Burns-bass

AI will destroy the library music industry according to a friend who works in the sector. Instead of licensing music they’ll get AI to create it.

I have no problem with that at all. My point was about flipping. People are cash strapped and need whatever they can. I don’t begrudge it or get upset by it. I was trying to explain why people take personal offence to it. I’ve sold most of my stuff through eBay and insist on collection.

It's because flipping breaks the social bond we have here as members and transgresses a moral code. As members here, we have a relationship to one another. While we may not physically be close, we consider forum members to be friends and as such we enter transactions with this perspective. Businesses buy cheap and sell high. Friends will (by and large) offer you a fair price and not seek to profit from your relationship. People who buy and sell for a profit are acting against this moral code. It's even more egregious when it happens on a forum (someone buys cheap on BC and advertisers for a higher price). As an example of how this relationship can impact you, I bought a bass here for £1300. I held it for a year and then called a London shop for a trade in price. The cash offer I received was £2300. The seller here (trusted member, good guy) had sold to me cheaply. (this was during COVID when prices for all US imports and bespoke basses went through the roof). I could have just pocketed the money. Instead we had a chat and agreed to split the difference. In the end, we both got £500 more than we had expected and all felt good about the world.

Yep. I nearly bought a Grabber at £250 in 2002. They’re now 10 times that in London shops.

Here endeth the thread.

I think prices for second hand instruments are pretty crazy. People are trying to sell used items for 80% of the new price. Private sellers also use the shop prices as benchmarks for their items (especially vintage items) which makes the whole market seem mad.

I wanted to buy an Xotic 5 string on here for £1100 which turned up a few days later on the BassBros site at £1650. Their prices will reflect the costs of running a business, a 2.5% charge for credit cards, new strings and a setup. It’s not going to make anyone rich and they seem like good guys. My advice would be to hold onto your cash and wait. Inevitably the item you want will come up at some point. I recently purchased two basses I’d wanted for ages (original Grabber bass and a Czech Ease bass) at reasonable prices from genuinely lovely sellers who I met and chatted with.

I’ve got a Czech Ease bass (which is great!) and it came with a case which was in terrible shape. Apparently the bass travelled all over the world and it basically disintegrated. The original manufacturer doesn’t make them any more and I was looking at an alternative. Does anyone have any idea what might fit it? The specs suggest a 1/2 bag would fit but be good to get some advice from people who know!

I made an agreement to buy several guitars once from someone. Agreed a price and a date and time to collect. Someone else phoned up and offered more. Thankfully the seller told me before I’d travelled but I explained how what they’d done is morally wrong and that I was disappointed that they would act this way, as I certainly wouldn’t. Personally, I’d take no joy in doing this to someone else but I know people do. The older I get the more you see karma at work…

Agreed. The vintage gravy train continues!

Message from FB. Keep an eye out if you see any of this online or advertised on other forums: "STOLEN EQUIPMENT!!! My flat was broken into tonight, and all my equipment was stolen. I’m heartbroken. Please help me find them, or at least point me in the direction of the right group for this post. 1x Fender Duo-Sonic, daphne blue, with a sticker of a ventriloquist dummy, chipped headstock. 1x Hagstrom Fantomen guitar, white, with bridge pickup volume and tone knobs missing, chipped headstock. 1x Squier Classic Vibe 70s P-Bass, black, maple fretboard w/ black block inlays, EMG GZR pickups. 1x Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen 2x JBL 104 studio monitors 1x Sony WH1000XM4 headphones. Please help me find them, music is my life and I can’t imagine not being able to play."

If someone had sent a polite PM and explained all this then fair enough. It’s the way this has played out so publicly with someone who has explained to us that they’re living with cancer. Perhaps I’m sensitive as I know several people living with (and dying with) the condition. I appreciate and respect rules and pay my membership. From what I read in the last thread, Dad said it would be ok to ask for value of items. It is what it is and you live and learn.

This is grim reading. I’m all for following the rules but this really doesn’t reflect well on this forum. Signing off for a while.

I’ve known a few touring guys and this all seems to echo what they say. When I realised the life of a professional musician was playing Oliver or Grease in a pit for decades I decided against it.

Let’s just help the fella out… I’ve emailed, you can message me back and I’ll do what I can to help you. If you want a bureaucracy free sale then you can call up BassBros or if it’s vintage stuff, then try Andy Baxter.

I really don’t think in the UK we can laugh about China and it’s manufacturing. The UK is a fading power trading on past glories. China is technologically more advanced with infrastructure and industry we can only dream of.

Those tools that try and calculate the cost of an item historically in today's currency are really basic and flawed. A better way to relate it to lived experience would be the proportion of the sale price relative to income. For example, in the early 1960s an imported US Strat would cost about £200. The average weekly take home wage was £16 – so that's about 12 weeks work. Today, through the magic of manufacturing, we can get one for about a month's wage.

He still lives with his mum and dad. I’d be that enthusiastic if everything was still done for me rather than being a tired and jaded 43 year old man.

Excellent post. My computer is use for work cost 2 or 3 times a US Fender bass, but I need it for the speed and processing power. Given that the computers I own run my business and support the lives of about 10 other people, makes sense to buy the best and get the value from them.

There’s often a weird relationship where people with hugely expensive instruments can barely play. I’ve witnessed this many times in vintage guitar shops, or at bass shows. Manufacturing and production in 2924 is so good. The basses you can get for £100 we would have paid almost 5 times as much in the 90s. The £1500 bass I use now is head and shoulders above any vintage instrument I’ve ever played.

I’ve owned a few of the lower end models but I’d love one of the expensive ones.

In my experience, this is often smoking and/or drinking...

That seems like the only reasonably priced instrument on the whole site.