Burns-bass

The best intermediate rig I have seen (and use) is a Trace Elliot Elf into a Barefaced 1x10. It sounds absolutely fantastic, is portable, and easy to set up. It’s also reasonably cheap for such quality gear. There are only a few knobs to turn, and they all character the sound, which makes it easy to use. I’m using this rig to do a jazz session later tonight. I’ve used it in a pub jam session for both bass and double bass. On the weekend I saw someone gigging the same rig in a surf rock band.

I think what you were doing is a really important thing. If you check out the Vintage Fender thread you’ll see how the listing of one of my old basses and the reality are very different.

If in doubt get on the phone! I missed out on a bit of a dream bass because I’d emailed.

Maybe I’ll treat myself when work picks up. I’ve got to say, Geoff does some really incredible content.

This isn’t cheap but might be of interest… https://courses.discoverdoublebass.com/p/chris-wood-masterclass (Still one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to)

My kid once hit my Bryant double bass with a toy car and took a chunk out of it. It was my fault.

Just remembered we had a wonderful chat when he bought my Stentor bass from me. Good half an hour discussing bass and life. Such sad news.

Sad times and my thoughts are with the family.

Oh, and the knobs aren’t original, the screws on the plate are changed as were all the pickup screws and I had the jack socket replaced.

If people wonder why I’m skeptical, I’ll use an example. This is an old one of mine. It was built by Steve at Electric Ladyland in Bristol who sold it for £1000 in 2001. There’s a route under the bridge that’s visible (and was previously covered by a Badass bridge). The neck and body were joined in his shop, the electrics are all rewired and the pickup cavities enlarged. The pickguard was previously an original 70s one, but has been swapped again. I sold this for £900 in 2005 and told the buyer all of this. It’s now £2600 with only a few of these things mentioned. https://www.vintagerareandretro.co.uk/store/1974-Fender-Jazz-Bass-4-Bolt-p553279599

Same as most vintage Fenders. The “experts” either ignore changes or are ignorant about them. Charlie Chandler is selling a 65 jazz with the wrong bridge, for example. I’ve seen two of my old basses selling at the moment with changes I told the buyer about but the dealer has either missed or ignored to mention.

It’s all good. I think these are vanity purchases by asset rich boomers that will hold much less value for future generations. I have one (bought when cheap) and I love it, but most of these sit on stands and do nowt. My gran used to collect vintage pottery that was hugely valuable at the time and now is pretty much worthless and fashions have changed. If I were to invest in stuff for a return I’d be buying vintage synths and electronic music stuff.

I could afford one (if I didn’t invest in a pension) but it’s an illiquid and very fragile asset class. Guess wine or whisky is worse, but they’re in the same ballpark.

You (like me) have the capital to pay for one but you won’t as you don’t see the value - yet you believe it’ll continue to rise? Not sure how that works.

What’s interesting is that culture moves on so quickly. We revere a period of culture from 1960 - 1976 (approx) as somehow when the worlds of music and musical instrument mass manufacture peaked. Neither is true of course, as there’s no real objective criteria On which to do so. Cultural gatekeepers continue to tell us this is the case and it’ll prop up the market until these people are gone and there’s a critical reappraisal.

I can understand banks wanting to prop up the housing market, but I can’t imagine the price of Fenders is on their list. (I see air fryers are no longer considered an essential commodity either.) My view is that we’re at dangerous bubble territory and you can see the demand is dropping. I’ve never seen so many up for sale in the last 20 years which suggests either they’ve discovered a rare cache of them, if collectors are divesting themselves if these assets when the going is good. The old 59 burst is a fair bellweather as arguably the most desirable guitar in the world. You’d almost never see one for sale but in the last year there have been about 7 in the UK alone. That’s a warning sign. Basses are less desirable than guitars so the money is less - and so is the risk - but at the top end you could see quite significant drops to levels of a few years ago.