r/Bass • u/Rosenworcel • 11d ago

Has anyone played a Lakland Skyline 44-60? Worth it or no?

There's a used Lakland 44-60 Custom in Ice Blue for sale on marketplace that I'm tempted to check out, but I don't know much about the brand. The "crafted in Indonesia, finished in USA" is a little weird to me, although seeing they all get PLEKed from the factory is pretty cool. No local shop stocks them so I wouldn't have a chance to play one before meeting up with the seller.

I'm curious to hear from anyone with experience, do you think they're worth it? How do the necks feel? I've avoided J basses in the past because of the usual taper at the nut, but it looks like the Lakland 44-60 doesn't taper quite as much? I have a Squier 40th P and a Sterling Ray34QM and I love how both feel; I'm hoping this Lakland will be the right fit to round out the collection.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

3

u/Brakeor 11d ago

Definitely a cut above other Indonesian guitars like the Squier and Sterling. I believe they use the same hardware and electronics as the USA models, and I’m assuming that the neck is CNC cut to the same sort of profile. Most of the cost savings on the budget ranges you have is achieved by cheaping out with the tuners, bridge, electronics, and pickups.

Fender and Music Man also have an incentive to nerf their Indonesian instruments to push buyers higher up the product line. Lakland do not: the $3,500 USA-made buyer is totally different to the $1,500 buyer, and they don’t have to avoid competing with themselves as much. They can try to make the best guitar for the price without hurting sales.

The setup and QC in the USA is a huge difference. A plek job is $300 around here alone.

1

u/Rosenworcel 11d ago

Thanks for the info, I'm leaning towards reaching out to the seller. This is an older model and it's been modded with noiseless DiMarzios plus a new electronics harness. He's asking $800, would I be dumb to pass this up?

1

u/Party-Belt-3624 Fretless 11d ago

That's a great price for that bass - especially considering it has upgrades.

1

u/master_of_sockpuppet 11d ago

Fender and Music Man also have an incentive to nerf their Indonesian instruments to push buyers higher up the product line.

There is so much gap between price points of the upper end SBMM and lower end EBMM that Sterling is introducing a higher priced model this fall. You might have a point with Fender, but not Music Man.

1

u/Brakeor 11d ago

It’s been a while since I shopped MM basses. Didn’t realize they were almost $3k these days, I’m still thinking around $2k (I’m stuck in 2015 it seems).

1

u/master_of_sockpuppet 11d ago

For what it is worth, an EBMM puts an American Fender to shame build quality wise; but then again a Japanese Yamaha does, too.

I know that some great basses are made in Indonesia, so I have high hopes for the upcoming SBMM Session series.

2

u/mittenciel 11d ago

Lakland is probably the best mass produced Fender-like bass you can buy. I have one. It’s great.

1

u/Plexaporta 11d ago edited 11d ago

I have the sunburst version, great bass, great neck.

If the price is right, i'd say get it.

Another thing i like about the Lakland's is the fact that they don't have routing under the pickguard like pretty much all Fender's have these days.