Is there any real benefit to buying a brand new (£1500) bass, or should I just go for the more affordable options?

[Terry M.]

44 minutes ago, bremen said:

There are two types of bass sound: the one I like, and the one that 99% of sound guys apparently like 😟

Does their one have less bass?

[Stub Mandrel]

You could rephrase this thread as "is there any point buying a new bass when I could buy a better one for the same price or secondhand one for less?"

 

Me, I'm quite happy to buy a new bass (or secondhand) if it's what I want. But I always buy secondhand cars.

[kwmlondon]

13 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

You could rephrase this thread as "is there any point buying a new bass when I could buy a better one for the same price or secondhand one for less?"

 

Me, I'm quite happy to buy a new bass (or secondhand) if it's what I want. But I always buy secondhand cars.

This is a very, very good point.

 

There are advantages and disadvantages to buying a new or used car/bass. I think the key thing is to be honest with yourself about what you really need, what you would like/make you happy and what you can justify to yourself.

 

I do like Martin Lewis' mantra:

 

If you're broke... Do I need it? Can I afford it?

If you're not... Is it worth it? Will I use it?

 

[TheLowDown]

Only unless there is something specific, or a specific combination of features, that you need that can't be bought any more cheaply. There is a plentiful supply of suitably high quality basses at a fraction of that price and with features that I would be looking for, so I would feel that spending £1500 on a bass would be a waste.

[Terry M.]

I recently was in The Bass Gallery and they had two used Fenders I wanted to try. One was a £1.6k American Elite Jazz V and the other was a £0.8k Player Plus Jass V. There was nothing I could do on the American one that I couldn't replicate on the Player Plus so guess where my money went? It also helped that the Player Plus was modified with an onboard Sadowsky preamp as it's the type of mod I have done previously and would do again. So for ME that was a bargain package. Oh and the icing on the cake for me was Fender used a 19mm spaced bridge for the Player Plus 5s.

Edited Monday at 15:28 by Terry M.

[BabyBlueSound]

FWIW, I just got my first £500+ instrument ever (a new Sandberg Lionel for £1200). I love it, it feels right, it sounds right, I WANT to play it. BUT this could be indeed true for many other basses in other price categories.

 

I bought it new as it was exactly the config I wanted: matte blue finish, black hardware, Precision shortie.

 

Normally I am a "value for money" guy so likely this is my last ever brand new bass, I'll go back to budgets/used ones after this. But at least once it had to be done 😁

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, BabyBlueSound said:

FWIW, I just got my first £500+ instrument ever (a new Sandberg Lionel for £1200). I love it, it feels right, it sounds right, I WANT to play it. BUT this could be indeed true for many other basses in other price categories.

 

. . . .

 

Normally I am a "value for money" guy so likely this is my last ever brand new bass, I'll go back to budgets/used ones after this. But at least once it had to be done 😁

 

If this bass feels right, sounds right and you want to pick it up and play it, why would there be another bass?

Edited Monday at 17:44 by chris_b

[BabyBlueSound]

Just now, chris_b said:

 

If this bass feels right, sounds right and you want to pick it up and play it, Why would there be another bass?

Well for example that Starstream is still out there!

 

If you're saying we can have only one good bass, this industry is in big trouble 😁

[neepheid]

3 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

If this bass feels right, sounds right and you want to pick it up and play it, why would there be another bass?

 

How long have you been here?

 

[Jackroadkill]

Christ, poor @Allaboutthebass must wish he'd never asked!

[Terry M.]

7 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

Christ, poor @Allaboutthebass must wish he'd never asked!

I personally would be pleased to ask a question on here and get this many responses 😊

[RichT]

3 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

If this bass feels right, sounds right and you want to pick it up and play it, why would there be another bass?

 

Ooh let me see...

 

- I had one bass for 30 years. A Hohner B2A. Played it to death until the electronics and controls slowly gave up. Still have it but it barely works. 

 

- My now favourite "if I could only have one" bass is my EBMM short scale Stingray. 

 

- But it's too expensive to take out to dives, so have a cheaper Vox Starstream with MM pickup.

 

- And I liked that one so much I bought another, "one for flats, one for rounds" 

 

- And I liked those two so much I bought another one with jazz config pickups & controls

 

- But they're all active and modern sounding, so a Hofner Club for vintage vibes. 

 

- But that's bit one extreme or the other, so short scale Maruszczyk P-style Jake

 

- But they're all a bit short scale, so Ibanez SR500e in case I ever need those 4 extra inches of fretboard.

 

- But they're all a bit 4-stringed, so 5 string Ibanez EHB in case I need those 5 extra notes

 

- But they're all a bit fretted, so Ibanez Portamento fretless in case I need a bit of mwah.

 

And I think that's where I am currently. I think I'd struggle to to come up with reasons to justify more right now.

 

Unless of course it was a short scale fretless... and then of course I'd  need a 5 string one... and something with T-Bird pickups would be nice... and I don't have a true hollowbody bass... and...

 

 

[bremen]

I'll take your moribund B2A off your hands and have it humanely destroyed...then you have yet another excuse for another NBD

[tubbybloke68]

I’ve just bagged a yammy Trb mk1 5 off of the very nice Joe geezer on here for substantially under the OPs budget.The thing is unbelievable in terms of quality/sound and value for money. I own quite a few high end 5ers and the B string on this is as good if not better than most of’em . Go second hand every time! Good luck with your quest! X 

[crazycloud]

On 25/03/2025 at 08:46, RichT said:

I had one bass for 30 years. A Hohner B2A. Played it to death until the electronics and controls slowly gave up. Still have it but it barely works. 

I was the same with my XL2, just the one bass.

 

The B2A can be easily resurrected by making it passive, 3 pots and a cap, maybe $20 and 1/2 hrs work. Whilst you're at it, add a strap pin extender and thrust bearings on the tuners to make the easier to turn, maybe another $20. As well as the XL2, I have 2 B2, a B2V and a Spirit.

[BigRedX]

It really depends what you play and how important image is to you. 

 

If you favour 34" scale 4-string basses there are hundreds of options under £1500, especially if you also take second hand instruments into consideration, that you would need to have a very specific set of non-standard additional requirements not to be able to find something suitable at that price.

 

If you play something less conventional it's not quite so clear cut. I currently play Bass VI and the only suitable instrument I have found costs just under £1500 new. There is nothing else available off the shelf that has a comparable specification for my needs, and to improve what I already have would involve having something custom-made by my favourite luthier and would cost four times as much.

[Sean]

@Allaboutthebass

 

Have you bought anything yet or are you overwhelmed by the "advice"? 😉

[NancyJohnson]

On 10/03/2025 at 09:47, chris_b said:

Is a Ferrari better than a Ford Focus, a £75 bottle of wine better than a £7.50 bottle, or a Fender Ultra better than a Sire? To many people they are.

 

 

 

 

If a restaurant in a big city sold single baked beans on a cocktail stick for £2.00 each, some epicurean would be saying they were divine.

 

Again it's all subjective and there's this correlation between price paid and justification.  Charge £500 for a bottle of red wine vinegar and there'd be people queuing up to drink it, all saying it tastes delicious.

 

I'm reminded of this:

 

 

 

 

[bremen]

44 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

If a restaurant in a big city sold single baked beans on a cocktail stick for £2.00 each, some epicurean would be saying they were divine.

 

Again it's all subjective and there's this correlation between price paid and justification.  Charge £500 for a bottle of red wine vinegar and there'd be people queuing up to drink it, all saying it tastes delicious.

 

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

[Terry M.]

18 minutes ago, bremen said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

Thanks for posting this. When time permits I'll give it a thorough read 👍

[Allaboutthebass]

3 hours ago, Sean said:

@Allaboutthebass

 

Have you bought anything yet or are you overwhelmed by the "advice"? 😉

 

Not yet, but the trigger will be pulled sometime today/tomorrow, as according to the wife, I either use it or lose it.

 

I'm after a 60's style Jazz and have my eyes on @jay-syncro Sadowsky, Richtone's American Vintage II and BassBro's 60th Anniversary.

 

Although I would be equally happy with Jays KSD Jazz and have enough cash to buy other shiny things to play with.

 

I suspect the final decision will be when the boss puts her foot down and if she wants whatever I don't spend back.

 

 

[crazycloud]

3 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

If a restaurant in a big city sold single baked beans on a cocktail stick for £2.00 each, some epicurean would be saying they were divine.

 

Again it's all subjective and there's this correlation between price paid and justification.  Charge £500 for a bottle of red wine vinegar and there'd be people queuing up to drink it, all saying it tastes delicious.

 

I'm reminded of this:

 

 

 

 

Years ago Penn and Teller had a show called Bullsh!t (that's what it was called!) and they did this twice. Once with a waiter selling expensive boutique bottled water in a restaurant, that came from a garden hose. The other episode was using out of date and left over gas station food they dolled up, again served in a restaurant. They used the same 'waiter' in both episodes and they are beyond hilarious if you can ever find them to watch especially as you got to see them prepare the items they were serving up. They were on YT years ago but have been scrubbed.

 

A lot of yuppie knobs have moved in here so I'm tempted to do something similar one day.

[jay-syncro]

54 minutes ago, Allaboutthebass said:

 

Not yet, but the trigger will be pulled sometime today/tomorrow, as according to the wife, I either use it or lose it.

 

I'm after a 60's style Jazz and have my eyes on @jay-syncro Sadowsky, Richtone's American Vintage II and BassBro's 60th Anniversary.

 

Although I would be equally happy with Jays KSD Jazz and have enough cash to buy other shiny things to play with.

 

I suspect the final decision will be when the boss puts her foot down and if she wants whatever I don't spend back.

 

 

 

I'll do you a deal if you'd like both 😁

[peteb]

1 hour ago, Allaboutthebass said:

 

Not yet, but the trigger will be pulled sometime today/tomorrow, as according to the wife, I either use it or lose it.

 

I'm after a 60's style Jazz and have my eyes on @jay-syncro Sadowsky, Richtone's American Vintage II and BassBro's 60th Anniversary.

 

Although I would be equally happy with Jays KSD Jazz and have enough cash to buy other shiny things to play with.

 

I suspect the final decision will be when the boss puts her foot down and if she wants whatever I don't spend back.

 

 

 

All really good choices. If I was in the market for a 4 string jazz, I would definitely buy @jay-syncro's Sadowsky! 

 

[NancyJohnson]

5 hours ago, bremen said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

 

So like Ticketmaster's Dynamic Pricing, then?