Grangur

Surely s 50 year old bass with no signs of wear has either been under the bed a long time, or someone didn't like it much. There are some differences here. Even the cheapest budget bass may be hand-assembled in China. This carries no craftmanship if all necks fit all bodies. There are other places where assembly means time is taken to lightly-sand the neck/pocket to carefully match the 2 parts to get the perfect fit for the resonance to pass right down the neck and body as if they are one. Yet in all this there are people for whom this is important and others, it doesn't. If you're playing Punk rock with a Big-Muff on all tracks you're probably not going to be worrying about tonewood, or brass bridges over BBOT. But, I guess, other things will make you feel good about the instrument that will reflect in how you play.

At the Herts Bass Bash about 3 years back @Lozz196 presented a P-Bass head to head, blind test. The results were odd. My Gear4Music LA bass was voted above some USA Fenders. Was this down to the position in the running order? Was @Lozz196 feeling tired and less "into it" when playing the USA Fenders? Who knows? I'm sure Lozz doesn't! What we do know is Lozz came away thinking it's all down to the setup and all number of other things.

Very true. I once stripped down a Warwick. With the neck bolts removed I could still pick the bass up by the neck and the body stayed firmly attached. When re-assembled, it's very possible the sound was never the same again. On a side-note: if the neck/pocket is tight, a shim at one end will cause damage to one or the other as the neck is forced to spoil the fit of the neck in the routed body. On another site someone tried to tell me that a sloppy-fit pocket didn't matter. Each to their own.

@mcnach you have a point. I think the main thing, when selling a bass is I don't want to pay a courier, if I could drive over, pay cash and collect it. You can't force anyone to do it anyway. And for a pedal, with postage being £3, it's not worth the fuel.

Add to this that IMHO the "cow-bell" over the bridge looks daft... But the owner LOVES it! - That's what matters. (Sorry WoT) Each to their own... as you know. OR is it? I play Warwicks. (You know the ones.. "The Sound of wood etc") Among the basses I have is a rather battered 2004 Corvette. It has dings and some writing in Chinese on the back, done by a child, so the story goes. The neck is smooth and it all feels great. Its a bass that makes me feel like, "if only it could speak, it could tell some stories". To me that Corvette plays and sounds great. It makes me feel I'm not the "owner", but the custodian of it, while it's on its life path of which I'm only a part, a stepping stone to the next custodian. People here have said about better woods used in the past. This may be true. Almost certainly it may have been seasoned better (Seasoning = the drying out process) But all this is leading to what I want to say; Tonewood. It might(not) make a difference. Who knows? What it almost certainly does is make the owner/custodian, FEEL better about the instrument. By feeling the love and reverence to the instrument it can reflect in how you pluck the strings and so, it sounds cool. The same can be the sound from the Strad violin mentioned above. If it was polished up all shiney and faked with a "Gear4Music" sticker, would the owner still hear it the same? On a side-note: I also have a Streamer. Same strings, same setup, different wood. This always has a more crisp, brittle sound to it, but it is a through-neck... so who knows/cares.

@gs_triumph thanks for posting. I've had a text about renting a bass I've got up for sale. They'd like to rent for 3-4 days next week. I asked where he's located, I would have to get the bass to him. .. no response.

Another, very happy, owner of a Barefaced One10 here. When I collected mine, Alex said he was really confident the One10 would easily handle high output and be good for some surprisingly large gigs.

Another thought - I don't know your playing experience, but when choosing a 5-string, don't forget, a 5 is predominantly played lower down the neck. If you watch Gary Willis you'll see he rarely ventures up to the 3rd fret. So over all the playing experience is simply different. Edit: for lower - read that as "nearer the body"; so actually it's higher up the neck

I had an ESP LTD, such as this one: https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/right-handed-bass-guitar/esp-ltd-b-205sm-ns-electric-bass-guitar-5-string-natural-satin?gclid=CjwKCAiA-KzSBRAnEiwAkmQ156cBGCpD454gys32lugMWrGYQkfBqfbkSUHG9Ijo3XZfnQaNCcNoPRoCqx4QAvD_BwE Mine was fretless and the neck was really good and fast IMHO. As @lownote12 has suggested, I found the string spacing too narrow. You do really need to try out some basses. The answer might be to send off for some on mail-order and send back what you don't like; which might be all of them. Don't feel bad about doing this - they have to honour this under EU legislation. The mail-order companies have under-cut and driven high street seller out of business, so its the service they must now offer.

Hey welcome Nobby, It sounds like you've got 2018 off to a good start.

Hi @mcnach , Yes, I know I'm being a pedant. I hope @gary mac also appreciates this. There will almost certainly be a change in the sound, but it's really so minute it's immaterial also in most bass-playing, does it matter? If you're going to distort the sound as well, that takes it into another area again where the difference matters even less. No offence meant to anyone, honest!

So, anyone want to buy the ultimate in shims; the Grangur Foam-shim! It fits the pocket and acts to stop unwanted sustain. Place your orders now.

If the job of the bass is to give a good thump to a rhythm, could sustain be exactly what you don't want?

The human ear isn't the most reliable way to test if a shim makes a difference or not. The accurate way would be with a good mic and an oscilloscope plotting the data that can be analysed scientifically. Set-necks and through-necks wouldn't exist if there was no benefit. All that said, isn't it a matter of what's good enough? If you're playing a solo virtuoso performance all this might make a difference. If you're in a punk band with everything going through effects playing 1/16 notes all night, who's going to care about minimal loss of sustain?

This might just be my prejudice, but whenever I see tuners like those, I don't expect a lot. Also, basses in Japan fetch surprisingly high prices. I wouldn't pay transit from Japan and import duty on a cheap bass.

@stingrayPete1977 you should know. Isn't Ambridge in Mermbershire? So, with your fictional location, you too might need reminding to put your location in a Marketplace posting.

Here's another related video

For 1 night only, this film is showing in Cineworld cinemas in the UK. As I understand it you can see a documentary and after there will be a Q&A session with Eric. I have no connection with Cineworld or the film. I'm only posting as I've got my tickets, maybe others would like to go too? Place to book: https://www.cineworld.co.uk/films/eric-clapton-a-life-in-12-bars-plus-live-qa#/buy-tickets-by-film?for-movie=ho00005082&view-mode=list

This a all academic anyway. My fingers got itchy and I messaged him over 24hrs ago. No response so far. It does annoy me when folk don't delete ads after the item is sold.

Even if sellers had it in their old profile, it got lost in move to the new software. You need to edit your profile to enter it back in. Also, in the old software you could see the OPs "location". Now you need to actually go into their profile page to see it. So, totally with @Phil_T in this.it needs to be in the advert.

Yes, @TheGreek, at that price its tempting as a bargain, but I'm giving up on the hope of playing 5s. I like them, but the tendons in my left elbow don't feel the same way.

Just checking Gumtree and saw this. The tuners may have been replaced? Did Fender do 5 tuners in a line? https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/5-string-mexican-jazz-with-practise-bass-amp/1277938247