Mylkinut

I still don't get why it matters what these companies charge - that's the price the company sets, people pay it, end of. I don't see luthiers rolling around in Bentleys thanks to the massive profits you believe they make. There's nothing unethical about a company pricing a product highly just because you think it should be lower. If I as a consumer could set prices, I'd have bought my Precision with some Monopoly money and a packet of biscuits. However, that would have made me a prize bellend, because the chaps who made it wouldn't have food to eat (except for the biscuits).

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1327492420' post='1512115'] Website for stuff like these is here: [url="http://www.greasygroove.com/categories.php?cat=4"]http://www.greasygro...ories.php?cat=4[/url] [/quote] Excellent! You've just helped me sort out late Christmas presents for all the members in my band

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1327492481' post='1512119'] A MIM one I hope! [/quote] It'll have to be American, preferably vintage. A scratchplate that good couldn't go on anything less

[quote name='Doctor J' timestamp='1327487751' post='1511990'] Ethical? Each ply represents one of the orphans killed cutting down the trees by hand. [/quote] Such is the price of art

I've found this: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pickguard-Fender-Jazz-J-Bass-Guitar-Bandito-New-/220926754465?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item337042bea1"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item337042bea1[/url] I'm now buying a Jazz

Each to their own but... honestly. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pick-Guard-Fender-Precision-P-Bass-Smokin-Dude-New-/220926722918?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item3370424366"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pick-Guard-Fender-Precision-P-Bass-Smokin-Dude-New-/220926722918?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item3370424366[/url] [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pick-Guard-Fender-Precision-P-Bass-Creepy-Face-New-/220926723197?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item337042447d"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pick-Guard-Fender-Precision-P-Bass-Creepy-Face-New-/220926723197?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item337042447d[/url] [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pick-Guard-4-Fender-Precision-P-Bass-Guitar-Reptile-Eye-/220926727081?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item33704253a9"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pick-Guard-4-Fender-Precision-P-Bass-Guitar-Reptile-Eye-/220926727081?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item33704253a9[/url] Has anyone bought one of these? Did it look nice?

[quote name='Doctor J' timestamp='1327483112' post='1511861'] It's worth thinking about the kind of instrument you end up with when socialists are at the wheel too [/quote] That has fried my mind. Burn it or burn my eyes, I've stopped caring.

Flea has nicer eyes, but Les is a snappier dresser. I'm really not the man to ask though, I'm sure Gok Wan could be more help here.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1327480314' post='1511806'] Crying about something like an 'overpriced' guitar is pointless and self-indulgent unless there is an alternative. What would the OP suggest should be done about people charging high prices for their products? [/quote] Show-trials and public executions comrade.

I'm totally with you - we should completely do away with individual high-end luthiers. They need to be nationalised into the State Instrument Production Facility No.1 to produce top-end instruments - all of which will adhere to the Singular Design - in return for basic housing and ration coupons. These instruments will be distributed freely to all citizens, regardless of skill, wealth or class. So long as they're members of the Party.

I never use them, but they sure do look good

Before I bought my Ric I'd never spent £600 on a bass - 8 months on I'm still squeamish about it Actually, it's funny how a pricetag changes your perceptions. I bought my '77 years ago for £600 and I happily gigged it as my main bass - right up until last year when it occured to me it's now worth about double that. Now I reserve it only for Big Gigs and I've bought a second Precision to do the pub scub in its place. My '77 is still the same bass I always had, but in my head that £600 has turned into £1,200 and somehow I've decided that a bass worth more than a grand shouldn't be in the Jolly Spitbucket. I paid £600 for a bass I love to play, but because someone else would pay £1,200 for it I'm now treating it like it's made of paper. What's better, there's no way I'd ever sell it so none of this matters anyway. What a mug

Always wondered about these - when you guys say they're better than you'd expect for £60, how good actually are they? I can live without 'Fender' on the headstock if I can have ten Ryders for the same money One for every room in the house, some more in the car (front and back seats) and one in the garden

[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1327089581' post='1506418'] I would sum it up like this. would you buy a bass from an alcholic if everytime he drunk he pissed on his bass??? [/quote] +1 and

[quote name='Immo' timestamp='1327175121' post='1507529'] I was never too bothered with pictures of bass leanded against the wall, but the concrete driveway or wet grass is not too nice setting for bass. But if I was asked about the pic with the most disturbing '[i]beautyful bass vs. malicious setting[/i]' factor, this pic takes the cake: Amen. Pile of cr**p to justify the poor quality, that's what it is. But once I've found an auction like that and was sceptic, but later the pics were uploaded and my jaw dropped. I don't remember what bass it was, but I clearly remember the feeling itself [/quote] The bass wasn't just leaned up against a wall - it was sitting[i]on top[/i] of it. It was a low brick wall on what looked like a balcony, and it was balancing on its back with the wall running underneath it perpendicular to the direction of the neck. As for that bass in snow... savage

A memory just popped into my head. A few months ago I was browsing eBay mindlessly when I saw a MIM Precision for sale for not alot of money. Half interested, I took a look at the pictures and was instantly turned off. You see, the chap had decided to take his shots with the bass balanced on top of a brick wall so it was lying perpendicular to it, with some other photos of it plopped on his cement driveway and one of it face-down in the wet, dewy grass in his garden The bass was in OK-enough condition, it just made me wonder what else that bass had been through. I mean, my basses aren't pristine but I do look after them and when I buy second hand I like to think the previous owner did too. So do you cringe when you see a for-sale picture where it just doesn't look like the owner cares too much about what they're selling? Of course, maybe it's more honest to show how a bass has been stored. Like balanced on a wall

I tend to think of 'other' Jazz Basses (and Ps for that matter) as interpretations of a central idea, originally created by Leo Fender but now so distilled it's almost just a 'type' of bass, more than just a copied design. I guess I agree with EssentialTension: they share characteristics with each other and that's what makes them Jazz Basses. Each interpretation has its selling point - I guess Fender's is it's 'originality', but others will have active electronics, better build quality etc. I'd say that Fender's MIM Deluxe Jazz is no more of a 'true' Jazz than, say, a Sandberg J. Neither is made in the same factory as Fender's original design, neither has shares its electronics - you could even say Fender is now nothing more than a nostalgic nameplate for what is (naturally) a radically different company from what Leo came up with. You could go so far as to say any Jazz with a maple neck isn't a 'real' one. I think the Jazz and Precision designs are so well known and used that companies like Sandberg no longer [i]copy [/i]Fender, but merely use them as a 'traditional' mould onto which they map their own improvements. They're historic shapes. Fender may have come up with them originally but so much time has passed that many simply think that's what a bass should look like, no matter the name on the headstock. For instance, I'm GASsing like hell over a Sandberg PM4. If I get one I'll have three Precisions: two made by Fender, one made by Sandberg.

Went in for a strap, came out with my '77 Precision. This was a while before 70s prices got silly, but it was still considerably more than the strap I was after (which I also forgot, had to go back the next day ). Very happy mistake