Happy Jack

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1383573482' post='2265978'] What's "disposable income"? [/quote] Money spent on Apple products ...

I used to collect vintage Hofner basses (and a few guitars too) so I'm hardly likely to agree with you on the looks. At £350 it is probably overpriced, but not wildly. Take that awful perspex overguard off it and you have either a very unusual 1961/62 Hofner (a single-pickup Artist? a 185/E1?) or a retro-built bitsa incorporating two, possibly three basses. These basses are very lightweight, shortscale, fun to play, and quirky. They also represent the youth of Europe trying to respond to Buddy Holly and, later, to The Shadows.

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1383578969' post='2266098'] So in fact, they were MORE expensive than now. [/quote] Of course they were. At that time in bass history, mojo was not yet a scarce resource so they tended to use much more of it in general production. These days, mojo is so rare that it only get used in Custom Shop instruments.

I don't solo (I can't anyway, so that was an easy decision to make!) and I don't like bass solos, I don't like listening to them, I don't like seeing others play them. I actually like bass solos even less than I like drum solos and that's really sayin' something. Apart from this one: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDtsrq9C9YE#t=139"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDtsrq9C9YE#t=139[/url]

[quote name='lozbass' timestamp='1383552776' post='2265640'] ... 'could go a long way to concurring with your missus [/quote] Never heard it called that before ...

I've got nine ... how many have you got? [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/MrBlobby_zps5c286efe.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/MrBlobby_zps5c286efe.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Nice. I've had two basses where the fingerboard was unlined but there was a 2mm insert where the fret would have been. The first was this old Ibanez 2369 FLB and I liked it so much I had the same thing done to a Mighty Mite unlined fretless board when I converted my Lakland Duck Dunn.

But can you actually see the fretlines while playing? All I can see is the fret-ends, so I actually prefer playing an unlined with fret-end markers.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Jazz-Bass-Guitar-1973-/171159728500?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item27d9ea3174 [i]Genuine 1973 Sunburst Fender Jazz bass not a copy or re issue. This guitar has been in our family since the mid 70's and has always been looked after. It has been gigged but is in very good condition. The guitar comes with a case and the provenance can be verified as a 1973 production item.[/i] Presumably he has noticed the slightly non-standard non-original element here ...

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1383251298' post='2262267'] Shame about those horrid tuners bodged on, but that's easily fixed. [/quote] It really is hard to imagine who might have thought they were a good idea.

Different strokes and all that. I bought an Alleva-Coppolo and a Mike Lull because they were superb Precisions to play ... so I play them. I've gigged much cheaper basses, of course, and no doubt I will again, but if you own a BMW you're more likely to drive that than a Fiat.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1383246703' post='2262174'] She seems very cheerful , bobbing away like that . [/quote] I reckon that's actually a cross-dressing Korean ...

[quote name='dan670844' timestamp='1383245510' post='2262136'] ... as they a produced in small quantities by a very old man in china! [/quote] ... in a cave on a hillside, visited by his acolytes, and every now and then he has to stop to spin a prayer wheel or two and meditate.

[size=6][b]IAN HUNTER[/b][/size] [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Performance/Sundry/hunter1_zpsac950e60.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Performance/Sundry/hunter1_zpsac950e60.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [size=6][b]HAPPY JACK[/b][/size] [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Performance/Sundry/JDYeOldeSwan23_zps1460ffb9.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Performance/Sundry/JDYeOldeSwan23_zps1460ffb9.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Separated at birth?

So where did you un-earth this then?

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1383050682' post='2259487'] All but one of those pictures are the real thing. Can you guess which one isn't? [/quote] The use of that lavender / purple colour is inspired ... I'll bet even Vic wouldn't spot the difference.

Where's it for? At a gig, the only stand that really works is the floor. At home I use a rather nice K&M jobbie, but I also have a Kinsman folding thing which is fine (except for the long-drawn-out folding process) and a lightweight Thomann folding thing which is ideal for my KK Baby Bass and just about useable for a 3/4 DB.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1383045874' post='2259392'] [url="http://www.rareelectricguitar.com/Rare-140-b0-Rickenbacker.html"]So I wonder what John Hall is doing about this?[/url] [/quote] Not a lot, I imagine. Despite the website's desperate efforts to appear American, it is pretty clear that this is a Chinese operation and they don't give a monkey's what John Hall thinks.

As ever, I am stunned by what other Basschatters are capable of putting together. Just a ridiculously cool bass, and ultra-personal with it. Lovely.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1382951173' post='2258224'] Very good, but did the drugs get through OK..? [/quote] Huh? What? Oh sorry man ... don't really remember. Hey - got any you can sell?

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1382773786' post='2256367'] Moral of the story .... 1/ don't ever pay extra for their insurance. 2/ Pack absolutely bulletproof 3/ then put [u]another[/u] layer of packing and another box on. 4/ All couriers handle packages in a disgraceful manner, so simply use the cheapest. It's worked for me. I have saved many hundreds, maybe thousands in not paying shipping insurance over the years and never had an issue. Amps, cabs, basses, guitars. Luck is a factor I'm sure. On the day they do manage to damage one of my packages, I'll pay for it out of the money I've saved by never paying insurance. This won't work for everyone, but it's worked for me. [/quote] I am absolutely bang alongside this. Having spent far too much of my life dealing with insurance issues, claims, and companies, I decided long ago to go self-insuring. Eventually I'll get a nasty one, and a £1000 bass will go missing or disintegrate, but I must have saved well over that amount in the last 10 years on all the uninsured packages I sent which arrived safely. Incidentally, the closest I ever got to Beedster's damaged carton was posting a Selmer Treble'n'Bass valve amp to Sarajevo. It reached former-Yugoslavia without issues and was then completely unpacked and dismantled by over-zealous Customs officers looking for drugs. The buyer arrived to collect a large cardboard box full of components. He was perfectly happy. It was exactly what he had expected, all the bits were there, and once he'd put it back together it worked perfectly ...

And that's only 3/4 of it, too.