skankdelvar

The Phillippppppines are a bit further away than the continental US...

Not so much a bail-out as a recapitalisation. Dibs on the rather fetching Fez....

[quote]you all might think im a total teewat for having these thoughts[/quote] Not at all. I regularly obsess about stuff like this. As I'm sure you've already discovered, most of the forum members have similar bees in their collective buzzy little bonnets.

Being OK with [i]any[/i] of it would be cause for celebration round my house. Feel inspired.

[quote name='Delberthot' post='347084' date='Dec 6 2008, 10:12 AM']Why does this look familiar? Wasn't someone selling basses like these on Ebay a few months ago with a unknown (or no) name on them? I think someone on here bought one or was going to buy one.[/quote] Y'know, I was just thinking the same thing.....

Nice work

Why not put some frets on the ramp and call it a neck extension?

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='346805' date='Dec 5 2008, 09:17 PM']Not really for a pick player like me then.[/quote] Like he said; though I use fingers sometimes, it would get in the way when I used the pick. Why not just have a very long thumb rest?

Family Fun Day for a merchant bank at Kempton Park Racecourse. Doing Pub R&B (Feelgoods etc). Instant mis-match, but it was £400. We went on between the bloke with his bongos and the pre-pubescent girly dancers. Eric Knowles from Antiques Roadshow was in the front row, grooving, and the bloke Melvyn Hayes from "It ain't half hot mum" was effing and blinding through a charity auction, the carousels were going round, our gtrst was rowing with the organisers and I was fully lagered. Utterly surreal.

Welcome! And sorry to hear about the aching hands [quote]I'll be looking at trying out some new amps[/quote] It's the slippery slope!

Welcome [quote]I would settle for shops with a decent supply of Fender basses as a starting point![/quote] Not many of those round Oxford - tried PMT or guitar gallery? You're prob better off buying from people on this forum or down in London or worst case, off the bay. Prob not worth spending bundles on a 70's vintage and US standards are quite pricey if it's just the look that appeals. As Musky says, should be straightforward enuff to find a black p with a maple f'board. Black plates are available everywhere... PM me before you lash out on paying someone in a shop to fit a scratchplate for you.

JP-90's - the new Marmite.

...and wrong Fender logo for the period. But it's still quite pretty.

Perm a combo of: Hard case, Bass Instructional DVD, New pick-ups, Stomp Box (comp / dist / modulation), new strap, four-pack of nice strings off the bay, guitar cleaning pack, snazzy Hawaiian shirt (so people know you're the bass player), Leather pork pie hat (ditto), T-shirt with slogan such as 'I'm the bass player - I go Dum Dum Dum'. Or maybe she's just waiting for [i]you[/i] to say: "What do I want for Xmas, sweety-pie? I want you to marry me so we can buy the old MacGregor place and grow old together and watch our kids play in the meadow behind the barn...." Man smart, woman smarter.

At first I thought it was a cake.

First off, try contacting the manufacturer and seeing if they do a replacement bridge of the same kind, only in black. Buy it, unscrew the old one, screw on the new one. Buying a different mfr's bridge and fitting it may involve re-drilling. If the strings pass over the bridge and then go through the body of the bass, those holes also may need re-drilling to match the bridge - this is much more tricky than just screwing a new bridge onto the face of the bass. You also need to take into account the string spread of the existing bridge, so the new one lines the strings up over the pick-up poles in the same way. If the intricacies of this don't appeal, you could always try taking the bridge off and removing the saddles and saddle screws, springs whatever. Get the bridge plate, rub it down a bit and try painting it with hammerite black metal paint, then reassemble. If you really want to paint the saddles too, remove the adjustment screws and plug the holes so the paint doesn't get in there and clog the thread. Won't look brilliant, won't last long, but it will be black. (Try experimenting first on the face of the bridge that screws to the guitar so it looks really awful, no harm done.) All in all, a fair bit of effort for cosmetics that probably only you will notice. But modding is fun, and you've got to start somewhere.

I play both and I honestly can't remember which one I started with. It's all a bit confusing really...

As far as anarcho-socialism goes, this is an interesting speculative piece: www.anti-state.com/preston/preston5.html ...and as far as I can see, any form of party or political grouping requires an inherent compromise. The more members, the greater the compromise. In achieving consensus among larger groupings, certain individuals may have to subordinate their views on certain issues to those of the majority. Should they continue to disagree, they may be 'coerced' into agreement or expelled from the party. Sound familiar and acceptable so far? So what happens when 'the party' is the whole of society? You get Gulags and Killing Fields. Imposed totalitarian political systems kill. Compromise, tolerance and accommodation form the basis for any successful social grouping. In answer to your OP, I think your band is a better exemplar of progress through compromise than any political nostrum. If you're uncomfortable with the possible outcome - that is, getting a deal - it's maybe unfair to contemplate removing your skills at the point when the others achieve what may be, for them, a key objective . Perhaps you should leave the band and join one with ambitions more closely aligned with your own.

Either way, the serial number suggests 77-78, and the block, non-serifed italic 'JAZZ BASS' might indicate the middle - latter end of that period, when they switched the type face. So, maybe late 77, early 78? It's just unfortunate that the (probably genuine but a bit excessive) headstock wear includes the area round the logo, which might imply 'forgery' to some. The headstock faces (but not the sides or back) of this period were nitro'd, the neck poly'd (and I've got a similarly two-toned Tele). His camera may be exaggerating the 'David Dickinson-esque' hue of the headstock face. I need to get out more.

Paging Dr Claber...

Logo a bit on the small side. And the whole thing exudes a hint of crap-ness...NOI

For a six month old neck, strung at normal tension to go bandy implies a manufacturing fault. If the retailer has had it for a month and can't fix it, it would be interesting to know [i]exactly[/i] what they've been doing with it during that time. I'd be (very politely) asking for specific details about their proposed remedies - because I can't think of many, short of a serious bit of neck clamping, hump-shaving or a fat re-fret. And even if it's fixed now, the problem could recur later. Without knowing all the details, it's difficult to suggest possible courses of action, but if this was my bass, I'd be after a replacement or a refund flaming pronto. A quiet but firm meeting with a senior person in a back room is certainly in order - no informal chatting over the counter - and take a notepad. Banana neck is a banana neck. And this on a [i]new £900.00 bass[/i]? It's not their fault, but the Retailer should definitely take this one on the chin - their beef should be with Fender. Send for Shockwave - the punter's friend!

It's not just the UK - US websites are also full of bad news about doggy Gibsons. Been that way for years and no one at Gibson seems to care... too busy coming up with Robot guitars (shudder)

[quote name='AndyMartin' post='341241' date='Nov 30 2008, 05:09 PM']It's a 2008 US standard. The latest model. I've only played one other that was hanging in a shop and that had a neck like a banana. Reading the thread about overpriced American gear, maybe I've been lumbered with one of Fender's "export" basses [/quote] I read about the banana neck fenders on Harmony-Central - and these were American-bought Precisions. Maybe there are issues with rushing the wood to production before it's seasoned properly. Some similar issues with wood shrinkage and exposed fret-ends on the less expensive Gibson six strings - the "faded" jobs...

[quote]Nay!!!! I defy thee SKANKDEVIL.[/quote] Nice return, Sir. [quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='341224' date='Nov 30 2008, 04:37 PM']And another thing One mention of the word 'crevice' and I may need to resort to physical violence [/quote] Errr - sorry mate - didn't mean to cause a domestic - just start a global religious war. (Phew! - good job she didn't notice the fiery bush....) Sorry to the OP for dragging this seriously OT I reckon basses are just stacking up in peoples' houses and rotating periodically through ebay. When d'ya last see a decent stash of s/h gear in a bass / guitar shop? Years, mate, years. Cos we've all got 'collections' these days....or 'harems' as the Mild-ster so aptly puts it.