What do more costly basses provide?

[Ian Lewis]

It's a given that you can buy a bass guitar for $100... or $10,000+. But lets say we find some middle ground; $600-$2000 and $2000-$4000. I'm curious as to what you get as as benefit as you move up in price class? And I will stipulate that with a player who earns a living playing bass, price almost doesn't matter because you want the best for your needs, even if the gains for significantly more money brings incremental benefits. But for the rest of us, I'm wondering what would justify spending even $2000 as opposed to $1000 or for some well made budget basses, even $600.

But first, I'd like to take "artistry" off the table. We know that many wooden instruments are genuine works of art and the art should be acknowledged. But I'm just wondering about value and benefit from a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT standpoint. As a brass player I often see top players playing beat-up, Frankenstein mash-ups, playing and sounding terrific.

So if we boil bass guitars down to playability, sound, electronics and finish quality (excluding "works of art"), what drives and average player to pay over $1500 for a quality bass? Let's start there for conversation's sake.

I play a couple of Warwicks. One cost $1,600, the other $10,500 here in expensive-land (Australia). The more expensive bass is a little more playable, a little better sounding, a little better finished and a lot better looking. I think you answered your own question.

 

[JimmyM]

It's a given that you can buy a bass guitar for $100... or $10,000+. But lets say we find some middle ground; $600-$2000 and $2000-$4000. I'm curious as to what you get as as benefit as you move up in price class? And I will stipulate that with a player who earns a living playing bass, price almost doesn't matter because you want the best for your needs, even if the gains for significantly more money brings incremental benefits. But for the rest of us, I'm wondering what would justify spending even $2000 as opposed to $1000 or for some well made budget basses, even $600.

But first, I'd like to take "artistry" off the table. We know that many wooden instruments are genuine works of art and the art should be acknowledged. But I'm just wondering about value and benefit from a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT standpoint. As a brass player I often see top players playing beat-up, Frankenstein mash-ups, playing and sounding terrific.

It all depends how picky you are and what matters to you most. My main player would have cost a little over a grand if I hadn't been a beta tester and supplied a handful of parts I wanted. It did require a fret job a little more to my liking, and I've done a couple small mods to it since getting it, but it's by far my favorite bass, even over basses I paid more (and way way less) for, and I'm pretty picky. I don't need a $3000 Fender because the $1000 FSO is getting it done for me. Other people may be more picky. They want custom finishes, custom neck dimensions, and maybe they want to nitpick over every aspect of the design, and for that they will pay.

On the other hand, I've done arena shows with a $100 SX bass before and nobody had a word of complaint except me with their shoddy fretwork Find your comfort zone, try to exist in it as well as you can, and don't worry about what anyone else does. If you find love with a cheap bass or an ultra-expensive one, all that matters is what you do with it.

 

[JW56789]

In my experience:

Is a $2000 bass 10x better than a $200 bass? In most ways (if not all), Yes.

Is a $20,000 bass 10x better than a $2000 bass? Often, No, but then in a very few cases, probably.

But one thing I'm certain of: Whether you're a trust fund beneficiary, or work a blue-collar job to play at the VFW this Friday Nite , you think as-much-bass-as-I-can-afford is the best.

 

[BassNugget]

For me, and my bass journey, I found diminishing returns as I passed the $2,000.00 US mark. I found that I was not getting a better bass, was not getting better craftsmanship or quality control, I was simply getting a more "handmande" item with different qualities, exotic woods, and more exotic electronics and/or hardware. An EBMM Stingray is about as tight as you can get for quality control of a combination CNC/Hand-finished product. But, if you decide to look into say a Pedulla or F-Bass or something to that effect, you get a very different instrument indeed. In my opinion, none of the Fs or Pedullas that I played had any tighter fit and finish or quality control than a MusicMan, but they were very beautiful and sounded AMAZING. They were very different for sure. There were plenty of times that I was jonesing for one of those F-Basses (IMHO, one of the best sounding five strings out there). But at 2-3 times the price of the Stingray, I just couldn't swing it. The Stingray also sounded better for the genre of music that I was playing and the equipment that I had (right tool for the job). I have also played some gorgeous instruments with exotic finishes that I thought sounded absolutely horrible; but they had great fretwork, exotic woods, hand-rubbed finishes, abalone inlays, and other expensive to produce parts. Just my humble opinion.

 

[jazzyvee]

I have always had the view that i should always buy the best instrument i can afford at the time without getting into debt. So when i was starting in independent life, work and music, my budget was quite small but I always found what i thought was the best quality used guitar for that and made it work for me. Some were good others less so but that’s how it was. Although i was a guitarist, i was a big Aston Barrett & Stanley Clarke fan but always dreamed of getting an alembic bass because of it’s sound. Decades later and a twist of chance i was in a position to buy an alembic bass at a seriously good knock down price from a dealer clearing their stock. I picked it up and could see how well engineered from the sound to the build quality it was and it became clear to me why good excellent usually comes at a price. Did I need one....? No, does the audience notice the difference? Probably not, but I wanted one and it ticked all the right boxes. So for me a costly bass was worth the outlay. These days there are lots of great quality basses around at various price points so you don’t need to pay a fortune for s good bass unless you want to.