Extra bang for your buck from more costly basses?

[Grangur]

[quote name='Horizontalste' timestamp='1468508913' post='3091453']
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.
[/quote]

Man I hate those basses...
I saw one in Ebay. A Westone Jet. I only bought it because the pics were cr@p and I thought, "I can sell that for more". The colour's not my scene, but it's only to sell it, right?

It arrived. I learned it was a bass from the sellers Dad. He loved it. I re-strung it. Cleaned it up from years of dust and stuff... The electrics are the originals and they work like new.

Then, the big mistake; I played it. It's still here now!! I it's nothing special, but it's infectious. I doubt It'll be on the market place any time soon.

[discreet]

Which bass or how much is largely irrelevant. If you think it plays well, if you think it sounds good and if you think it looks good, then it plays well, sounds good and looks good. End of story. For me comfort is important too and that comes under 'plays well'. I've been on the roundabout like many on this board and have spent a lot of money over a long time during the journey.

The bass that plays well, sounds good and looks good [i]for me[/i] is the best I've had so far and it cost £600 used.

Edited July 14, 2016 by discreet

[Horizontalste]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1468509779' post='3091466']


Man I hate those basses...
I saw one in Ebay. A Westone Jet. I only bought it because the pics were cr@p and I thought, "I can sell that for more". The colour's not my scene, but it's only to sell it, right?

It arrived. I learned it was a bass from the sellers Dad. He loved it. I re-strung it. Cleaned it up from years of dust and stuff... The electrics are the originals and they work like new.

Then, the big mistake; I played it. It's still here now!! I it's nothing special, but it's infectious. I doubt It'll be on the market place any time soon.
[/quote]

Exactly that!
I always wanted a Stingray but as a younger man I could never afford one, there was always too many other things to blow my income on.
Then five years ago I was toying with the idea of buying a US Sub & my Wife asked what's so special about it, I said "well, it's just a cheaper version of a Stingray, & I've always wanted one". She insisted that we buy the real deal & a few weeks later it was here.
Initially I loved it, the looks were right & it was instantly banging out the sound in my head, however, it didn't feel right.
I identified that it was the un-finished neck so I had it lacquered & bingo, all is good in my musical world.
I've played others but I always come back to the Ray & as the previous poster said about his TRB2p, I'd have happily paid over the odds for it because it's just right.

[Dave Vader]

The one I use the most and am still unable to beat cost me £30 20 years ago, and is a Sunn Mustang from an Argos Catalogue.
All I've done is swapped out the electrics for a Wizard trad and a couple of CTS pots, replaced the tuners with ones that weren't snapped off and refinished it in danish oil. So still less than a ton all told.

I play more expensive ones, but I don't ever get on with them the same. I refuse to get back on the merry go round now.

[ivansc]

[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]

Or (in the case of at least one instrument I own) the owner died. Or (insert umpteen other possible and plausible scenarios here)

[Paul S]

The most I have paid for a bass is £900. The remainder have each cost me under £500, some under £100. I happily gig with any of them and I don't consider that I need or want anything more expensive.

But, conversely, if someone else wants to pay a few £K for their basses then that is entirely up to them. I don't have any kind of inverse snobbery about it but, by the same token, don't have any kind of envy, either.

Same with cars - not remotely bothered about having flash cars.

[M@23]

The money you spend does get you 'more'. Better woods, master craftsmen and their staff, hours and hours of time from those highly skilled people, higher productions costs and overheads etc. Whether or not that translates to a 'better' instrument is personal. Probably anything over £1500 is going to be pretty bloody good and should play very well.
I've had some really great instruments that didn't cost so much and my current squeeze, which was very expensive, but is just perfect and I appreciate the fact that all the things I mentioned earlier on apply.

[naxos10]

I have two basses a £400 and a £1000+. They sound different and play different with the more expensive having better playabiity out of the box, but one could not mimic the other sound wise, and yes the £1000+ plus luthier built model is worth the extra.... to me, to someone else I don't know?

[pintspiller]

When I bought my VM Jazz I also tried a MIM Jazz. I did not hear feel £200-worth of difference.

[Rich]

My most expensive bass is a custom build that cost me the thick end of £1400. For me it was and is worth every penny. My main basses have varying costs and values, but for me that's immaterial as by and large they're keepers. There's no point in me comparing them sonically or constructionally as they're all chalk and cheese.

[Dad3353]

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1468792696' post='3093413']...There's no point in me comparing them sonically or constructionally as they're all chalk and cheese.
[/quote]

Should've gone to a proper luthier, instead of Marks and Spencer.