whats the deal with these ebay uprights..

I know two people who have found fantastic deals on good basses via eBay, so there's no absolute here.

In the "bows" discussion of this site there's a thread about someone who bought a bow from eBay it also turned out to be a real deal.

It's always worth checking thigs out as closely and as regularly as you can before discounting anything as "bogus".

Further, if you go bass shoping to a bass shop or a Luthier (String instrument repairman, not a "music shop"), take along at least one other bass player so you can trade off playing and listening/looking, etc.

 

How about a link? I put in "upright basses" on ebay and got nothing.

 

Isn't "Double Bass" the obvious search term?

Which got me this :

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1491477048

Amongst all the drum kits!

 

I use "Upright bass" and it seems to work well.

Occasionally people will list "bass viol" or "bass violin" but a search for "bass viol*" will bring up dozens of japanese Paul McCartney viola-bass copies.

 

Maybe the problem is with the plurality - most people are only going to sell one double bass at a time, I suppose?

 

Even using "doghouse" and "bull fiddle" will occasionally nab you a hit.
"Double bass" will make you wade through dozens of drum pedals.
I used "bass viol" once and got a hit on a "Prescott" bass someone had put up for auction.

 

you can specify terms and disqualify them in the same search:

("double bass","upright bass") -(pedal,kick,drum)

Works pretty well for me.

 

Search for double basses on eBay by first going to the musical instruments\strings subsection and then typing "bass". You'll bypass all the guitar and drum stuff.

If you check the archives here for Cremona, Palatino, Brownstone, Merano etc... you'll find fairly unanimous thumbs down on $500 chinese factory basses. They usually require about $4-500 in work and strings to make playable (if that is even possible) and then you can never sell it for what you have in it. (Dude, why should I pay you $1000 for a Cremona when I can get a new one for $500?)

If you're gonna buy new, stick with Englehardt, Strunal, Bob Gollihur's Bulgarian basses or Christopher (decent - chinese made).

Find a teacher first - he/she can help you pick a bass and you should take lessons anyway.

 

At these prices, shipping costs are a big factor. One guy is looking for $250 for shipping, $100 more than I have paid FedEx to deliver to me overnight.

With all of these, if you don't like the bass, you have to pay $150 for the privilege of sending it back. That's the risk of buying thru e-Bay.

The basses with better track records, i.e., "keepers", to my knowledge cost more than these e-Bay items. rablack's post sums up all the feedback I've seen here.

Pay attention to kpo's advice of shopping with another player.

Set-up on "music-store" basses is usually terrible.
You should anticipate $100-200 for set-up costs in most situations.

 

There is also a bass link under strings now.
That is the path I take.

You find a random BG but at least no drums.