Jean-Luc Pickguard

I bought a fair amount of gear from ABC in Surbiton in the 80s including my first bass amp, a secondhand Ohm GA125 which I bought with a 15" Laney cab. I also bought a Yamaha CX5M music computer system when they were first available in 1984 and later a Casio MG-510 midi guitar.

That explains the apparent lack of a carrying handle

I once saw an obvious 'Chibson' Les Paul in the window of Cash Converters labelled & priced as a Gibson. I didn't feel the need to make a documentary about it though.

What no big bottom?

Strange that given the prices of the products offered, the website is hosted on a free online store under a subdomain rather than their own domain name, and with several third-party ads on the product pages.

He's clearly been working on his bass-face as much as his playing

It won't replace me unless it can chuck in the odd bum note here & there

Martin at the gallery once told me it was best to not cut strings so I never cut them unless I absolutely have to - eg if I'm fitting long scale strings to a short scale bass (like Fender do as standard with the JMJ mustang) and there would be about half a mile to wrap around each tuner's capstan if they weren't cut.

Maybe its a parody like those Nirvana tee shirts with a pic of hanson on them?

My playing is like the cafeteria at chernobyl: not great, not terrible

I wonder how the knot is holding up six years on

Whether tort looks right or not depends on the tort - it can look like attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, like a dirt protest, or anything between. The one on the gold ashbird appears to be positioned towards the latter end of that spectrum.

Top Tip: Preempt these scammers by removing the value of what they hold over you. Make your own video of yourself having a barclays and send it to all of your contacts before they have a chance to send theirs.

Not sure. If it is a Squier the curvy headstock point to it being a bottom of the range job like an affinity P bass, although I don't think the affinity was available as early as 1995 but there may have been an equivalent. Whatever it is the whole bass it came off would probably be worth £100 at most so £69 for just the neck is too much in my opinion.

very nice! sounds exactly like a good precision should.

I'll list the main red flags that caught my eye, without having to look too hard: The shape of the headstock is wrong - it looks slightly bigger & more curvy like a 70's strat, but not so exterme. The width at the nut appears to be more like a jazz but this is labelled as a precision - Fender have made some precisions with a jazz-style neck, but I'm not sure whether this is the case for any MiM ones, so this on its own wouldn't necessarily be proof of a fake. The decal is a very poor fake - the letters of 'Precision bass' are distorted in different directions for some unknown reason - Fender never did that. The access hole for the truss rod tool is too wide. On a genuine Fender would have a fillet made of a dark wood (probably walnut) plug with a hole in it. On the back of the headstock the fake 'Made in Mexico' & serial decal looks nothing like it would on a genuine fender - it is using the wrong typeface and dimensions. The tuners look similar to the ones typically used on a MiM but appear to be possibly a cheaper type.

I am very disappointed that not one person so far has made the obvious comment about how much this product sucks. edit: ubit kind of went there but took a slightly different and more risqué direction.

Good for metal?

Here is a tracing of my original 1972 pickguard

Lovely tone & playing on the mustang bass.

I had a coloursound tonebender back in the late 70s/early 80s. I think I sold it for a tenner.

This sounds like a great project. I've recently changed my tenor guitar to 'Chicago' tuning - equivalent to the top 4 of a guitar (or baritone uke). As the scale length is shorter I used heavier strings than I would for a normal six string . You can get a good idea of which strings should work well with the tool at http://chordgen.rattree.co.uk/tensiontool.php eg for a balanced eight string with a 15" scale length (like a tenor uke) using steel strings:

The headstock on the thunderbird vintage pro is a good bit longer than other thunderbirds I've owned. The tuners on Bigthumb's Precision are Hipshot HB2s https://hipshotproducts.com/collections/bass-tuning/products/hb2-bass-tuning-machine I have a set with lollipop paddles on the fretless bitzer precision I built. The HB7s have a smaller plate and are the ones made to fit on Mexican Fenders.