Your most and least expensive basses

[JimB52]

Spent $30 on a 1968 Kalamazoo. Sold it for $50
Paid $1650 for a first year Lakland Joe Osborn. Sold it a few years back for 1700.
Currently cheapest is a 1967 Kalamazoo for $100 and a '66/'70 Jazz / Precision Frankenfender that cost 1000.

 

[cmcbass]

I think I spent $115 on the Gsr 105 and added $200 in parts. The thumb bolt on 5 was around
$1,300.

 

[Burwabit]

Sadowsky NYC UV PJ5
Jack Casady 60th Anniversary (paid $250 on eBay)
both sound great

 

[dwagner]

I've got a Nash PB-57 that cost me over 2 grand.
I've also got a Mexican Fender Jazz for like 300 bucks.

Both rock.

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

My cheapest was the green one at roughly 400 USD. My most expensive was the fretless with the tortoises pickguard at 1900 USD delivered to my door.

 

[Gaolee]

My most expensive to me bass is a Gibson Thunderbird I paid about $1200 for. The cheapest was a battered Coral Wasp I got for free. I shimmed the next with 8 cents of change and it sounded pretty good. It got traded, more or less, for an EB-2d that I still have. So a '68 Gibson is the cheapest to me, although it is somewhat valuable now. The one that would be least expensive now is an Epiphone Thunderbird with a bolt-on neck. I got it for $200 with a case. I don't remember what I paid for the Ric I had for a while. It sold for more than I paid, so I was happy.

 

[Resonance129]

I also appreciate both sides of that spectrum, although, I will say, it's a bit more gratifying to find a less-expensive one that punches above its weight. The expectation for greatness is inherently set when you pay a lot for an instrument, but when the cheapeez make you second guess picking up the expensive one, it's like a small victory . To me, anyways.

Least expensive: Squier CV 70's P

Most expensive: Warwick Streamer LX 4

 

[DDawg]

Bought the Yamaha in really rough shape but with a decent hard case for $50 CDN (about $40 USD) last year. I spent a lot of time but little $ getting the Yamaha into decent condition, but it's killer now, especially with the stainless-steel fingerboard. Paid almost $3K CDN for a new Steinberger XL2T back in the 80's.

 

[Paul Corrosion]

The two furthest apart in my collection are the two with the longest names. They're also my two main gigging basses at the moment (a passive P with flats and an active 5-string with rounds - classic combo).

First is the Fender Custom Shop Precision Postmodern Series Lush Closet Classic, Copper. They were retailing for £3500 at the time but I got mine B-stock, so only paid £2800. Still makes me laugh now that the amount they knocked off is more than I would usually pay for a bass.
Then it's the Overwater by Tanglewood J5 Trans Blue Burst, which I picked up second-hand last year for £250.
It's tough to compare them when they're used for different jobs but both are easy to play, make the sounds I want and have so far been reliable. As a regularly (yes, I'm actually getting the chance to use that word again - for now) gigging musician, I don't look for much more. The monetary worth of the basses is mostly* irrelevant in this instance. The right bass is a bit like a Potter-verse wand - it tends to find you; at least, that's been my general experience.

*I say mostly as all my basses are, of course, fully insured.

 

[ueezb]

Least expensive: MiM Fender Jazz (used for around 350 Euro)
Most Expensive: Fender P Ultra

 

[Watchootognbout]

Most:Used Ibanez BTB676 $850.00
Least:Used Tune TWB's Both about $560.00 respectively.

 

[quickervicar]

Cheapest was my first electric bass,. a short-scale used Hohner P-copy in gloss white. I paid $100 for it and a Peavey Mynx combo amp. Came into the room one day to find the truss rod had left the neck by way of the fingerboard. I dropped it down an elevator shaft as a proper rock & roll burial.

My most expensive is also my most recent. I picked up a used Skjold Offset 6-string a few months ago. I haven't played any of my other basses since. It truly is an amazing bass.

 

[NoiseNinja]

The most expensive bass I ever bought and owned was a vintage Rickenbacker 4003 (might have been a 4001, not entirely sure) years back, that I relatively quickly ended up absolutely hating, because it's neck felt really uncomfortable for me to play on.

Next most expensive was a Jerry Jones Neptune Longhorn bass (sort of a high end, "boutique", version of the Danelectro of the same name) that I absolutely loved.

But I own neither of them anymore.

The Rickenbacker eventually got stolen, after having been banished to a case lying under the sofa at our rehearsal place at that time, and while I do regret loosing the resale money I didn't and still don't miss it one bit, first and last time I buy a Rickenbacker that's for sure, complete waste of money.

The Jerry Jones Longhorn, as said, I loved, but despite that, and much to my later regret, I was still stupid enough to sell it at some point.

I guess the most expensive bass that I currently own would be an Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic, made back when their production was still located in Japan, though it was one of their cheaper models, and though it sounds and plays amazing and is of pretty serious high quality the resale value is not all that much, still probably the most expensive bass that I currently own.

My cheapest bass would be an extraordinarily crappy late 60's cheap budget and totally unplayable and horrible sounding Egmond short scale bass, made of the absolutely worst quality laminated wood, with exceptionally bad pickups and a totally banana bend neck with a stuck truss rod.

Next cheapest would be my Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass, which I love as much as I did my Jerry Jones Longhorn, and which is my current main bass and have been so for the last past 10 years, ever since I got it back in April 2011, though if you count in all the mods and upgrades I did to it (most noticeable: A P/J set of EMG Geezer Butler pickups, then a DiMarzio Model P, then a GSRM20B Mikro Bass super light mahogany body in Weathered Black finish, and most recently a brand new EMG Geezer Butler P pickup) it would end up as my currently most expensive bass, hands down.


Here's a picture of my Aria Pro II :

Here's one of my Mikro Bass :

And here's the only photo that I got of the vintage Rickenbacker that once owned, the most expensive bass I ever bought (pretty crappy photo quality, being a magnified section of a photo of an old newspaper cutout, depicting me playing the Rickenbacker at an open air gig with the noise rock band I was currently a part of, called "Prune", back around the mid 90's. And I think this possibly was both the first and the last time I ever played it live, from before I ditched it and went back to my trusted Aria Pro II, banishing the Rickenbacker to a case under the sofa at our rehearsal place, until eventually it got stolen) :

 

[Michael Simpson]

Out of my current stable of basses...

The most expensive I currently own is my Yamaha BB435. It does everything I need it to do and more, and is a brilliant example of a passive 5 string P/J, probably the best in its price range. I paid £450 for it when it was on sale, usually around £550, including a free softcase worth an additional £100

The cheapest I own is my Encore P bass. Found it in a local goodwill type shop for £30 or so, and the cashier dropped it to £15 after I spoke to him. I've used it onstage once after a quick resolder, a set up, the removal of years worth of accumulated muck and tobacco grime, threw on some old flats I had lying in a drawer, and it paid for itself 15 times over that night alone. A great bass? Perhaps not, but it's a brilliant beater bass with decent tone and a great story.

Not sure whether the next bass will even count but I paid nothing for my 1974 Rickenbacker 4001, as it was given to me by my grandparents after I showed an interest in bass. The bass itself belonged to my uncle who passed years before my birth and it lay in my grandparents loft until then. It's the bass I grew up playing and the only bass that feels like "home".

 

[Clark Westfield]

My most expensive is my Sadowsky Satin NYC.
My cheapest is my Fender American Special.
Both are amazing at any price.

 

[Jeff K]

I've bought cheaper basses than my current cheapest, but at $190, my 2009 Danelectro Longhorn has been a real keeper:

View attachment 4290639
Originally priced at $400, two of these basses sat in my local Sam Ash for a year. Played them every time I went there and this one was clearly my favorite of the two. One day they were marked down, and I bought it, and the repair guy there was nice enough to drill a hole in the horn for a Straplok, which remains the only mod I've done to it.

I've toyed with the idea of getting a Longhorn for many years. I've always held back because I'm a pretty big guy and I'm afraid I'd look like a circus bear playing one!

I don't have any really cheap (or really expensive) basses right now. I guess my cheapest is my MIM Fender P/J. Most expensive is probably my Fender Original '60s Jazz.

 

[LBS-bass]

I don't do super expensive or super inexpensive, so I have a few that would sell around $2000+ new that I bought used (Fender American Elites) and I have a few that I bought new for around $600-$800. I leave the extremes to everyone else, at least when it comes to basses.

 

[Thumper]

Do we need to calculate for now $? The Vox Delta I paid $180 for in 1968 is $1,383 in 2021 $. The '66J I paid $350 for in 1983 is over $900.

 

[BBassBassington]

Cheapest: $0 bass + $3 of vinyl + $105 CAD neck + whoops = Project Loose Screws
I need to sand the back of the neck to get rid of the sticky gloss finish, and redrill the neck for the pocket and tuners. I need access to a drill press first though the neck is way too small for the pocket and my drill refuses to go through it. For now it intonates and plays so it's fine.

Most Expensive: At $950 CAD it's the 2nd most expensive bass I've ever bought (I once owned an EBMM Stingray that I paid $1600 CAD for). My USA Fender Deluxe Dimension Bass.

 

[Jeff K]

I don't do super expensive or super inexpensive, so I have a few that would sell around $2000+ new that I bought used (Fender American Elites) and I have a few that I bought new for around $600-$800. I leave the extremes to everyone else, at least when it comes to basses.

That's pretty much me as well. Used when I can. New if I find a real good deal (which used to happen with a lot more frequency than it does these days)...

I have 9 basses right now. I think the only ones I bought new were the MIM P/J (Presidents Day Sale several years ago) and my Guild Starfire II (which was New Old Stock). "Used" is the way to go unless I'm REALLY jonesin' for something. Even then, it has to be on sale!