SlapbassSteve

I had a Vester Jazz copy once which I defretted and Jaco-ised as it had no routing under the pickguard. Every now and then it crops up on eBay with people commenting on what a lovely job's been done of the defret... warms me inside considering it was only the second bass I'd done it too, and being in my first year at uni at the time when I did the deed I was rotten drunk and chainsmoking cigars... Frets were a bit chunky when still installed but otherwise a really nicely made bass.

[quote name='operative451' timestamp='1375358756' post='2160191'] Just had one arrive off ebay... Weird, the low string is high! Odd. Might stick a fatter nylon string on and tune it down. Or just get used to it. Feels a bit odd after the bass though! But i think its going to be fun. [/quote] I actually started on ukulele because the 15 year old me thought 'only four strings, so it's basically a small bass then? Smart, moved on since luckily! They're great instruments and you get used to the high G pretty quickly- it's done like that to make strumming sound more even. However it's worth noting some string manufacturers do a 'low G' set- Aquila are great for this, it makes playing lead lines a bit easier ...I feel I should bung in a cheeky plug for my band here, Ukebox ...not many videos up at the moment but it's really going places, four ukuleles and meself on bass [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uugtJrbufk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uugtJrbufk[/url]

Playing to this lot was pretty cool earlier for Liverpool Pride festival, be interested to know how many people were there exactly as everyone backstage was guessing between 15-20,000 [attachment=140621:644218_10151838867384579_640333633_n.jpg] -most importantly, was a fun gig! Similarly performed at the Grand National earlier this year. Went busking yesterday and made £205 between four of us in two hours... not too shabby! Plus there's all the punters that come up and say 'you sound like/your style reminds me of Flea/Pino Palladino/Alex James/Geddy Lee' (delete as appropriate depending on who's style I'd decided to emulate with my covers band that night- I'd try and play the entire gig 'in character' as it were, rather than playing them all the same) Met some great people at gigs I've played, most importantly of all.

Mate of mine in Liverpool has one, it looks and sounds great, it's portable and weighs next to nothing... and the thick nylon strings(even the posh black ones, I've tried both) make it thoroughly unpleasant to play, imo... compared to 'real' basses anyway. So thick, and so little tension it's like playing a set of rubber bands stretched over a shoebox. Hence I use my regular P's and J's with my ukulele band and not a ukulele bass -would love to try the competitor though, I believe Tanglewood make them and they're half the price of the Kala ones.

[quote name='Themrperson' timestamp='1374709653' post='2152395'] I'm the only person that actually likes these sort of road-worn, nearly falling apart finishes? If they sounds and plays fine then I'm all over it. Or I'm just the minority again.... [/quote] I think the issue here isn't so much the work being done to the guitars, as much as the fact that the people doing it in this instance are charging triple the market value for the privilege of owning 'relic', when in reality it's just been attacked with a belt sander, the pointy end of a claw hammer and some lighter fuel -[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEAVY-RELIC-STRATOCASTER-STRAT-ROADWORN-HUMBUCKER-AND-FULLY-COPPER-SHEILDING-/400528581706?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item5d415d244a"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEAVY-RELIC-STRATOCASTER-STRAT-ROADWORN-HUMBUCKER-AND-FULLY-COPPER-SHEILDING-/400528581706?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item5d415d244a[/url]- here we have a no-name strat with a poorly applied Fender logo and a lot of damage selling for £249 when the overall cost of the guitar was likely closer to £60 tops, and including the Fender decal.

Lovely stingray tone that! Down a few keys from the original too so the bassline sounds a fair bit beefier

[quote name='Jonnyboy Rotten' timestamp='1374568975' post='2150126'] I reckon I have worked it out. I borrowed a friend's battery pack 240v inverter and this little baby powered my ashdown amp for 2-3 hours without dying. I didn't use it until it died but 2-3 hours has got to be enough eh? And all this for less than £50 notes! [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/portable-power-pack-225153"]http://www.maplin.co...wer-pack-225153[/url] [/quote] I love my micro cube but if that works for that price that has to be the way to go! Might get one and see if it'll run my PA system...

I've tried a couple in Dawsons Liverpool, the old MP and the new one with trussrod adjustment at the body end and a selectable coil-tap for the pickups... both were lovely basses, had the potential to play very well. I hate the look of those pickups though... Not seen the 5-er yet but it would be great judging by the rest of the MP series- I owned a Telebass and it was lovely, and a mate of mine has the Jaguar and it's a great bit of kit, puts the mexican stuff to shame

I was having a similar thought as the OP on Saturday as my ukulele band fancied busking in Liverpool and my Marshal MS-2 guitar amp was really not up to task. Asked in Maplin but became very confused after much mention of 'inverters' and being sure about the right voltage of the amp... ended up going to Dawsons and picking up a Roland Micro Cube Bass for £195. Silly amount of money to spend on something for busking, but it don't half do the job well- went out on Sunday night in Liverpool ONE for about 40 mins and made £50 back. Nice to have the amp simulations/effects too, it sounds absolutely massive!

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1373585165' post='2139482'] There are two Youtube demos linked in this thread. If these only get made for a short time - as has happened before - then they'll be fetching more than £200 in a year or so but I hope you are correct. [/quote] Aha I managed to miss those! Brilliant, it sounds lovely there, much better than the Pawn Shop model seems to in the reviews of that I've seen... would love to experiment with one of these and an octave pedal

Oh man, saw this on Gumtree and was sorely tempted as I'm often in Manchester at the moment, but decided against as I assumed it'd be a cheapo chinese copy in unplayable state... excellent buy, glad it went to a BC'er!

That's brilliant! Always impresses me when players manage to do rhythm, bass and lead/chords simultaneously, bit like Me And My Bass Guitar by Victor Wooten [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U9uPv_Fxuc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U9uPv_Fxuc[/url]

I really really want one of these, £273 is disgustingly cheap. Can't wait to see some reviews on youtube, and actually try one out... just think, they'll be selling for £150-200 second hand in a year or so

Oh wow these all look lovely... why buy a Fender when you can have two completely different Squires that are nearly as good?!

Personally I'm not a fan, and the interview where they likened themselves to a 'poor man's version of the Beatles' doesn't come across very well but each to their own. Mind you my main project at the moment is a ukulele band so I should probably keep quiet...

No harm in asking! Would probably be better to sell the Tanglewood as a fretless and just buy a new bass altogether rather then spend a load of money getting frets put on it though, you can get a nice guitar second hand for around £100 these days.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Guitar-Headstock-Decals-Buy-One-Get-One-Free-please-read-/221247854775?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item33836658b7"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item33836658b7[/url] I bought one a while back from this guy, was easy enough to fit but you need to sand the finish on the front of the headstock right the way down to avoid making it look like you just sanded the logo area, and then you have to apply varnish, then the logo, then several more layers of varnish to do a decent job of it. Bear in mind that this massively devalues the guitar too. AndyTravis has the right idea, you'd be better off sourcing a new neck- Fender have started selling MIM necks separately for around £130 in the states, might be better off trying to import one of those and selling the original neck to offset cost.

I think the Stratosphere shop's a little different, as from what I can see they operate by buying complete guitars and parting them out... at the kind of prices Fender are charging I can see them having to stop doing this pretty soon as it'll be cheaper to buy the bits separately then together, which makes sense I guess, saves you paying for labour costs if you're the one putting the bits together and not someone in Mexico or California.

eBay/BC/Gumtree/Preloved/CrackConverters

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1372580226' post='2127294'] Seems cheap. Link seems to be down also. [/quote] The link seems very on and off, it wouldn't work for me when I first clicked on it via their YT video([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H90pq8rJUTg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H90pq8rJUTg[/url]), but worked when I refreshed... must be under a lot of strain. [quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1372584720' post='2127355'] I just ventured onto the Squier chat forum (ok, I know. It won't happen again). On there I saw a thread of a guy who's taken his beloved bass, given it a new body and new electrics, wiring the pots in series/parallel with a push/pull switch. He still calls it a Squier. At what point should you no-longer attribute a bass to a maker? I've got a Squier, resprayed it, Bart pups, Hipshot bridge, new elects and new machinesheads. I'm tempted to sand the brand off of the headstock. Who's right? [/quote] My main bass is a Squier jazz where the only original bits are scratchplate, string tree, body and neck. All other hardware has been upgraded to Fender/Wilkinson and it's one of the best Jazzes I've played... proud to be playing a Squier after they did such a fantastic job of the neck.

[url="http://www.fender.com/necks-bodies?sort=lowest_price"]http://www.fender.com/necks-bodies?sort=lowest_price[/url] Works out just under £250 for a genuine Fender neck and body, available separately for about £130/£110 respectively. Part of me thinks it's great you can now buy a genuine Fender neck from Fender brand new with a proper decal, and part of me worries that if these work out that cheap in the UK it won't be long before the market is flooded with people taking cheapo Westfield/G4M/etc P bass copy, adding a Fender neck for £130 and selling it off as a genuine article for £250-£300... How're Fender going to get around that? Or are they like me so sick of seeing badly-applied decals with the ghost of the original Squier logo still visible underneath they've decided to at least get a share of the profit on fakes..? It's bad enough that nobody on eBay seems to know the difference between a 'Squier Strat' and a 'Fender Stratocaster' anymore, and I'm not convinced that's always down to ignorance...(rant over...) For one thing I'm very glad they haven't yet adopted the approach of a certain other leading bass manufacturer, not worthy to be mentioned here- unlike them this behavior seems to be almost encouraging fakes! Interesting...

Gone

Looks almost homemade to me...

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1372417040' post='2125469'] You're looking at this all wrong. There are plenty of micro power amps already for small PAs. It's just that they are built into the backs of the speaker cabs. My covers band has just bought some new Mackie cabs (DLM12). They are tiny, lightweight (under 15kg each) and loud and each cab has it's own built-in 2kW amp. We run this from a small 8-channel mixer and the whole system including the bag of leads takes up less space than the 2 unpowered cabs they had when I joined the band. [/quote] This. I own a pair of active Mackie SRM450's, the Mackie gear is brilliant and seems to just be getting smaller and smaller by the year. I think the reason so few outboard power amps are made with low outputs is because there's pretty much no need for them- most people needing this kind of spec just get active speakers, or a micro system with the amp built into the mixer like the Yamaha Stagepas [url="http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/proaudio/pa_systems/stagepas_300/"]http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/proaudio/pa_systems/stagepas_300/[/url] The stagepas is good as the mixer/amp combo also fits into the back of the speakers.