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What Percentage of Your Basses Were Bought Online?

What Percentage of Your Basses Were Bought Online?

  • 90-100%

    Votes: 235 34.3%

  • 80-99%

    Votes: 51 7.4%

  • 70-79%

    Votes: 68 9.9%

  • 60-69%

    Votes: 56 8.2%

  • 50-59%

    Votes: 56 8.2%

  • 40-49%

    Votes: 21 3.1%

  • 30-39%

    Votes: 34 5.0%

  • 20-29%

    Votes: 30 4.4%

  • 10-19%

    Votes: 26 3.8%

  • Less than 10%

    Votes: 24 3.5%

  • None

    Votes: 84 12.3%
  • Total voters
    685
#3
I hazard to guess at an actual number, but it would be the vast majority; thinking on it, probably 3/4. For most of the period I've played, I've lived in rural areas where the local B&M store might have 2 basses, always Fenders or clones and always badly set up, so if I was interested in something else it was either a 4hr one way drive or buy online and hope. The Ibanez I have on order is coming to a store local to me so I will pickup in person, but that's unusual in my personal experience. In the 80s it was all B&M as mail order was pretty uncommon.
 
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#4
Most of mine in the last few years have been online, before that in person/at a store. I only have one left that was bought in-person, though. I started buying fully online partly because of covid, partly because that's where I was able to find what I wanted.

How would on online purchase of in-store stock count? Meaning, it was at a local store, but the purchase was done via their website.

I've sold primarily local/in-person though; some of those were ones I just didn't connect with (like my SbMM Stingray 5 HH. Beautiful bass, just wasn't for me, I guess) that had been bought online.
 
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#6
I've only ever bought three basses...two from eBay and one from Reverb.
basses.jpg
 
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#7
I said "60-69" since two of my three current basses were bought online (Amazon to be precise). One before the pandemic, one during the pandemic. No issues with either of them...

Overall, though, those two are the only two I've bought online. So my overall rate is around 10%. I've owned around 20 basses over the years.
 
#8
Of the ten basses I currently own, I only played one before buying it, and that was in 1997 when buying online was only just getting going. I bought one via mail order a year or two before that. My most recent acquisition came across the continent from a friend of a friend; my friend had played it, but I hadn’t. The rest all came new from AMS (I technically placed the orders by phone, but did all the “shopping” online) or used via Reverb. A far higher percentage of basses I’ve sold I had played beforehand and bought from a store or a private seller ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ apparently I really shouldn’t try before I buy! Maybe I make more reasonable decisions without the excitement of an instrument in my hands?
 
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#9
I much prefer to try out an instrument before I buy it. Before the days of the CNC machines, there were differences in instruments of the same model. I noticed it Fender Precisions in the 1970s. I have sent back basses I didn't like.
I was very apprehensive making my first online order, a G&L SB2-T. It has turned out to be my go-to four string. I think with the construction techniques we have now, the possibility you may get a clunker is very low. And, with the friendly return policies of the retailers these days, it is not as scary as it once was,
 
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#10
I said 40-49%. I have 7 basses. 6 out of the 7 are EBMM so there was little to worry about in terms of QC. I bought 2 of them in store after trying them for a few minutes. The other 4 were bought online, 1 of which was from a TB member. No regrets with any of those as they're all perfect for what Im looking for. My 7th bass is an Epiphone Allan Woody that I bought locally but it was through an online site (kijiji) so I did get to try it first.
 
#12
As a whole? Two. In my current stable of two? One. In the future? Depends on the bass. Buying from Basslab, the only company’s products I’m interested in buying right now, kind of has to be online: They’re in Germany, and I live in the United States.
 
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#16
Zero. I’ve owned a couple dozen basses in my life and never bought one on-line.
As a matter of fact, I’ve only bought one bass new in my life. It was the second bass I ever owned, a 1977 Fender Precision, which I sold at least 35 years ago. I can’t imagine buying a bass that I couldn’t at least look at first, let alone actually play.
 
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#17
Smallmouth_Bass said:
With the rise in online retail and decline in brick and mortar music stores, I am curious to know what percentage of your basses are bought of each.

Seeing as playing an instrument can be a very personal and intimate thing, do you need to try and feel the instrument before committing to a purchase?
Click to expand...

One out of four was ordered by email after trying a couple of that luthier's instruments in person first. One was found on Craigslist but bought in person. The other two came straight from a lutheir friend after lengthy at-home trials. The last bass I bought in a store was in the early 1980s, FWIW.
 
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#18
Right now I have three Squiers I bought online. No surprises, aside from that period it always takes to bond to a new axe and learn its little idiosyncracies.

You see, I'm not the fussiest person about these things. I'm not jumping off a bridge for a 1 or 2mm difference in string spacing, as long as it's not stooopid heavy I'm OK, and basically if I really like a bass, I'll make it work for me. I do my own setups and maintenance, so I can usually reign them in to be just fine for me. I enjoy the differences in them and they all have their own personalities, which is fun to me.

I've been at this a long time, I do my homework, and from reading a spec sheet have a general idea what a bass is going to be, so I'm never really caught out. I generally buy only new or as-new if it's used, and I only buy from brick and mortar stores where I've researched them online, so I get to avoid those pained conversations with some EBay seller out in the middle of nowhere about it being 'not as represented' and on and on. I ALWAYS avoid letting myself in for that hot mess. I also only buy dealing direct with the seller, no more PayPal for me, what a crock: Why would I pay 'Pal' to screw with my money when I can simply pick up the phone, dial the store, and give them a card number? Plus, if the store sounds screwy on the phone, I can walk away right there instead of sweating out returns and refunds.

I do prefer to shop locally if I can find what I want, but I can always work with a '90% bass', I'm not searching for a unicorn that's perfect. They're not out there. My days of being obsessed about every part of an axe are long over with. They are tools that I enjoy using, but no more than that.
 
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