bassaussie

This is a bit rude .... "Those musicians who have played the headless bass are The Jam, The Stranglers, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Geddy Lee (rush), Sting and reggae master Robbie Shakespeare to name but a few... " Completely true, yet misleading enough to make it seem that this is the bass model that was used. I hate dealers like this who prey on a buyer's ignorance.

I dealt with V&R some years back. The range of instruments is very impressive. As for the staff, always found they were quite helpful, and reasonably knowedgable provided you got one of the experienced staff members. I also had my dealings with a few less experienced staff members, who seemed more than happy to pass off their advice as expert opinion, when I in fact knew they were incorrect. I find that happens a lot more in basses than guitars, as vintage basses is probably an area that less people become expert in. Anyway, as said above, it's the sort of place to go to when you know exactly what you want, and don't really care how much the price tag is. However, I then noticed the comments above about the consignment sales they do, and how they structure their commission. It seems things haven't changed much. I tried selling a bass though them, and rather than give a specific percentage for the commission, they simply plucked a number out of the air. I think the figures were similar to those mentioned by Happy Jack. The bass would sell for around £1600, and I'd get £1100. I asked them how they arrived at that figure, and it was similar BS about a difficult item to sell etc etc. The bass in question was a refinished late 60s Precision!!! Sure, they don't fly out the door, but I'd say it's hardly a difficult item to sell as far as vintage guitars and basses go!! Thinking about it now, it seems V&R want their cake and eat it too in relation to consignment sales. In the past, the way I viewed selling a bass or guitar through a store was like this. If I wanted to sell the bass outright, then I had to accept a lower value as the risk was now placed on the store. If I sold it on consignment, I got a higher return, but I had to wait for the bass the sell to get my money. It seems V&R use a third category, where they get a higher percentage, but don't accept the risk of an outright purchase.

[quote name='BlackElan' post='437994' date='Mar 18 2009, 09:28 AM']I have seen Metallica live at almost every single show from 91 to 2000 here in the Bay area. I even got to see the S&M show in person. The best Newsted sound I have heard was from his Alembics with Series II electronics from the 91-93 era. It was a very "lead" sound. I would have to say the best sounding show overall was there 91 show I saw at the Cow Palace. I never saw him use his Wals in person but I was never impressed with their sounds of the bootlegs I heard from 88-89. When he was using the Spectors for a short time I could not really hear them so I will withhold judgement. The Sadowsky basses I would say were his second best overall sound. Justin Chancellor was the one that really got me into Wal basses as well as Geddy.[/quote] Very comprehensive, thanks!!

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='437342' date='Mar 17 2009, 03:48 PM']I'll tell you why... the description is actually an image hosted outside of eBay. Once the image is deleted, the description is gone - there'll be no record of it anywhere. Now, why would the seller want to have that option?[/quote] Okay, I didn't notice that. It's an interesting point.

Hi Jason, welcome to the forum. Something I've always been curious about. Jason Newstead is known for his use of top end instruments - Wals, Alembics, Sadowskys etc. Which instruments do you think gave Jason his best sound with Metallica?

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='436390' date='Mar 16 2009, 07:02 PM']I'll also wager it's the world's most optimistic scam.[/quote] Really? How come? The seller looks to have a very good reputation on Ebay, and he's got a lot of experience in dealing with high value vintage guitars.What do you think looks wrong about it? Personally, I have no idea!

Have you cleared your cookies recently? You might want to get rid of them, and start afresh.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='430971' date='Mar 10 2009, 09:38 PM']Same that happened to Tobias, Steinberger and countless others - they were bought by Gibson. Kiss of death. Alex[/quote] Absolutely!! It gone "Gibsoned".

[quote name='Mr.T' post='425841' date='Mar 5 2009, 11:01 AM']Thanks for the replies. I assume that Roto's and Elites DBE strings will fit? (I tend to always use 40-100 Roto's on my headed basses).[/quote] Yes, definitely. Other options are LaBella, Picato, D'Addario and GHS (off the top of my head). I'm sure there are more, I just can't thin of them right now. I've used Elites recently, which were OK. Picato were OK as well, not as good as the Elites, and I think they only do 45-105. As I said above, I currently use the GHS set, which I'm quite happy with.

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='425351' date='Mar 4 2009, 06:45 PM']I'd personally go for double ball ends, speaking as a long-time Status player... Best to get in touch with [url="http://www.status-graphite.com"]Status[/url] - their own brand `Hotwires' are superb strings and can be purchased in bulk hence cheaper pricing...[/quote] I've never had the chance to try the Status strings, but have heard heaps of people rave about them. Do you know who the manufacturer is? Or is that a trade secret?

[quote name='Golchen' post='425247' date='Mar 4 2009, 05:25 PM']Sounds trivial, but I don't think I'd like the sharp ends sticking out off the front of my bass. I totally love the ease of swapping double ball strings anyway.[/quote] Far from trivial, they can leave some nasty cuts on your hand. For some daft reason, I bear those scars!!

JP used to make guitars and basses a few years back. I got to try a few out, and to be 100% honest, they weren't quite as good as the pictures might indicate. I don't want to be too critical, as there's bugger all choice for custom guitars in Portugal, but I felt there was a lack of attention to detail with the basses I tried. That was quite a few years back, though (at least 4 or more), so maybe he's got a few more tricks up his sleeve these days.

The double ball strings are much easier to change - I can change my Steinberger in about 3 or 4 minutes. Having said that, in a crunch, I've used normal strings, and they're not that much more difficult. It's still a lot easier than restringing a normal bass. Biggest problem with DBE strings is thé limited range available. I've ended up sticking with GHS strings, purely because I like the gauge (40,58,80,102), and they sound good enough (although not perfect).

[quote name='mathewsanchez' post='424066' date='Mar 3 2009, 01:59 PM']It makes you think though. If it's so realistic a fake that an expert believes it's genuine, then to you it is genuine, therefore there being no real problem (well... theoretically).[/quote] Absolutely! And no one knows any the wiser until it shows up on the Antique Road Show!

Could be that the high bidder wasn't in the UK, and the seller specifically wanted a UK sale. Another possibility was that the high bidder had bad feedback, or even no feedback.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='423195' date='Mar 2 2009, 02:53 PM']Fair enough, I thought the consensus was that it was built from 70's parts but I've been reading a few different relic threads on different forums and could be getting in a mucking fuddle. [/quote] Yeah, fair enough. Look, I have no specific information on this bass, although my gut feeling is that it's completely bogus. However, there's long been stories about a cottage industry in Asia that makes vintage replicas and attempts to get them into circulation on the vintage market. Remember, as bassplayers, we see the occasional instrument getting into the 10K region, but if you're talking guitars, it's quite easy to find vintage instruments that are worth 50K, 100K and more. With those sorts of values floating around, there are going to be people tempted to make something that can be passed off for a vintage instrument. Like anything, there will be different levels of perfection provided - some will create instruments that even the experts have trouble deciding upon, others will put up half-*ssed efforts that can fool enough people on Ebay to get a result, and then there are others that are painfully obvious. I'd put the bass in question in that middle bracket - it's got enough "right" about it to fool people who haven't done enough homework. While people may scream and shout about this kind of fradulent behaviour, it's no different to what's gone on in antique markets for years and years. Take antique furniture, for example, there's so many forgeries around it's not funny, and the reason there are is because there's a market for it. It's just another example of caveat emptor.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='422977' date='Mar 2 2009, 11:47 AM']Out of interest, how much could he of got for it if it hadn't been relic-a-tized and he'd told the truth about the origin of all the parts?[/quote] It depends on what that origin actually is. Considering the fact that this seller also has links to Asian guitar manufacturers, there's a chance than the whole thing is bogus. So - what's an SX bass worth these days?

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='421985' date='Feb 28 2009, 09:19 PM']pegs definitely re-issue - worm and cogs too 'busy'-originals are more 'spare' in that department (does that make sense?).[/quote] I think you're talking about the "ratio" of the machineheads - too many windings. And yes, you're 100% correct. I was reading a thread recently about this dealer - he claims to be in Australia, but he's actually in one of the south-east Asian countries (I can't recall whether it was Indonesia, Malaysia or what). You can take what you like from that - there's certainly no reason that a vintage Fender can't be located in one of those countries, however, why claim to be in one place when you're actually somewhere else? And, sure enough - my trusty friend "Google" has given me an Indonesian community page about Erikguitars. [url="http://www.kaskus.us/member.php?u=161772"]http://www.kaskus.us/member.php?u=161772[/url]

Cort did something like this with a Precision bass back in the 80s. I found this link fairly easily, so I'm sure a Google search would pull up more results. [url="http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-10842-Cort-Steinberger-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Parts-Repair"]http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-108...ar-Parts-Repair[/url] They also did a guitar based on a Strat body. I don't think either was a huge success, but it shows that the idea has certainly been around for a while. I own an original Steinberger, and I used to gig with one some years back, and while the small body comes across as being quite convenient, I have to admit that it's not the most comfortable shape to get along with, even with the body contour plate that's attached to the back. With that in mind, I could see why someone would like to have the convenience of a headless design combined with a more traditional (and I think more comfortable) body shape.

I like that the name can be spelled "BasicLok" or "BasikLok" - at least according to his ad!! He's gonna have to make a call on that when he patents this great invention!