What do more costly basses provide?

[5StringBlues]

If you really want some links and light reading:

Fodera: Basses worth the money?

Fodera really worth the cost?

fodera, worth it, or no?

Help me understand Fodera pricing a little better.

Fodera are they worth the $

Fodera monarch standard, worth it?

Fodera vs other high end basses

Overpriced basses

That's just the first page of a google search...it brings up 14 pages of results

And two hard boiled eggs.

 

[TuneIn]

100-300 = good
300-1000 = more gooder
1000 - 2000 = more gooder wooder
2000-4000 = way more gooder wooder

 

[juancaminos]

Harley vs Ural, Mercedes vs Kia, Beverly Hills vs San Fernando, etc. Some can afford it some can't. Some want a Caddy so bad that they will live in a cheap apartment so they can drive a Cadillac. Other refuse to have payments. Some are just frugal. It never ends. My old boss dressed like the owner, had expensive cars and motorcycles. He had expensive carpet in his garage to park them on. My new boss drives and old Toyoda and dresses very casual.

 

[CalBuzz51]

I will say the Warmoth bass I built for about $1200 has a neck way ahead of my cheapos, and as good as any custom bass I’ve played that cost twice as much.

Edit: Resale is half on Warmoths, but that isn’t a concern for me.

 

[BassBrass]

List price on a Bach Vindabona trumpet is $3439.00, I think all of my basses together cost about that. My 77 Benge mlp looks like hell but the compression is still great. That's all that matters.
PS. what about the redundant considering the P bass threads?

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

OK. I'll keep commenting.
Maybe better to just show a picture of one shop I had the pleasure of visiting.

I'm on the left, and the Tee shirt I'm wearing identifies the gentleman on the right.

 

[Rocket Queen]

I have owned a few basses in the $600-$2000 range and one in the $2000-$4000 range. My No. 1 bass, and by far my favorite, cost less than $1,000.00, so I don't think I'm particularly biased towards uber-expensive instruments.

However, the sole bass I've purchased in the $2000-$4000 range (a Zon) is far and away the best constructed instrument I have ever owned. The level of playability far exceeds any other instrument I've put my hands on, counting both basses and guitars. From the perspective of craftsmanship and finish, everything about it is flawless.

In addition to that, getting into the higher price range opens up custom options that generally aren't available otherwise. My expensive bass is literally unique, as I requested a combination of changes from the builder that ultimately required them to redesign the body for this particular model and build mine as a one-off. The reason this matters to me is that my specific purposes on buying this bass was to get a high quality gigging instrument that was as light, ergonomic, and easy to play as possible to help me address some injury issues, and this simply would not have been possible with an "off the rack" instrument.

Pardon my curiosity, but if the Zon is the best instrument you've ever owned, and everything about it is flawless, and it was built expressly and exclusively for you alone to meet your particular ergonomic requirements, to the point of having the body redesigned, I'm genuinely wondering how an apparently "off the rack" instrument is still your #1 and favorite. Was the Zon still not quite custom enough, or did you recover from your injuries? What happened?

 

[Gigas444]

I have some basses, some of them are cheap, some are "average" (1000 - 2000 € range), and a boutique bass (a Dingwall super p 5 strings), well even if it's true that a tool is as good as its user (and I'm not that good), that bass "allow" me to play better due to its great playability/feeling/tone/ergonomics etc (and an astonishing low B), I don't think I can explain that with words, but when you try one you can immediately understand it's something different from all of the other instrument you tried before (fender, rick, warwick etc), that said when I'm home and I want some fun...I pick my old mexican made heavy modded p which feels like an old friend to me.
So, are expensive/boutique basses worth the extra money?
YES! for millions of reasons, both explainable (woods, craftmanship, weight, fret work, electronics etc) and non explainable (feeling, tone), BUT this does not mean you can't be happy with a budget instrument

 

[Volker Kirstein]

... I'm curious as to what you get as as benefit as you move up in price class?
...
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? ...

As you move up in price, the benefits get smaller and smaller. There's a lot of difference between a $100 bass and a $1000 bass, not so much between a $1000 bass and a $5000 bass. As always, there are exceptions.

What drives an average player to pay over $1500 for a quality bass? Usually, the name on the headstock, IMO. If you leave the headstock decal out of the equation, you can get a quality bass for $500. There's a HUGE "If it ain't Fender, it ain't §#*%" constituency.

 

[MAJOR METAL]

It's nearly a zen moment when I plug in one of my Sadowskys. I'm not a rich guy, but I'm willing to sacrifice other things so I can order an NYC Sadowsky, which makes me incredibly happy when I have one in hand. If I could achieve the same happiness by a mass produced cheaper instrument, I certainly would not have to work months of dangerous OT to afford one.

 

[smart51]

A hand made bass may be 20% parts and 80% labour. The parts will be better than cheap bases but the same as mid priced ones. What you get is the choice of parts, not just the ones the factory usually fit.

Where custom comes into its own is what the luthier spends the time on. Making stuff by hand. A factory will measure a piece of wood and say they can get 6 guitar bodies out of it. A top luthier will move a template around the wood to get the grain pattern just right and cut the body there. 3 bodies later and there's a lot of offcut but 3 beautiful blanks.

The luthier will also laminate wood to the taste of the musician. You like growl? We'll put a piece of wenge in the body. You want a quilted maple top. Sure thing. With that combination, I'd recommend a fruit wood back. do you like Cherry? You want a laminate neck through neck? That's what you want. The luthier knows that hard maple and sapele have a high modulus (so it doesn't bend). So does hickory or cherry. They will get the look you want and the tone you want and make it strong too. Your factory bass does it the cheapest way they can, while having the maple / swamp ash / active EQ buzz words needed to make you buy it.

I'll make you a bass with a scale that fits your arms, with a neck profile that fits your hand, with string spacing that fits your fingers, with a tone that fits your music and with a look that fits your image.

Is it worth it? You want someone with talent spend a week working on it, you have to pay a lot. The best value is a mid priced instrument made in the far east. Bespoke or value. Your choice.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

For me, I went with an expensive custom-built bass to achieve something that didn’t exist in production. Not for the purpose of having something unique and fancy, but to fit specific ergonomic, scale and aesthetic goals.

If I could have found an ergonomic, short-scale, ultralight, nice-looking off-the-shelf headless for less money, I would have snapped it up. But that didn’t seem to exist, so I had to find a luthier to build it.

That’s my reason for the expense. I also own a couple of $200 ibanez micros, and can’t say enough good things about them.

 

[zontar]

In my mind one of the biggest differences is durability.
There are exceptions, of course.
But some cheaper basses are made of cheaper woods & metals that may not last --which is okay in one sense if they are for beginners who will upgrade later on.
So it can depend on what you doing with it.

 

[glocke1]

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.

Frankly if you don't "get it" no amount of words will make you understand, you just need to go out and play higher quality, better made basses to realize what you are paying for.

 

[casualmadness]

For me (a guy who’s owned around 30-40 Basses in 30’ish years of playing), it’s a matter of what feels right to my hands and my ears and my soul. The general consensus is that Sadowsky is far superior to anything Fender. They’re definitely more expensive so they gotta be better, right? I had a Sadowsky....sexiest thing you’ve ever seen. Jazz bass in black with black pickguard, black tuners, black hardware, maple board. Man was it sexy! Sounded great, looked and played great, and yet I still prefer my MIA jazz. Most bass players would call shenanigans but to my hands, ears, etc, the Fender was better.

There’s another bass that’s popular among players (I won’t mention the name because I know how internet pissing matches get started.) This bass comes in right around $2000 new and usually can be found on the used market around $1200-$1500. Ive owned three of them and absolutely hated them. Some other players adore them.
Same can be said for another popular brand that new is around $2000 and more depending on model, number of strings, etc. This brand....I really wanted to love. So much so, I bought six different Basses of this builder and hated all of them.

Currently I have a MIA jazz and a Mike Lull (RIP) P bass and love them both dearly. I have a MIM Jazz that...if I’m being honest, if you pulled labels off and I had to compare it to a MIA, I couldn’t tell the difference. Now having said that, I have upgraded some things on it. It’s a phenomenal bass but I don’t play it because it’s fretless and though I used to be exclusive fretless, I’ve moved more into fretted and find I just don’t care for fretless anymore. Same reason I rarely play my stingray fretless. Just not a fretless guy anymore.

Beyond that I have a steinberger spirit that I really like a lot. It sounds surprisingly good and it was $300.

For me, the $10k Foderas are in the same realm as the $70k Mercedes Benz. I can afford it, but I don’t need it to do what I do. I’ve played professionally, on stage and in studio and I’ve never personally felt I needed to own something super high end. Same with cars. I recently convinced myself that a new car was in order. Have a daily driver that I bought new in 2011 for $19k. I also have a ‘05 pickup truck that I bought from the original owner for $18k. Ultimately I decided it’s silly to spend money on a new car when both of my vehicles still run well. Even my mechanic said “unless you just want a new car, there’s no reason to move on from what you have.” I agreed.

Currently I do play in a gigging band but far from professional. My MIA jazz and my Lull are perfect but here’s the thing, I’ve been doing this long enough, that I know even if (insert some giant band or entertainer here) called me and offered me the job of bass player in their band, I’m still not going out to buy that $10k Fodera because I don’t need it to get the sound I like.

Its early in the morning and I’m on little sleep so I’m likely rambling but I hope you’re picking up what I’m laying down.

Plus, I just don’t dig the whole brevity thing.

 

[bassstrangler]

Threads on this topic come up on Talkbass seemingly daily. Seriously, the search function is your friend on this one.

Oh and it's such a treat to use. NOT!

 

[lfmn16]

Perhaps you'd like to provide links as opposed to a snarky comment?

Since you are typing, your fingers aren't broken and it appears you have everything you need to use the search function yourself.

 

[bassstrangler]

Jaco only ate grocery store sausage.....

Good for Jaco...overplayed.

 

[lfmn16]

I just want to say, I really can’t understand why people feel the need to post “use the search function”. Allow me to explain some of the reasons:

1. Some of the thread topics may be old (as in nothing particularly recent) information. Opinions do change and the passing of time has a way of providing fresh perspective and shaping new thoughts on old subjects.

2. This is a bass forum. How many genuinely new topics do you think can be brought to the table within a given amount of time? There’s only so many bass related topics one can discuss. Topics will invariably repeat after a given time cycle.

3. What’s wrong with bringing the topic back up in the hopes it will generate new responses from users that didn’t have opportunity to chime in (or who weren’t even members) the last time it was asked?

4. Perhaps all the previous posts provided a wealth of information, but not the one specific nugget the poster was after. Starting a new thread allows for the opportunity to actively shape and direct the discussion to meet the posters specific query.

Yes, the search function is useful. I’ll give you that. Sometimes it is indeed all you need, but sometimes it simply isn’t.

If you don’t want to add your thoughts to the discussion, simply move on about your day. I’m quite certain 99% of the people using computers these days knows how to perform a search. Taking on the role of Captain Obvious does nothing to further the discussion.

Just some food for thought.

I don't totally disagree. I recently started a thread on another forum asking for everyone's favorite country guitarist. The first line in my thread was that I had done a search and didn't find anything recent. Some jerk immediately says I obviously didn't search very thoroughly and posts two threads as proof. One was on alt-country guitarists and the other was 12 years old.

However, the topic of this thread is addressed regularly. As a forum member for 5 years, I would think that the OP would know that. Just my opinion.

 

[bassstrangler]

OK. I'll keep commenting.
Maybe better to just show a picture of one shop I had the pleasure of visiting.
View attachment 3708149
I'm on the left, and the Tee shirt I'm wearing identifies the gentleman on the right.

Wow Phil has really changed with prison life.