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Double Bass What am I missing here?

H

Hammertime3

Apr 23, 2008
483
294
Delaware
#1
I just saw this on Facebook Marketplace today. I peruse Marketplace several times daily and just saw this...says it's been for sale for 37 weeks. Why hasn't it sold? Looks like a deal to me. I have to think I am missing something big, but it has no broken neck, adjustable bridge, no visible cracks, and strung with guts....looks like. What do the authorities here think...really curious. I have no idea where it's been hiding.

(20+) Marketplace - 1940 Kay bass for sale or trade | Facebook
 
#3
If I was in the market for one I would. My last bass was a 1940 Kay Orchestra that I paid $1000 for from a girl in Philly. This one's about 120 miles away, but I have no use for an upright at this stage of my life. No bluegrass around here any more, and I don't travel much anymore at my age. I just can't imagine where this bass was hiding. I really look the listings over daily and after 37 weeks I just saw it today. Marketplace is hard to figure anyhow. I just listed some bass guitar pickups on there and I 've only been able to find them...without using "search" once. They are buried somewhere I suppose.
 
#4
Yeah, that close to Philly, someone should have checked it out. Also possible people have checked it out and found an unknown or hidden issue. I’ve had some challenges buying from an estate (family selling item of someone deceased), sometimes they have trouble saying ‘yes’ to a fair reasonable offer.

All social media, like YouTube or FB, use algorithms, also the marketplace feature. Ads that get too few clicks on initial exposure don’t get prioritized by the algorithm so don’t jump up in anyone’s feed. And the post is not a shop or vendor that has enough other posts to get any bump from that association. As a buyer of bass related gear you can also save your searches so the same and similar posts will pop up more often in your feed, even if not particularly in the market at present, e.f., I like seeing what uprights are moving in my area.

Things that help sellers are having key words, synonyms for contrabass upright standup, near synonyms like acoustic, and brands of both upright and electric basses. Especially in title but also body. All to get some initial click. Then after a week or two the seller should re-activate “renew” the ad, and at some point “delete and re-list”. Maybe with new wording. Also one can have friends click on and save the ad. An inactive seller or unresponsive seller is one factor in a stale ad.
 
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#5
1) Kay’s aren’t that awesome. Low overstand, tops give issues, funky setups, etc.

2) you can get a higher quality Shen or other import bass flooding the market for less

3) economy sucks right now. Especially for basses. They’re really difficult instruments to sell in the best of times

4) hidden issues could include : internal rattles, detached bass bar, deformed top, internal delaminating, etc etc…

5) the mythos of the asking prices on these Kay’s has gotten silly. I had a local guy try to sell me his old primo Kay for $5k the other day and wouldn’t budge. It was really nice and clean, don’t get me wrong, but why would anyone ever spend that much on a Kay? Also, most people who don’t care what it costs and want a Kay want the ”more desirable” ones (s9, etc)

the price seems right on this one, though, and if it was close to me I’d check it out for sure. But after 15 years in the musical instrument resale business, I’m jaded as heck.
 
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#6
Just in case anyone is interested, I just received this from the owner..


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The strings are synthetic with metal core brand new. Bought them to use with a magnetic pickup for slap bass. I believe it’s an M1 I’ll check serial number when I get home. I had it in a shop and I didn’t know much about it other than it was old. The luthier had a friend who did research on basses. He said it was a Kay 1940 I believe m1 he ran serial number on Kay sight and that’s what came back. It doesn’t say Kay on serial number tag and he said it was because Kay used to make them to be sold in catalogs by like sears and other companies so those basses had no Kay logos on them but you can go by the serial number. Just had a bunch of work to it also. New endpin new sound posts new adj bridge work on neck and tuners. Plays great




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#7
JBarz said:
1) Kay’s aren’t that awesome. Low overstand, tops give issues, funky setups, etc.

2) you can get a higher quality Shen or other import bass flooding the market for less

3) economy sucks right now. Especially for basses. They’re really difficult instruments to sell in the best of times

4) hidden issues could include : internal rattles, detached bass bar, deformed top, internal delaminating, etc etc…

5) the mythos of the asking prices on these Kay’s has gotten silly. I had a local guy try to sell me his old primo Kay for $5k the other day and wouldn’t budge. It was really nice and clean, don’t get me wrong, but why would anyone ever spend that much on a Kay? Also, most people who don’t care what it costs and want a Kay want the ”more desirable” ones (s9, etc)

the price seems right on this one, though, and if it was close to me I’d check it out for sure. But after 15 years in the musical instrument resale business, I’m jaded as heck.
Click to expand...
Kay's have gotten weirdly expensive. Seen a few people asking over $2500 for them. Why would I drop that much on one when I can go to a dealer and get a Shen that's probably better sounding for $500 less?
 
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#10
Leif Dering said:
Kay's have gotten weirdly expensive. Seen a few people asking over $2500 for them. Why would I drop that much on one when I can go to a dealer and get a Shen that's probably better sounding for $500 less?
Click to expand...

I feel like that's how it is with everything though. In the electric world, why would you buy an old P when you could get a high-end boutique bass with better versatility/playability for less $? Why buy an old Indian motorcycle when lots of cheaper models will be just as fun to drive and prob require less work?

Because of your associations with the thing?
Just because they're in your mind doesn't make them illegitimate. My German bass sounds louder, sweeter, and more complex than my Kay, and if I only had the Kay I'd 100% be on the lookout for something else... but man I love playing both of em. I def romanticize the folky myth of my M1 strapped to the top of a car (even though it prob just mainly hung out in a HS band room lol). What people will pay is usually as much about them as it is about the thing itself, and every market reflects mythology/hype/mojo.

Also the neck on mine plays fast as hell, so there's that. :)
 
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