Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Swanson
Perfect illustration, Ken. Thank you. Sounds as if, AES and you combined the needed ingredients of cash, time, skill, vision, and experience.
I am guessing that the craftsperson who first made the bass was working under a very different set of circumstances. Very cool that you both invested the time, effort, and money to make this thing happen.
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Craftsperson? This was an old shop/factory bass. Imported into USA by a firm that sold brands that they made up the names of. NOW, it is a real bass as if hand made over a 100 years ago. Before it was just a big old broken factory bass with good wood and fairly good design of its kind.
Eric, this was the first of many Basses that have experienced our combined efforts, Arnold and myself. On occasion, I barely break even on the money and the time spent on my behalf just a form of entertainment in essence. Still, when higher pedigree instruments present themselves to us one way or another, the experience makes the next bass that much easier to tackle or avoid. Yes, some basses are just not worth it. People today have often been lied to about what they have and their worth only to find out later that the appraised or sale value coupled with a professional deserved restoration far exceeds the value of the bass in question.
I saw one old bass sell recently for about double what it should have because it needed a ton of work to make it whole and orchestra worthy. The customer paid top dollar plus+ for that bass and probably paid a record price for that maker in a big shop that takes big commissions for selling basses. This was a loose-loose situation where only the dealer made out.
Be careful with project basses. It's like any other business. If you don't understand it well and all aspects of it, you stand to loose rather than gain unless your are more lucky than you are skilled.