Where did all the basses go?

[B-Mac]

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 buy 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.

 

[felis]

Invalid Link Removed

 

[OptimalOptimus]

Many end up destroyed, thrown in the garbage, burned, flooded etc. or they end up in collection etc.

But I don't think that many are being made every year. But I feel like they cost more and more so it is still locratif to make them.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

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?

Good question. From what I’ve seen for sale at GC, Sam Ash and the like, probably hidden from sight somewhere to avoid embarrassment... I have yet to see a new bass at either of these two places of any manufacturer I’d be willing to buy. It’s hobbiest level at best. It’s why I’m a firm believer in buying gently used and being real patient for the right one at the right price. My Warwick retailed over $2,000. I bought it slightly used with a brand new semi hard case for under $600, after waiting over 3 years from the time I knew I could use one.

 

[JRA]

You will stop laughin'

 

[MIMike]

Where did all the basses go?


Japan.



Seriously, check eBay some time.

 

[bassrique]

I follow the Guitar Center used basses. The cool stuff sells. There is a glut of Yamahas. Squiers and Ibanez.

I think some get thrown out so the overall price doesn't get depressed. It's all about the existing inventories and the accounting that values various companies and keeps them afloat.

Am I wrong?

 

[KaseOfBass]

 

[ihaveaquestion]

Amazon recently admitted to destroying unsold, undamaged warehouse stock.

This is so sad, all the suffering and economy collapses, just to throw stuff away

 

[Wisebass]

Hi OptimalOptimus

Many end up destroyed, thrown in the garbage

We all know that!

Please don' t tell us something like that again!


may the bass be with you

Wise(b)ass

 

[DrayMiles]

Most of them are sitting in the airtight locker of lawyers and accountants in Asia, Japan, and China.

 

[Humbled]

Most of them are sitting in the airtight locker of lawyers and accountants in Asia, Japan, and China.

Yes sir. A whole lot of vintage Fenders and Gibsons anyway.

A friend of mine sold a 1963 ES335 burst/stop of mine for me at a guitar show in Nashville to a Japanese guy who had a written list of what to buy. I got top dollar for it, but my friend told me: "sadly, it's probably going to end up in a glass case in a Tokyo corner-office or home billiard room..."

 

[obimark]

All I know is half of them are sitting for sale on reverb with "make offer" for years, while the seller has no intention of taking a dime less than there asking price.

 

[Skillet]

Think of how many thousands of people buy an entry level bass, pick at it for 2 or 3 months (or weeks), put it down.... a year later they try to sell it. I saw a Squier Affinity P bass on Facebook Marketplace earlier. Guy was asking $300 for it and a Fender Rumble 15. It will probably wind up in his closet for the next 15 years then get thrown away. Ce la vie.

 

[P. Aaron]

The flooding in Nashville a few years back destroyed a lot of player’s long time instruments.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Amazon recently admitted to destroying unsold, undamaged warehouse stock.

Sorry chum I'd need to see documentation on that. Amazon can bleed a penny.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

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.

None of my basses weigh more than 8 pounds. But I get your point.

 

[zubrycky]

It's a mistery, I think.

 

[five7]

wood beetles have been eating them up

 

[James Collins]

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.

When I die, these get buried with me in my mausoleum.

How many pre CBS Fenders are around is probably dwarfed by the number in the rubbish heap.