tauzero

I've asked how it got so badly damaged.

It's hardly a new concept, the Aria [s]Sinusoido[/s] Sinsonido has been around for years, although the headstock is at the other end.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1377889491' post='2193366'] I don't think he is right, more a casual comment with an element of truth as there may have been some people who buy purely for (a very patient and hopeful) investment, probably more a comment about the difference between MiM and MiA price and quality [/quote] But in the case of the Custom Shop limited editions, he is right. See [url="http://www.fender.com/custom-shop/series/limited-edition/"]http://www.fender.com/custom-shop/series/limited-edition/[/url] which has nothing about the instruments in playing terms, but does say "Each Custom Shop Limited Edition instrument is only available for a short time, which makes it eminently collectible and adds to its investment value.". So Fender are aiming these instruments at (deluded) investors rather than players.

Looks like the ideal moment to pull an Ashbory out of your pocket to finsh the gig with.

I wouldn't worry about the intonation going out. It certainly doesn't match with my experience of 12 years without adjustable nuts and 25 years with them...

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1377870067' post='2193043'] Maybe it's the definition of 'investment' that's in question [/quote] Not so much "investment" but "as an investment". Don't forget all the caveats about the price of shares, houses, etc can go down as well as up. Even petrol goes down in price occasionally. "Investment" is just another word for "bet".

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1377868123' post='2193001'] It's just cheap marketing hype I'm afraid. Lots of manufacturers produce limited editions and try to claim that they will rise in value. This is merely another way of trying to move them quickly. Fender, and especially MusicMan, do this all the time. It definitely increases short term desirability and may command a higher price on the used market in the future but it's incredibly rare for one to rise to a level above the original new price - which is what it would have to do to be an investment. [/quote] I think you're missing the point. Buying something as an investment doesn't mean that it [b]will[/b] rise in price, just that somebody has convinced the buyer that it will. If I'd bought Santander shares in 2010 for the price of a Fodera, I could now sell them and get myself a brace of matching Squiers. In the case of basses, by the time you've worked out that a particular one would be a good investment because the price would rise enormously, the price has risen enormously. However, those particular ones would also probably have been ones that you'd have avoided as a player when they were cheap because they were crap (75% of 70s Fenders, all Hofner violin basses).

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1377641864' post='2189907'] I am now planning to have all my basses upgraded to feature "pickups wound by virgins" [/quote] I'm not sure that having all your pickups wound by spotty youths with unhealthy Playstation/Xbox fixations would be a significant upgrade.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1377462614' post='2187883'] I have to say that I am genuinely amazed. I've worked off and on in a high end bass guitar retailer for close to 3 years and not a single customer has bought a new bass from us an investment. In fact one of the most common comments we get is that they know sir instruments will drop in value the moment they walk out the door. [/quote] What about limited edition runs? For example Status's 14 30th anniversary Series 2s: [url="http://www.status-graphite.com/status/frames/index_home.html"]http://www.status-graphite.com/status/frames/index_home.html[/url] I certainly wouldn't say that none of them will be bought to play down the Whippet and Firkin with, but might they be aimed as much at the collector as the player? As has been pointed out upthread, there's a bit of a difference between a high-end bass from someone like Fodera or Ritter who aren't turning out vast numbers of basses and a limited edition bass from a mass producer. In fact, if you look at Fender's blurb on [url="http://www.fender.com/custom-shop/series/limited-edition/"]http://www.fender.com/custom-shop/series/limited-edition/[/url] about Custom Shop limited editions, it says "Each Custom Shop Limited Edition instrument is only available for a short time, which makes it eminently collectible and adds to its investment value. Crafted with many features reserved only for certain artists and master built instruments, they are just what the name says they are: highly anticipated limited-edition models that go very quickly." which rather points to Fender aiming them at investors and not players.

I had them fitted to a fretless Sei by Jaydee in Birmingham - [url="http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/repairs.html"]http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/repairs.html[/url] Cost me £45 IIRC which included filling the original where-a-fretted-bass-has-them markers in.

[quote name='iiipopes' timestamp='1377634559' post='2189784'] Unless a player frequently changes brand and gauge of strings, in over thirty-eight years of playing bass I have never found the occasion to need an adjustable nut. Moreover, one important down side is that brass is softer than the steel strings sitting in the slots, and it can wear faster than a traditional bone nut placed and set up by an experienced luthier, as indicated by the number of vintage instruments that retain their original nuts after decades of play. [/quote] I've found it a very useful thing to have. I don't have them on all my basses, just the two Warwicks that came with them and two of the Antoniotsais. You've just contradicted yourself as well - if a brass nut wears, it'll be advantageous to be able to adjust it.

Blimey. You can get a Just-A-Nut I for a tenth of that: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm[/url] It's not just the sound with the Just-A-Nuts though, it also means you can get the nut height nicely sorted out without recourse to files (or angle grinders, depending on what sort of "guitar improver" you are).

It's worth having a look at the Peavey BXPs, the Grind and Cirrus. Also the Schecter Studio 5 (I think it's the Stiletto, they have a baffling profusion of names and a not-terribly-good website).

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1377610553' post='2189343'] Yes but we aren't allowed to take the piss out of other basschat members so it has to be done to someone who isn't. [/quote] But he is a MiltyChat member. Does that mean that all of us who have dissed him will get told off?

A black version of that was my first proper bass (I don't count the bog-awful Rosetti Bass 7 that I had for a few weeks). Don't know why I chopped it in for a Precision...

Strat pickups? Surely it's an MDP.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1377344667' post='2186492'] In fact in the last week we've sold: Older Fodera to a high end gigging pro and session player Nearly new Fodera to another regular gigging player but not a pro Vintage Wal to a school aged player who's taking his future as a musician very seriously New F Bass to a touring pro Used Brubaker to someone who mostly plays at home New Wood & Tronics to a semi-pro Ritter Cora to regular gigger but not pro That's 6 basses in as many days with an average price of about £3K to people ranging from schoolboys to semi-retired and bedroom players to full on gigging pros. Doesnt feel like this signals the death knell of the high end business [/quote] I like your arithmetic. The next time you have a surplus bass, could you send it my way please?

Drummers deserve our sympathy over this (if nothing else). On a shared bill, it's generally them that will finish up with some sort of sharing. I have noticed that they're pretty good at sharing, though. Just trying to organise a charity gig for which I've volunteered to be musical contact point. Two bands have ben in touch,the other hasn't. If they don't talk to us about gear, they don't get to use the drum kit. I'm generally happy to share but if I'm using my amp (900W) with my little 1x12 (200W), I'm buggered if I'm going to risk someone wrecking the cab. Not so bothered if I'm using the 4x10 (1100W).

Thankfully I've never felt the urge to go back from my proper basses to some Fender thing.

In 1987 I'd been playing bass for twelve or thirteen years, had played quite a lot of basses, wasn't actually looking for a new bass, and happened to play a JD Thumb. It was just so good to play that I ended up PXing the basses I had at the time (Precision and Hohner B2) which still paid less than half of it and getting a loan for the rest.

Schaller straplocks on everything except the B2V (I use a locking strap on that). Put a DiMarzio pickup into my 1970s Precision. Didn't hear any difference. Put a home-made active circuit into it too and did a couple of other things (if it still has the scratchplate that I modded, it's got a brass section corresponding to the chrome control panel on a Jazz). Put a Delano Sonar preamp into my Sei because the original Bartolini preamp had partly failed. Just last night I put a Just-A-Nut I onto my main Antoniotsai 5-string, as I already had on another of my Antoniotsai 5-strings. That's about it.

[quote name='Dom in Somerset' timestamp='1377163370' post='2184063'] Reassured to see that it's unique. [/quote] Not just that, it's [u]very[/u] unique.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1376901403' post='2180406'] Following a sarcastic, over-defensive rant from the other party, it's now being suggested via someone else that the OP tinkered with the bass somehow. [/quote] AIUI (and I read all 94,375 pages of the TB thread) the OP (ie. the TB OP) tried to set it up, ie. did a truss rod adjustment as per specs supplied to him by JC. The neck would appear to be an S-bend rather than a bow, causing buzz from frets 4-10 or so (can't remember exactly, not going to go back there now). OP posted a video to Youtube privately for JC to watch which was later made public and linked to in the original post, and has subsequently been made private again. The reaction on TB with the flaming torches and pitchforks didn't help. I can understand the OP's motives in making it public as he'd just spent $5k on a bass which was nothing like AC's normal standards, which he thought was show-worn (which was how it was described to him) but turned out to have at least some issues in its actual construction, and then encountered a brick wall when trying to return it. It might have helped JC's cause a bit if he hadn't simply waded in and instead given a bit of thought to his response (or at least that's how I would charitably interpret his response). I'm one of the many who wouldn't be in the market for an AC anyway (hideously expensive clone of run-of-the-mill bass), so as far as AC's fortunes go, my opinion doesn't matter.

I'm sure I recognise the headstock of the one on the right. It's an Alleva Copollo innit?