Status shuts their doors

[SuperSeagull]

Just announced that following Robs cancer diagnosis and operation last year they are no longer going to be producing new basses. A very sensible decision for Rob and Dawn but a great loss to industry.

[Mastodon2]

Game over for anyone hoping to get a new Status bass. They had a good run.

 

 

[itu]

Michael V. P., Patrice V., and now... I wish Rob gets best possible treatment.

[Linus27]

😲

 

Wow, sad times indeed but understandable considering and why not, life is too short so I don't blame him wanting to retire and enjoy life. I never did get myself a Status bass but would love an all black graphite headed fretless. It also looks unlikely I will ever get an unlined fretless neck for my Stingray either. Good luck to Rob and the team and all the best for the future. They are bass legends.

[BassBod]

Very best wishes to them all.  Great basses, good people.  I never ordered a complete bass, but have bought occasional strings and spares from them.  Always a good experience. 

[40hz]

Sad news. The end of an era. Reading between the lines though, it seems he might license the name out. 

[martthebass]

That's a shame but I completely understand and appreciate where he is coming from.  Glad that I managed to get my CW sig last year and had a chance to chew the fat with Rob.

Edited July 21, 2022 by martthebass

[White Cloud]

Along with Enfield this is another incredible UK bass innovator lost. Tragic.

 

All the very best to Rob and wishing him a speedy recovery! Thanks for everything...

[ezbass]

 Huge loss to the industry, but good call on Rob’s part.

[prowla]

Oh dear - I do hope they decide to keep the brand (and the quality) going.

[Russ]

25 minutes ago, prowla said:

Oh dear - I do hope they decide to keep the brand (and the quality) going.

I'd imagine the carbon fibre fabrication tooling, moulds, etc could be sold off to another company, with the aim of them continuing the brand. 

 

There's not many guitar companies in the UK who would be big enough to take that on though. Maybe Crimson - should we all be having a word with Ben Crowe?  

 

Who knows. Maybe Rob has suitors already. 

[Linus27]

Basschat group buy?

[Russ]

2 hours ago, 40hz said:

Sad news. The end of an era. Reading between the lines though, it seems he might license the name out. 

He's very deliberate in as much as he's saying that they will no longer be building the "same" range of Status basses and guitars "in Colchester". 

Essex used to be the epicentre of the British bass industry, with Status, Ashdown (and, before them, Trace), SimS, etc. 

[Mastodon2]

It's a shame for those who wanted a new one, I know my brother was looking to put an order down on a new Kingbass. I guess for Rob, he's leaving money on the table; it's hard to image a time when Status doesn't have a group of players that will always want one and his order book would be full forever more if he hadn't made the decision to stop, but for all of us, there comes a point when time becomes more important than money, particularly when you're in your late 60s and have had a cancer diagnosis. I said the same for the recent retirements of Mike Pedulla and the pending retirement of Patrice Vigier who is now clearing his build queue before shuttering his business. A lot of the old legendary brands are shutting down and frankly I don't see much of anything coming to replace them, particularly for a brand like Status who really never had an equal or even pretenders to their throne. Vigier moved away from carbon fibre necks and went with their 90/10 wood to carbon system a long time ago, Enfield would make a bass with a carbon wrap over the wood (so not a real carbon neck), Modulus seem to play to a different crowd. Schack and Bogart were in a similar vein to Status but were much more niche and let's be honest, Status were a niche company even in bass circles.

 

I think of Status as being like the McLaren of the bass guitar world. Forward-thinking, innovative and at a time, they were the cutting edge. You could argue that the lack of innovations in bass construction since the advent of carbon fibre is testament to how good the material is and how good Status were at using it. For the kind of bass they wanted to make, there was no better material and no better construction method. While some other British brands continue pumping out hoary old dinosaurs for sky-rocketing prices, Status would make you a bass that really was unrivaled in many ways and they would do it for an exceptionally reasonable price. I looked at the price of a top of the line bass from their pricelist not that long ago, and my dream bass, all-options ticked kind of thing was only about £3500. Madness really, for something of that quality, made in the UK. We didn't know how good we had it.

 

Will the basses continue, being built under a new team? Maybe. The wording of the statement is very open. The talk of the end of the "current" range, who knows what the future may hold etc. However, based on the tenures of staff Rob names in the statement, unless they started with Status from a young age, they probably aren't spring chickens either and without the main man at the helm, could they carry on without him, albeit under his supervision to a degree? Who knows.

 

It would be really cool if they could take their knowledge and start a new brand to continue on the legacy. This all seems like such a shame because without anything else to take their place, Status are leaving a hole in the bass world that really isn't filled by any other brand.

 

I would say though, that the time to buy a used Status is surely now, if you wanted one, before people start hoarding them and boosting prices because of Rob's retirement.

 

 

[Musicman666]

Funnily enough I was talking to dawn not too long ago about what would happen to status when Rob inevitably takes a back seat and would there be an ex apprentice like Paul of wal to pick up the baton,…. She went pretty quiet with that suggestion which was very unlike her, normally she can talk all day and now I know why.… status as a business could keep on going if there was somebody else ready to step in.

Edited July 21, 2022 by Musicman666

[Grassie]

1 hour ago, Linus27 said:

Basschat group buy?

Composite lay-up operator here, with resin infusion experience…. 😎

[Russ]

20 minutes ago, Mastodon2 said:

It's a shame for those who wanted a new one, I know my brother was looking to put an order down on a new Kingbass. I guess for Rob, he's leaving money on the table; it's hard to image a time when Status doesn't have a group of players that will always want one and his order book would be full forever more if he hadn't made the decision to stop, but for all of us, there comes a point when time becomes more important than money, particularly when you're in your late 60s and have had a cancer diagnosis. I said the same for the recent retirements of Mike Pedulla and the pending retirement of Patrice Vigier who is now clearing his build queue before shuttering his business. A lot of the old legendary brands are shutting down and frankly I don't see much of anything coming to replace them, particularly for a brand like Status who really never had an equal or even pretenders to their throne. Vigier moved away from carbon fibre necks and went with their 90/10 wood to carbon system a long time ago, Enfield would make a bass with a carbon wrap over the wood (so not a real carbon neck), Modulus seem to play to a different crowd. Schack and Bogart were in a similar vein to Status but were much more niche and let's be honest, Status were a niche company even in bass circles.

 

I think of Status as being like the McLaren of the bass guitar world. Forward-thinking, innovative and at a time, they were the cutting edge. You could argue that the lack of innovations in bass construction since the advent of carbon fibre is testament to how good the material is and how good Status were at using it. For the kind of bass they wanted to make, there was no better material and no better construction method. While some other British brands continue pumping out hoary old dinosaurs for sky-rocketing prices, Status would make you a bass that really was unrivaled in many ways and they would do it for an exceptionally reasonable price. I looked at the price of a top of the line bass from their pricelist not that long ago, and my dream bass, all-options ticked kind of thing was only about £3500. Madness really, for something of that quality, made in the UK. We didn't know how good we had it.

 

Will the basses continue, being built under a new team? Maybe. The wording of the statement is very open. The talk of the end of the "current" range, who knows what the future may hold etc. However, based on the tenures of staff Rob names in the statement, unless they started with Status from a young age, they probably aren't spring chickens either and without the main man at the helm, could they carry on without him, albeit under his supervision to a degree? Who knows.

 

It would be really cool if they could take their knowledge and start a new brand to continue on the legacy. This all seems like such a shame because without anything else to take their place, Status are leaving a hole in the bass world that really isn't filled by any other brand.

 

I would say though, that the time to buy a used Status is surely now, if you wanted one, before people start hoarding them and boosting prices because of Rob's retirement.

 

 

Thinking about it, this may well have been on the cards for a while. Take two of their most high-profile endorsers - Mark King and Alex Venturella. Both of them have been playing other brands as of late - King has gone back to his Jaydees, and apparently V-Man has a new endorsement with Jackson. They probably both knew the writing was on the wall. 

 

It'll be interesting to see where Chris Wolstenholme goes for his new basses post-Status. Maybe Manson? Apparently Matt Bellamy from Muse owns them now. 

[Chezz55]

I've had cause to visit the Status factory in Colchester, (about 10 miles from my front door), a couple of times over the past 15 or so years, and had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Rob and Dawn both times - two thoroughly nice people.

 

My best wishes go to Rob and Dawn along with my thanks for some remarkable bass guitars.

 

Chris.

(Chezz55)

[Linus27]

4 minutes ago, Grassie said:

Composite lay-up operator here, with resin infusion experience…. 😎

Purchasing, inventory, procurement, management and engineering here. I can also play bass a bit which I'm sure helps 😎

[Mastodon2]

19 minutes ago, Russ said:

Thinking about it, this may well have been on the cards for a while. Take two of their most high-profile endorsers - Mark King and Alex Venturella. Both of them have been playing other brands as of late - King has gone back to his Jaydees, and apparently V-Man has a new endorsement with Jackson. They probably both knew the writing was on the wall. 

 

It'll be interesting to see where Chris Wolstenholme goes for his new basses post-Status. Maybe Manson? Apparently Matt Bellamy from Muse owns them now. 

 

It's a shame that happened, Mark's Jaydee tone simply isn't on the same level and he was by far their best and biggest name endorser. Chris and Alex aren't players in anywhere near the same league as Mark, but they would have had some brand pull. Well, maybe not Alex, who is like a nobody dep in a band with 9 members, who released their last good album 20 years ago. I would be surprised if anyone listened to Slipknot and then went out and bought a Status off the back of the endorsement. That said, I'm sure Alex is more valuable to the Fender corporation, who have Mick Thomson and Jim Root, with their signature guitars with Jackson and Fender respectively. They can give Alex a signature bass and the put some cheap import models out, or just give him a bass and put his face on their endorser list. I think Slipknot's listener demographic probably fits better with a black, pointy headstock bass for £800 a pop rather than a handbuilt £3500 bass. I'm surprised it took as long for FMIC to get Alex as it did, as FMIC have been very aggressive in recent years with buying off as many name musicians as they can across the metal genre. 

 

I remember the days when Jonas Hellborg played Status, even having a signature bass with them. What a boon that was, there was a guy that could add some real credibility to the brand. It was sad that Jonas moved onto Warwick as clearly he had ideas about this big semi-hollow bass kicking around for a while and Warwick made it for him, but his tone was nowhere near as good with the Warwick in comparison to his Status days. A shame too that Jonas seems to have lost his way after the death of Shawn Lane, releasing two more good albums and then doing nothing of any real note for the last 15 years. Has it really been 15 years since Art Metal?! Crazy how time flies. When I listen to Hellborg's stuff where he was using a Status, the tone is just awesome.

 

That said, on the overall subject of losing endorsers and how it would affect the brand, I'm not sure it would have hurt Status too much. Mark has dabbled over the years but always came back to Status, but I think even if they cut all ties with their endorsers, they could still make the Kingbass and the core Status customers would still place orders. A blow on a personal level to Rob perhaps, but I doubt it would have spelled financial ruin for the company, or even moved the needle on their finances tbh.

[Grassie]

52 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

Purchasing, inventory, procurement, management and engineering here. I can also play bass a bit which I'm sure helps 😎

I’ve also done a stint in scheduling… 😊

[Supernaut]

Let the man be and give him some time to decide. 
 

Speculation mere minutes after the announcement is just tasteless. 
 

I would take Rob back at full health any day over a thousand more Status basses. 

[luckman67]

I hope Rob gets the best treatment & makes a good recovery.

[Graham]

I'd have assumed that a management buy-out would be on the cards, but looking at the years service of the other folks listed in the statement, they're probably not too far from retirement too.

[Wolverinebass]

I hope Rob is fully in remission and that he enjoys his semi retirement as he put it. I would imagine that they'll be outsourcing instruments and some form of announcement will be made in the near future.

 

From a personal perspective, I've met Rob and Dawn a few times and they're lovely people. As the owner of the last status Buzzard, I'm happy that he made that bass as to me it is the greatest bass ever made.

 

The irony is the week before they stopped taking orders I was going to order a Stealth. I had the email in draft and was just mulling over an option or two. I've literally been awaiting them to take orders again. I guess I'll have to see what goes on.

 

One thing is for sure. If the brand comes back it won't be "Status by Warwick" after the Buzzard debacle in 2005.