{"id":3837,"date":"2013-04-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=3837"},"modified":"2013-04-25T15:15:55","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T20:15:55","slug":"if-someone-handed-you-a-pile-of-cash-for-a-bass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/article\/if-someone-handed-you-a-pile-of-cash-for-a-bass.html","title":{"rendered":"If someone handed you a pile of cash for a bass…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I came across the thread If someone handed you $3000 for a new bass<\/a><\/em>, which poses the question that if someone handed you a pile of money that was specifically to be put towards a bass guitar and nothing else, what would you get?<\/p>\n

The answers seen in the linked thread above are interesting because what players would do with an opportunity like that go all over the place. Some would go for a Dingwall, some would go straight to Fender Custom Shop, some would go for G&L, and there are a few who would go with no pre-built bass at all and buy the woods and parts they always wanted to make “the ultimate build,” so to speak.<\/p>\n

In the thread is also mention that $3,000 is not enough<\/em> to get “that bass” they want…<\/p>\n

…and it’s here where I make mention of the real difference between a mass-produced bass and one custom built by a luthier.<\/p>\n

To note: When I say “mass-produced,” I’m specifically talking about the stuff you see all the time in guitar stores. Fender, Squier, Jackson, Gibson, Epiphone, Schecter, ESP, LTD and so on.<\/p>\n

When you have a bass custom built by a luthier, $3,000 is usually the starting price<\/em>. It’s not out of the question that all parts included for the bass will total $1,000 and the luthier’s cost for labor will be $2,000.<\/p>\n

Some upon read of the above think that’s a total rip-off. Well, it isn’t, because what you’re paying for with a custom build isn’t the bass but rather the luthier’s time and craftsmanship.<\/p>\n

I’ll put it this way:<\/p>\n

If you were to build an entire bass yourself<\/em>, which includes cutting and shaping the wood from scratch, doing all the routing and so on, then adding in some high-quality electronics like Delano pickups<\/a> and\/or a Mike Pope preamp<\/a>, you’ll quickly realize that it’s real easy to spend a lot in a short period of time. You’ll also quickly realize it takes a good amount of time to construct the bass and make it all work. And on top of that, you learn fast that those who do<\/em> know how to construct basses properly are totally worth spending money on.<\/p>\n

That’s when you realize paying a luthier $2,000 for a custom build with a $1,000 cost on top of that for parts and electronics is a bargain. The luthier has the proper tools, workshop and expertise while you don’t, and that’s what you’re paying for. And that’s why $3,000 is for all intents and purposes a starting price for a from-scratch custom build.<\/p>\n

Sure, there are ways to get a custom build cost down. You could, for example, hand a luthier a brand new Made-in-Mexico Fender Standard Jazz Bass (which has a current street price new of $600 by the way) along with $300 worth of upgrade parts, instruct the luthier to a fret leveling, then installation of parts and setup, and he won’t charge you nearly as much as a from-scratch custom build would… <\/p>\n

…but is that a custom build at that point?<\/em> Not really, because the bass is already made. What the luthier is doing for you is fixing from-factory flaws, installing parts and not much else.<\/p>\n

Real-deal custom luthier builds, simply put, are not cheap. And there’s really no way to make them cheap.<\/p>\n

In other words, what I’m saying is to not confuse a mass-produced guitar’s price point with a luthier build price point, because both are two totally different types of purchases.<\/p>\n

With an expensive mass-produced guitar, all you’re buying is a product. You have no idea who built it, nor do you really care. For 3k you can currently buy two Fender American Standard Jazz Bass guitars plus hardshell cases for each.<\/p>\n

With a luthier build, you know exactly who is building the guitar. And at the end of it all, what you receive is the instrument. Just<\/em> the instrument. But what you bought wasn’t the instrument exclusively, but also the time and effort it took to put that bass together. You’re buying something that was crafted just for you.<\/p>\n

And if you can’t see the difference between mass-produced and luthier-built, well, my suggestion is to get to know a luthier, because he can build it better than anything you can buy in the guitar store.<\/p>\n

Image Credit: StGeorgeUtah.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came across the thread If someone handed you $3000 for a new bass, which poses the question that if someone handed you a pile of money that was specifically to be put towards a bass guitar and nothing else, what would you get? The answers seen in the linked thread above are interesting because … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837"}],"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=3837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}