The 2000 Golden Axe Awards
Bass Best Value Division
By Cliff Suttle
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March 7, 2000 - Welcome to the first ever Golden Axe Best Value Bass Awards. Hopefully you have already checked out the Golden Axe Unlimited Bass Awards and found those instruments exciting. The Best Value division was created this year to honor basses in a different class than the Unlimited division. The Best Value is simply that, a great instrument for the money. Does this mean that all the basses here are going to be low cost entry level instruments? No, not at all. What we were looking for in this division was value. Playability, tone, workmanship, and cost were the main judging criteria. The most expensive guitar in the Best Value division is $3,300. The least expensive is $699. All amounts in this article are in U.S. dollars. Please keep in mind that these are list prices. The street value of these instruments may be quite a bit less at your local music store.
Bass players, as a whole, are much more in tune (no pun intended) with value than guitarists. Guitar players are often swayed in the buying process by the image that the guitar projects. Bass players seem to care more about that special sound that defines their playing style. If you compare the Guitar Unlimited Awards to the Bass Unlimited Awards I believe you will see this fact for yourself. Although there are some beautiful basses in the Unlimited division, it is not crowded with the hyper-exaggerated, heavily inlayed, image monsters that dominated the Guitar Unlimited division. The Best Value divisions, in comparison, are much closer in product range. Does this mean that bass players are just too practical, or is it that guitarist are too flamboyant? I'll leave that decision up to you.
What I can tell you is that bass players today have a greater range of excellent instruments to choose from than ever before. It used to be that you would just go out and pick up a P-Bass and you'd be all set. That decision is no longer an obvious one. Improvements in bass designs, materials, electronics, and building techniques has elevated the price-to-value ratio of the average bass way up. So before you go plop down $1,000 on the old favorite, you'd better take a good look around at what is happening in bass land. The competition has stiffened and this makes it all the better for the bass players of the world.
Here are the rules under which the contest was judged:
- The bass had to be present at the NAMM show. No pictures or late entries were allowed.
- The instrument had to be a normal production model. No special, or one of a kind items were allowed.
- Each company could only submit one instrument per division.
- Any model which was a former Golden Axe Finalist from prior years was excluded from the contest. However, companies could enter other models from their line which did not win previously.
When you're viewing the finalists, please keep in mind that a better bass could finish lower in the finals than a lesser instrument. Remember that this is Best Value, and price is factored quite heavily in our decisions.
Now on with the show!
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