kwmlondon

Ingenious!

Would it be disrespectful to play with ice packs stuck around your torso?

I have been playing a BBG5 that was on loan to me while I waited for my Dingle to arrive and it's a very, very good bass. It's downright unreasonably good for a budget instrument. I think the pickups are lacking in a live situation and it doesn't cut through as I'd like when I've gigged with it, but it's been a joy to play and the B string is really good. I can only imagine how lovely a high-end Yamaha must be. I can accept that many people would prefer a TRB 5Pii to my ABZ. Still, I am really attached to the sound and playing experience of a Dingwall so I don't think I'd be tempted away.

They are great basses, I had a combustion for years and deciced to upgrade to this - it's a bit of a sleeper. Canadian ABZ but with a plain finish so it doesn't look like a custom from a distance. The rehearsal was good fun. The drummer is good but very inexperienced so trying out ALL of his chops in the numbers and practising fills and rolls whenever we stop. And is VERY LOUD. But that's all fine. I have earplugs and the enthusiasm is great. What I'm having to put my foot down on though is the speeding up. Once last night the tune was racing away so I tried to pull back, and pull back until I was completely out of time and neither of them noticed. They didn't even notice when I stopped playing and stood there waiting for them to finish the tune... which they did very quicklyt the speed they were going! I asked the, politely, to listen a bit more intently and to be fair they did after that. The beers and the chat in the pub afterwards was also the hightlight of the week.

Took this bad boy out for its first ever rehearsal last night. It’s absolutely the best bass I’ve ever played and I OWN IT!!!

As good as any...

That's all fair, but how do you rate what's reasonable and what isn't? You can add up the materials and the hours taken to manufacture, but does that also factor in the R&D, legal protection of IP and brand, HR, admin, pension funds for a larger company with aging employees and... marketing. An instrument is a personal thing and I challenge anyone to say that their buying a bass wasn't partially emotional. If it was cold logic nobody would be playing music in the first place. So, marketing is a core cost and vital for the continuing success of a company. Is a Fodera overpriced for what it is? Is a Fender Custom Shop overpriced for what it is? Yes. No. Maybe. Probably. Possibly. It's so subjective - what's great value for one person is hideously and criminally too much money for someone else. I still haven't told my other half how much my Canadian Dingwall cost - our ideas of what's overpriced are not in alighment when it comes to musical instruments. I guess my point of view is that I'm really glad MusicMan are still going, still making instruments that people like and want to buy, and if making some expensive, limited-run basses with high profile playes names on them means they chuck out brilliant value stuff as well then good on them. Although, even with my very liberal views I'm unconvinced about those USA Joe Dart signature models but I guess we all have our limits!!!

This is very grown up discourse for the internet. It'll never catch on!

I've been judged offten and found wanting.... wanting another bass guitar that is!!!

Ah. I never saw that advert, only the cheaper one. I guess they think I'm a low-roller and not worth marketing the high-end one to. Personally, I can't get up any kind of anger or indnation that someone makes an expensive instrument. There are expensive cars, books, houses, watches, shirts... I could go on. Sometimes they're overpriced for what they are, other times it's down to components or the time it takes to make them but we live in a capitalist world and the value is what someone will pay for it. If you're a Pino fan and you've always wanted a bass like his and you've got the money do it. Spend that money. You're a long time dead and if you can find any happiness in this world that doesn't come at the cost of someone else's misery then I say do it. Honestly, early Stingray basses have never been CHEAP. They've always been highly regarded, but now they've gone from being respected, desirable basses that nail a unique tone to becoming collectible which is sort of a shame if they don't get played, but MusicMan make a range of instruments from £6k vintage-replica's to downright cheap far-east stuff. YOU pay YOUR money and YOU take YOUR choice and I will not judge.

I saw that email but it’s £3,799. Still a lot but not crazy insane https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/250521441519025--music-man-pino-palladino-signature-stingray

Revivals used to be a thing of the past... but now they're back. Thanks to watching a couple of old car/interesting car channels on youtube THE ALGORITHM keeps showing me stuff about classic car prices and I think we can learn a lot from how this has panned out. Some cars have always been expensive, desirable and will always hold a high value. Think your Mercedes Gullwing, DB5, Daytona. Anyone can recognise that they are desirable objects due to quality, scarcity etc. Cars like this are always being built - the Porsche Carrera GT. BUT mass-market cars that go up in price due to nostalgia... they have a peak then a dip. All those 70s and 80s cars like an XR3i, they are attractive because people like me lusted after them when they were kids and now my generation is old enough to pay tens of thousands for them. The next generation will have zero interest because they won't have the nostalgia for them. They won't be interested in hot hatchbacks from the 80s AND they will be impossible to get parts for pretty soon. Some mass-market cars transcend this, like the VW Beetle, The Mini, MGB, 2CV. They get cult status and people carry on making parts and they grow a community. They're mechanically simple enough to maintain and by sheer popularity they have support. I think you can map a lot of this across to guitars, but the big difference is the association with artists - Page, Hendrix etc. means that the boomer geneation has a fixation on specific intstruments from a specific era. If you want to see how this is going just look at how few listens these artists get on Spotify. Anyway. My tip for classics of the future? St Vincent Musicman. I am happy to admit I'm probably wrong.

Yowsahhhh!!!! That’s some tasty wood…