Vintage Mustang

[BassicJazzy]

No extra charge for the vintage strings, "original" grunge and corrosion in the electronics. Since it's from GC, probably needs a set-up too?

Unless you had a deep personal attachment to these basses, like you mother was playing one while giving birth to you, cannot understand why anyone would pay that, but they do.

My friend was going to fork out $4,500 for a Fender5, the original Fender 5 string, only because it belonged to his friend's father and he remembered playing it as a child. He was going to put it in a case on his wall. That I can understand. Terrible bass, BTW. Neck like a baseball bat, p'ups that didn't span the strings.

 

[Admiral Akbar]

That $5,500 Mustang is probably a very nice bass, but musically not worth that money. However, a collector MAY pay that scratch and not blink an eye, therefore the bass is priced with exactly that type of buyer in mind.

If GC priced that bass more reasonably around $2500, a flipper would be all over it and we’d see it on Reverb for $6,0000. There are plenty of flippers and “Mom and Pop” vintage stores that have lines into GC, cherry-picking inventory to flip to collectors. With the $5.5k price tag, at least give GC credit for trying to cut out the middle man, and giving more money to the party that sold them the bass in the first place.

 

[Ric Vice]

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I saw this vintage Mustang last week at the Bridgeton, MO GC. Almost $5,500 for an old Mustang is something I still find wild, but it’s cheaper than an old Jazz.

Definitely true. I’ve always considered both the Mustang and Music Master to be “student basses” aimed at
a different market than the Jazz and Precision Basses which at the time were Professional instruments.

 

[J Wilson]

Vintage Mustang? Sure !

 

[Bass Viking]

I don't get how vintage stuff is that valuable when there are so many reissues with likely better quality/less issues

That’s how I feel. I understand the concept of supply and demand, it’s the demand part I don’t get!

 

[Pings Bass]

I could see maybe $2500 for that bass…. Never $5k though!

I've been watching a beat up 78 mustang on GC for months they have priced at $2500 thinking they've got to get real at some point. But there it sits, months later. It's a perfect match for my brown P, but I've already got too many instruments I don't play.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

I bought my clean 65 jazz for that amount 2 years ago.

 

[DionClassic]

I think some of the price increases are relative to other models in fenders lineup in that period. Of if a P is this much now a mustang must be this now.

The only way you find the top of the mark is by listing something like this. If it doesn’t sell, they’ll lower it until it goes.

I’ve had several different vintage fenders and i’ll say, they all aren’t worth the money when it comes to what the instrument is as an instrument. But like said above, someone could have sentimental attachment to old mustangs. Could have been one that they used to own and they sold and this brings them back a piece of their youth and so on. I think this has been discussed above.

I purchased a 1952 Precision and i know people will say I am insane for doing that, but to hold a bass made by hand that was held and played by so many is a very cool feeling, and to be one of the first electric basses ever is even more amazing. For me, it was worth it.

At the very least my kids can get some of that money back one day, or remember me when they pick it up. Money is just a thing, daily it is devalued, at least these instruments are true to their design, have produced countless smiles along the way.

I always enjoy looking at the classifieds and just seeing the basses come and go. And prices being commanded. Who knows who is finally getting the piece they dreamed of and what it’ll cost.

 

[cornfarmer]

... they all aren’t worth the money when it comes to what the instrument is as an instrument. But like said above, someone could have sentimental attachment to old mustangs.

Case I point - I got a JMJ on a trade not expecting much, but it surprised me in how good it played & recorded (you can keep the BS relic-ing and the guy's signature). Let it go prematurely, and thought I'd get the real deal next, a '66 that had been messed with but still cost me a couple grand. I set it right and it was definitely better after a little restoration. Other than the old finish and the original hardware, pots/wiring/etc, it was about equal with the JMJ when it came down to it.

That was a pricey pseudo experiment, I sold the '66 to a retired gentleman who had 'the sentimentals' about the same bass that he once had when he was younger....I've been there too w/ the first bass I played.

Now I got the yearning for another! I don't need it though.