I would like to direct this post at Ken mostly.
I want to preface my remarks by saying that I have no stake in Upton other than I own one. I have the utmost respect for you Ken and your electric basses. Your knowledge of DB is the reason why I come to your forum.
I guess the original purpose of the post was to find out about other peoples opinion of these instruments. No one ever said that these are rarified instruments or that they are better than anything else available. In fact, I am a recent convert to DB as you know. I went out in search of a student instrument to learn on. I didn't want to be one of those jerks-offs that can bearly play and buys a Ken Smith top-of-the-line bass. Or a guy that buys a 200-year-old carved bass and doesn't know where the first position is. Other players would shake their heads and say "how about learn to play first". Fair comment.
Many of us on this forum are musicians and business people too. As an entrepreneur, you know that making a great product is only one part of the equation. Marketing, creating brand awareness, creating demand based on the power of the brand is just as big, if not bigger, part of being successful with bringing a product to market. You seem to be resentful that Gary (Upton) has done such a good job with that part of his business. I think he should be applauded, strictly from a capitalistic point of view... great execution on that part of the program.
As far as TB goes, we are all painfully aware of the shortcomings of that forum and it does not suit my purpose to turn this into a TB bash session. Hey we are on Ken Smith's Forum now, aren't we? Enough said.
None of this really has to do with the quality of the bass of coarse. I guess what I wanna say is that this instrument represents a really good choice for a player that wants a quality instrument at an introductory price. I have come to that opinion
only after my bass teacher,
Mike Richmond, said "wow, this is a great bass, What did this cost? Jeff, you did well." I guess the point is he validated my choice. Before that, I had no basis on which to judge. Who cares and why is it that important that the bass came from Gliga, Romania? I personally don't care where it came from.
If others think another manufacturer has another valid product at the same price point, discuss that option.
What makes Uptons special? I guess they occupy a place in the bass food chain (not exclusively) where a young or new player can get a playable instument that sounds very good for little money. The special part is that there are only a few other options out there as has been pointed out by the posts on this thread. In the same breath, all the bass builders on that short list would also be considered special by that yard stick.
Any teacher would be pleased to see an Upton, Shen or Wulter or (fill in the other names) in their students hands as opposed to a junk bass that is sold on Ebay for $495.
As far as marketing ability and execution, Upton is special. No other DB builder (assembler, whatever) really has achieved the visibility Upton has (to my knowledge). If you don't care for them on that basis, I'm not sure it has anything to do with the intent of the question I originally posted.