Burns-bass

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.

Add on insurance and import duties and you’re looking at about £10,500. Last decent one of these I saw was £12,500 so still a profit margin there for a vintage dealer.

My wife has read the books and she loves it. Any TV shows that frees me up to play bass is good with me!

The bridge on mine was fine swapping from Mittels to Weichs. Didn’t need any work and the action is fine.

I’m no expert, but I found swapping to Weichs was a game changer in terms of my dexterity and I found no difference in terms of sound. Personally, I’d do the swap on all strings, but that’s just me.

No. Check the windings at the bottom. If they’re damaged or broken, then discard them. Otherwise, just use your fingers to straighten it out.

I did this trip with my girlfriend (now wife). We spent two months travelling through Spain and France in a camper van. Great days.

The best thing to do is chat with a shop such as Thomas Martin who can help you. Those guys ship basses (some of which are worth a fortune) across the world. It won't be cheap, but it will be done properly. They're likely to be very busy, so perhaps an email is best in the first instance. Unless the bass is valuable (£3,000 plus I guess) I can't see it worth flying over. As Joe suggests, it may be better to buy one when you get there.

I asked my finance bloke and it seems I’ve got this wrong so ignore me!

They’re a consumable part so I’d replace them (unless it’s a vintage Fender, when of course breaking the original solder joint somehow releases the mojo out there by a poorly paid factory worker in the early 60s).

Just because you’re in the USA, it doesn’t mean you need to register for US tax. My business is based in the UK and we work with clients in the States, Europe and Hong Kong. As long as your transactions are recorded here I can’t see why you’d need to hassle and inconvenience of a US bank account. Stripe with a card reader should enable you to process transactions anywhere and have them paid to your UK bank account. I have a retail business and we process international transactions here.