{"id":3446,"date":"2013-03-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=3446"},"modified":"2013-03-14T14:29:45","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T19:29:45","slug":"are-there-any-american-made-used-bass-guitars-that-arent-expensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/gear\/are-there-any-american-made-used-bass-guitars-that-arent-expensive.html","title":{"rendered":"Are There Any American-Made Used Bass Guitars That *Aren’t* Expensive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

American-made bass guitars, as all bass players are aware, are not cheap new or used…<\/p>\n

…but there are a few diamonds in the rough in the used American-made bass department that won’t run you too much money.<\/p>\n

With that said, in the mass-produced department concerning quality American-made used<\/strong> bass guitars, two companies usually stand out above the rest: <\/p>\n

Carvin and Peavey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Carvin<\/h3>\n

Carvin makes good stuff<\/a>. Truly. As it states right on their home page, “American-Made Since 1946.” You buy Carvin and you’re buying American; it’s as simple as that. <\/p>\n

The reason most bass players aren’t aware of Carvin is simply because Carvin is a factory-direct shop, meaning new Carvin axes are rarely seen in any instrument retailers. You will, however, find used Carvin bass guitars at instrument shops, and being they’re all American-made you don’t have to think about where they’re manufactured because you already know.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example of a used Carvin listing at that popular national guitar store that begins with a G:<\/p>\n

\"Capture\"<\/p>\n

That’s an American-made bass for $400, and even states “USA” right in the listing.<\/p>\n

It’s generally agreed upon that you have to spend about $400 to get a good quality used bass. Why not make it an American-made by going Carvin?<\/p>\n

Peavey<\/h3>\n

\"Pevaeyhead\"<\/p>\n

USA-made Peavey bass guitars have a solid reputation for being very well-made instruments. And while there’s a treasure trove of USA-made used Peavey bass guitars to be had, players typically complain of three things concerning Peavey more than anything else:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Depending on model, they can weigh a ton.\n
  2. Parts for them can be very difficult to acquire (such as the custom Peavey-only etched metal knobs for volume\/tone control, which a lot of people seem to lose for whatever reason.)\n
  3. Certain Peavey bass guitars do have, shall we say, “interesting” electronics.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The used USA-made Peavey bass you will most likely come across is called the Peavey Foundation<\/strong>; the headstock will prominently state “CRAFTED IN THE U.S.A.” or “HANDCRAFTED IN THE U.S.A. BY PEAVEY.”<\/p>\n

    The other models of Peavey bass guitars you’ll see will be the “T” series<\/strong>, namely the T40 and the T45. Example:<\/p>\n

    \"Peavey_T40_02_110429_med\"<\/p>\n

    Yes, these are the models with those stupid etched metal control knobs that people always lose.<\/p>\n

    “T” series Peaveys are ordinarily big, heavy instruments with big, fat top-loader bridges on them (they even have an etched\/raised “PEAVEY” logo on them,) and somewhat-wacky electronics under the pick guard – but nothing you can’t handle or fix yourself.<\/p>\n

    It cannot be said enough times that if you decide to go for one of those older “T” series Peaveys, make VERY SURE it has all those etched Peavey knobs, because you can spend up to $100 for a full set of them, and that’s no joke.<\/p>\n

    A well-to-do T40 model sells for anywhere around $350 to $500 on eBay. For an American-made used bass, that’s a good deal. But again, make sure all the knobs are there. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

    Are Peavey “T” series considered “vintage?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Yes, absolutely. But fortunately for you, Peavey totally over-engineered the “T” line, so you won’t end up with a rickety mess since they built them like tanks.<\/p>\n

    USA-made used Carvin and Peavey… good or bad? You tell us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Personally, I think as far as used American-made bass guitars go, Carvin and Peavey have some good stuff available. But what do you think? Is “American-made” important enough to justify the purchase of one of the above, or are you better off with something like a Mexican-made Fender bass?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    American-made bass guitars, as all bass players are aware, are not cheap new or used… …but there are a few diamonds in the rough in the used American-made bass department that won’t run you too much money. With that said, in the mass-produced department concerning quality American-made used bass guitars, two companies usually stand out … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}