren't going to find a cherry 70's Jazz with the block inlays for less than a brand new Sadowsky.
What is worse is that 80's and 90's Fenders are starting to creep up in price. I'm sorry, I really can see no reason to pay vintage price for a Fender that isn't nitro finished. If it's that tough as nails poly coat, it's not going to have that vintage vibe. It's just used.
For my money, I'd rather spend a couple grand on a well made bass from Fender Japan, Bacchus or Sadowsky Metroline.
I think first there was kind of a craze of collecting Fenders in Japan. If you look at the Japanese bass market it is not hard to see that they are really into the Jazz bass over there. I also happen to know a guitar store owner who lamented that he was selling all his vintage Fenders to Japan. He said this in a kind of racist way, but the money was enough to overcome his bigotry!
Then when Ebay came along it totally wrecked the chances we had of finding an undervalued Fender in a pawn shop or some other 2nd hand store. Nowadays they all just check completed listings on Ebay and make a rough average. (I think there may even be a site that does this for you now?). So you just aren't going to find a cherry 70's Jazz with the block inlays for less than a brand new Sadowsky.
What is worse is that 80's and 90's Fenders are starting to creep up in price. I'm sorry, I really can see no reason to pay vintage price for a Fender that isn't nitro finished. If it's that tough as nails poly coat, it's not going to have that vintage vibe. It's just used.
For my money, I'd rather spend a couple grand on a well made bass from Fender Japan, Bacchus or Sadowsky Metroline.
...lest we digress...
Why is it that every guy with an old Bass thinks it is valuable and that he has "decided to let it go!" lol
I decided to spend less for a great '98 Fender Am. Std. Precision body, a '63 AVRI mint pickguard, clean screws, a Kline '59 pickup, Emerson Controls electronics, Hipshot tuners, BadAss III, and a Status Graphite neck and a Plek job.
No fuss, no muss Bass! $1300
Bullet Proof!
Why is it that every guy with an old Bass thinks it is valuable and that he has "decided to let it go!" lol
I decided to spend less for a great '98 Fender Am. Std. Precision body, a '63 AVRI mint pickguard, clean screws, a Kline '59 pickup, Emerson Controls electronics, Hipshot tuners, BadAss III, and a Status Graphite neck and a Plek job.
No fuss, no muss Bass! $1300
Bullet Proof!
Since materials and production methods change over time the sound of the instruments become difficult to reproduce with great accuracy. That being said there is a huge emotional component to it as well. The only way to tell is double-blind comparison tests. When this was done with violins it was discovered that even experts rated newer instruments higher than the legendary Stradavarius. 80% of top pro sax players play Selmer Mark VI (1954-1970). I wonder if this preference would stand up to similar testing. I also wonder about whether basses like Foderas are much better than considerable cheaper instruments. I think so much is hype and emotion.
Here's a theory; an instrument that's been played a lot over decades seems to get better the more it's played. It's not a quantifiable thing but when you pick one up you can feel the mojo immediately. That can't be built in on a production line. Being old isn't enough. I played an old Gibson archtop that was a gift to a GI leaving for the Korean War. He never came home and the guitar remained in the case unplayed for nearly 70 years complete with hang tags attached. It sounded like crap, even after it was restrung. I've played new basses that have this "mojo" but they're luthier built in one man shops like Ken Lawrence. There's $10K and worth every penny. It's not the age, it's the history played into it.
I think it may be that really good wood was more available then. The wood in an instrument improves somehow with age and use. Somebody sells a device that puts vibrations into an instrument so that it ages years in a short time. I had a classical guitar my wife bought at a garage sale for me about 30 years ago. It had a so so tone. I started using it again a year ago when my other one was in for repairs, and it sounded amazing.
As for electronics, they are probably better, but that might equal to loosing a funky tone that the old ones produced. Some of really old pickups were more radioactive (all magnets are radioactive to a certain degree) My 1954 stratocaster's white pick guard has turned slightly greenish neon like over the years. Good thing I took up Bass!
I can't find a high end video card for my gaming PC because of the bitcoin boom. I could get emotional about it, or I could just shrug and say "stuff happens".
Here’s why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy
Here’s why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy
Nothing sounds like a stock '60s P (through '66 or '67). From any era or any builder. Argue if you would like, but put your really critical ears on and go searching. Most experienced players will agree with this.
You don't have to like that sound, or want it I'm your arsenal, but if you *do* want that sound I believe many of us would agree there is only one way to get it: you have to buy one of these instruments.
You don't have to like that sound, or want it I'm your arsenal, but if you *do* want that sound I believe many of us would agree there is only one way to get it: you have to buy one of these instruments.
