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Which bass guitar company has the best QC?

#83
I would only fault EBMM for the one or two basses that had the G string slot of the nut a tad to close to the edge of the fretboard. This can easily be fixed, and most folks that dont play fast, or play chords, would never notice.
Other than that most every EBMM bass I have played is at a certain level of quality. Fenders vary, Gibsons are all over the place.
Spectors vary a lot.
 
#87
arsie said:
Interesting analogy. The Sherman tank was particularly known to be under armoured for its period in action. One model was nicknamed the Ronson because it caught fire if it got hit. It was famous because a lot of it was mass produced.
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As for armour protection, not the ideal naturally, but the usual 'built like a Sherman' comment refers to it's mechanical reliability and ease of maintenance and field servicing, which were second to none.
It was very well known for the length of time before required service (which was almost universally extended to the point of abuse) and the brief down time needed for said service.
Most heavier armoured tanks spent vastly more hours out of service and had much shorter field lives than a Sherman.

As far as basses go, I'll throw in a vote for G&L and Yamaha.
Never seen a bad one yet.
Peavey seems pretty darn good too.
Not really fair to include the very select boutique builders.
 
#93
vote for EBMM here... ive had 3 of them, and everything just screams quality.

i've owned lots of Warwicks... and maybe because of that, i see some quality flaws in them, so sorry warwick :( you arent that bad, but EBMM's quality just feels a lot better.

Warwick does make my fave bass though - vampyres :)
 
#98
Rockmusician said:
I disagree on Ernie Ball. I've owned two Stingrays and both had dead spots. G & L does a great job. The boutique builders such as Sadowsky, Alembic, Spector, Pedulla and several others have extremely high standards and QC.
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Dead spots are not QC issues, IMO.

audiomitch said:
Meh. They're about the same as anyone else (or better), they just get held to a much higher standard for whatever reason.
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I think it can be effectively argued that they are not on par with the manufacturers in this thread, and are most certainly not better than most others. They are average on their best day.

They are also not held to a higher standard, they are held to a standard that one would expect from an instrument that averages 2 grand.
 
#99
As far as brands, I'd say that EB is most certainly at the top for production instruments. G&L would be right up there as well, although I do have a problem with their wiring (mainly that it looks like a robot threw up in the electronics cavity).
 
#100
redcloud said:
I would have thought Carvin would have been mentioned more.
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You know, as much as I love my SB4000, I encountered a few issues I feel should not be present on a over $1000 bass. For one, the gold plating on the neck and control plate started to wear by the second day I owned the bass. Also, my fretboard's inlays aren't as clean as they should be. Its like the "new guy" did the inlays on my SB.

Although on a positive note when I did contact Carvin about the plating issue they did send me replacement parts, so that was definitely nice.

As for my vote-and I haven't played to many different manufacturers' basses- I would agree with the many other folks who said EBMM. They just seem to be consistently higher in quality than other basses in the same price range.
 

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