If you're spending the rent money and/or neglecting bills to buy it,then I say DON'T go for it.
If you can afford it then why not ?
If you're maxing out a credit card to do so with little hopes of paying it back then I say get something you can reasonably afford.....
As I've never tried an actual boutique bass out I can't honestly say with any certanty if they're worth the $$$ involved.
I'll stick with Cold Ethyl...she's never let me down yet !
:P
Peace Ed

I have to echo Ed here. If you can afford an expensive bass you don't need to justify it. It's your hobby.

However, I finally found my dream bass and it wasn't an expensive boutique model. It's an Ibanez and it suits all my needs. So, no matter what you get, make sure it's what you really want.

*grins*
Told ya !!
.....about
the Ibanez
:P

Yeah, I never would have believed how good the SR500 is until I tried it. It totally suits me. Now I just need to learn to play...

Paul,I have to agree with you.My SR500 is the bass I've been looking for up to this point.I've owned and traded Two 5 strings and a 4 string.Now I got five basses but the Ibanez is the favorite.I believe you have to run thru a good quality amp and cabinet also.This is something that takes a while to find as well.Trade and upgrade,it may take years it has for me.Jim

I don't really have any expensive instruments... perhaps if I played music as my vocation I would have some.

I have gotten to play a few fine guitars and mandolins, but not any really high end basses.

That being said, after several years of setting up, repairing and such, and building 1 electric bass, I think I would build my dream instrument at this point, and not buy it!

I have an Ibanez that I like a lot, maybe not my "dream instrument" but its a decent one for my needs. Its somewhat similar to the one that I built years ago, but not as rough around the edges as my first effort at building.

High dollar instruments still have their appeal but with modern manufacturing the quality gap is narrowing dramatically. I can appreciate the high end appointments; exotic woods, hardware and electronics; but for me they are nice eye candy and status symbols that I don't really need to use. I used to sell high end basses and have owned a few over the years but for the most part I am happy with my "working mans" budget basses that I now have. For my budget I would rather own 4-6 quality instruments instead of one hi end bass.
Does not mean that I don't look and appreciate, but i don't lust after "super model" basses any more.

I'm with you on the eye candy thing. Looking at some of those Dingwalls, Roscoes and Sadowskys gets me drooling. However, I'm surprised at the quality of Asian made budget models these days. Recently I bought a Vintage fretless. Dunno if these are available in the US but they're a popular budget brand in the UK. Made from bubinga with active electronics and a beautiful tone this set me back just 240, which is probably around $400 tops. Back to my OP I'm trying to get an idea whether the gap in price bewteen the top end boutique basses and sub $500 models really reflects a difference in quality.

For me it's Ritter, Pedulla and Alembic.

Back to my OP I'm trying to get an idea whether the gap in price bewteen the top end boutique basses and sub $500 models really reflects a difference in quality.

That depends on luck in my opinion. Here's why.

Good production basses can, and often do, have the same woods and hardware so the only real difference is boutique basses are partially or totally built by hand. That explains the price difference, lower output and higher labor cost.

Hand crafting is always less consistent than machine crafting. The lower consistency means some instruments will be far below average in quality and some far above average.

A good craftsman who takes real pride in his work will scrap the ones that are far lower than average quality. So, in general you'll get a pretty good instrument. But every now and again you may get one that is far higher than average quality. These gems are the ones that get talked about, leading to a skewed impression of the quality of hand crafting.

So unless you are lucky and get that infrequent gem what you'll end up with is an instrument that isn't really any better than a good quality production model.

I have to add, this would apply even more to an acoustic instrument where the overall quality affects the sound more directly.

So overall I think you should get what you find most suits your needs regardless of whether it's expensive or not.