Where did all the basses go?

[milesdavisblue]

My wife seems to think I have them all.

 

[Dean N]

When flipping through a Musicians Friend catalog years ago, I noted about 25 different Les Paul guitars one could order. And another 25 different Strat's and Tele guitars. And then there's AMS with a similar amount of guitars/basses listed. It struck me then that we're talking thousands of guitars/basses ready for shipment at any one time. Many will be purchased, but all of them each warehouse stocks/companies produce? It is hard to imagine. There must be industry data that would shed light on the numbers, but where they all are? My guess would be; a small percentage bought and actively played, a bigger percent bought and occasionally played, an even bigger percentage bought and stored/collected, and the biggest percentage stored at the warehouses waiting to be sold. Considering the overabundance of product - they should take cues from the clothing industry and open guitar thrift-shops to un-load old stock at blow-out prices. Imagine guitars on a circular rack where you'd flip through them like slacks and pose in front of full-length mirrors to assess if it 'fits'...

Amazon recently admitted to destroying unsold, undamaged warehouse stock.

 

[WardEarth]

Population grows as well. Also some people collect, most ppl have more than 1 bass.

 

[JRA]

I can probably account for the Ibanezes...

So where are all the old ones going?

fenders are 'politically rehabilitated' in china. the rest are used to make shims and hot sauce.

 

[nilorius]

How can you hope to have 60 or 70 basses live a lot in these days.

 

[J-Mags]

I think certain members of this forum have most of them over at their places.

 

[Wisebass]

shims and hot sauce

And don' t forget, basses are made of wood!

happens!

Wise(b)ass

 

[JIO]

Amazon recently admitted to destroying unsold, undamaged warehouse stock.

Is that Amazon the corporation, or Amazon the giant renigade cyber robot?

 

[buldog5151bass]

I think there are a lot of cheap basses out there, that tend to fall apart over time. We live in a disposable society.

 

[James Collins]

The majority are in a landfill. Obviously. You could say the same thing for cell phones, except way more cell phones get made than basses.

Just my napkin estimate with a phone weighing 172g and 1.56 billion phones being sold last year, the weight of cell phones sold was roughly 300,000 US tons. That doesn't consider that more phones were produced than that and that people had old phones still.

By contrast, if an electric guitar weighs 9 lbs and 2.5 million are sold each year, that's only 11,250 tons. Bass guitars I assume is less than that even.

 

[JRA]

And don' t forget, basses are made of wood!

View attachment 3439130

happens!

Wise(b)ass

 

[Wisebass]

Hi bulldog

We live in a disposable society.

Sometimes it would be better to dispose society and to keep the basses!

greetings

Wise

 

[el murdoque]

The majority are in a landfill. Obviously. You could say the same thing for cell phones, except way more cell phones get made than basses.

Just my napkin estimate with a phone weighing 172g and 1.56 billion phones being sold last year, the weight of cell phones sold was roughly 300,000 US tons. That doesn't consider that more phones were produced than that and that people had old phones still.

By contrast, if an electric guitar weighs 9 lbs and 2.5 million are sold each year, that's only 11,250 tons. Bass guitars I assume is less than that even.

Yes, but even a high quality cellphone that has been taken good care of will be a piece of rubbish in less than a decade. Hopefully, it'll be recycled and the rare earths will go into another cellphone, but the average life expectancy of a modern telephone should be somewhere around 2 years maybe.
A bass will take a lot longer to wear down and usually those who get worn down will be refretted, refurbished and repaired. I mean, have a look at how many pre-CBS Fenders still exist and get used on a regular basis.

My very rough estimate is that when you play around 10 hours a day, every day, you might be able to wear down one bass in your lifetime. You will have to play it so much it needs refretting so many times that the fingerboard has been worn down too much in the process and there's not enough left.

 

[B-Mac]

Hmm... You know I think a good number of them could be owned by members of this TalkBass support group, of which I'm also a member.

Bass Hoarding Personality Disorder (BHPD) - You are not alone.

Yes I can personally verify that many of them end up here. @BK bassist will second that I’m sure

 

[B-Mac]

Ok, so I often have random thoughts that stump me. I have a bunch of basses, but it just seems like there have been far more basses built than there are players of them. They may get beat up, but in general they don't wear out. But multiple manufactures continue to pump out thousands of them every year. We should be at the point where we're over run with old basses, yet it doesn't really seem that we are. And there's apparently still demand for more? So where are all the old ones going?

I thought of this when searching for certain elusive gear and realized that I really don’t want to know the answer.

 

[40Hz]

If you talk to instrument retailers, many will tell you that basses are not selling because there are too many of them out there.

You’d think that would be reflected better in the going prices. Normally you'd see significant erosion. But those all seem to be hanging pretty steady. So I’m guessing there’s still considerable demand coming from somewhere.

 

[Wisebass]

hi JRA

You will stop laughin',

when the chinese inquisition shows up to burn your "Japanese Firewood" collection!

Wise

 

[Nephilymbass]

Ok, so I often have random thoughts that stump me. I have a bunch of basses, but it just seems like there have been far more basses built than there are players of them. They may get beat up, but in general they don't wear out. But multiple manufactures continue to pump out thousands of them every year. We should be at the point where we're over run with old basses, yet it doesn't really seem that we are. And there's apparently still demand for more? So where are all the old ones going?

Hoarders houses. I have a brother in law who has a room full of guitars on guitar stands. I started dating my wife 11 years ago and in all those years have never once seen or even heard word of the guy actually playing any of them.

They sit for decades in Pawn shops and music stores run by old timers who don’t know how to sell online

Attics and closets of people who quit playing or never really started. This is why so many old school basses are found from estate sales.

A lot ended up in other countries back before shipping cost got insanely expensive. I used to ship basses all over the place; Germany, UK, France, Dubai, Asia, Mexico, Canada, South America. In fact the majority of basses I’ve sold to this day shipped to a different country. These days that’s much less common and online sites now have filters to limit buyers by location because there was a point where shipping got out of hand. I remember I had to back out of an eBay sale once because the buyer was from India and the shipping cost was so outrageous I would have been practically giving the bass away. So a lot left the states and aren’t coming back into the states.


Unfortunately a lot of them end up in the garbage. For whatever reason. Could be damage from carelessness. I’ve seen several destroyed over the years when guitar spins were the cool thing, know a guy out of Raleigh NC who’s girlfriend took a sledge hammer to all his. In some cases they are tossed because the action was terrible but they never learned how to adjust a truss rod.
Cheap starter basses tend to be the biggest sellers. That’s why guitar center has shifted much of their inventory towards cheaper basses. But those basses have little to no second hand value so they end up in the trash.

 

[klejst]

They are out and about waiting or the perfect time to attack and over throw all guitarists and drummers and gain Earth domination and ownership of the musical world!

 

[D.A.R.K.]

Wikipedia: Global human population growthamounts to around 83 million annually. 83 million people a year. It's down a bit, thankfully... but...moar basses needed!!!