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

[BlueMoon]

I have a few nice basses but would baulk at gigging a bass costing more than 1K to 1.5K £. With a very expensive or rare instrument I would be paranoid to get it dinked. So my more exotic basses stay for home/studio use only.

[LewisK1975]

Honestly - If I had the money there, and I really wanted something, and felt it was priced realistically, I'd buy it.  No limit.

[Davebassics]

Most I've spent on a new bass was £350 about 15 years ago. Been second hand purchases only since then.

 

Honestly, what I'd spend on a new bass now? Probably £0. Its just not important to me any more. After many years of lusting over £1/2/3k+ basses I'm in a really happy place with GAS atm :D. I've owned a few expensive instruments, but just haven't enjoyed them. I'm a squier/sire household for the foreseeable future!

 

I would love a stingray though .... 😂

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

17 hours ago, lidl e said:

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.

Nice sentiment, but I’d like to play the bass you think has as good a neck as the Lull’s or Lakland’s I currently have. Particularly the Lakland P’s.

[Reggaebass]

I don’t really have a limit, if I played something that really impressed me I’d buy it 

[lidl e]

6 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Nice sentiment, but I’d like to play the bass you think has as good a neck as the Lull’s or Lakland’s I currently have. Particularly the Lakland P’s.

Any warmoth neck!

 

They use the same CNCs.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

I think the problem with a thread like this is it's so based on your income/experience....

Exactly. I’m sure there are a few people that would still limit themselves to a HB P bass even if they won the lottery.

If I had enough disposable income I’d order a few custom Fodera’s.

[lidl e]

1 minute ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Exactly. I’m sure there are a few people that would still limit themselves to a HB P bass even if they won the lottery.

If I had enough disposable income I’d order a few custom Fodera’s.

I dont think i would.

 

If i won the lottery i think I'd get a meteora or a longscale wilcock bass!

 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

4 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Any warmoth neck!

 

They use the same CNCs.

I’ll e-mail Lakland immediately and tell them they should outsource their neck building 👍

[grenadillabama]

I paid $1600 for a new US Stingray before they went up with 18 volts. It feels better than my Sterling Ray 34 but sounds no better. So $1000 is my limit now.

[Lw.]

Isn't this just a "how much do you earn" thread? 1k for someone on 20k is a very different spend than for someone on 100k. 

 

I've only ever spent more than a months salary on a bass once, but that was when I was a teenager & it was only £700. Not sure if I could justify a months salary on a bass now! 

 

 

[lidl e]

9 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I’ll e-mail Lakland immediately and tell them they should outsource their neck building 👍

They did! To make the skyline series. 

 

 

[lidl e]

1 minute ago, Lw. said:

Isn't this just a "how much do you earn" thread? 1k for someone on 20k is a very different spend than for someone on 100k. 

 

I've only ever spent more than a months salary on a bass once, but that was when I was a teenager & it was only £700. Not sure if I could justify a months salary on a bass now! 

 

 

Not at all.

Im on a good wage and still wouldn't drop thousands on a new bass.

 

[cetera]

£2k.

 

The laws of diminishing returns, value for money, costs of parts/labour etc mean that I realistically can't see any bass being worth any more than that. I've certainly never played a new £2k+ bass any better than a sub £2k bass.

 

[neepheid]

Around £1500.  Beyond that, I don't see the point, and my bass skills and frequency of my playing barely justifies the figure I have postulated.

[Lw.]

9 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Not at all.

Im on a good wage and still wouldn't drop thousands on a new bass.

 

If you earned double/triple what you do now, would your spend go up? 

 

I'd probably limit mine at about a months salary mostly because my playing ability makes it difficult to justify spending more, even a month of salary is pushing it! 

 

[lidl e]

2 minutes ago, Lw. said:

If you earned double/triple what you do now, would your spend go up? 

 

I'd probably limit mine at about a months salary mostly because my playing ability makes it difficult to justify spending more, even a month of salary is pushing it! 

 

It would not.  

 

[LukeFRC]

45 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Any warmoth neck!

 

They use the same CNCs.

you realise that if you took your CAD file and went to a CNC equipped bass neck factory they would offer you a range of prices based on material, tolerances, how often blades get sharpened, quality control etc. 

 

The same CNC machine could also make wooden toys for my kids, just because there is a common denominator in the machine used doesn't mean that things are the same. 

[Burns-bass]

The same topic comes up in almost every hobby I have. 
 

“How much should I spend on a bike?”

”How much should I spend on oil paint?”

”Should I buy a top of the range Mac?”

”Will these £160 trainers help me run faster?”

 

And the answer is almost always the same:

 

Your equipment is less important than the commitment you have, the time you invest, and innate ability.

 

Answers:

 

- Between £1000-£2000 for a recreational cyclist

- Student grade is fine until your skills justify it

- No, unless you’re doing high end graphics, video editing, animations or running a super studio

- Probaby not, but they will shame you into running more!

 

 

[Franticsmurf]

The most I've spent on a bass was just over £1k for a new Stringray 34HH a couple of years ago. But like many of the posters here I wouldn't buy new again - not because of the experience but because there are plenty of used bargains. My American P bass was a little less than £500 ('B' stock), my Sire S5 was £300ish, also 'B' stock. Add my HB Bass VI (less than £200) and I have three 'new-to-me' basses for the same price as the 'Ray. 

 

To answer the OP's question, I think there's now a psychological barrier for me at £1000. If I say it out loud it it sounds much more than when I see it written down and I can't justify the spend based on my level of skill and the frequency and level of gigs that I'm likely to be doing. 

[alyctes]

I couldn't justify anything over £800.  I suppose for an upright I might go to £1000, but I'd probably have to replace my car as well then...

[Madein1962]

I've only ever bought 2 new basses; both of which were being sold off cheap as NOS.

The first was a US Fender Jazz in translucent sunset orange (I guess it wasn't a popular finish). I paid around £400 for it, which seemed like a bargain.

The second was a 5 string Vigier Passion in natural satin finish. I was really after a 4 string so I turned it down but, the shop just kept emailing me with a lower price until I couldn't say no. I paid £1100.

These were both bought when I was going through a phase of buying anything that appeared uncommon or undervalued (over ten years ago.)

Of course, the plan was to sell them at some point but, I never quite got around to it.

[ped]

The most I've spent is £3500 but as we all know, that's the same as £3500 sitting there in the bank doing nothing. If I can buy an instrument ('Functional art') and enjoy it, and it holds or increases in value, why not? I don't think I'll have £3500 to play with again for a long time but I don't regret any expensive bass I've had. Technically I'd pay anything if I had the liquid funds and was confident I could sell it for the same. In fact most of my 'bass wealth' came from buying two very ice instruments at a bargain price back in about 2003, a Medulla MVP and a shell pink 1975 RI P bass. 

 

I realise the above is about used basses and the OP is probably referring to brand new, in which case I honestly don't think I'd ever buy a brand new bass (same as with a car). 

[WinterMute]

I bought a Thumb 5 string in 1987, one of the first, got it for £975 from the Bass Centre as I had a mate who "knew people" there. That was the most I'd spent on an instrument for a good few years...

 

My Bongo came in second hand as a 50th birthday pressie but was just north of a grand, then I paid £1400 for my 20th Anni SR5, and I thought that would probably be the most expensive bass I bought.

 

However, my ACG Krell custom was a commissioned build to my spec and came in around £3800 I think, and is worth every single penny I paid for it, not just in terms of the workmanship and materials, but the attention to detail to get me what I wanted. I can't imagine going back to a factory spec, off the shelf model.

 

I can see why people would pay big money for boutique instruments now, but I think there must be a limit somewhere where quality and materials stops and brand takes over, some of those Alembics look fabulous, but at £20K+ seem overpriced given how good the ACG is.

 

You pays your money etc.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, lidl e said:

They did! To make the skyline series. 

 
I don’t own any Skylines.