Cato

The conventional wisdom is to use flats, as much because they do less damage to a fretless board than rounds. That being said a lot of really famous fretless work from the likes of Jaco and Pino was all done with rounds.

That's for FMIC to decide. You can't bring an IP case to court on someone else's behalf.

Exactly. I can't believe that anyone genuinely believes that Fender does not know about people rebadging instruments as 'Fenders' or adding logos to replicas. There an absolutely shedload of online sellers offering fake Fender water slide decals for a start, that would be a logical place to start any legal crackdown. For whatever reason they are choosing not to take action, either against individuals or companies. The idea that joe public should have to stand up for them to stop them being taken advantage of is, quite frankly, bizarre.

I seem to recall that there was another level of weirdness to that one, along the lines of because the owner had acquired the bass in a private sale rather than though an approved dealer, John Hall was so e how implying that he may not be the legitimate owner of the bass, or something along those lines.

She stormed off during the 'should I use compression in conjunction with my Bare Faced cabs?' unpleasantness a few years back. We've not heard from her since.

Gobsmacked. I wept tears of empathetic joy when I read that thread about you being reuinted with your long lost love. I mean obviously any Jazz bass is superior to any Precision of any era... But even so.

How am I supposed to look at my fretting hand and a music stand at the same time?

You've not sold the white 70s P you were so over the moon at getting back a couple of years ago?

I think they stopped selling them in the UK around 2014/15? Nice to know it might still be possible to get a new one.

I believe the problem with John Hall and Ric was that the BC site owners simply couldn't afford to go to court for the test case which would have decided exactly what the legal responsibilities of a third party marketplace are in regards to selling copies/replicas/modded instruments. Which John Hall knew when he decided to issue his threats against a relatively tiny website rather than one of the really big online marketplaces. As far as I know, no such test case has so far been undertaken in the UK, so the responsibilities of the market place in those scenarios is still legally undefined.

I a shop selling Smokey Bacon popcorn the other day. That's just wrong, isn't it?

I'm inclined to go with the ex copper when he's talking about the law.

I'd say that was for Fender to decide. If someone puts a genuine a genuine Fender Jazz neck on a genuine Fender Precision body should they then have to remove all the Fender branding because the resulting instrument wasn't assembled in the Fender factory?

None of those are being advertised as Fender made instruments. In the case of the fretless with the block inlays and the fenderbird they are designs which Fender has never had in production in the first place. There is clearly no intention to deceive in any of those adverts, they are all completely transparent about the origins of the instrument concerned.

Always happy to educate the masses on the technicalities of tinned food. It makes me think that my summer of pallet truck racing, conveyor belt surfing and clean up hose fights in the factory wasn't entirely wasted.

I used to have a summer job in a cannery. Amongst other delights we made beans for one majorish brand (either HP or Daddy's, my memory fails me) as well for three supermarkets and a couple of budget lines. The recipe and cooking instructions did actually vary slightly for each different line, though, as far as i could tell, not being a bean connoisseur, the same type and grade of beans were used in all products.

Has anyone warned our brethren on Table Chat about these issues? After all there is a huge market for reproduction and replica antique furniture, which could be potentially passed off as the genuine article by an unscrupulous seller to an unwitting buyer. Perhaps all furniture sales should be suspended whilst the issues are considered?

I've withdrawn the post because it's a bit of a legal minefield, but the long and the short of it is that it comes down to intention. If the seller is intending to deceive the purchaser then there is definitely a criminal offence, otherwise it's not quite so clear cut, especially not pertaining to one off private sales between individuals where neither party raises a grievance. I would bet money that Fender are fully aware of the activities of Limelight and other similar companies and that conversations have taken place between them, possibly involving lawyers. Until those conversations are made public, the rest of us will have no idea what kind of agreement was reached.

In some cases, quite a big number.

This actually arrived from Thomman on Saturday but becuse of a recent bout of killer flu I was only actually in a fit state to unpack it and play it today. First impressions - it's a lovely bit of wood on the body, I'm sure it's at least two or three pieces, I can't see the joins, but then I never can on these things. It's seems well made, it feels exactly like a Jazz bass, so I feel immediately at home with the neck and the string spacing. This is my first fretless, I've played them in shops before and had a go on other people's but this is the the first one I've spent any real time with, so I'm not sure I'm really qualified to judge it's merits, but, unplugged, it sounds and plays exactly as I expected it to. Plugged in the first thing you have to deal with is the preamp. In passive mode everything is nice and calm, predictable even. Engage the preamp and all that changes. When I first got the bass I noticed that the bass side of the middle pick up had been lowered to the point where it was only about 1 mm above the body. With the preamp on, I realised why. Unless the volume is turned right down or the bass knob dialed right back the E string distorts like it's going through a fuzz pedal, the A is not quite as bad, but it's still not ideal. Once I overcame this initial challenge the preamp is actually quite versatile, with all the variation you'd expect from a unit with that many knobs, that said I think I may be making a far bit of use of the passive option. I'm also not that keen on the bridge. In the pictures it gives the impression of being a big solid unit, in the flesh, it's hard to describe why, but it actually feels a bit flimsy and poorly made. There may well be a Hipshot A in the future for this bass. Anyway, despite those gripes, I'm actually rather chuffed with it, obviously I'm a beginner at this fretless lark, but this seems like a decent enough instrument to get started on. Apologies for the photographs, which were taken on my tablet, which lacking any kind of auto compose function, does nothing to disguise my lack of photographic skills.

A lot of people who put together bitsas or build or commision replica instruments don't seem to feel that the instrument is complete without the 'correct' logo. I've personally never seen anyone trying to pass such an instrument off as genuine on the BC marketplace and, given the level of scrutiny that every instrument in the marketplace comes under from casual browsers, let alone serious potential buyers, I seriously doubt anyone would be able to get away with trying to sell a replica as genuine for more than a couple of hours before getting called out.

I'm not too fussed. I took a punt on an offer that was too good to be true, but too good to pass up, just in case. At this time of year it's bound to take a few extra days to sort any refunds out.

And to yourself. (Note for next year: this is not the best day to start a Merry Christmas thread, it's the quietest day of the year on the forum. There'll be a lot more people around tomorrow, but by then Christmas is technically over).

I've had a few bits and pieces from them in the past that have always arrived a couple of days after ordering. A couple of weeks ago I bought a bass from them. It took nine days to get here, no problem with that, it's almost certainly down to the time of year, but i did find the tracking process quite frustrating. There were various 'your bass has now reached this stage in the process' alerts, but no actual delivery dates were given, not even estimates until I got the 'your bass is out for delivery' notification about 00.30 on Saturday morning.

Every now and then I start researching and pricing parts to build my own 51 precision replica. Then I remember that I have the technical skills of a drunk koala.