Wilco

I use these;- http://herculesstands.com/international/products/fretted-and-bowed-instrument/guitar/single-stands/gs200b/ Have to offset the Maruszczyk’s a bit due the Jazz shaped body, but easily fit into my gigbags & they’re stable enough in use.

GAS is indeed a terrible thing. I look at the basses for sale section here almost every day. I don’t know why as I have as many basses as I need, & I haven’t seen anything for sale in a long while that i’d want in preference to what I already have. Just done a straight swap on a cab, but that doesn’t really count. In fact the last thing I bought was a used 6 string acoustic........ my bad. Buying & selling is part of the bass ‘hobby’ for me, so a little frustrating having no need to do that at the moment. First world problem mind! 😆

Simple Minds a few weeks ago. Utterly brilliant & a public apology to anyone stood close to me on the night who might have heard me (badly) singing along. To every song...... 😄 Second time i’ve seen them live, but a bit surreal seeing them play in my home town. Especially when you consider it to be that musical mecca...... Swindon!

There can never be too many Rush re-issues. Or Rush stuff period 😁 This + Geddy’s new bass book are defo on my Crimbo list!

I am currently on a playing hiatus as 2018 has been a shite one for me too. My Dad passed away earlier in the year, I now have another household to basically look after re my elderly Mum, & more recently my wife has been very ill which will take another 6 months to recover from. I’ve had little inclination to play in a band & frankly have no time at the moment either. However, I still like owning the kit i’ve got although I have about half the value of your gear. I like the fact that when the opportunity at the right time presents itself, I am kitted up & ready to go. I like being part of the bass community too & reading about all things bass can be welcome distraction at times. Having £8k of gear sat around doing nothing i’d suggest is perhaps not the ideal thing. I’d say keep the best parts of any backline you have + keep your favourite basses - the ones you get some pleasure from just owning if you see what I mean. After taking a break & having a breather, you might find that your musical desire returns.

Agreed, but you missed my point. A used bass with some dings & dents etc has already depreciated by its max amount, hence fiscally makes more sense then a new relic or even a new standard obviously. Hence from a monetary perspective a bit of a nonsense to pay someone for some ‘damage’. And you’re right, it’s not just about the relic. It’s about marketing, & increasing the gross margin for those (insert your preferred word here) enough to pay for it....!

Erm, so why not just by a used whatever model, with some dings & bashes on already, at a much lower price than a new standard version of same model, rather than the inflated price of a new relic? Artificial relicing of a new bass makes no sense for a purchaser from a fiscal perspective. Very rarely works aesthetically either - most of the time it’s night & day difference between real aging & artificial relicing, no matter what the brand.

Cool - welcome back to being Nanyo-ed! Still very enamoured with mine.

Just an update on this thread. Have now got Newtone strings on three of my basses (with a set ready for the fourth when the strings on that need changing). Both Diamond & Platinum round core nickel types. Platinum’s are slightly smoother but not by much. Difficult to understand any tone difference between them as they are on instruments with different pickup configurations & electronics. All the basses sound epic though. Am now a Newtone convert & these will be my string of choice from now on!

I’d suggest going custom made. When I bought my 5 string Elwood used, overall the bass was in excellent condition but the scratch plate, doing its job, was more scratched than I would’ve liked. I ordered another one from Adrian, but there was a gap where the scratch plate met the top edge of the neck with the replacement. Only a small one, but noticeable. Being a handmade, it was probably just a manufacturing tolerance & Adrian took the new scratch plate back & gave me a refund. After a bit of research, I got SiMs Custom shop on the case. They have a 3D scanner of some description, so I sent my original scratch plate to them which they scanned & then manufactured a dimensionally exact copy which was a perfect snug fit. It wasn’t cheap £50 or so, but I was very impressed with what they did.

Lol, yes. I might even fork out for one...... 😆

I really dig that......... 🙈

100% fully sympathise with El_JimBob on his situation - none of us would like any issues like that with our basses. Out of curiosity I Googled how can a guitar neck warp ('cos I'm clueless on such things!), & there are factors such as storage location, humidity, heat & strings that can cause a neck twist & nothing to do with manufacturing or age it seems. From his posts, EJB has had his bass for a few months & if Adrian has had no other similar issues with other basses & has looked this one over, he might genuinely believe he is not at fault. After all, a bit odd to agree to take it back in the first place for a look if he wasn't prepared to fix it if he was at fault. I'm not saying who's right or wrong here (totally impossible to tell which is why I wouldn't be signing above mooted petition). EJB - has Adrian explained why he feels he doesn't need to fix it? An awkward situation for sure & I hope it gets resolved in some way to everyone's satisfaction.

Still lovin' both mine. Bloody great basses!

I actually have three now - one for each of my SGC's. To be honest, they haven't been out much as my band has fallen over recently. I'd say they were good value for money though & definitely work well with angled headstock basses. The only thing I'm slightly wary of is that the zip feels a little flimsy, so I am being careful when opening & closing them. My SGC's are relatively cheap instruments, but my Maruszczyk's are in £100 much stronger gigbags. If I had a Rick, I'd probably be happier investing in a more expensive & even more padded gigbag I think.

Unfortunately that does seem to look like a 'Friday afternoon' bass doesn't it. Those neck pocket gaps are very Fenderesque! With any manufactured product anywhere, there's bound to be examples of where production hasn't gone right, & to my mind when that happens the response of the manufacturer is key. In the circumstances, that's a great response from Adrian - if it were me, I'd spec a different bass from him & haggle a decent discount for the inconvenience!!

So, I'm on my hols, get back to the hotel after a day out & head straight to the bar for a cold alcoholic bevvy. By doing so, I stumble on a Jazz three piece just about to do their thing. The bassist is playing a standard V7 & it looked as though that, the vocals & the keyboard were going through a single 15" PA speaker. Said bassist was clearly a better player than yours truly, but that aside, with that set up the bass sound should not have sounded as good as it did! Being a previous Sire owner, my interest was piqued again. However, then I remembered the issues I had which were part of the reason I sold them on. I had both a V7 & a VV7, one a 2015 & the other a 2016. One of mine had slightly sharp fret ends & on both of them I had tuner issues. There was evidence of play (not in the gears, in the part you hold) in three tuners & they didn't turn that smoothly either. (The tuners were replaced with new ones before they were sold on btw). On the interwebs back then there were many a tale of failed tuners & poor knobs & that the hardware really wasn't up to scratch. So, was interested to know how people have got on with their ownership & have there been any hardware improvements made by Sire over the last 18 months or so? Quite like the look of a V9, but my own previous experience would hold me back from buying at the moment.

If that's where the market price actually was & I'd paid £395 for mine (which is very similar to that one apart from being fretless), I wouldn't have felt short changed at all. I've seen & played a lot worse £500 basses in my time.

Complete mystery to me why Westone 1A's are perceived to be worth sub £200. I bought mine for £170 last year, which was great for me as what a bargain. Contrary to the second post in this thread, they were very well made instruments. Matsumoku were a respected furniture maker, so had the woodworking knowledge & it's no fluke that so many Westone's & 80's Aria's are still around today. If you can find a good one, at today's minimal market prices just buy it & don't look back!!