Your Rig - where's your biggest cost?

[Spidey2112]

Actually, my lovely wife and I have an agreement: she doesn't ask me how many basses I have, and I don't ask her how many mermaid tails she has. We both let our freak flag fly in different ways.

Sounds like one of you is freakin' benefitting way more than the other...

... not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[Nev375]

I'm always playing through different setups. What day is it?

 

[Spidey2112]

Bought a new Ric 4003 in 2015 that set me back about $62,000.

$60,000 of that was a completely remodeled kitchen. She got a new kitchen and I got a new bass.

Therefore, for me, the bass is the most expensive part of my “rig”.

...

 

[dBChad]

For me it was my amp, but I bargain hunted every piece I have.

Yeah, my whole setup is cheap (thanks mainly to the used market), but I can make it sound killer.

 

[armyadarkness]

For your "usual" gigging rig, do you have more invested in your bass, your amp/cab(s), or your effects?
I see some effects and realize that one pedal can cost more than an amp (and that's OK if it's your thing) and a few of them will easily be the "big investment" in a rig. Then again, some folks rock an MIM Fender and no pedals through a SVT with 810 - there the amp's the biggest investment (for the sake of this poll, consider "amp and cab(s)" as one "component".

I've always had my biggest investment in my bass. For a long time that's because I was going for "as good as I can get for pretty cheap" on my amp, and had no FX. I've gotten more comfortable spending more on an amp (and cabs), and have the FX that I want now, but with my Zon, the bass is still my biggest chunk of cash.

Please consider this on your "usual" gig rig, with one bass, one amp, and your gigging pedal board. I don't care if you have 20 basses, or 25 amps, or a room full of pedals. That skews things. Just "1 bass vs 1 amp/cabs vs 1 "set of pedals".

We were just having this conversation in the coffee thread the other day, because there are some "pedal heavy" players there.

Unless it's for a novelty, I only use pedals that are necessities, yet other guys have tons of them, and as you mentioned, many in the $300 to $700 range. I find the boutique pedal market to be just like the craft beer market... A creative way to get us to over pay for things that we don't need to... but that's based on my taste.

Most people wouldn't tell you that an SVT stack is an under-priced bargain, but when you can buy a new one for less than the price of four effects, then something's not right. I guess it's easier to repeatedly bleed a player for $300 over time, than it is to suck out $1800 at once.

In my case, the entire amp has always been the most expensive... but I will say that over the last $20 years, I've found that heads alone always always seem to cost about the same as basses... Meaning that a USA Fender and an SVT all tube are within $100 of each other.

 

[Kro]

Are we talking price new, price used, or price paid?

I paid slightly more for my cab alone than I did for my bass, though the cab was more recently bought new, and my bass was bought used many years ago (at around a 50%+ discount vs. what they cost new nowadays).

It's really hard to compare apples to apples.

Edit: in thinking about it more, if I totaled the new cost of my gear, or its modern equivalent, it looks like amp+cab would be just about even with my bass.

My single pedal and other utility rack gear (tuner, power strip, etc...) pales in comparison.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

Back when I used to gig (over 20 years ago) it was definitely the Bass
I had two Stingrays - fretted and fretless.
Amp was a Hartke 3500 and 410XL (and perhaps the best sounding rig I have ever owned!!!)
So counted up, that was $1800 worth of basses (in 1995) and $500-600 worth of amp.
But now, if I were to ever play live, it would be with my Squier VMJV and BX500 with two 1x12’s (L2500 doesn’t leave the house)

 

[Low Down Brown]

Talkbass threads end up costing me...

Just when I think I get my rig sounding nice, you folks come along talking about all these new badass eq's, comps, amps, basses, strings, etc...and then I have to go out spend money on all of it and spend time tweaking everything.

Thanks a lot, TB.

No, seriously...thanks a lot

 

[ClassicJazz]

Between my Fodera and my two Roscoe basses, they cost considerably more then my amps.

 

[Kro]

I believe the results of this thread would vary greatly based on what forum it's placed in.

This one is in basses, so...

 

[Altitude]

Basses, certainly if you group them all together into one investment. There’s one of them in particular that would cost as much as much the others combined to replace.

Question is whether I would; I’m not quite as into multi-thousand dollar basses as my kids approach college. If they all got stolen, I’m pretty sure I could buy one Fender PJ or one Lakland DJ for $900 and either would get everything done.

 

[Biggbass]

Sometimes it's the bass, sometimes it's the amp.
But all the time it's the years of learning that came before the acquisition of either of them.

 

[JoeWPgh]

I said bass. It edges out my Quilter BB800 with Quilter cab, But the amp wins if I take 2 cabs

 

[FirewalZ]

Im right in the middle on the bass's and amps I typically use, nothing really boutique, meat and potatoes/tried and trusted brands. A few good passive Fenders and a small collection of GK and Fender v3 amps and cabs.

 

[JPaulGeddy]

Gonna have to go with Amp in this one, but with a caveat. My actual amp is cheap, and often times unused. But when you factor in the in-ears, and the PA...

If you're sticking with just Bass-Amp-Board, they are all almost exactly the same, actually.

 

[spaz21387]

Im going to say its a tie between my basses and head. Ric 4003s and stingrays into an ampeg svt cl...

 

[wmhill]

Basses, cabs, and head all ran between $750 and $1000 each.

 

[Don M]

Probably my Zoom B3! Yes I'm cheap, but I also don't get paid to play either .

My current and only bass was $150, the Roland Bass Cube I count as $0 as it came with a prior bass that was sold for what I bought it for.

No this might change if I actually buy the Michael Kelly Sojurner that I've been looking at .

 

[Paulabass]

My primary amp rig (my old outdoor rig isn't getting much use) $2,500. My basses $15,000 or so.

 

[Bander]

My biggest cost is the dedicated SUV I keep so I can drag around my full rig.