Burns-bass

Status I suppose. People often believe having something valuable confers status on them (cars, clothes, etc.) but 99.9% of people don’t care. If I told my dad how much my music instruments were worth he’d be shocked and probably a little appalled. In the end, I sold all the expensive basses and now use a £1500 one which is the only instrument I’ve ever bought new and is the best I’ve ever played.

A lot of viewing pleasure there…

Yeah lots of people do it now. Check out FRFR. I was recommended doing it with double bass and it’s been a revelation.

The reason you’ve probably had a hard life is that you’ve not been paid fairly for your labour. You can perpetuate that or break the cycle. Who would spend £3k on a Stingray? Madness.

Whitening toothpaste buffed put can work. It’s a mild abrasive and works, but obviously at your own risk. While cutting compounds used on cars can be used to buff finishes, they don’t work on pickguards in my experience.

Given the date I’d hazard this may not be 100% legitimate.

I personally hate the You Tuber stuff, and I can entirely do without the enforced wackiness, but this was investigative journalism and he deserves the plaudits he got for that.

Yes it’s a wonderful bit of kit. Appreciate all the recommendations from people on here.

This is an excellent point. If everyone involved in making my US built Fender got well paid then I’m happy to carry the premium. It was bang on £1500 and is the nicest bass I’ve ever played and I love it.

Yes.

I've read the post above, and that seems to be exactly what the seller has said. All your points are valid, but I'm one of those people for whom it makes no sense to waste an hour or two of my day getting a box to send a guitar – and perhaps the original poster is too. This is compounded by the fact that not a week goes by when someone isn't on here moaning about how a courier has smashed up a bass. You may be able to spare a good few hours to trek into town (and Nottingham isn't a bad place, granted), but sometimes people don't. I've had several people send me rude emails and messages because I didn't want to send something. I've also had people on ebay buy stuff than ask me to send it when I had explicitly said I wouldn't.

I have two kids and run two businesses. I fully respect someone not wanting to bother with this.

Bet your band mates wouldn’t agree. Having spent years in originals bands there were always a few tracks I hated. Sometimes it would be a chord change I didn’t like, once it was the singer’s inflection, once it was the title track from an album and we played it for years and I got sick of it!

Agreed that the score here would be good. This isn't something I'd ever be able to play (I'm very much a plodder), but I can certainly see the value for those learning classical pieces.

I remember passing on one for £150, that was 2002!

There’s a difference between fret wear and damage. In a lot of cases there will be dents out of frets that are often caused by the stings hitting the fret. You can also find that the frets can come loose and raise a little which can affect the action.

People on here moan about everything. Nut width, fret size, pickup location, string spacing, whether the string goes over the poles, the directions of the arrows on the knobs. When I started you’d just buy a bass. I’m still pretty ambivalent about it now to be honest.

One bass, one amp, pedals and pre amp all set up and ready to go. Keep it chilled.

How a guitar plays and sounds means very little to the vintage guitar dealer in my experience…

Classic moral maze. You think you’ve navigated a clear path through then you hit a dead end. The music and songs take on a life of their own, and have huge resonance for people beyond the original artist, and in some cases the original recording. If you listen to the lyrics of much early blues (which I play) it’s horrendously misogynistic ( although you do have to consider how much was artistic licence). Personally, I don’t have a problem playing these tracks, and would continue to do so. Playing the tracks isn’t an endorsement of the individual, their views and opinions, or actions.

I recently had a vintage bass that arrived in a hard case that was hit so hard the scratch plate cracked. Couriers = bad. Was fully insured and the seller sucked up the loss and took the bass back. Real shame though.