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What goes on in your head when purchasing a bass
- Thread starter xxcody2gunsxx
- Start date
Haven't bought a bass in a good long while. But the first thing in my head was, how does the neck feel? I had a '65 Jazz that I bought in 1966 and was stolen from me in 1976. I chased the feel of that 1965 neck for almost 10-years before I found it in 1985. It's the 1982 with maple neck in my avatar. So how the neck feels has always been a concern of mine.I'm wonder the thoughts that one has when purchasing a bass these days? New or Used.
The reason I ask is that it seems that people will pass up a prestige like bass with all the bells and whistles ,handcrafted from a small time luthier company that costs a lot of man hours and $$ to make ,for a Well known name that doesn't hold a candle these days to the quality or craftsmanship of these small time luthiers .
I.E . I spent 5k on a well crafted bass from a small business owner .I sell/trade it for 3k "no bites" even offer it to a Rickenbacker 4003 for a trade and get blown off
Yet when I throw out a name brand "fender with issues "or even a Pat Wilkins bass they come running .
Right Now I have very awesome deals to be had with a couple of Lower Groove Basses on the market Yet, Everyone is jumping on the brand wagon for a cracked Warwick I also have for sale .
I bought a 5-string back in 2009 because the group I was playing in needed it for about 5-songs and I was just tired of down-tuning my E string to accommodate that. OK...I was also tired of forgetting to tune it back up to E before we started the next song, which can make for some scary adjustments. It has a much flatter radius and is of course wider (45.5mm) than my Jazz, but it still has a fairly slim neck depth at right about an inch deep. It is surprisingly comfortable for me to play even though the neck is so flat compared to the 7.25" radius on my Jazz. I don't play it all the time because my Jazz sounds better even though that 5-string sounds pretty good.
I have never cared for the necks on a P-bass because they are so thick and wide. Then my Gransdon, Rohan, got a Squier P-bass with P/J pickups for Christmas while we were visiting in Australia a few years back. Of course I had to pick it up and try it out and even though it was a wider neck, it was surprisingly slim. I was comfortable playing it. So I'm thinking about that neck shape and depth anytime I'm looking at a bass now.
I have one bass in the cross-hairs now and that's a Dingwall Lee Sklar signature 5-string. I am fascinated with those fanned frets and they are on a slim, flattened, C-shape neck, so I think that will be great. I may have to relent and get one of their standard "ready-to-sell" basses because even at an "Endorser" price, I'll have to play a lot of gigs to afford one and I'd really like to have one.
You could just read the is fender a dinosaur on its way out thread. Cuz it's essentially the same thread.
I buy Basses to fill certain roles I need occupied in my arsenal…I've never gone bass shopping without something pretty specific in mind…if I'm building a stable from the ground up, I start with 4 stringers, usually we'll worn used ones..I usually go for covering J bass and P bass territory (because that's the territory most of my gigs and sessions hang in)…after that, a passive 5 string, a MM of some sort and at the end a very nice, flexible boutique 5 string with a preamp that I can tolerate…the brand you mentioned (Lower Groove?) I have never heard of…there are dozens of Basses that sit in the classifieds here from small shops I've never heard of that I pass up daily because I'm not familiar with the brand…my guess is that most cats here don't really know about that brand or what to make of it, so asking big money on a boutique no ones ever heard of is gonna be a tough sell most of the time…you might be better off trying to sell to a dealer for that builder if there is such a thing…Fenders, Warwick's, etc….people take chances in those more often because that's what they know…I guess..
I've always looked at Fender Basses as being the equivalent of the Small Block Chevy engine.....virtually unchanged in design since 1957 or so, they fit everywhere, there's a ton of aftermarket parts available to upgrade them and they are the standard to which most others are compared to. But, I get that not everyone is a Fender/Chevy guy.
Bottom line, if you don't like them, don't use them...... however there's no need to jump into a thread and tell everyone how uncool you find them.
I'm wonder the thoughts that one has when purchasing a bass these days? New or Used.
The reason I ask is that it seems that people will pass up a prestige like bass with all the bells and whistles ,handcrafted from a small time luthier company that costs a lot of man hours and $$ to make ,for a Well known name that doesn't hold a candle these days to the quality or craftsmanship of these small time luthiers .
I.E . I spent 5k on a well crafted bass from a small business owner .I sell/trade it for 3k "no bites" even offer it to a Rickenbacker 4003 for a trade and get blown off
Yet when I throw out a name brand "fender with issues "or even a Pat Wilkins bass they come running .
Right Now I have very awesome deals to be had with a couple of Lower Groove Basses on the market Yet, Everyone is jumping on the brand wagon for a cracked Warwick I also have for sale .
I have five thoughts off the top of my head:
1. How's it sound?
2. How's it play?
3. How's it look?
4. How well is it made?
5. Is it worth the money?
