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Is a new mass-produced bass ever worth more than £1500

Beedster

By Beedster,
in General Discussion

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stingrayPete1977 Grand Master

stingrayPete1977

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure how many employees Musicman have in San Luis but the factory isn't massive, I had two laps of the building before anyone started to give us funny looks so we left. I imagine the Fender sites are much more like what you think of when thinking of mass produced items. 

 

I'm not sure I'd spend £3000+ on any bass tbh, I'm glad I've already got a couple that'll see me out.

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Ralf1e Mentor

Ralf1e

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11 hours ago, Passinwind said:

Someone who makes 500 a gig? ;)

Absolutely this. A professional will buy what he wants because he knows it will pay for itself and then go on to earn him more.

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Mykesbass Grand Master

Mykesbass

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On 30/03/2023 at 19:58, Grahambythesea said:

It depends - if the workers are being paid a proper living wage commensurate with the cost of living where they are based, then maybe it’s justified. California is very expensive, my daughter happens to live in San Luis Obispo where Musicman is based and it’s one of the highest cost areas in the state. 

This. We have been in a race to the bottom, squeezing prices for decades. This is now unsustainable and prices are having to go up and we are going to have to get used to owning less stuff. Going with inflation, a Fender Stratocaster should cost 3,300 dollars in US ( sorry, couldn't find UK prices for 1969s).

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sammybee Proficient

sammybee

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I wouldn't spend £3k on anything BUT a new Stingray if I were in the market for a new bass. I think I've had my current 'Ray for about 10 years (not selling it anytime soon), so if I wanted to replace it £300/year (based on a 10 year ownership) seems a small price to pay for something that gives me so much joy.

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MichaelDean Veteran

MichaelDean

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46 minutes ago, sammybee said:

I think I've had my current 'Ray for about 10 years (not selling it anytime soon), so if I wanted to replace it £300/year (based on a 10 year ownership) seems a small price to pay for something that gives me so much joy.

Can I hire you to talk to my wife about a new bass?

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Misdee Mentor

Misdee

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Posted

The new Stingray Specials are seriously good basses. Lighter weight, even more punchy tone, ergonomic design ect. Three grand is a bit steep,yes, but it is a very good bass.  I got my hands on one for the first time recently and for me they are the best Stingrays ever.

 

 I used to have a very good pre-EB Stingray but the new Specials knock spots off it, to be honest.

 

I'm not keen on most of the colours, that would be my only criticism of the current range.

 

 

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iconic Experienced

iconic

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Posted
On 03/04/2023 at 12:06, Greg Edwards69 said:

Is that kinda the founding ethos of Fender guitars, though? They were designed to be mass produced as quickly and cheaply as possible by unskilled labour. They were workhorse instruments, made for the masses with replaceable parts (indeed, part of the reason behind the bolt on neck).  It's only more recent times that people are convinced vintage fender instruments have some kind of mystical mojo. At the time, they were just mass produced instruments.

The Henry Ford of instruments.

 

... even Leo's choice of body wood was interesting....8/4 boxwood.....and that means what ever boxwood that was cheap, easily available, machined well with acceptable mechanical properties.

 

8 quarter lumber was just thick enough to plane both sides to a decent finish.

 

He even changed suppliers of the nails that were used when painting the bodies, multiple times, whenever he found a cheaper supplier...when you are using thousands of nails it all adds up. 

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Nebadon2000 Community Regular

Nebadon2000

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On 02/04/2023 at 14:14, Boodang said:

Now, I know this is a personal opinion and if you're perfectly happy with the Fender then that's great and all that counts, but for me I find the whole thing quite clumsy..... the neck joint is not contoured and chunky, I find the body bulky and it could definitely do with some contouring, then they cnc everything from the front and cover it up with cheap plastic! To me the whole thing smacks of 'how to make a bass as cheap as possible '. Can you imagine how much they'd charge if it was a set neck!

🤣🙄

 

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dclaassen Mentor

dclaassen

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I got my hands on a Nathan East Yamaha that the pro player didn’t want anymore. Great bass, and probably worth the new price tag, especially if you needed one instrument to do everything. The sonic possibilities are endless….

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Ed_S Mentor

Ed_S

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1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I'm sure they could but would it sell any more basses and make more money?


I reckon people who like the classic designs would see it as unnecessary and not buy one, and people who didn’t like the designs and/or the company before still wouldn’t, and they wouldn’t buy one either.

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Boodang Veteran

Boodang

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Ed_S said:


I reckon people who like the classic designs would see it as unnecessary and not buy one, and people who didn’t like the designs and/or the company before still wouldn’t, and they wouldn’t buy one either.

Oh, can you imagine joining two pieces of wood together without using bolts...  sacrilege!

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tauzero Grand Master

tauzero

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Posted
16 hours ago, Ralf1e said:

Or a through neck 😂

Point is then Fender fans wouldn't buy them.

 

They face the same problem as Harley Davidson did with motorcycles. HD have finally jettisoned the old design, but their twin lines of Sportster and Glide were it for decades, and although the V-Rod was made for nearly 20 years it got dropped as traditional HD customers didn't buy them. Fender have made the occasional bass other than P and J with the Mustang being the only one that's been fairly successful (although the Bass VI has been successful enough to be revived every so often for a couple of years).

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tegs07 Grand Master

tegs07

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Posted (edited)
On 04/04/2023 at 22:34, stingrayPete1977 said:

I'm not sure how many employees Musicman have in San Luis but the factory isn't massive, I had two laps of the building before anyone started to give us funny looks so we left. I imagine the Fender sites are much more like what you think of when thinking of mass produced items. 

 

I'm not sure I'd spend £3000+ on any bass tbh, I'm glad I've already got a couple that'll see me out.

“200,000 sq. ft. facility employs close to 1,000 employees. The new facility, located at 345 Cessna, will add hundreds of jobs to support Fender’s Custom Shop and “Made in the USA” production lines across Fender®, Gretsch®, Jackson®, Charvel®, and EVH®products”.

 

Unfortunately around 300 staff were laid off in 2022. Google suggests average US Fender salary is $56,000.

 

I would hazard a guess that the Mexican factory pays less and the Chinese and Indonesian factories way way less and produce far more instruments.

Edited by tegs07
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