How much does a [Proper?] Bass cost?

[Vibrating G String]

[quote name='deepbass5' post='1341381' date='Aug 15 2011, 04:24 PM']I would pay up to 2k for a new bass I felt right for me, but i cannot see that a 3k 5k or 7k bass is that many times better than a 1 or 2k bass[/quote]
My most expensive bass, a Tobias Killer B, has the worst tone of the ten or so basses I own. I don't think money even suggests better tone, just more expensive. I don't think we need to assume expensive means better at all. The Tobias also has the most unstable neck. Still a cool bass, just not as much as my $250 Peavey or Fernandes.

[noelk27]

Urban legend, perhaps (I've no way of knowing), but I read that Geddy Lee has done a bunch of recording with a $200 junk shop find ...

Says it all, really.

[Vibrating G String]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1341383' date='Aug 15 2011, 04:29 PM']I find the whole concept of 'pro-level' gear to be bogus and a pure marketing ploy to get people to
spend more money.[/quote]
People who make their living selling stuff trying to get us to spend more? I thought they were only interested in helping us getting our unique tone.

[Vibrating G String]

[quote name='noelk27' post='1341414' date='Aug 15 2011, 05:49 PM']Urban legend, perhaps (I've no way of knowing), but I read that Geddy Lee has done a bunch of recording with a $200 junk shop find ...

Says it all, really.[/quote]
Didn't Jaco spend like $90 for his jazz? Sir Paul bought the cheapest bass he could. The list is endless. Figuratively

I love high end swag, I just don't fall for the better tone marketing.

[TomKent]

My jazz was only about £250 2nd hand, that's about as proper as it gets.

May I also point you towards my recent review [url="http://tomkentmusic.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/review-vintage-vj96mrjp/"]*plugplugplug*[/url] of a Vintage fretless. £329 and it's very much a proper bass.

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1341383' date='Aug 16 2011, 12:29 AM']Back to the OP....I really don't know what you are getting at. It doesn't matter how much money you
spend on an instrument-it's what you play on it that is important. Spending a fortune doesn't make you
pro-all it means is you spent a fortune.Likewise,spending a couple of hundred pounds doesn't make you
any less of a pro. Take a player like Paul Westwood,who has played with so many people both live and
on record...his main bass is a Hohner Steinberger copy.

I find the whole concept of 'pro-level' gear to be bogus and a pure marketing ploy to get people to
spend more money.[/quote]
This. Especially the last paragraph.

FWIW I voted £100 to £399 - there's a staggering amount of choice available both new & especially used in that bracket. My bijou collectionette cost between £50 & £375 and I'd rate all of them as being of 'Pro' quality. Especially the two SBs.

Didn't Bruce Foxton use a Hondo Rickenfaker early on?

Professionalism doesn't lie in the instrument, but in the player.

Pete.

[Bloc Riff Nut]

I own a wawick steamer stage 1. Before reaing your post I would have said 1000-ish. But I eded up voting 4 to 500. It's all in the mind.

[Chris2112]

I'd say that generally upwards of £800 gets you the best stuff on the used market. You can pay much more but then it's more about brand than differences in quality. My Series II cost me £1000, which is a steal considering it's probably worth a bit more, especially against the price of a new S2 - not to mention that they don't make them like that anymore! My ACG cost me £950 used, and is as fine an instrument as I've ever laid hands on. It's probably the ACG that makes me think "I can't believe I got this for that much cash!" the most.

[xgsjx]

I bought my Ibanez SR1000 new 20 odd years ago and there was a few "Pro" players using them (Matt Bissonette being the advertising name for them back then when he was with Dave Lee Roth). It was less than £1k new & can now be found on occasion for much less than £500 s/h, but if I could afford it I'd happily spend £10k on a Ritter or one of those other cool basses that BigRedX has shown us.

I haven't voted as I don't think there is a price range.

[BigRedX]

Totally meaningless question. You see players at every level of ability and musical earnings playing with instruments of all values.

The important thing to do is to find the right instrument for you. As I said before it doesn't matter whether it's something you picked up for a tenner at a car boot or a vintage Fender or custom made Ritter Royal costing £10,000+

Also in the second hand market prices are influenced by the popularity of a bass as much as it's playability or sound. You might find that your perfect bass is stupidly cheap simply because at the moment that make isn't particularly fashionable. Conversely if you are after something currently desirable you may well be paying "over the odds" for it.

Also IMO proficiency of the player doesn't come into it. Just because you don't have the technical ability to get the most out of your instrument doesn't mean that you can't appreciate its qualities, and also I believe that the right instrument can inspire you and you'll improve because of it.

Edited August 16, 2011 by BigRedX

[paul_5]

I've got two basses at the moment. MY Blade 5 string cost me roughly £600, and it does me proud everywhere I go - gigs, studios etc... So I'd be tempted to say that the bracket that this falls into is still a pretty good one.

I also have a fretless P-bass bitsa that I put together for roughly £100. It's my 'go to' bass, as the playability is just sooooo good.

What we have here is the principle of "commodity fetishism" played out on an internet forum. To summarise it, we (as capitalist consumers) are conditioned to believe that something that if option A (bass, car, PC etc...) costs more than option B, then option A [i]must[/i] be better than option B.

I'm not really a Marxist, but I am sympathetic to a fella called Theodore Adorno who was. He wrote lots of papers/essays on popular culture and its place in society, and talks a lot of sense.

Ears don't lie folks, Joe Meek pegged it right - "if it sounds right, it IS right".

[MacDaddy]

[quote name='PerfectionBG' post='1341248' date='Aug 15 2011, 10:12 PM']I've just looked in the 'For Sale' section of the forum, and it seems that there are several £1000+ basses for sale, so many infact that they are all I saw for the first 6 topics!

This made me ponder, is ~£1000 about the cost of a bass used at professional level? i.e. for gigging or for ownership by professionals?

I recently tried out Fender American Deluxe Jazz and Precision basses, and I have also played an american MM Sterling and a Stingray and german Warwick in the past all of these cost a similar price and they seemed like very nice basses, and I understand their popularity from their play-ability.

Though, I played my Jaguar after playing these £1000+ forerunners of the bass world and could hardly notice the difference other than some tonal differences and comfort.

Are these expensive basses really worth the money? Or do we buy them for the fact they did cost that much money, and that makes us psychologically assume that they are better? Anyone have an answer?

I'm seriously intrigued about this!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, you haven't got what I'm trying to say.

Does one have to spend x amount of money on a bass, for it to be considered a.. ermm.. bass?

Confused yet? Well. The MM Stingray is between 1-2k new, as is the American deluxe fenders, and many warwicks, and Rickenbakers.

Why this price? I'd say, a bass costs 1-2k becuase of that reason above.

You may think a bass costs ~£500 as that is how much you need to spend to get a very decent, proper bass. Maybe more, maybe less. If you don't understand the question, tell me, it's not vague - but it can be read that way.

It's hard to explain, I might just give up on this and think about it myself in my own encrypted, messed up mind![/quote]


Plenty of budget basses can do the job according to this thread:

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=39330&hl=budget+basses"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...l=budget+basses[/url]

[MacDaddy]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1341486' date='Aug 16 2011, 08:49 AM']The important thing to do is to find the right instrument for you. As I said before it doesn't matter whether it's something you picked up for a tenner at a car boot or a vintage Fender or custom made Ritter Royal costing £10,000+[/quote]


this

[Dave Vader]

Still gigging my old P-copy that I got for £30 a very long time ago. It never fails me, ever. And I like it more than any other bass I've ever played. So option 1 here (mostly to be contrary).

[bartelby]

I'd consider all my basses to be "proper" basses (thought some might disagree about one of them) and the costs are all different:

JV Squire P - free
Aria SB Elite - I paid £80 for an ex demo model
Dean Edge 4 - £200 new
Warwick Corvette Proline - £150 used
EBMM - £680 used
Fender Steve Harris P - £820 new
(all of them have been gigged)


so as others have said the poll is pretty meaningless.

Edited August 16, 2011 by bartelby

[sticker]

Whilst I am (fairly) new to being bassist in the band and am looking to free some funds up for a "pro level" bass I'm happy to gig with my Squier VM Jazz and OLP MM2 ...

Doesn't stop me wanting a USA Musicman or Fender Precision though

[thepurpleblob]

You buy the bass that gets the job done for you or, alternatively, that you want or can afford.

I have four MusicMan basses and there really isn't that much to choose between the (cheap) SUB and the (expensive) Bongo. But the Bongo has that 'special' feel (and a stupid name).

Frankly I've been mostly disappointed by the few very high end 'boutique' basses that I have tried but I think they are aimed at someone other than me.

To finally answer your question, there's some very competent instruments that you could play anywhere coming out of the far east for just a few hundred quid.

[Fat Rich]

When it comes to 4 strings, I reckon I could get away with playing almost any bass and get the job done. The cheaper stuff would probably need a major setup and some decent strings, and may need adjusting more often than a more expensive instrument. Although I've had some more expensive instruments whose necks are all over the place (I'm looking at you, Fender USA & Mexico). I guess if you like a super low action you might come unstuck with a cheap bass but I'm not really that fussed.

But when it comes to 5 or 6 strings I don't think it's so simple, the low B string just doesn't sound good on a lot of cheap basses (or some expensive ones, still looking at you, Fender). I like anything I play on the low B to have the same tone as the rest of the bass otherwise it sounds I've dropped out and the bottom has fallen out of the song. Usually that means spending a bit more money, although there are some great cheap ERBs out there.

Ultimately it's up to the player how much he or she wants to spend to get close to their ideal sound, or even if they just want something that looks cool. For most of us it's a hobby and is supposed to be fun, so whatever floats your boat.

BTW I voted last night but now I can't remember for what I think it was £400 to £599

Edited August 16, 2011 by Fat Rich

[mcnach]

I voted £600-799 because that's what it'd cost me to get my favourite bass used, the one I currently gig 95% of the time.

But the truth is I will not feel lacking if I bought a Squier CV series, or a VM one (my VM Jazz is sweet) with perhaps new pickups. So I could have voted <£300 including new pickups in that case.

When I started playing guitar cheap meant invariably crap, it meant seriously limited. These days, there are very decent instruments for little money.

I think we give far too much importance to the instrument and what it costs than to what we do with it. More expensive basses tend to be nicer and offer a better workmanship etc, so if you can afford to buy one because that's what you like, then why not? And nobody should be ridiculed for buying an expensive instrument even if they can barely play two notes... even as a beginner I could feel the difference in quality. But at the same time, these days, nobody should feel they cannot have a "proper" instrument to play music on due to lack of funds, because you can use a Squier (to name a brand at the lower end of teh price range) very effectively.

[EdwardHimself]

how long is a piece of string?

[flyfisher]

I'm not sure there is much of a consensus emerging here.

FWIW, when I started playing seriously I borrowed my BIL's American Fender P and Laney valve amp & cab (can't remember their details). He was generous enough to let me use them for a couple of years or so, though I was increasingly feeling guilty about it.

When I finally decided to buy my own bass, I went to a local music shop and bought a new Fender P and a secondhand Ampeg combo.

I wasn't very knowledgeable about the different versions of Fender but it looked the same as the one I had been using and it felt much the same as well. It turned out to be a MIJ. I can't remember what I paid for it but think it was about £350. I guess the modern equivalent would be more like £500-600? Not really sure.

More recently I've bought additional amplification and cabs (mainly Ashdown) but I keep thinking about buying a second bass and quite fancy a Fender Jazz. I'd like an American version and would be quite happy with a second hand one. I could probably spend a bit more this time. One day perhaps.

[dc2009]

I'd argue there is a consensus emerging.

I went for £400-£599, for me there are a whole host of these professional grade 1k new cost basses that are going second hand, things like a Marcus Miller sig will just about fall into said price category. Now those things are well revered on here for good reason! It doesn't need to be a Fender either, but for you to get more than the entry level model, I think this is how much you need to be spending on most new and second hand basses.

That said, my thunderbird Pro-V was only £280 second hand in mint condition, and being an active, 7 piece thru neck, upgraded bridge and pickups thunderbird, I would argue is a whole lot of bass for your money. So there are bargains to be had!

[jstead]

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1341600' date='Aug 16 2011, 11:34 AM']how long is a piece of string?[/quote]

There is your answer!!!!

[Ross]

First proper bass? Unless you're f***ing loaded or your rich mummy and daddy are footing the bill? £350-550 used.
Maybe around 5-600 new.

[oldslapper]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1341383' date='Aug 16 2011, 12:29 AM']No....Rock stars get given them.

Back to the OP....I really don't know what you are getting at. It doesn't matter how much money you
spend on an instrument-it's what you play on it that is important. Spending a fortune doesn't make you
pro-all it means is you spent a fortune.Likewise,spending a couple of hundred pounds doesn't make you
any less of a pro. Take a player like Paul Westwood,who has played with so many people both live and
on record...his main bass is a Hohner Steinberger copy.

I find the whole concept of 'pro-level' gear to be bogus and a pure marketing ploy to get people to
spend more money.[/quote]


Well said D.

I find these topics annoying, so shouldn't look, let alone post.
But.....
I honestly believe that whatever your budget, take 25% off and spend that on your ACshukerfellow, or Stagg copy, and invest the rest in some lessons. You'll probably have some money left over to celebrate in a years time when you realise how much better the bass sounds under your fingers.

But what would I know, I tend to think expensive back line is a better investment for a working musician.