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When did you get a custom/boutique bass?

#21
More of a it found me story. Back in the late 80s I was roaming Levins' when a guy rolled up to the counter and opened up the case on a Spector NS-2 in flame maple cherryburst. Man...it was the most beautiful bass I'd ever seen and and at that moment decided that one day I would have one.
Fast forward about a year and I roll into my local MI shop in Richmond and I talk to my regular guy, Chuck. He says "hey, I got something to show you"... and he returns from the back and goes, "we just got this in on trade". Guess what ...Spector NS2 in flamed maple cherryburst....in dead mint condition. Bought it on the spot..no remorse. For all I knew it could have been the same one that I saw up in Washington.
Last I heard it was part of Todd Cooke's collection. #1639 if anyone sees it. Todd offered to sell it back to me a few years ago, but I declined. My SSD NS4s got me covered.
 
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#23
After 22 years of playing and nearly a decade of saving I bought my first boutique fretless. 2 years later I bought a boutique fretted. I’m done... at least that’s what I tell my wife ;) I’ve never played a Sadowsky, Zon, MTD, or Dingwall but that doesn’t stop me from wanting one... of each.
 
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#24
Accurmi said:
At what point in your playing career did you decide to get your custom/boutique bass?
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i had been playing for about 20 years. decided i 'deserved' a custom build: picked my woods, electronics, hardware, yada yada. what i really learned from that experience --- my big takeaway --- was that i didn't need to spend that much money to have an instrument which played the way i needed it to play: the custom ax (still have it...it's great!) had all the features and feel that i like. but in that process of seeing it built for me, i learned that almost any instrument could give me those attributes if i picked wisely, made the important modifications, and used patience to 'coax' it into the type of player i prefer.

i wouldn't know how to do competent setups, adjustments, certain repairs, mods, etc. if i hadn't invested in that build (by a local luthier: circa mid 90's).

it's a fretless, swamp ash PJ, EMG actives.
 
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#25
Once in 77, disappointment led to selling two years later, the only bass I sold and lost money on. ... After that I've only bought old Fender's which I consider boutique compaired to what you find out there. ... If I was younger I'd probably go Fodera.
 
#26
I've been playing for 8 years and just ordered my very first custom built bass. I finally realized after buying and selling a lot of basses that I liked some things about all of them, but no one bass had all of what I wanted. So I commissioned Rick Wilson of Moonshine Custom Guitars to built the "perfect bass" for me. It will have so many little cool features.
 
#27
JimmyM said:
Yep, Music City was its name.
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YES! Thank You LOL....but I remember Guitar Factory...Its kind of a bummer you had to explain in depth who they were in your post because, back in da day, they were quite popular and touted to be the next Alembic....may have been a Florida-thing or Southeast thing, but they were well known back then
 
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#29
I do not own a custom bass, but if I ever start playing seriously and have decent earnings from playing music, I will definetly invest some money in custom bass, more for looks than actual sound. most likely going to be standard 70s jazz bass or PP jazz bass colored dark blue with matching, Jackson shaped headstock.
 
#30
Basically when one came up for sale at the right time when I was in the right frame of mind. In my case it's a 6 string fretless, with a string spacing of around 16mm. Workmanship was beautiful and has some nice sounding Lane Poor pickups.

I wasn't specifically looking for a one-off custom instrument, but there is/was nothing like it in the stores where I am.
 
#31
Started out on a Fender P in 1985 (I was 15, still have it) and bought a secondhand Pentabuzz when I was around 19 (after saving money and working my ass off in summer). 4 years later, shop called because they had a MVP5. Bought it without thinking. Then I played on them for 20 years until I got a Pentabuzz and MVP 5 built for me. The old MVP5 is still around, the old Pentabuzz went to my best friend (love the guy). It was a lot of money but it's such a joy walking into my studio and see these two wonderful basses. They are killer, in the true sense of the word: sometimes I try another bass for a song, but when I discover I cannot make it work in the mix, I quickly retrack it with one of the two and it's done. Always works. They mix themselves.
 
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#32
My first was in 1982 I think...a B.C. Rich Eagle fretless. This was when they were still all handmade in California, before the imports came along in the mid 80s. Neck through, all maple except for some mahogany trim between the neck and body wings, rosewood board, two cream DiMarzio P pickups, a custom brass bridge (not a Badass like earlier Riches), Grover tuners and DiMarzio straplocks.

I had already sold my first bass (bought in 1973) and was gigging a T-40 and an old Silvertone. I was shopping for a fretless and came across a deal on a Rich which had been custom ordered but the buyer failed to pay the balance, so I picked it up for about $400 off. It had no lines and no side dots! I had a luthier install side dots and was gigging it in a country band a few weeks later. Sold it sometime in the mid to late 90s as I recall, by that time I had a fretless Steinberger and a Godin that I liked much better.
 
#33
After 40 years of playing, I had Dave Pushic make a bass for me.
Pushic[1].JPG
 
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#35
Like a lot of people I indulged in the boutique scene before realizing that I was never very comfortable taking them out of the house particularly for a gig in a dive bar. I’ve bought and sold some phenomenal basses (ie early Warwicks) but have finally settled (hopefully) on modifying/upgrading stock instruments. I still LOVE checking out custom and boutique basses.
 

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