Hellzero

So maybe we know each other, as I'm 15 kilometers away from there and lived for 10 years in one of the the village just next to the city of Virton. And some 15 to 20 years ago I used to have my own repair shop...

Here is the answer Andrew gave me to that "strange" bass : "Hi Tony This bass was custom built to the original customers own specifications. It is essentially a GA24 but with Calibas electronics and a Pangborn style headstock. Best Regards Andrew" There is no mention of personal relationship with Mark King or John Diggins... You can still order the exact same one for less than the price asked and it will be brand new !?! Look at this one, with a correct price tag and ... 6 strings : https://www.kitarapaja.com/jaydee-supernatural-calibas-6-string_1

I can do it for anyone, but the price asked is ridiculously high...

That's it, you read it right. The other part says that in the meantime he went to 6 strings basses (a second hand Leduc MP631 SF fretless, a second hand Aries Senes VS 6 Signature and a second hand F-Bass AC6 fretless). It takes up to 2 years to get an instrument finished by Leduc (Fleta has a 20 years waiting period, just for the fun). Christophe is working alone and he is also making repairs. On the 1st of April of 2016 he decided to refuse to take orders for a complete year as it would have had a negative impact on his "production"...

Christophe LEDUC has a lot of patents for this instrument that were registered way back in 1992 for France and 1994 for the world... Alain Caron is still owning and playing one 6 strings fretless of the first model and Abraham Laboriel is still owning and playing a 6 strings fretted one. He is THE French master luthier, highly respected by his other fellow makers for his knowledge and quite strangely is originally an architect because he needed to understand the laws of physics before making instruments. He was also the only one able to repair a sitar way back in the 70's as he went to India to learn the making of it. He made this special 6 strings electric upright bass for me (it took 7 years to finish the project as it was a two brains job going in the same direction but not always using the same path...) : http://leduc.fr/index.php/series-l/contrebasse-de-la-serie-l We also became friends over the time (we know each other for 30 years).

A friend of mine is selling this extraordinary fretless bass, he is 100% trustable : https://www.zikinf.com/annonces/dispannonce.php?annonce=1446715 The bass is brand new and sounds really terrific.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1501758821' post='3347151'] It does, but are Musikraft licensed by Fender to put a Fender decal on the headstock, I wonder? [/quote] Absolutely not, so it's a real fake in law terms.

It's a Musikraft copy of a Fender V : it's written in the description. Here is the link to Musikraft who is making necks and bodies for quite a long time now : https://www.musikraft.com Hope this helps.

Don't want to go to war, but I used to run my own repair shop some 15 years ago (guitars, basses, amps and even classical instruments) and owned for myself something like 150 basses from the cheapest to very expensive ones I played bass, double bass and a bit of guitar over the 3 past decades, recorded a few albums and repaired so many of these old Japanese instruments that when I think about it, it just makes smile when i see the today price tags according to the real quality of these instruments and I agree when you say it's worth £50 GBP. So let's say you had all the good ones and I had all the bad ones.

Indeed !

Have you ever played one ? This is real crap, sorry but these Japanese plywood basses are not good instruments at all, just like the Morris and other atrocities made in the seventies. It's not because it's old that it's good. I'm almost 52 and started on these basses that were awful but affordable when you are a student. Thanks to them, I now have a powerful left hand (and fingers) and can play double bass easily. So for that point I should say they were good, but the action was so high, the pickups so bad and noisy and the weight so heavy that telling these basses are good is proving that you never played one. When I bought my first real bass something like 5 years later, a second hand 1972 Fender P-Bass, I asked myself how could I have been able to play such an "instrument"...

It's an old Maya or crap like this, better avoid this.

Traded two basses for one (and some money for me) with (the other) Tony. The Alpher was as described and it was a real pleasure to deal with Antonio. The bass was very well packed and shipped very quickly. Once the trade was definitely agreed, everything went fast and perfect, but not furious. 😎 You can deal with him in total confidence, there won't be any problem. Enjoy the Shuker and the Bassline !

Yes, I bought one of these ridiculously low prices Chinese crap to give it a try and really throw it in the fire after making my own London Calling remake. And it brokes into pieces within seconds. Didn't try to cook anything as it was really stinking, but I had some dead wood from the garden to burn, so I made a joy fire. So don't try this at home.

These are NOT instruments, but barbecue wood. So start playing it and then you'll start the fire with it.

Not really a new concept, a French luthier called Favino, who made over than 10 guitars for the Brassens (just because he had a powerful playing and destroyed them the way Django did), has even one double guitar in his catalogue and sold a few to some renowned artists : http://www.favino.com/index.php?choix=cata-verso# But a bass plus a guitar based on the same body is quite stupid...