Used Romanians in the market place..

[Ken Smith]

I am starting this thread to find out what is going on with these Romanian Basses after their first owners, why it was re-sold or traded in and what prices for what types of Basses were paid.

I recently heard from a member here about a bass he bought used from a well know shop that mostly caters to beginners, first time buyers or those that do not know as much as they should know about Basses before buying. The price he hinted to me sounded way way off the charts. This was a Flat Back Romanian bass with a carved top and it was USED. He paid more for that bass USED than the better made Wultur's (Corsini, Panormo, Carcassi) fully carved Round Backs sell for NEW!!

What is wrong with this picture? :confused:
The Bass he has in my opinion was way over priced, period. The quality of this from what I heard was MOR (middle of the road) at best but might have some issues from the current Shop set-up where it was purchased as well as the overall quality for what was paid.

This is NOT TalkBass.com. We have no advertisers here to protect or asses to kiss! Here, you can in a polite and professional manner, express your dis-satisfaction with purchases made on these types of Basses new or Used. Keep it clean. Maybe it will help improve conditions in the future, or.. maybe not!:(

Also, good stories would be nice as well to help balance the scale if at all possible or where warranted..;)

[Eduardo Barbosa]

I got one of these Romanian basses. flat back, slightly larger body than a 3/4, some people call it 7/8's but the string length it's between 41,5" to 42'.
I paid $2600 new. I needed fingerboard dressing, and little bit of bridge re-shaping.
i sold for $2000 after a few years for no particular reason other than I have two other basses, and I just didn't need a third one.
what does puzzle me, is that I think I have seen this exact same bass on various web sites with different labels.
So now, if indeed they are the same bass, which in the back of my mind something tells me they are. I can't understand why the price tags vary from about $2400 to $12.000!!!!!!
I suppose that if you get them blank and have to varnish and set up, that would add up too the price tag.
But an almost 10k increase???
I have asked a couple of luthiers about it, but they where vague about it...
Anyway, i've seen them selling used from about $1800 all the way up to $12.000!!! (yes! used, but with reputable shop label...)

[Bin Hire]

This is NOT TalkBass.com. We have no advertisers here to protect or asses to kiss!
Forgive me for saying this but, the double bass forums here are maybe a little less product driven, for obvious reasons, than the bass guitar forums.
A thousand pardons for saying this as obviuosly this is a Ken Smith Basses site. I humbly suggest that maybe TalkBass is just affiliated to different brands. Well, it's good to try to be fair. Apologies again.

[Thomas Erickson]

Forgive me for saying this but, the double bass forums here are maybe a little less product driven, for obvious reasons, than the bass guitar forums.
A thousand pardons for saying this as obviuosly this is a Ken Smith Basses site. I humbly suggest that maybe TalkBass is just affiliated to different brands. Well, it's good to try to be fair. Apologies again.

Anybody else think this guy is a little funny? Bin Hire? :rolleyes: