uk_lefty

I bought one on Sunday. Its left handed, it cost me £450 which I felt was a fair rate considering what I'd seen others go for in the last few years. Considering the price of a new Status they're a good deal, but second hand Statii can be quite good value, so might be worth holding out for one of those, though I have no idea if right handers hold their value better. There are headless, bodied, alternatives. Or does yours have to be the Washburn for any reason?

I would wonder about the whole arrangement and be very wary. Two long stories which may be of no interest below, suffice to say check what is and is not being provided to determine the level of competence the organisers have. There's a multi band thingy we used to do where a pro or semi pro band supposedly provided everything and ran the sound for the day, great everyone knows where they stand. Except the last time we did it we got told to bring all backline. When we got on the stage it was like a second hand amp shop. Amps EVERYWHERE. One guitarist had an unreliable amp of his own so he asked to use one of the many, many guitar amps on stage and said he just needs a clean channel and he won't change EQ or anything. It was like he'd asked to have a go on the bloke's wife AND a smoke of his cigs after. Weird set up. I also got asked last minute to dep at a "charity gig". Last minute being 10pm the night before an 11am set. I declined the dep invite having never even heard the band, but the drummer is a mate so I said I'd come and watch. The "organisers" provided an open door to a bar room with a stage area, no PA, and a gazebo in the garden for an "acoustic stage" which they'd put a solo act keyboard player in. No PA at all, no drums nothing. They just assumed bands turn up with absolutely everything, can manage with two plug sockets, or none in the garden, and all the gear comes out like a pop up play tent. Complete farce. The band were putting vocals through a 5w guitar practice amp, proper Argos job someone had run home to get and using their own amps and drums, then the makeshift "PA" speaker was being run down the garden so the keyboardist could start on time with a massive trip hazard electric extension. Keyboardist was shouting at the singer to hurry up and give her the amp so she could start. While he was singing. After his set Chris packed up all his drums and went home, no idea how the rest of the day panned out but suspect it got progressively worse.

Family got updated recently, and it's time for a spring clean... Can you guess what era of music I have a preference for?

My experience with Interparcel and Eurosender is that they are not worth bothering with at all. I use them to see market rate for the package and which courier would take oversized boxes. I find the intermediary does absolutely nothing to help when things go wrong, then the actual courier technically shouldn't talk to you they have to talk to the intermediary. The intermediary just reels off their terms and conditions: pickup date is not guaranteed. Delivery time is not guaranteed. Item not getting lost is not guaranteed. Item not having the sheet kicked out of it, not guaranteed. Upgrade to a faster service if we don't pick up on the correct day, or the day after? You can't do that, we don't guarantee it. Discount due to faffing you about? We don't guarantee against that. Pay for pickup tomorrow? Pay extra, if you don't pay up front nothing happens and that's a guarantee. Pay for faster delivery? Pay extra, guaranteed nothing will happen if you don't pay. So we guarantee our payment, if you don't pay you don't get, guaranteed. But you do pay, and get no guarantee back. The only way I found to maintain some sort of power in all of this was by payment through PayPal. When Interparcel kept shrugging off my queries because for two days running the pickup had not happened, and refused to upgrade the service, or refund so I could book with someone who could be arsed I said "fine, I'll just recover the money off PayPal because you haven't completed the service."

Bought an AMT Bass wah off John, super price, easy transaction, trust worthy BC'er!

Agree on the bridge cover, it doesn't work on that body shape for me (though I can see he's trying to do 8astard son of Telebass/Bird) If it were mine I'd go for some kind of chrome covered pup, an MM style or anything with exposed poles or a flat plastic cover wouldn't look right. Neck would have to be a reverse P bass style, or a banana headstock. But this is just my taste... And designing basses is not my profession. Looking forward to see what you produce. Does the scaffold board body reproduce the sound of steel toed boots comping up and down it?

Well, this looks interesting... Lefty fretless shergold. Black body, maple neck. Still has headstock logo and bridge cover. I have no idea where in the world Guateng is or how much 10,000 of whatever currency is, but unusual to see a Shergold in such good condition. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1463813573849472/permalink/3066331890264291/?sale_post_id=3066331890264291

My drummer has knocked over my spare basses a few times, in rehearsal and on gigs. I've also had a spare bass go face down in to a pool of lager at a function. The spare seems to be the one that is more at risk than the one I'm holding!

Indeed it can. Except when there's the odd slap and pop, the tonal difference between round and flat strings, different pickup positions, etc. I have played many, many gigs with just the fretless but as the reptoire broadens so does the demand on the bass. And don't call me Shirley 😜

Having said all of that... When my 80s band gets going i'll need two basses: fretted and fretless. But that's a need rather than a spare.

First gig in years I took three basses and must have looked like a bit of an idiot switching them, and caused the soundmam a headache. For a pub gig now it's one bass with a spare in the car usually, or on stage if there's space. I don't do a spare amp because I don't have one but I do have a multi fx that can be piped in to the PA if needed. I own 6 basses, it's a bit daft, but I enjoy buying new basses and trying them out. I don't need to show off my collection in the Dog and Duck because it would be wholly unnecessary and a risk of more stuff being stolen.

Had a bit more of a play. The pre amp is disappointing really. However the strings are very old, too heavy a gauge for the bass and feel a bit rubbery. The neck is thicker than I would expect. I've got some 0.35 strings on order from Status so when they arrive it will have a full clean down, re string, neck tweak and then I'm expecting to get a tiny bit more out of it. Still, might see what Status themselves say about upgrading the pre.

Thanks, I had a short fiddle with the knobs while testing it and couldn't work out what was going on. If I get on with it I may consider a pre amp upgrade of some sort. I do like an active bass these days, had a few rubbish 2 band ones in the past but Sire's pre and my 3 band MM have been revelatory.

Does anyone know, accurately, the history of these? Where they were made... And should it have gold knobs?

I'd love the real thing but need to see how I get on with this and if a used lefty Status headless comes up at the right price... I thought the price is good and its fair, while these are rare I think it is a £450 bass. Can't see the prices for these sky rocketing ever, but you never know. Just hope I get on better with it than the Hohner B2A I had - nice bass but the string spacing was just too tight and something just wasn't quite there with it, though I wanted to love it.

I missed out on one on ebay by a few quid years ago and never saw another. I can't justify the cost of the real thing direct from Status sadly, but this popped up on Facebook marketplace yesterday, good comms with the seller, and today she's mine. Need to work through til 5 now though so can't really get hands on with it, but I'm chuffed so far!

I've never found yamahas visually appealing until now, that's awesome.

Might have been zabiekanka (spelling might be off) which is not quite pizza but a Polish version. They love the cheap almost translucent sauce all over them, and so did I when visiting! They know how to eat out there 😋

Have it for upside down fun?

Scratch the itch!

Don't get me started on the neck dive...

Can't remember if it's that bass or the tobacco sauce bass, but I've seen it on the wall of the Louisville Hard Rock Cafe!

I like J basses but wary of 90s Fenders. I'd say play it and see if you think it's worth that. On the surface I thought anything under 8 or 900 was good but depends on the condition and feel of the actual bass and I know nowt about right hander prices. I don't think you're getting a rare collectible so just compare it to other reference points you have to see if it plays like a 700 quid bass (does it play a bit better than your 500 quid bass, or if you're a fancy pants is it about half as good as your 1500 quid bass?)

Exactly, it should be fun, so go get em!