kodiakblair

Plan was no more buying of anything , double for anything bass related. Two things foiled the plan. 1. @Paul S posting his cracking Retrovibe 30" scale slab body P-bass 🙂 2. Wee Sis putting some cash in my card. While browsing for parts , Retrovibe is sold out leaving me no option bar build one, this turned up for £50. TBH the work involved turning this into a slab body is nuts , would be quicker and easier doing the body from scratch. Doing things from scratch is overrated 🤣

There's always something unique about Wishbass. This snakewood Lobe was a stunner. . Steve was a fixture at the various 60's Folk/Bluegrass festivals , pipes and dulcimers were his main income 😀 Not too sure "Groovy Man" is apt, one of his books is titled " How Hippies Ruin't Hillbilly Music" 😁

What a great way to start Christmas 🙂 Wouldn't worry about it being passive , my early JG model was passive ; sounded brilliant 👍

Oh dear. I feel another build project coming on 🤣 Bet it plays and sounds as good as it looks , Mr K has an unerring habit of getting things right 😀 Congratulations @Paul S , you've made me very jealous 👍

Not mine but a cracking bit of kit for no money. Good friend was coming up to visit and made a detour on the way. Well known eBay seller " green alsatian " had this lovely Peavey Cirrus BXP going for £199 😱 Gillian zipped across from Norfolk to Liverpool area to snatch the prize then on to Central Scotland. Back then I had 4 or 5 Cirrus basses and Gillian had 3 , could say we were familiar with them 🙂 Drawback with many Cirrus BXP models is the gloss finish ,it can feel sticky ; not the case with the satin "darkwood" version. Pair of us put it through the paces and were well impressed. Looked like a Cirrus. Felt like a Cirrus. Played like a Cirrus and sounded like a Cirrus. Bloody Hell , a £199 Cirrus 😀 It's the one on the far right 👍

@lemmywinks Think I got £220 though might have been £250. Got really lucky with the 5'er, the 4 string looked a bit plain next to it 🙂

Cracking basses 🙂 Why oh why did I sell them 😢 The 5'er was stunning.

There's a 5 string model up for grabs about 40 minutes from me. Seller wants £350 but they've made a bloody awful job of tugging the frets and a hamfisted effort at taking the gloss off the neck. If you're interested I'd quite happily do the middle man stuff and make an insultingly low offer to reflect the butchery 😀

Rickenbacker did the same to the replacement bezel boy . They didn't sue him ; just copied his product , used the name then told him to F.O.

You're welcome Paul. Owned quite a few Retrovibes but just the one Renegade , none of them have been particularly heavy. Thinner body of the Renegade may account for some weight loss 👍

Hi Paul. Luggage scales are showing just 6lbs for mine 🙂 Afraid I can't comment on replacing the pickups or sounding like a Ric . Bought one of David's cast offs , just an MM at the bridge so nothing like a Ric 😀

December 2019 for me 😃 Until last week that is ☹️ Fancied trying a fan fret for ages , one of those RedSub 5'ers popped up for £150.

All the MM type models are basswood .

Have a stunning Paisley Fender P-bass and a few HB PB-50's. OK , single coil P-basses are simple animals but my HBs hold their own against the Fender 😱 Original Wilkinson was a lovely pickup , later Roswell is no slouch either . I'd imagine plenty folk would find the HBs easier to play , Fender has a right chunky neck. In 8 years I haven't touch a TR nor tightened up tuners. "Harley Benton , cheap or cheerful ?" Well they're certainly inexpensive and still smile every time I play one , reckon they're both 👍

Solid bit of kit these. I know a few folk with the JB-40 . When I've did their set ups , the fingerboards to have been bang on. That's because it is the real thing 😃 "Fotoflame" is one of those snippets folk hear and think it applies across the range ; it's only used on burst basswood bodies , PB-50 , MB-4/5 & MM-84/85 👍

Something beginning with the letter L ?

Did the laddie from The Primitives no play a Spectrum GT ? You're right about Thunders hogging the limelight , quality bits of kit 🙂I was quite partial to the medium scale Concord 👍

How many are too much ? I've something like 68 basses at home. I won't clutter up the thread by posting photos of them all , just take my word for it ; 68 bass guitars is too many.

Please stop right there. Haven't bought a bass for 21 months, would like to make that 24 months 👍

I can relate to that 😀

Seller has form for selling repro military badges as the real deal.

9v power supply. You can run it off a battery , comes with a small battery clip adapter cable , but I prefer using a plug in unit. Also by Caline 😀

@Bassfinger Good point , wonder what the $1832 left over from the $2000 bass is going on ?

Are wages relevant ? The Corona plant employs between 300 to 400 people and produces 350 instruments per day , say 350 staff produce 350 guitars . Shifts are 9 hours with , according to "Payscale.com" , an average of $18 ph ; $162 a day. Cheapest USA guitar is the Telecaster Performer at $1300 retail , labour accounts for 8%. The Zhunyi Shenqu factory in China employs 600 people producing 1650 guitars per day , 2.75 guitars each. Shifts are also 9 hours , paying just $5.30 ph ; $47.7 a day. Zhunyi build for Ibanez and cheapest Ibanez I could find was the Mikro at $150. Total for 2.75 of those is $412.50, labour again accounts for 8% of retail. Two factories with polar opposite prices and wages yet the same labour costs. Thing that interests me is the wages. Living wage calculator for Corona gives $24.72 as minimum rate for each adult in a family of 2 adults and 2 kids , FMIC's $18 average lets those folks down. Living wage for Guizhou Province ( where Zhunyi are located) is given as $3.06 for each adult in a family of 2 adults and 2 kids. On $5.30 the Zhunyi folks are doing better than some of their USA counterparts.