While looking over the summer to replace two cheap beginner electric basses bought in the 90's I discovered something fascinating. I took the entire summer, three months, and auditioned over a hundred basses around LA music stores with no particular brand in mind. I made it a point to play high end basses with no intention of laying out the enormous sums asked, in addition to beginner basses similar to the ones I was replacing in the hopes that advanced manufacturing processes had allow for an increase in "bang for the buck" in the past 18 years (it has - to a reasonable degree within context).
What I found as the summer came to a close is that, at a certain price point, things level off to such a degree that the brands associated for so long in the past with "the best of the best" don't hold up to their own history, hype, or asking price. Newer brands or older brands that were once considered "off brands" (some already mentioned in this thread) but have managed to survive in spite of their reputations as "the other brands" are making what I discovered to be, in my admittedly limited experience and for my purposes over the summer, excellent instruments for those interested in playing electric bass guitar as opposed to collecting. Upgrading hardware on any of these basses is a personal preference but none absolutely needed upgrades out of the box and none were over or close to the $1000.00 mark.
I don't plan on selling these basses because I did the research, went through the audition process, and chose wisely, so the oft mentioned "re-sale value" means nothing to me; their musical value is all that matters. Over the years they will cover... wait for it... all the bases I'll ever need to cover (couldn't resist). Well, that is until I feel the need for an upright. If Gibson and/or Fender go under (which they won't) there are enough excellent alternatives currently available that there is no risk of a world filled only with White Stripes, Black Keys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Flat Duo Jets (as good as they all are/were). There is little risk, either, of a world filled only with SGs, T-Birds, Precisions, and J-basses.
At the end of my "Summer of Basses" instead of two basses I ended up buying three, four if I include a gifted one. All are very different, all falling into the class of "workingman's guitar"; a hollow body, a bolt on neck with reverse P/J pups, a neck-through with humbuckers, and a gifted 5-string neck-through. None are Fender or Gibson and all are considered to have poor resale value. They feel great in my hands and have rekindled not just my love of bass but also for non-electronic (aka synth) music. Oh, all three together even with one bridge upgrade and one tuner upgrade, cost less than a single 2015 Gibson Thunderbird.
I thought about comparing Gibson and Fender, Gibson in particular, to Harley-Davidson: status gear for wealthy doctors and lawyers with no relevance to purpose or demographic originally intended. I went with this instead to avoid controversy. 
Somewhere along the line I must have missed the parallel universe version of Talk Bass where there is no brand loyalty. 
