What is the most you'd personally pay for a new bass?

[mario_buoninfante]

I love basses, I love talking basses, I love checking them out, all the types, but for me the bass is a tool I use to make music.

I'm not a collector and am not after exotic woods, particular designs and exclusive features.
That makes it easier for me to stay in the ~1k range.
I wouldn't be able to justify anything more expensive, considering my needs and the music I make.
Also, I wouldn't like to have a bass I can't take outside because I'm concerned it might get scratched.
This is all subjective though, I perfectly understand other people have totally different needs.

[TheLowDown]

2 hours ago, lidl e said:

Hell, you could get 2 or 3 HBs for that.

 

I have a ridiculous mental block on lower end gear. And i know im not the only one!

 

I'd own a squier or HB guitar i suppose, but not a bass.

Most of my basses are HB. Happy customer.

[DGBass]

Most i've paid for a new bass ever was £1299. If I was in the market for something new, proabably around £1500 would be the limit for new one, maybe half that for a used item. Any new or used bass would be getting gigged for sure so having something wonderfully unique and minted that i'd be terrified to do pub gigs with would be no use.

[Newfoundfreedom]

I personally wouldn't spend more than about £350 on a bass. Neither my level of playing nor frequency of gigging would warrant it. There are some perfectly good bases around for that money, and anything over that is just a cascade of diminishing returns (i.e ten times the price wouldn't get you ten times the bass) I also just wouldn't feel comfortable taking a really expensive instrument to gigs. I've never understood the logic of people who have a 3 grand bass in the house and a £150 Harley Benton for gigs. Just give me the Harley Benton in the first place and I'm happy. 

 

Now amps / cabs on the other hand I'd be willing to put a little more into. But that's only because a good power to weight ratio doesn't come cheap. If my back wasn't so knackered I'd happily pick up and gig one of the cheap Trace rigs that come up fairly often and go for peanuts. 

[police squad]

it's funny isn't it.

The older I get, the less I need to spend, even though prices are going up.

I remember 20 years ago, how much a custom shop Les Paul was. I thought it was mental. But I eventually paid 1800 quid for a reissue '57 CS (18 years ago)

1500 for a PRS signature from 89.

2000 for a Slash AFD 12 years ago.

all were more than a months wages at the time.

I have a brian May 'super' on order £3295 IIRC. Mad mad money lol

 

but not basses

 

1500 tops lol

[Beedster]

11 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Double bass or electric?

 

11 hours ago, lidl e said:

What was it? 

 

Apologies, misread thread, it was a used electric bass (custom colour LPB '64 Precision, MOB). A life defining moment in some respects, a big lesson in economics and the vintage gear market in others. I partly blame @Happy Jack 

[Bassfinger]

The most I've personally paid is £2600, but that was for my dream bass. Other than that a grand is the limit, the point for me where common sense, playability and finish coincide, although I've found basses at half that which are as good as most £1000 ones.

[joe_geezer]

My max would be £3500, which was the price of a new Status bass more or less. Anymore than that  & you're paying for the name / brand or a coffee table (Alembics for example).

[Paul S]

The most I have paid for a bass was having a Maruszczyk Jake 5 put together which, at the time, cost me £1500.  Similar spec. now would be £2000.  Which at the time I considered to be good value for what was effectively a custom shop bass - the project was a good one so worth the outlay.  But I wouldn't dream of spending that now.  The last bass I bought new was a year ago - my Retrovibe P-30 cost just over £400.  Other than something like a Harley Benton I'm unlikely to buy new anymore and would most likely top at £400-500 secondhand.  Preferably less   But, then again, never say never.  I have a lot of stuff for sale at the moment and once the money is in the bank....    

[gjones]

Well I paid just under £2000 for a Fender Elite a few years ago. I'd never bought a bass of that quality new before, as I was well aware that as soon as you step outside the shop it's worth half of what you bought it for, but I couldn't find one secondhand and ran out of patience looking.

 

I've got some lovely basses that would have cost me thousands new, but I bought them at half the new price (or less) because they had a few years on the clock, which in my opinion, is the smart thing to do..

[Ed_S]

Perhaps a post better suited to the psychology of collecting thread, but I'll pay about £1k-£1.5k of new money and/or theoretically any amount of recycled money. So if I buy three basses at £1.5k each but subsequently then sell them for £1k each, then in theory the only thing stopping me from spending up to £4.5k on the next one would be the voice in my head saying "you'll never take it out of the house". At present, £3.5k (4 trade-ins plus £250 of new cash) is the actual maximum and it's not even going to be built and delivered for at least another year so I don't know how I'll feel about it when it arrives. Most of the 'money' was never in my hand, though, and at that point it will have been gone for so long that I'm hoping it'll be a "meh.. just get on and use it" reaction.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Ed_S
clunky lexical choice

[JapanAxe]

The most I’ve paid for a brand new bass is £1,450 for my AVRI Precision (about 7 years ago). I paid £2,495 for a new CS Strat (around 9 years ago) and that’s the record to date.

[NancyJohnson]

If I had the desire, need or want, I'd make it happen irrespective of the price; most I've paid for a bass is £5.5K (my Lull five string) and £3.8K for a guitar (Gibson Theodore/investment). 

 

Not wanting to go down the 'How much???' rabbit hole that much, but I was looking at the Anderton's site earlier; I'm amazed how much Fender stuff sells for new.  Mexican Precisions, Jazzes and Jaguars are £700-725 (Player series...whatever that is), Japanese and 'Corona' Performer (aren't Corona basses made in Mexico and bolted together in California?) start c.£1,200 and the American stuff is a £400+ premium on top of that.  It's staggering how much these retail for (and yes, I understand all about dealer markups). 

 

I can remember the old Bell Music catalogues from when I was a kid.  Yes, I know it's 45+ years ago and inflation (blah, blah, blah), but a Precision bass is still a £240 instrument in my eyes. 

 

 

[Trueno]

In my heyday (???) I’d pay whatever a US P bass cost. Nowadays I’d try out Squiers until I found a goer, then I’d put an EMG Geezer in it.

[Steve Browning]

10 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reproducing that. I remember that page so well. A far better read than Health and Efficiency. 🙂

Edited December 20, 2022 by Steve Browning

[Wilco]

The most I’ve spent is £1300 on my Spector (used), & I had to think long & hard about that. I have the resource to pay more, but to me the law of diminishing returns very much kicks in around that price point thinking of either new or used. My Ibby 4 string & the Maruszczyk were both new & were slightly less than the Spector. I seriously doubt another grand or even £500 spent on something else would improve substantially on those three. 

[Burns-bass]

I traded up to a £10k jazz bass (1964, all

original) which I sold on here. 
 

I’d always wanted one, and had the money to buy one. The reality is I get more use and pleasure from a Squier P/J I picked up for £80.

 

[Bassybert]

38 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

If I had the desire, need or want, I'd make it happen irrespective of the price; most I've paid for a bass is £5.5K (my Lull five string) and £3.8K for a guitar (Gibson Theodore/investment). 

 

Not wanting to go down the 'How much???' rabbit hole that much, but I was looking at the Anderton's site earlier; I'm amazed how much Fender stuff sells for new.  Mexican Precisions, Jazzes and Jaguars are £700-725 (Player series...whatever that is), Japanese and 'Corona' Performer (aren't Corona basses made in Mexico and bolted together in California?) start c.£1,200 and the American stuff is a £400+ premium on top of that.  It's staggering how much these retail for (and yes, I understand all about dealer markups). 

 

I can remember the old Bell Music catalogues from when I was a kid.  Yes, I know it's 45+ years ago and inflation (blah, blah, blah), but a Precision bass is still a £240 instrument in my eyes. 

 

 

 

Accounting for inflation those prices roughly equate to the following in 2022 money...

 

Tele - £1,567.20

Strat - £1,887.77

Precision - £1,709.68

Jazz - £2,051.61

 

When you consider cases were an additional cost as well the prices seem higher in the 70's than they do now!

Edited December 20, 2022 by Bassybert

[KingBollock]

I only have one bass that I bought new and it was only £200. My other three basses were £250(x2) and £225.

 

Should I come into some money and saw the right bass, I think I’d pay up to £600.

[lidl e]

1 minute ago, Bassybert said:

 

Accounting for inflation those prices roughly equate to the following in 2022 money...

 

Tele - £1,567.20

Strat - £1,887.77

Precision - £1,709.68

Jazz - £2,051.61

Which isnt far off from where they are.

 

Feckin inflation....

[Machines]

To date, £1600. In the future I will want something 'expensive' be it a custom Dingwall and/or possibly vintage Fender, but that's on the assumption my financial situation allows such in a few years.

[NancyJohnson]

22 minutes ago, Bassybert said:

 

Accounting for inflation those prices roughly equate to the following in 2022 money...

 

Tele - £1,567.20

Strat - £1,887.77

Precision - £1,709.68

Jazz - £2,051.61

 

When you consider cases were an additional cost as well the prices seem higher in the 70's than they do now!

 

No case = 45 year free relic service.  Premium £££.

[Jonesy]

My Ric cost £925 around 2002, which equates to about £1500ish nowadays and I think they're nearly £3k on Andertons at the mo.

 

As much as I said £700ish was my limit earlier, I'd buy a new Ric in a heartbeat if anything happened to my one.

 

It's also my 40th next year and the USA pro 2 in dark night or mercury is looking pretty tempting........

[BigRedX]

The most I have spent so far on a bass was just under £3k on a Sei Offset Flamboyant 5-string fretless, custom made for me about 15 years ago. On the other hand the cheapest bass I have ever bought was £60 including the hard case and free strap (in 1981), which in terms of disposable income at the time was a lot more of a struggle financially - I had to live VERY frugally for the next month.

 

So really it's down to what you can afford at the time and how important certain features are to you. Right now I could do with a second Eastwood Hooky so I have a decent backup bass for gigs, but the price is now over £1400 and I have other things I need to spend my money on first.

 

Ideally I'd get Simon Farmer at Gus to make me a Bass VI, but last time I enquired the price for one made to my spec was around the £6.5k mark, so that's unlikely to happen any time soon, but if I had the disposable cash I'd be ordering two today.

 

Does that answer your question?

[LukeFRC]

I think the problem with a thread like this is it's so based on your income/experience.... if you live in the south east in a house now worth over £2M, work in a well paying job in the city and like your friends at the golf club drive a high spec BMW, compared to your brother who's a senior nurse working in the rural north east in a house worth £140,000 and drive a second hand fiesta to meet your friends at park run.....  then the money you might put towards a bass will be different, purely as money has a different value to you. (BTW the fact that these differences exist is kinda here nor there, and it's fairly pointless and divisive to argue over them on a music forum)

Also the person with the large income might value spending a little on a Harley Benton and have a low budget for a musical instrument, while the lower wage earner in the north east may value the trip locally to get Overwater to build the bass of dreams. 

Maybe people are into vintage Fenders and then the price brackets change again. Mental for some, not for others.


 

15 hours ago, lidl e said:

This thread is inspired by a bass I'm building. I honestly feel using a higher end body and neck from warmoth or guitarbuild and good hardware you can build a bass as nice as sadowsky, lull or any of the other clones. It's all cnc anyways. Im budgeting around 11-1300 and it will be a monster.

There will be several differences though... what you pay for is the skill of the builder, in testing and selecting wood and parts, and making it so it all fits together and is set up right and then giving it a pro level finish. 
If you have those skills - great. But if the parts are £1100, a pro finish equivalent to Lull or Sadowsky would be £300-500 and you're going to spend a few hours on it... if your skilled time is £40ph it's not going to be long before we are in the same price bracket. 
I have some of the skills, but I am good enough at setting up a instrument to recognise when people who are really really good do it, and I've finished enough instruments to know that the Sadowsky in the shop is in another league. Of course if you have the skills and don't put a price on your time it's cheaper to do it yourself - but that's true of most things.