Overpriced or investment?

[Geek99]

15 minutes ago, chris_b said:

The new price of my Fender Precision in 1969 was £120. That's nearly £1700 today. Within 3 years I'd replaced the nut (broken) and frets (worn down). I'm not sure prices are that bad these days. My guess is you get a better made bass, at all price points, than I did.

Agree, but the continuing argument is whether you can also get a better-made, better QC fender-a-like for less. Eg Sire

[tegs07]

28 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Agree, but the continuing argument is whether you can also get a better-made, better QC fender-a-like for less. Eg Sire

I don’t think that there is any doubt that Indonesian or Chinese or Korean manufacturers can make instruments, cars or fairly soon aeroplanes or spacecraft as well as the Americans. Hence the current tariffs and other short term noise.

 

Edit: There will obviously be some  flexibility to this point in terms of budget. At the very bottom end corners will be cut wherever something is made and over time things will balance out. Wages, property prices etc will increase in the Far East as these countries continue to become more affluent.

Edited Saturday at 11:22 by tegs07

[chris_b]

36 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Agree, but the continuing argument is whether you can also get a better-made, better QC fender-a-like for less. Eg Sire

With advent of CNC machines quality of cheap basses has gone through the roof. The QC that Asian manufacturers achieve is down to the contract and how much the brand owner cares about quality.

[chris_b]

The only thing cheap basses don't always do well is pickups. Cheap pickups will make any bass sound less than perfect.

[Mrbigstuff]

23 minutes ago, chris_b said:

The only thing cheap basses don't always do well is pickups. Cheap pickups will make any bass sound less than perfect.

That’s a good point. Aside from Sire, I always found that the pickups on cheaper basses lacked depth (bass frequencies) in their pickups. The originator of Sire was an electrician/ engineer, much like the founder of Markbass. My MIM P bass had American standard pups but I improved it a lot by swapping them for Lindy Fralin

[SumOne]

.

Edited Saturday at 14:36 by SumOne

[prowla]

On 09/08/2022 at 08:13, Burns-bass said:

Import duties, raw material costs, wage increases, transport costs, lower production volumes…

 

Anyone involved in selling stuff can tell you how costs have increased across the board.

 

Moaning about how much a Fender costs is the same as my dad complaining that a Mars bar cost 9p in 1965.

 

So what?

 

Given Fender has laid off 300 people they’re hardly making a mint from building basses and guitars.

It would've been 6d in 1965.

[chris_b]

6 hours ago, prowla said:

It would've been 6d in 1965.

 

They were the size of house bricks in 1965. Well. . . . nearly!

[Geek99]

10 hours ago, Mrbigstuff said:

That’s a good point. Aside from Sire, I always found that the pickups on cheaper basses lacked depth (bass frequencies) in their pickups. The originator of Sire was an electrician/ engineer, much like the founder of Markbass. My MIM P bass had American standard pups but I improved it a lot by swapping them for Lindy Fralin

Agree but totally cannot fault my v7-5 sire. Just don’t need anything else 

even a keyboard player said “that looks awesome” upon first sight. The guitarists didn’t say anything as it was snack time and someone had hidden their duplo 

Edited Saturday at 22:44 by Geek99

[tauzero]

On 26/07/2025 at 09:02, bass_dinger said:

Hi @jery978.  Welcome to basschat.co.uk 

 

Do have a look at https://www.basschat.co.uk/forum/3-introductions/ and tell us a little about yourself. 

 

Is it just me that can't see jery978's first post from 24/7/25?

 

Edit: if it was a similar spam to archie637 above, then I understand why it's no longer there.

Edited 2 hours ago by tauzero