What is an expensive bass?

[chris_b]

2 hours ago, TimR said:

Makes note to buy £5k bass so that I get offered more pub gigs.

 

If that's the extent of your ambition, go for it.

[tom.android]

If the question were rephrased to ‘a bit posh’ then I guess my answer would be about £1.5k used £2k new

[Misdee]

3 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

I bought my expensive (although < £3k) basses because I wanted them, not with any great regard to what I would be doing with them (other than playing).

There's nothing wrong with a bit of wish-fulfilment if you can afford it.  I really don't go for the idea that anyone has to justify their purchases in terms of how and where they are going to use them. If it's your own money to spend, do as you please and enjoy it how you like.

[Dan Dare]

10 minutes ago, Misdee said:

If it's your own money to spend, do as you please and enjoy it how you like.

 

Yep. You can't take it with you. I would add that expensive doesn't always equal better, depending on what you want/need. In terms of function, the law of diminishing returns kicks in once you get towards £2k and upwards. However, pride of ownership is important. A nicer instrument will make you happier than a giant telly.

[tegs07]

24 minutes ago, Misdee said:

There's nothing wrong with a bit of wish-fulfilment if you can afford it.  I really don't go for the idea that anyone has to justify their purchases in terms of how and where they are going to use them. If it's your own money to spend, do as you please and enjoy it how you like.

Indeed. Personally I would rather own one bass I love  than 5 or 6 mediocre ones anyway. It does seem like one expensive bass attracts more ire than several mid priced ones.. 

Edited 15 hours ago by tegs07

[tegs07]

13 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Yep. You can't take it with you. I would add that expensive doesn't always equal better, depending on what you want/need. In terms of function, the law of diminishing returns kicks in once you get towards £2k and upwards. However, pride of ownership is important. A nicer instrument will make you happier than a giant telly.

True but if you want a new Rickenbacker or Musicman you are going to need a little more than 2K.

[Richard R]

At the risk of adding to the "overthinking this" aspect. 😉

 

"Expensive" is intangible, and so hard to measure. I therefore recommend the following excellent book:

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/how-to-measure-anything-book-douglas-w-hubbard-9780470539392?

 

Edited 15 hours ago by Richard R

[LukeFRC]

It’s all relative to income too isn’t it? I’ve worked on min wage when a Mexican fender was beyond my means, and I’ve had very well paid friends who could drop £5k on a bass if they wanted - but in careers that probably wouldn’t give them the time to play much.

Ive known people who have a seperate bass fund and spend out of gig earnings, vs hobby funds vs people on here who buy expensive things they can’t afford on credit … all going to affect what you see as affordable.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

To me, expensive means paying more than you need to.

 

So I'm firmly at £1,000 as that's where the law of diminishing returnd really kicks in. These days you can buy a bass perfectly capable of the standard required for any stage in the world for comfortably under £1k. I paid over that for a couple of basses and a couple that would have been more new. The extra pays for things that aren't actually necessary that take them into the realm of being luxury items where you choose to pay more.

 

25 years ago or more, you had to pay proportionally a lot more to get something of the quality you can get for £500-£750 these days.

[TimR]

Just now, Stub Mandrel said:

To me, expensive means paying more than you need to.

 

So I'm firmly at £1,000 as that's where the law of diminishing returnd really kicks in. These days you can buy a bass perfectly capable of the standard required for any stage in the world for comfortably under £1k. I paid over that for a couple of basses and a couple that would have been more new. The extra pays for things that aren't actually necessary that take them into the realm of being luxury items where you choose to pay more.

 

25 years ago or more, you had to pay proportionally a lot more to get something of the quality you can get for £500-£750 these days.

 

I'd certainly not want to be spending a months wages on a bass now! 

[TimR]

13 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

I’ve had very well paid friends who could drop £5k on a bass if they wanted

 

They would still consider it expensive. 

[Stub Mandrel]

Quote

In 1984, the new retail price for a Hohner B2 bass guitar was approximately
$900 USD, though it often sold in stores for closer to $599 USD. 
In today's money (accounting for inflation since 1984), a price of $900 would be equivalent to roughly $2,000. The Hohner B2 was considered a more affordable, "cheap alternative" to the much more expensive Steinberger basses it was licensed from at the time. 

 

 

A Honer B2 is the equivalent of a Steinberger Spirit these days, which retail at about $400.

 

We live in  glory days of inexpensive basses.

[Beedster]

Expensive is, to my mind, linked to the concept of a thing being more than it's worth. A Warmoth Precision with woodwork coming in at around £600 with perhaps another £400 on high quality components, gives me a FCS level instrument at £1000, and IME I'd have to spend upwards of £3000 to get anything better from Fender. So, if I'm buying a Precision, anything over £1000 is not only expensive, but unnecessary expense 

[Owen]

I am afraid that I have not read the complete thread, so forgive me if I am repeating what someone else has said.

 

For me, an expensive bass is one where the difference between what I paid for it and what I sell it for is painfully negative. Brand new G&L and US Music Man Sub (stripped, painted and fully installed with Bongo electrics), I am looking at you. 

 

Given the BC long term loan, sell it for what you paid for it scheme, most basses are kind of cost neutral in my way of measuring expensive. 

[TheLowDown]

8 hours ago, chris_b said:

The replacement cost of the bass I gig with is £4500, and my rig tops £2000. My backup gear is approximately £2500. So I walk into every gig with about £9000 of gear. We had a blinder of a gig last night with a mostly originals band. The bass sounded fantastic (it was a good room) and I loved every second. I think I played better as a result.

I don't think I would adopt that approach being suitably risk averse. Maybe your hearing is so shot that the only way one can judge quality sound is from the price tag where you're only going to hear what you want to hear anyway (an inexpensive bass will, quite naturally, sound poor to your ears).

If you've got that kind of easy money, then as long as you're enjoying yourself and you think it makes the difference then that's all that matters, eh. I wouldn't want to be so dependent on the gear making me sound good.

[Geek99]

Literally any bass that I buy is going to be more capable of sounding good than I am of making it sound so. I have a sire v7/5 and it is light years ahead of me, therefore c. £500 is where I draw the line between “good” and “vanity”

 

[Mrbigstuff]

7 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

I don't think I would adopt that approach being suitably risk averse. Maybe your hearing is so shot that the only way one can judge quality sound is from the price tag where you're only going to hear what you want to hear anyway (an inexpensive bass will, quite naturally, sound poor to your ears).

If you've got that kind of easy money, then as long as you're enjoying yourself and you think it makes the difference then that's all that matters, eh. I wouldn't want to be so dependent on the gear making me sound good.

IME the expensive basses I’ve owned have been very much plug in and play, whereas the cheaper basses sometimes cut through a mix well, sometimes don’t depending on the ensemble and room.

Then you have so many options with s high budget that you can buy a bass that meets your personal specs and is easy to play on long shows.

To suggest vanity is the reason for such purchases just smacks of jealousy.

[SimonK]

I'm impressed this thread has got to a fourth page!

 

I think sound wise it is very possible to sound or play equally good/well or bad on cheap or expensive kit. But the reason why we are on forums like this is because there is also something existential about owning certain bits of kit, and merely the fact of owning it brings a smile. For me some of this is buying kit that I couldn't afford earlier in my career, and hence the justification for spending more.

Edited 25 minutes ago by SimonK

[tom.android]

12 hours ago, Owen said:

Given the BC long term loan, sell it for what you paid for it scheme, most basses are kind of cost neutral in my way of measuring expensive. 

This is pretty much what I was getting at. If you buy something used that’s already depreciated, maybe a couple of minor dings already then it’s likely to be break even when you come to sell it in a couple of years. Savings accounts interest rates are useless, why not temporarily convert some money into a bass for a while instead?

[HeadlessBassist]

1 minute ago, tom.android said:

This is pretty much what I was getting at. If you buy something used that’s already depreciated, maybe a couple of minor dings already then it’s likely to be break even when you come to sell it in a couple of years. Savings accounts interest rates are useless, why not temporarily convert some money into a bass for a while instead?

 

This is very true - I have several friends around the country with stunning collections of basses who intend to sell much further down the road as a pension scheme of sorts. 

[ezbass]

Back to the OP, I think an expensive bass is where there is a bass i want, but immediately think that perhaps I should wait and see if I can pick one up used, rather than just buying it new. This was me when I wanted a Rob Allen. As to the actual level of money, this will always vary from person to person and we shouldn’t judge others by what they consider expensive/cheap.
 

That aside, upper level instruments seem to be outstripping inflation by some measure. My first ever custom bass is coming up 10 years old, so I dug out the invoice, did the inflation calculation and it should now cost roughly £250 more than I paid for it. Even the basic, off the shelf, version is way beyond that. If I go back to the aforementioned Rob Allen, these have doubled in cost over a 15 year period and I mentioned my surprise at the cost EBMM basses earlier in the thread. Manufacturers seem to having a laugh with their premium instruments.

Edited 40 minutes ago by ezbass

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, Mrbigstuff said:

IME the expensive basses I’ve owned have been very much plug in and play, whereas the cheaper basses sometimes cut through a mix well, sometimes don’t depending on the ensemble and room.

Then you have so many options with s high budget that you can buy a bass that meets your personal specs and is easy to play on long shows.

To suggest vanity is the reason for such purchases just smacks of jealousy.

If you mean me, I just mean “paying for the name”, “it’s us-made”, “it’s vintage” etc kind of vanity where as @Lozz196 (I think) suggested in the past, the giveback for the premium price is tapered at best 

[tegs07]

15 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

If you mean me, I just mean “paying for the name”, “it’s us-made”, “it’s vintage” etc kind of vanity where as @Lozz196 (I think) suggested in the past, the giveback for the premium price is tapered at best 

There is another dimension to this in that some people might want to buy a US made bass like a G&L or say a Hofner bass because they live in the USA or Germany and want to support local producers. Perhaps if more people bought one bass from a company in their country rather than 3 from the far east these companies would not be facing bankruptcy and disappearing from the market.