Doctor J

[quote name='stylonpilson' post='276250' date='Sep 3 2008, 01:55 PM']Presumably they are expecting that people who want the "no scratchplate" look will just buy one of the relevant artist series instruments. S.P.[/quote] But a lot of people aren't going to know about it until they remove the scratchplate, that's the thing. Meh, I won't be buying one anyway, but I know I'd be pissed off if I spent a grand on one and took off the scratchplate to see that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the use of CNC or automated building techniques. The cheaper CIJ basses don't have the route, they still have the proper routing as found on the old Fenders. They are CNC'd too. There are a huge selection of J clones, many of them CNC'd which don't have that routing either. The bridge pickup is routed in the old fashioned way too, so why make such an abhorration of the front of the bass when it really isn't necessary? There are a lot of mass-produced US made instruments which don't have that routing either. Is the cost of running a wire 2 inches under wood really going to drive Fender out of business? I think not. Fender are facing more competition than ever, the availability of instruments to the average player worldwide has never been greater. It mystifies me why they would take such a blatantly shoddy move in the face of this competition.

Shocking stuff The point is, they used not to do it, now they do it, purely to save a few cents. Did they not learn from what happened in the 70's? One would expect Fender to be continually trying to improve on their old processes, like their competition does, not to go backwards. And, yes, I do buy the competition's Jazz copy and am all the happier for it

[quote name='Clive Thorne' post='275462' date='Sep 2 2008, 02:38 PM']You can't really (IMHO) slag off Fender (or anyone else) for the quality of a route that is covered by the scratch plate, which, after all, is a standard part of the instrument.[/quote] I disagree. They made basses without the ugly and cheap routing for many, many years, even through the much maligned 70's. Now that the routes are CNC'd (and bodies should be cheaper to make) it strikes me as a very poor move to have such an ugly blemish on the face of every bass, considering it is a move purely designed to save money. A lot of players like to play their J bass with the scratchplate removed. Could you imagine Jaco's 62 with that? It may not make a difference to the sound but I don't think that's the point. It's misguided penny pinching, and basses that expensive shouldn't have such blatant penny pinching. If they've cut corners there, what else are they skimping and compromising on?

I thought he was a Warwick man through and through? Ah well, I guess if you throw enough money at people they'll play anything... not that the Yamaha is bad, just a BB is a long way away from his Warwicks.

Why compromise or take a gamble on getting a "good" Fender? For about the price of a US Fender you could get a hand made Japanese Bacchus which is built to a much higher standard. When you're spending that kind of money you should be guaranteed that every bass is a good bass with no stupid cost-cutting measures (those crappy routes under the scratchplate, for example). IMO, that kind of nonsense is unnacceptable. When you spend big, you should get something which justifies the expense, not something with blatant cost saving measures and inconsistent quality.

There's a deal pending on my one, so isn't a shamless plug, but I would definitley urge you to check out a Bacchus if you get a chance. In my opinion there is nothing as good for the money. I don't believe Fender are in the same league at all. I used to have a Lakland 55-02 and it was a great bass, but the Bacchus I've played have all been genuinely superb, a good step above the level of the Skylines. Factor in the poor performance of the dollar and you can get a truly [url="http://www.guitarjapan.com/bacchus/bacchus_bassguitars.html"]great bass[/url] for a fairly standard price.

He'll need to declare a value to customs regardless and you'll get taxed on that amount. The gift thing only works to a certain value and then you get taxed whether it's a gift or not once it goes above that value. I think it's a couple of hundred euro over here, it's probably a similar value in the UK. Generally, instruments fall well above that threshold and customs are always weary of bass sized boxes being marked as a gift. I've never heard of anyone getting away with a guitar as a gift.

That's interesting news, there must be some queue waiting for production to start again.

Bacchus Woodline P Classic Probably my favourite of all my basses at the moment, this yoke just rocks.

Check out some of the Jaco dvd on youtube, he's playing a maple neck (granted it's a P neck but you'll get the idea) with a sunburst body.

Regardless of refin or not, £1359 is way too much for a 4001. Shop around and you should be able to pick on up for under 1k

Keep an eye on Ishibashi's u-box, their second hand section [url="http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box"]http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box[/url] They come up frequently enough at unbelievably low prices, even after shipping and taxes. Great bass.

Has someone else thrown a bag of money at him?

[quote name='Josh' post='261167' date='Aug 12 2008, 09:07 PM']Would you mind if I asked where you get them from man?[/quote] I had to trawl the web, ebay, wherever. They're absurdly hard to get for some reason. The web store I used to get them from stopped supplying them, so it's usually on ebay now.

I love them. They're bright and stay bright for some time. They're especially good as a low B.