Why do you think PRS bass guitars did not do well?

[Revelation]

With all the knowledge Paul has and his team, you would think they would be able to make some killer bass guitars that could sell well. They had the PRS Grainger which was cost a lot of money. I was not a fan of their Kingfisher.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

They can/have/do. PRS has made basses since 1986, and Paul made a handful before starting the company.

They just haven’t ever really gained any traction.

 

[Greywolf]

While I love all my PRS guitars, the bass never did it for me . In all honesty , I prefer my Alembic for that role.

 

[theDeepender]

I only test drove one around 2016, and I wasn’t fond of the tone. And I really wanted to like it and buy one.

 

[Maertl513]

It's the market - and I have the gutt feeling, although PRS convinced a few powerful stallions and mares to join and represent the brand, the majority of customers trusts in a kind of reactionary manner iconic guitar models (in terms of anticipated sound). And the same with bass guitars. Fender Preci and Jazz and EBMM Stingray seem to be the sliced bread in bass guitar context. If you share with PRS your heart, than you are individual.
Due to decreasing demand the production decreased, too. Preventing the company against unnecessary costs.
Sometimes high demanding products allow risky products, that's mixed calculation. But there are limits. The economic mission is wins, to spend on fix costs, to invest.

 

[Mike J.]

Bass is my first instrument. A while ago I was talking shop with a friend who plays bass (Warwick), one thing led to another and he even said:

"When you get down to it, it's really hard to beat a good Fender bass." I have a 2010 P bass and a 2012 Jazz bass. For my simple needs and wants both give me what I need. Never played a PRS bass so I cannot comment on them either way.

 

[RickP]

Unless you’re a bassist, Precision, Jazz, and Stingray encompasses the world of bass sounds (not counting keyboards). To my pretend-bassist ears, there’s nothing else needed. Maybe, unlike us guitar players, bassists actually recognize that!

 

[Revelation]

Unless you’re a bassist, Precision, Jazz, and Stingray encompasses the world of bass sounds (not counting keyboards). To my pretend-bassist ears, there’s nothing else needed. Maybe, unlike us guitar players, bassists actually recognize that!

Well the Ken Smith basses have a great midrange and are made of high quality. Most of us mortal however can only afford used ones.

 

[theDeepender]

Well the Ken Smith basses have a great midrange and are made of high quality. Most of us mortal however can only afford used ones.

The only way I could afford a new one was after a modest injury settlement.

 

[RickP]

Well the Ken Smith basses have a great midrange and are made of high quality. Most of us mortal however can only afford used ones.

The only way I could afford a new one was after a modest injury settlement.

Oh, I’m sure you’re right… there are likely many more too. No slight intended to the great bass makers.

But when I think about the breadth of music styles made famous on just those three, it’s pretty mind-boggling, and enough for my little brain to say “bases (or basses) covered.” Maybe I’ll slide a double bass in as #4.

 

[64 Tele]

Fender P-Bass is the gold standard.
I've had a 1972, a 1963 and currently have a Squier P-Bass.
I'm shocked, but it plays, records as well as my two previous Fenders.

 

[andy474x]

I would've loved to get a Kestrel, but I needed to be able to reach down to a C without restringing and/or retuning, and I wasn't going to buy 2 basses, so I went with a Yamaha Broadbass 5 string. Wish they had made a 5 string Kestrel.

 

[László]

I'd like to try a PRS bass. I recently had a Sting Ray Sledge, a very good bass for bass-ic sounds (you see what I did there).

My favorite bass was a Modulus Graphite Quantum 4. It could do anything. It was transparent red with a quilt top. I don't remember why I sold it.

"Probably to get money to buy something else you didn't need."

"Ah yes, Thanks for reminding me. Do you remember what I bought?"

"Nah."

"Me either. Probably some foolish thing I later sold to buy something else I later sold, etc. ad infinitum. I don't deserve to buy gear, I'm too fickle."

"Who says it's about 'deserve'?"

 

[shinksma]

The Fender P and J bass types are the standards that seems to permeate that market. Yeah, there are/were plenty of other good basses, including Gibsons & Rickenbackers for example, but the Fenders are the look and shape of a stereotypical electric bass.

And the StingRays have occupied a lot of the "modern (non-vintage?) bass" market.

And there are a bunch of other bass brands out there making quality instruments played by great players, like Spector and Wal.

PRS basses are great. My wife and I have 5 of them, including the 2 SE models and a GG. But I think they slot in that no-man's land of "better than most, not boutique enough for the high end market, and not really recognized". Beginner bassists have a good selection of recognizable bass brand models (like the Fender Precision) at the same price points PRS had for their SEs. Those beginners are going to gravitate towards the brand/model they saw their favorite band use, unless a PRS enthusiast friend says "hey, try the PRS". And when they are ready to move up, the US-made Fender P-basses are well under $2K. (I assume the US made versions are that little bit better...)

That's a tough market to break into.

Despite our collection of PRS basses, on a lark I bought my wife a Guild Starfire bass as a Christmas present a couple of years ago because it was a shorter scale (she's a short woman), and it has become her go-to bass. It just has a feel and sound that she (and the rest of the band) really like. It doesn't matter it isn't an expensive bass (retail they are about 1/8th the price of a PRS GG), and maybe Tony Levin would find a million faults with it, but she likes it best. She still plays the PRS basses at times during band practices or whatever, but the Guild is her go-to gigging bass.

 

[László]

I'm reminded of my grandfather, a great guy who loved taking everyone out for dinner to his favorite restaurants. If the restaurant wasn't crowded, he'd get worried that it wasn't doing well.

None of them went out of business during his lifetime. The food was always top notch.

But the menus changed from time to time.

I've had a lot of PRS models that are no longer on the menu.

As far as I'm concerned they are/were all fantastic guitars, worth the money, and I'm glad to have been their custodians. They certainly didn't fail to achieve their purpose, regardless of what the price-oriented general public glommed onto.

'Business sense' and 'aesthetic sense' are two entirely different concepts. A product can be great at one, and not great at the other. I'm OK with that, I'll play what works for me.

 

[Andrew G]

I love the original PRS basses, they are much more comfortable tan the Fenders and easier to play and sound fantastic. I have an '87 fretless 5-string which has a wonderful rich sound and is a dream to play and an '89 fretted 5-string with bird inlays which also sounds great and is is easy to play. I had a Fender Deluxe V Jazz, but the neck got so wide up high - it sounded wonderful, but was heavy and the neck clumsy. The PRS is a joy to play all the way up.

 

[Shane Kelly]

I would honestly buy a Spector or a Stingray if i was buying another bass. I love my PRS electric guitars but i'm not a huge fan of the SE basses or SE acoustics they've made compared to previously mentioned basses or Taylor acoustics. It's personal what instruments you click with. PRS only made SE Basses besides the Granger model and I think the SE ones were 4 string only. It's the same reason I wouldn't buy a Taylor Electric guitar as most of their experience is making great acoustics. There's bass companies that have more experience and making virtually flawless basses, PRS make the greatest electric guitars for me which is why i play them.

 

[Alessandro]

Anyone know of any aftermarket passive bass hum buckers that would fit into my SE kingfisher that would maintain the look?

I have the 2 SEs and both play amazing. I was a little surprised they advertised the kingfisher as a humbucker. Only one coil has magnetized pole pieces the other just has non magnetized pot metal poles so they are essentially single coils wired with a dummy coil to try and cancel out some RF frequencies. They are low output and weak and both pickups had the same polarity so they didn’t cancel hum with both pickups on at all. Even the kestrel can do that with a jazz single coil setup. Weird to advertise a guitar that doesn’t cancel hum in any position as a humbucker. And they are no longer available so it seems it was weird to other people too.

I’m just a junkie with a soldering iron over here flipped the polarity on the bass pickup and have been enjoying playing the guitar more now but I do feel tempted to find some nice passive bass humbuckers with the same size and look of the large poles. All I can find are EMGs and I’m not into them so much. I would like to avoid routing the body for different sizes and I haven’t found many similar looking aftermarket pickups.

I have found one local bass luthier who can wind me up a custom set of pickups with the ability to split them to single coil too, but he wants $600 CAD and that’s about what I paid for the guitar used.

 

[dogrocketp]

I stumbled into a Guild Dearmond Pilot bass many years ago, after having a Gibson bass for 35 years. Although the scale length is tough (35”), I took the advice of the best bass player I know, and also bought the best strings I could. For my roots and fifth’s theatre playing, it does exactly what I need. While I looked at the beautiful Blue SE basses, I find most bass players stick to one or two basses if they hear what they like. Not so us guitar players…………except when we play bass.

 

[theDeepender]

I stumbled into a Guild Dearmond Pilot bass many years ago, after having a Gibson bass for 35 years. Although the scale length is tough (35”), I took the advice of the best bass player I know, and also bought the best strings I could. For my roots and fifth’s theatre playing, it does exactly what I need. While I looked at the beautiful Blue SE basses, I find most bass players stick to one or two basses if they hear what they like. Not so us guitar players…………except when we play bass.

Love my Pilot.