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Combined cost of equipment


KingPrawn

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I had exactly the same one bass/amp setup for nearly 20 years, and was pretty damn happy with it...

Over the last 10 years I've spent a lot more and own a lot more gear than ever before, which is probably worth around £8K in total. This happened because I got back into more live playing again, got back into fretless, and got into 5 strings... It's something I realise I'm extremely lucky enough to be able to do.

That said, I'm pretty settled on what I've got for now... I just need that bit more space....

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It's hard to reply to this thread as there's the cost of the gear, the cost of it brand new and the current value. I haven't bought everything new but here's the numbers for my main setup, the one i put on stage every week,  excluding cables, mic, stands and other acessories, (see signature) in the three cathegories:

Brand new, at time of purchase:
TRB5PII - 2800€
Genz Benz STL9.2 - 900€
Barefaced S12T - 1200€
Korg Pitchblack - 60€
MXR BOD - 140€
Darkglass B3K - 240€
Mooer Sweeper - 70€
3Leaf GR - 250€
EBS Multicomp - 160€

total:     5820€ ( ~ £5120)

The actual cost of aquiring the gear, some of it used:
TRB5PII - 1100€
Genz Benz STL9.2 - 900€
Barefaced S12T - 800€
Korg Pitchblack - 60€
MXR BOD - 140€
Darkglass B3K - 140€
Mooer Sweeper - 70€
3Leaf GR - 250€
EBS Multicomp - 160€

total:     3470€ ( ~ £3050)

The current value of the gear:
TRB5PII - 1750€
Genz Benz STL9.2 - 500€
Barefaced S12T - 500€
Korg Pitchblack - 30€
MXR BOD - 80€
Darkglass B3K - 100€
Mooer Sweeper - 50€
3Leaf GR - 100€
EBS Multicomp - 100€

total:     3210€ ( ~ £2825)

 

I had a lot of luck with my bass. It was the reason i joined Basschat in the first place as i've found it for sale here at a bargain price of £900, and that was in the old days when euro was very strong against the pound.

Every pedal exept the b3k were bought brand new, amp and cab used but before owning the shuttle 9.2 i've had a shuttle 9.0 wich i bought new from the US before they were released in europe, sold it for about the same price i got the 9.2 later when i regretted selling it so i'm counting the cost of the amp like it was bought new.
Thanks to the Yammy i haven't lost much value yet. In cables, stands, straps, etc. i must have something around +300€

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15 minutes ago, FDC484950 said:

I now have three nice Warwicks. Total cost to buy was just over £2,500. Current retail price on the Warwick site? €14,280!!

I don't know whats wrong with some manufacturers these days. For me it's hard to see much more value than around 3000€ for an excelent high-end mass produced bass and around 5/6000€ for a custom, one off,  hand made by luthier bass. I think warwick is in the same league as a musicman and should be in the same price range, but as long as people keep buying Warwicks ate that price why not?

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I reckon about £13500 in bass gear at the moment and god only knows how much more in guitars, keyboards and studio gear! I guess having no kids and virtually having paid off the mortgage has it's perks, it really is an obscene amount of money tied up in gear, but it is my passion and is the only thing I have stuck at for over 30 years!

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In fairness, and to give some kind of perspective, when I stopped actually spinning spanners for a living and moved into management, I sold around half of my tools and realised around £26k. What I have left is probably at least another £20k, so £35k or so in musical gear doesn't look quite so extreme!

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On 15 March 2018 at 18:45, Painy said:

About 18 years ago we had to total up the value (new prices) of all of the band's equipment (which also included a custom built box-trailer admittedly) and the total value was just over £38k.

I dread to think what that would be at current prices.

I love this post. I can now total up the value of 2x 62, 64 and 65 jazz basses (new prices) and not feel the least guilty.

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I've just worked out my current gear is a shade under £5k.

That's a lot less than it's been at points in the past (most expensive bass I've owned would currently cost around £4700 on its own) but I'm as happy as I've ever been with my gear.

If I were to work out what I've spent on this stuff over the last 23 years though I think that would be a much scarier figure (and one I probably wouldn't be sharing with my wife either :|).

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I have to compartmentalise mine into 

Bass gear - 5 basses, big rig, practice amp and pedals; around mhhm

Guitar gear - 5 electrics, 4 acoustics, 3 amps, dozens of pedals; about ahem.. mumble mumble

Studio gear - 2 digital desks, a couple of dozen mics, three keyboards, various outboard, a gazillion software plugins and miles of cable; squints slightly and and glazes over...

To be fair it's been built up over 30 years, I've had a lucrative other career and I always work on utility value - do I actually use it? If not it's sold or traded.

I also have often gone on the upgrade path trading. My current main bass - a Dingwall Z3 , was arrived by a set of incremental trading steps from a Jazz, to a Combustion, an Afterburner and then the Z3, each of which didn't cost the earth.

At the end of the day, is it useful or does it give you joy? If either of those is true you're good. If both even better.

Edited by nickmew
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About 3k for me, but that includes bass gear, my drum kit, hardware, cymbals and cases.  back in the day I was a gear whore, but I came to the conclusion it sadly did not make me a better musician. I now practice and play more, and get the most from what I have, rather than thinking a new bit of kit will make me better.

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12 hours ago, owen said:

As long as it is bought 2nd hand at realistic prices then when the time comes you can get the £ out again. No worries.

This for me. I buy almost everything second hand so rarely lose that much on stuff that gets moved on. 

 

My philosophy has always been to move things on that aren't getting used. I don't see the point in keeping hold of pedals etc just sitting in a drawer.  Even basses, although I understand the aesthetics, just seems a bit pointless to me! 

 

My current bass set up could be replaced for about 850 quid second hand. £500 fender jazz bass, £100 zoom b3n and £200 carvin amp. Then 3 half decent quality leads. 

 

I would love to know what my actually net spend has been over the years!   I bet its not more than 2k! Which considering its been my main hobby for about 20 years and I'm sitting with 800 quid worth of gear just now, is pretty damn cheap as hobbies go! 

Edited by Elfrasho
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13 hours ago, owen said:

As long as it is bought 2nd hand at realistic prices then when the time comes you can get the £ out again. No worries.

I was about to agree with this until I started to list what I had actually bought new . . .

I have spent far too much for what I need (for example my (purchased new) BF Super Twin has only ever been to 2 rehearsals), but hey ho, I'd only spend it on something else.  At least with second hand gear, you can normally sell for pretty much what you paid for it, unlike cars, boats and horses.

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On ‎15‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 18:21, FinnDave said:

I had to add mine up for insurance purposes a year ago, I have halved it since then, the money tied up in gear was quite an eye opener

Yup, did that as well... what an eye opener it was too! Ooops. ;) :D 

Drastically reduced it over the last few years, but it's starting to creep back up again. ;) 

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On 3/15/2018 at 23:13, neilp said:

Why do people feel the need to lie to their partners about the cost of their gear?

Exactly my thoughts. Unless you're starving the family or depriving them of all reasonable luxuries, why should you feel compelled to lie to them when you buy music gear? Did they not know that you were a musician when they met you? And if you became a musician after you met them, should they not support you (like presumably you support them in their career/hobbies)? I really don't understand.

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11 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

I really don't understand.

Me neither, but I don't tell my wife if I've bought a bar of chocolate when I've been out. Gear is OK, but I really get told off if I eat too many choc bars!!

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Even in terms of money spent on all the gear I've owned over the 35+ years I've played bass; I doubt if this is much more than about  £5k.

But the replacement cost of the gear I still own now is another matter as a lot of it is no longer made and would surely cost me much more than I paid for it to replace wit similar spec/quality. 

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