Six of one…. Half a dozen of the other.

[Rayman]

Bass guitars…..

 

You can buy one for fifty quid, you can buy one for fifty grand…. but they all do pretty much exactly the same thing. You can make folks smile, dance and have fun with an instrument that cost less than a tank of fuel…. or you can bore them senseless playing a slap solo on one that could be a deposit on a house instead.

 

Mad eh?

[Doctor J]

But you still can't find a drummer who won't speed up

[Maude]

I paid £1500 for my car five years ago. It does everything I want it to do. 

Some people spend £150,000 on cars and they're badly built, barely driveable, and they crash them. 

Horses for courses. If you want and you can, you do. 

[Rayman]

Yep, the same formula works for pretty much everything. I’m not saying either are right or wrong, just saying.

 

 I suppose it’s all down to the user experience and the performance of the item, but if it achieves the same end result….. I do wonder about the big price difference.

[Burns-bass]

Status I suppose. People often believe having something valuable confers status on them (cars, clothes, etc.) but 99.9% of people don’t care. If I told my dad how much my music instruments were worth he’d be shocked and probably a little appalled.
 

In the end, I sold all the expensive basses and now use a £1500 one which is the only instrument I’ve ever bought new and is the best I’ve ever played. 

[ead]

I seem to have settled around the £500 to £600 for a workhorse gigging bass.  Lots of choice in this bracket and just seems to work for me.  I have a couple of expensive ones for my own pleasure mostly.

Edited April 6, 2023 by ead

[Mykesbass]

I once had a glass of Dom Perignon Champagne. It was noticeably nicer than any I had drunk before, but was it four times better? After a certain price, any improvements are incremental (or snake oil).

[BigRedX]

10 hours ago, Rayman said:

You can buy one for fifty quid, you can buy one for fifty grand…. but they all do pretty much exactly the same thing.

 

Except when they don't.

 

In one of my bands I use an Eastwood Hooky 6-string bass. Current list price just under £1500. None of the other Bass VIs have a suitably wide neck. The only alternatives for me would either be a original Shergold of which there were less than 100 made and all appear to be in the hands of collectors; or something custom built. Both would cost a lot most than the Eastwood.

 

 

[rushbo]

3 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

I once had a glass of Dom Perignon Champagne. It was noticeably nicer than any I had drunk before, but was it four times better? After a certain price, any improvements are incremental (or snake oil).

I think this is a pretty good analogy. Whenever I've played any super-duper, high-end basses, for the most part, I've been impressed, but the difference in build quality and shininess couldn't justify the financial outlay - for me, anyway.

 

My modus operandi is that I'll buy an inexpensive but decent bass and then over time, replace some parts and do some tweaking until I have a bass which absolutely matches my needs. These hybrid instruments I put together have next to no resale value, but that's not the point. I love them and they inspire me to play.

 

Musicians buy instruments for many reasons, with tonal quality not always being at the top of the list. Because a bassist is professional/semi-professional/high profile, there is an expectation that they'll play an instrument that somehow matches their perceived status. I worked in the jewellery trade for a couple of years and my old boss drove a Rolls Royce which he loathed and complained about it bitterly. When I naively suggested that he got rid of it, he replied that if he replaced it with a cheaper yet more reliable car, it would appear to be a retrograde step, meaning that he's fallen on hard times.

 

If your £12,000 Fodera Richard Bona Imperial 5 inspires you to play at your absolute best (and you can afford it!) then that is the bass for you. If that second-hand Harley Benton P Bass that your dad bought for you for Christmas is your pride and joy, then hang on to it. You can hammer a nail into a wall with a hammer or a rock. As long as you can hang a picture on that nail, you've done the job.

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by rushbo

[MacDaddy]

12 hours ago, Rayman said:

Bass guitars…..

 

You can buy one for fifty quid, you can buy one for fifty grand…. but they all do pretty much exactly the same thing. You can make folks smile, dance and have fun with an instrument that cost less than a tank of fuel…. or you can bore them senseless playing a slap solo on one that could be a deposit on a house instead.

 

Mad eh?

 

Where are you buying these £50 basses which are as good as £50k basses? 😲

[Happy Jack]

1 minute ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Where are you buying these £50 basses which are as good as £50k basses? 😲

 

Sue Ryder

 

(For those who've been here a VERY long time )

 

[Happy Jack]

Anyway, this is all complete tosh. I know for a fact that I play ten times as well on a £1000 bass as I do on a £100 bass. I've measured this objectively and accurately, and there can be no denying it.

 

[TheGreek]

I think 30-40 years ago the difference in quality between a £50 and £5000 bass was huge - today? Not so much. 

 

I think that most basses in the mid hundreds is good enough for the needs of most of us - except @Happy Jack of course who has empirical evidence to prove it.

[Rayman]

1 hour ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Where are you buying these £50 basses which are as good as £50k basses? 😲

AHHHHH not what I said 😉….. my (admittedly generalised) point was that they more or less get the same end result. The playing experience would obviously be very different, but for the punter in the audience, the end result is exactly the same.

 

 I DO however have an absolutely stellar £50 bass that’s one of my favourites.

[BigRedX]

5 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I think 30-40 years ago the difference in quality between a £50 and £5000 bass was huge - today? Not so much.

 

I think that only really holds true for those instruments based on the Fender P and J.

 

After all they are tried and tested designs with a 60+ year pedigree and whose USP is that they can be made using 1940s technology by a relatively unskilled labour force; and TBH if you are a guitar manufacturer and you can't make a decent P or J bass you shouldn't be in business.

 

Everyone else will have to pay what the manufacturer decides is a right price.

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

Anyway, this is all complete tosh. I know for a fact that I play ten times as well on a £1000 bass as I do on a £100 bass. I've measured this objectively and accurately, and there can be no denying it.

 

Do you have a graph for this, Jack?

[Cato]

16 minutes ago, Rayman said:

The playing experience would obviously be very different, but for the punter in the audience, the end result is exactly the same.

 

Case in point I saw a lad playing a Music Man Bongo in a pub covers band a while back.

 

The bass sounded great in the mix but while I was sitting round the corner just listening, before I actually saw him, it never occurred to me just from listening that he was playing something a bit out of the ordinary.

[Happy Jack]

4 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Do you have a graph for this, Jack?

 

Yes, but you wouldn't understand it. 

 

😂😂😂

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Sue Ryder

 

(For those who've been here a VERY long time )

 

 

But were they any good for metal?

[BlueMoon]

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

I've measured this objectively and accurately, and there can be no denying it.

…….and I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate!

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

I know for a fact that I play ten times as well

It's true!

I play 5 and 5/9 times better on my Wal than on the Kawai I paid £90 for. But only play 1.25 times better on the Wal than on my Sandberg, but on my ACG I play 1.9 times better than on the Wal.

I'm best of all on the Lightwave fretless, which I can play exactly 12x as well as the Kawai on! But that's because, being a fretless it only does jazz.

[MacDaddy]

33 minutes ago, Rayman said:

AHHHHH not what I said 😉….. my (admittedly generalised) point was that they more or less get the same end result. The playing experience would obviously be very different, but for the punter in the audience, the end result is exactly the same.

 

 I DO however have an absolutely stellar £50 bass that’s one of my favourites.

 

I do take your point. Many years ago, for reasons, I used a no name east Asian bass for a gig. The band didn't even notice I was playing a different bass, let alone a different coloured bass. 

The sound FOH wasn't noticeably different. 

[chris_b]

13 hours ago, Rayman said:

Bass guitars…..

 

You can buy one for fifty quid, you can buy one for fifty grand…. but they all do pretty much exactly the same thing.

 

 

They do but each in a different way.

 

That's why our preferences are so varied.

[Rayman]

8 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

I do take your point. Many years ago, for reasons, I used a no name east Asian bass for a gig. The band didn't even notice I was playing a different bass, let alone a different coloured bass. 

The sound FOH wasn't noticeably different. 

Mate…. remember that massive Phil Jones rig you had? Years ago? At some bass bash somewhere? I remember wondering how different that would sound, with a bunch of 8” (?) speakers instead of a couple of 12”s? 
 

I suppose it’s all part of the same conversation….. would the audience notice the difference between that and a Fender Rumble? 
 

I mean I’m playing devils advocate here as far as the thread goes, but it’s an interesting question.

[Rayman]

Interesting ??