Extra bang for your buck from more costly basses?

[Barking Spiders]

Another thread here prompted me to post this. I've never paid over £500 for a newbass. Come to think of it, make that £400. Stuff I've got includes an Aria Pro II Integra (about 20 years old), a Peavey Cirrus BXP, and Cort B4 fretted and fretless models. As I only play part-time in function bands I've never felt justified in having anything more expensive though I wouldn't say no to a Musicman Stingray if it came my way for a bargain. Thing is a bass at £1500 more than three times better than what I've got, if you get my drift? I know that most this price and more are handcrafted but does the price truly reflect greater quality?

[JapanAxe]

I was the same until I tried a £1,000 instrument and realised it had something extra. Not 2 or 3 times as good as a £500 instrument but worth the extra to me. And that's the key - if it's worth the extra to you, you will pay it.

My record now is £2,495...

[Lw.]

As ever, it depends on the bass & player in question.

I've owned quite a few sub-500 basses & given modern manufacturing techniques with the heavy use of machinery you can generally get a well built, good sounding & looking instrument for the money. Once you go to 1k+ it's very much diminishing returns but [depending on the bass] you do often get [i]something [/i]extra for the money. That could be finish, tone, magic, whatever - whether that's worth double or triple the amount of the other instruments is completely subjective & personal but I can certainly say both my Fender & Warwick basses have that something that appeals to me to make them worth a little more to me.

It's always worth trying before you spend your money - we're all different & so are basses, there's no guarantee that spending more gets you something better than you already have, though it might do.

[neilp]

I don't know how you quantify the "extra", except to say I'd rather have the Wal than the what? £3k ish I could get for it?

[6feet7]

I've had a £7000 GUS G3 bass and now play (both secondhand) a £200 Squier ProTone Precision and a £500 Warwick Rockbass Streamer (both 5 strings). There is a difference but not 35 times the difference. If you are a pro then I understand getting top quality. For pub rock I can't see the point.

[Grangur]

Also, surely if your pub-band also demands "simply" pumping out 8ths through an overdrive pedal this also reduces the need for subtle improvements in tone. So then it all comes down to comfort and the look.

[neepheid]

Consider a banana which costs double what another banana costs - does the more expensive banana taste twice as good?

[Grangur]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1468488029' post='3091221']
Consider a banana which costs double what another banana costs - does the more expensive banana taste twice as good?
[/quote]
In my Tesco it does.

Brown and bruised Vs Nice and Yellow - no contest.

Sorry, I'm not helping am I?

[Barking Spiders]

This is the nub. If I was properly minted I'd get an Alembic, Jaydee, Roscoe, MTD or Ken Smith. As I'm no Stanley Clarke I'd somehow feel 'wrong' owning such gear.

[Happy Jack]

I was in my beat-up £5000 Vito van in a traffic jam, and I was alongside a gorgeous £100,000 Ferrari.

We were going at exactly the same speed. It was a traffic jam.

Was he getting twenty times better performance than me?

Dunno.

But I bet he was getting twenty times as many appreciative looks.

[Pinball]

In my world, buying either new or used, I reckon:

I could get something that would do the job well for under £500 e.g. Mex fender, SterlingRay, Tribute G&L, Ibanez, Yamaha

I could get what I wanted for well under £1000 e.g. Stingray, SB-2, P-bass, high end Ibby, Yammy or Sandburg

anything above that is luxury, which wouldn't add significantly to my sound...but there is nothing wrong with a bit of luxury in your life.

Note: Anyway the guitar is just one part of the overall sound system. You need a decent amp etc as well.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Pinball

[Muzz]

It's mostly subjective, there's joys in both handmade luthier works of art and simple functional instruments. Is a £500 instrument 5 times better than a £100 one? It's a completely spurious question. I've gigged (last year) a £35 (new) bass (is one of the OPs £400 basses 11.43 times better?) at a function where the price of a ticket was £150, but I love my Shukers and Dingwall.

There are no right and wrong answers to this one.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Muzz

[ribbetingfrog]

It's the case in most things, the law of diminishing returns.
For every step up in quality the price gets exponentially higher.

I had an £1800 Warwick earlier this year, I currently play a £76 Harley Benton.

The Warwick is head and shoulders a better instrument, better built, better feel, better tone, better in every way.
25 times better? Definitely not. But worth the extra if you can afford it.

Thing is, my Harley Benton does the job admirably, I enjoy playing it, it sounds good enough, I don't have to worry about it getting damaged and I bet no punter listening would notice the tonal difference in a pub.

[Grangur]

What the OP really needs is a good Wick Thumb.

[leschirons]

I'm just about to sell my MM 5 string as it's now too heavy for me. As I'll be without it's replacement for about a month, I'll be using my £80 OLP 5 string for the next 5 gigs. Although it's still a little heavy, and despite needing a little tweak on the amp's pre-amp gain, it plays and sounds no worse than the real one does so if you're not bothered about names and the mid / cheap stuff is reliable, why spend a lot more on something that has been lovingly hand built?

I have a Fender Custom Shop Jazz bass that plays the same as my mate's Fender vintage modified. I don't think I could even hear a difference in sound either so no, my bass is not 10 times better than his.

Of course it's nice to have a thing of beauty that others drool over and no doubt some expensive basses really do play and sound fabulous but as said before, it's all subjective as are all personal evaluations of what represents good value for money. Folks are now paying £2000 plus for mid seventies 3 bolt Jazz basses that were once considered overweight cricket bats but that's their choice and it's their money. If you love it and have the dosh, go for it.

[Machines]

I think what you want to use it for is a big factor. If you play in a rock covers band in pubs, a Squier Precision or Jazz will be more than capable and likely never break, nor sound bad.

If you want something more than a tool, such as aesthetics like rare woods etc - it costs more but may not produce different results. The BTB1606 I bought I could have got the same pickups in a similar bass by the same manufacturer that was £400 cheaper (and probably sounded almost the same), but I wanted the neck-through construction as well as fancier appearance.

I always make sure I am getting something for that money other than prestige, which may explain why I got for far east made instruments that are very good spec over US stuff that is mostly brand name leading the price.

[Ghost_Bass]

For me it's not the price tag that makes me choose a bass (though i wouldn't spend 10k in one) but the sound.

I've had cheap and expensive basses - 2.2k Ken Smith, 1.4k Stingray5, 1.3k Sandberg down to 500£ Fender/Ibanez/Cort/etc. - and my choice was a Yamaha TRB that i got dirty cheap over here for 900£ a lot of years ago. This bass has MY tone straight out without messing with EQs anywere. If that bass costed 3k i would be saving up for it without a doubt.

If you ask me if the more expensive basses were better, for ME no, but they weren't bad also, just not my sound. Were the cheap basses bad? No! But they weren't as comfortable, reliable and didn't sound half as good as the Yammy. This IMO & IME.

Basicly, a bass shouldn't be measured by it's price but by it's sound quality, playability and comfort. That's where you're spending that extra dough. Some players have the luck to find their tone nirvana in a 300£ Squier, some in a 3k Wal. As long as you have the money for it you should buy whatever makes you happy playing and inspires you to keep doing it.

Cheers

[Ghost_Bass]

I forgot to add an example in my previous post. I believe it's the fairest comparisson one can make.

I briefly had a TRB1005 that i got in a trade and i A/B'd it against the TRB5PII. Both basses were 35" 5 stringers, strung with the same brand and gauge, both dual humbuckers, the 5PII has piezzo and is neckthrough.

There's a huge difference between the two, the 5PII has better sound with more sustain, more harmonics, the sound is rich and warm but at the same time has more definition, the neck is faster and not harsh like the 1005.

The 5PII is, probably, 3 times the price of the 1005. For me it sounded and felt more than that better. I had to mess with the EQ of the 1005 to get a tone i was happy with.

[chris_b]

Why is Laphroaig 40 more expensive than Black Label and a bottle of Aldi Scotch is cheaper still? They're all just whiskey.

If you can tell the difference then you'll appreciate a better playing and better sounding instrument. If you can't tell the difference will probably be unimportant to you, hence all the questions asking how people can spend so much on "expensive" basses. To me there is a definite improvement in feel, playability and sound in the custom made basses I've owned over production line basses I've tried. Even between them. You really could hear the difference between my Wal and Lakland when recording, and the Wal sounded so much better. On a gig the difference swung the other way.

In my case I currently have 2 £3K basses that sound and play much better than my £1K bass. I can't afford these prices so I did the only sensible thing. I bought them both from their original owners at much less than the RRP. I'd love to have a £300 bass that felt and sounded this good, but so far (and I do look) I haven't found one.

[TheGreek]

I can't think of anybody more deserving of a nice bass than me - whatever the cost...if you can afford it...get it!

[3below]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1468488334' post='3091223']
In my Tesco it does.

Brown and bruised Vs Nice and Yellow - no contest.

Sorry, I'm not helping am I?
[/quote]

What is wrong with reliced bananas?

[Earbrass]

They're no good for metal.

[Grangur]

Isn't this all subjective?

If you're a student, then a Squier / HarleyB / OLP etc will do the job. There's nothing wrong with them. Many folk will be more wealthy than a student and still carry on with these.

If you're a millionaire then it's very possible you may instinctively home to the more selective and of the rack of basses in the shop.

Speaking personally, I've never bought new for more than £150, but by buying used I've been able to get my hands on some really good instruments. Would I pay the RRP for those same basses? No, probably not. I couldn't justify it on my salary.

The down-side of buying used is that at all the instruments you buy are those that someone, at some stage has rejected it. So, they are all, to some degree, someone else's mistake. Al lot of us do OK with those though.

[Machines]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1468507821' post='3091436']
The down-side of buying used is that at all the instruments you buy are those that someone, at some stage has rejected it. So, they are all, to some degree, someone else's mistake. Al lot of us do OK with those though.
[/quote]

Not necessarily, some people are forced to sell their prized instruments due to financial requirements.

[Horizontalste]

Another way of looking at it is, your relationship with the thing.
For example, if you're a player that just feels that instruments are just tools for hammering out Mustang Sally in the local then anything is capable of that with a decent setup. However, if you're the type of player that looks at an instrument as an old friend or a partner for creativity then you are going to have the one that you connect with regardless of cost.
I went through the buy & try phase & I have settled on a mid priced bass that comes from California & wears an impressive humbucker :-) & I fully intend to play the paint off it over the next thirty years & I hope one of my sons will see the appeal of it & continue to use it after I'm gone.
Different strokes for different folks.