Kev

I wouldn't say that was a fair comparison, as they are not built in the same way by the same people. Totally up to the company what they charge as a base cost for an instrument, its upgrades of the same instrument that is much harder to justify.

Lets put something into context here, based on my own experience of custom ordering a bass. They charge $1,500 to upgrade to a Walnut topwood, so maybe a 10mm thick piece of wood. Possible not even 1 piece as it doesn't say, could easily be bookmatched. When I commissioned my first Alpher instruments bass, Chris directed me to the wood merchants website where I could choose the wood I wanted for my bass. I chose a large slab of extremely highly figured claro walnut, what would be considered AAAAA or similar in terms of figuring. The slab was large enough to make two full size one piece bodies out of (not tops). The cost of this slab was $350, so $175 worth for my bass. I think Chris charged me $400 or so for the upgrade. If this was just topwood size/thickness, you're maybe looking at around $100 for a piece of high quality walnut. Alembic are charging $1,500, which may be as much as 15 times what they could buy it for. That is simply showing contempt for your customers. Charge what you like as a base cost for your instrument, only you can decide that, but charging upgrade costs like this that have minimal impact on the manufacturing process of the bass is just horrendous.

Does the same apply if I send my own topwoods?

AND YOU DON'T GET A CASE OR GIG BAG They start at £450... http://www.alembic.com/prod/prices.html Some items in this list are truly astonishing. Buckeye burl is £2,000 extra, and that just a top. Looks like they charge £2,000 or so for a preamp. Do you want it to come with strings? An extra £69-£105 if you do.

.... That's just ridiculous. And i thought Fodera were expensive, I had no idea that Alembic went that high. That's just completely bonkers.

£3,500 in 1984?! Jesus that’s an awful lot of money.

Yeah Nords are a hard sell to me, they’re so brittle at the top end. Those barts are too dark though for me, the US Classic Bass versions have much better top end. I made that upgrade on an SRMS805 and it was night and day.

Fair play! Out of interest, what about a strap do you expect may fail?! The incident I mentioned was a result of it being heavily worn, but I would have retired a strap long before it got to that stage. Leads, absolutely. I play wireless and still have two backup instrument leads.

That's interesting, as I don't think the kind of sound guys on our circuit would even remotely get involved with that, hard enough to get them to deal with issues with their own equipment! Bands asking to borrow gear on the night is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Before now I've had a headlining band ask to borrow my backline an hour before their set, which is just ridiculous. Absolutely no issue asking in advance within reason but turning up on the night unprepared is just unprofessional, and that goes for reasonable backups too. Once a guys bloody strap of all things snapped mid set and ran backstage and gave him mine, as I would have thought spare straps would be a step too far for most! Again, it comes down to how serious you take it. I would hate the idea of finishing a gig with anything by my own instrument, as I am particular about my setups, but yeah, each to their own i guess!

Alpher Mako 🙂

Picked this up last week, having fun with it! Multicale 35” to 32.76” tuned BEAD, much more sensible range than some others in my option, string balance feels great. Perfect cross between a Warwick and a Dingwall for me based on my experiences, both tone and feel. Quite weighty and could do with an active preamp, but I like, and its probably the brightest and most articulate passive bass I've ever heard with the tone fully open. And I know the colour and headstock polarises opinion, but I think it looks great!

Every gig I do at the moment uses the house PA primarily, and I have about 3 options to get to that from bass, DI box, various preamps etc, so I am as backed up as I need to be and if the PA fails, well that's not my issue to resolve. Spare car? I think you're being silly! Clearly there would be other options to travel to a gig, otherwise i shouldn't be in a band at all. Again, it depends how seriously you take yourself, I would say a bass is the most likely thing to be showstopper and equally the easiest and most convenient thing to have a backup of. Why wouldn't you want a backup? And then it gets to cost when it comes to gear complexity. If a whole band is running off £xxxx processors, midi triggers etc, no you can't really afford to have a backup of that. I have seen BIG bands call off gigs because of that, and its unavoidable. But also, entirely incomparable to bringing a backup bass.

I think it depends how seriously you take it, and more importantly how seriously the person who booked you does too. If you've been paid £500 for a set, but your bass malfunctions in the first song and you have no contingency, would you expect the promoter to still pay the full amount? Always have a backup. It can be anything, and doesn't always have to be a bass. A £50 piece of rubbish off bass off eBay isn't ideal, but something that means you can carry on. If you absolutely cannot carry a 2nd bass for any reason, then at the very least have a few packs of strings in the bag or backing tracks in place to kick off instead of you, should the bass be unplayable. Turning up to gig without any of the above is just unprofessional in my opinion (sorry!), but like I said, its down to how seriously you take it. I'd be beyond mortified if I had to stop mid gig, and its awful to watch from the punters point of view.

Doesn't really matter how long the nut is though, the strings are still spaced out over 45mm at the nut, so it will have the same spacing as a 45mm nut.

Such a common comment . Multiscale is not just for the low B, there are benefits across the whole neck, and not just string tension. Move your hand up and down a neck and look at the angle your hand moves at and how your wrist rotates. It moves in the direction of a fan, so you'll find yourself having to stretch less in places to get to the next fret. I picked up a new multiscale 4 string this week and played a track I have been playing on a regular 4 and noticed that there was a fret position I couldn't manage very cleanly on the regular bass that I could with this one, and looking at it it was due to the fret position as a result of the fan. Implore anyone to try one out, they really do work well. I do, however, think it is a bit gimmicky if the fan is small, as a string being 0.25 longer or shorter than the one next to it or similar really isn't going to make much difference, you need a good 0.75inch or so different from string to string. I think these new Ibby's have a wider fan than the previous models?

Nice pair, why does he want a selling price though, and is there something wrong with the Wal that warrants a check-up?

Ah okay, probably not the same one then! Silly bnt causing confusion.....😉

Interesting if there is more than one with headstock chips! Did you return yours, @Machines?

Ah, it was a steels set that I was interested in buying, but still a dead G doesn't sound good 😕

Which set was it you got?

Ahh, gutted to have missed this offer! Was in the market for D'addario alternatives. Ah well, look forward to reading the reviews.