What is an expensive bass?

[tauzero]

I've seen quite a few times people saying that they wouldn't want to take an expensive bass to the Dog & Trumpet, but what is an expensive bass? I've got several basses that I class as expensive basses, but maybe my idea of expensive is calibrated differently to other people. To me, the threshold is £1000, which may just be an indicator that I'm rather old and my Warwick Thumb cost me £900 in 1988, and that was bloody expensive. I think most of us would agree that a Fodera Yin Yang at £7kish is expensive. But where does everyone else place that marker?

 

This isn't about what you get for the money, or any sentimental value, it's purely a monetary thing. What is the minimum price for a bass to be considered expensive?

[Lozz196]

I’ve put £2000, as a new US Fender Precision is just under that, and my benchmark for expensive has always been whatever they cost, this being a hangover from my youth where a US Precision was the daddy.

[Elfrasho]

Has to be under £500. Theres so many basses available new and 2nd hand under £500. If you're hitting £750 to £1000, your options are getting less. still lots, but less.

[SimonK]

I interpreted the question as what would be too expensive for me to buy. I think I would struggle to justify anything north of £3k because I would simply be too afraid to take it out of the house, and also the law of diminishing returns probably means paying large amounts for incremental differences once you get above this point.

[tauzero]

I'm happy to take expensive basses (or what I consider expensive) out to just about anywhere. I just happen to have some basses that I categorise as expensive and others that I don't.

[bassbiscuits]

I think I’d consider £1,000 as the threshold for me, based on the difficulty I’d have replacing something of that value. 

 

Mind you my cheap basses are also hard to replace as they’re all 20-odd years old. Just slightly less crippling financially if I needed to do so. 

[chris_b]

IMO an expensive bass is one I can't afford.

 

My main basses for the last 20 years have been used and in the £1200 - £1600 range. I got a lot of bass for that money. If I found an exceptional bass for more I'd seriously consider it. I've tried buying cheaper basses but so far they haven't matched up with my #1's and were sold pretty quickly.

Edited 13 hours ago by chris_b

[itu]

My MG Quantum 5 was expensive when I bought it new. I sold my piano, and used all my savings to buy it. In today's money it was nearly £5000. 

 

It was a good sounding bass, but since then I have played instruments that feel and suit me better. I sold it and bought an MG Genesis 5 here that may not look as fancy, but it feels so much better. That sure wasn't expensive because of its value to me, no matter the price! 

 

As there are very good used basses everywhere, I would seriously consider buying a bass that costs over £2000. I am not into vintage stuff at all, but a lightweight 5 string super long scale Overwater... 

[KingPrawn]

For me, it's about what my income and expenditure allow. I don't have a huge amount of indulgent money. Like many i/I/we have to plan and save. I have spent a lot on a bass, as I've treated them like investments. I have 2 what I would class as expensive basses. My Fender Jazz custom shop cost a fair amount. However, I've gigged with it for years, and it's never given me a problem. It's consistent and reliable. I've probably earned a fair few grand from it each year I've had it. It has paid for itself several times over. So yes, expensive, but in my opinion, a good investment in a workhorse of an instrument. 

[bass_dinger]

A wise man once didn't bother to say "An expensive bass is one that is bought, but never played."

 

 

 

 

[Ben Jamin]

You folk are using money?? I bought a Mexican Fender Jazz back in 2008 and have straight swapped my main bass on here ever since 😇

 

Thank you Basschat ❤️

[BigRedX]

It's a tricky one to quantify.

 

I spent most of the 80s playing synths and my cheapest setup would have had a replacement value of at least £1k which is about £3.5k in today's money, and that has most definitely influenced what I consider expensive now. Also this was in the days when I had almost no disposable income so finding the money the replace my setup at any point in the 80s would have been a lot harder than finding the equivalent adjusted for inflation etc. today.

 

All my musical equipment has been bought to be played and gigged. If I wasn't going to use it there wouldn't be any point in having it. In my last band I took both my 5-string Gus basses to all the gigs - one to play and one as a, never needed, back up. That's about £12k replacement value (I didn't pay anything like that when I bought them) and an 18 month wait with the current production times.

 

Also the only thing I've lost/had stolen at a gig in the last 25 years has been the jacket which I up until recently I was wearing on stage with my current band and, as it was a one-off bought in a stock sale from the designer, has turned out to be both difficult and costly to replace.

[Hellzero]

I guess the question is more what is a too expensive bass than what is an expensive bass, because you have to put the work done and the hardware price in balance as well as the research, patent, trial and error, prototypes and so on.

 

So, to me, any Fender is too expensive as it's basically 2 planks screwed together and sometimes really screwed (see what I did here).

 

I've always preferred luthier made instruments than mass production ones, because you know who you are giving your money to and you can get (almost) exactly what you want after a very long dialogue.

 

The limit depends on so many factors that the best answer has already been given wisely: Expensive meaning simply something you can't afford.

[SimonK]

I suppose the other way of looking at this question is how much you need to spend to get something that will do the job that you need it to, and then anything greater than this is expensive. So for me a MM Stingray ~£2 to £3k (half that if second hand) is the instrument I feel most comfortable playing, and hence anything more is "expensive" (as per my comment above).

 

I will choose to ignore the fact that a £550 Mexican Fender Jazz into a £25 DI box would get me through most gigs!

[Norris]

The basses I use for gigs are under £500. Not that I wouldn't gig an expensive bass, but the two 5-stringers that I own and play pretty much exclusively now were not expensive. In fact I'm starting to consider moving on some 4-stringers to make way for a new build (it's been a while and I'm itching!)

[Skybone]

Considering what is an expensive bass, you'd also have to factor in inflation rates etc. A bass that cost £1,000 new say 10 years ago would cost a fair bit more now (don't know the numbers, but it will be more).

 

Though I would say that a "premium" bass would cost between £1,000-£2,000, and "premium plus" (i.e. "expensive") would be more than £2,000.

 

What we also need to factor in is that new, "inexpensive" basses are better quality than they've ever been.

[itu]

26 minutes ago, SimonK said:

I will choose to ignore the fact that a £550 Mexican Fender Jazz into a £25 DI box would get me through most gigs!

I could use a hammer, but I just like better tools. I am so bad player that I use instruments that help me to sound and feel better on stage. Fender is not the one. 

 

Nowadays expensive most likely means that I would love to have it but cannot afford it. On the other hand Fodera is not expensive because it doesn't interest me. 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

For the sake of inflation etc I’d say £2,500-£3,000. For that kind of price today ,you can get a brand new fender with case , candy and in showroom condition.

It also takes you into the Rick turner handmade / custom options for example , or Rickenbacker territory., or status graphite . Plus of course used Telecaster ,thunderbirds etc.

 

Back in the late ‘80s / early ‘90s we used to go to the annual music shows at Wembley or Hammersmith. This was a time when I was learning the bass on a more ‘proper’ level  ( The time to ditch the firewood beginner bass and slightly upgrade to something more playable ).

The best basses I ever played around that time , were the full bodied steinberger and Status models . I knew my Washburn status was a copy of the status ,and that was all  ! I always wanted to own one of the real status or steinberger since then , but even back then they were very expensive and out of my budget .

Back around then a friend of mine who has a nice synth collection asked me how much a custom bass  would cost , and I’d say around £2-3,000.

 

There are a couple of status basses that have recently been listed here for around the figure I mentioned. Very hard to get hold of and in the scheme of things reassuringly expensive . 

As someone who only messes around at home , I don’t know if I can justify shelling out that kind of money when I can afford to do so ! 
However , it’d be like having a custom made bass without the guesswork ..

[Ed_S]

Tricky one, but it's been specified this isn't about what you're getting for the money, so I'll assume that all are 'worth their money' and the £500 bass is fine but it ain't a £1000 bass, which is good but it ain't a £2000 bass, which is great but it ain't a £5000 bass, which is excellent... etc.

 

Up to £500 including mods I'd say is cheap.

£500 to £1000 is acceptable for a gigging bass these days as I want to take two out that are broadly similar.

£1000 to £1800 was acceptable as a 'main' gigging bass when I preferred to take that and a cheap backup.

£2000 is both my maximum combined replacement value for a gigging pair, and my 'expensive' flag for a single home/studio bass.

 

I get that the concept of different gigging and home/studio basses doesn't sit right with some; that's cool - we're just differently comfortable.

[Franticsmurf]

The most I've paid for a bass was a brand new Sterling Stingray 34HH, which cost me just over £1000 in 2021 (and that was 'mates rates' from a local music shop). £1k is the benchmark figure I've used ever since. Apart from not having the disposable income or the frequency of gigs to justify paying more, I've been fortunate to find some bargains in 'B' stock or second hand instruments and I've built up a small stable of basses. My second most expensive bass is a 'B' stock American Precision which cost around £750. None of my other kit has cost more than £500 and I recently played a full gig using a £100 Squire PJ (with a £250 Ibanez semi acoustic as a back up). 

[peteb]

12 hours ago, chris_b said:

IMO an expensive bass is one I can't afford.

 

My main basses for the last 20 years have been used and in the £1200 - £1600 range. I got a lot of bass for that money. If I found an exceptional bass for more I'd seriously consider it. I've tried buying cheaper basses but so far they haven't matched up with my #1's and were sold pretty quickly.

 

Pretty much my take, except that I've paid from £900 to £1,650 for a gigging bass. I recently was looking for a new bass with a budget of £3k, but ended up getting something that did everything that I needed for half that amount.