Annoying Twit

I'd take a fretless nine string. Stuck on the desert island, I'd have sufficient time to learn how to play it properly. And if I got bored of life on the island, I could use the strings to tie together bamboo poles to make a raft. (Yes, I know that this is actually a ten string).

I'm not intended to buy it, but what is the going rate for these? If this is the second time it's been listed, that would imply that it's not underpriced.

I'm not sure what the going rate is for these, but £150 doesn't seem too pricey. How much do they usually go for? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Excellent-US-Made-Peavey-Foundation-Fretless-Bass-/261899979634?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3cfa748b72

Roundback guitar: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbo850_bk_deko.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...850_bk_deko.htm[/url] Left handed Les Paul: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_l_400lh_sbk_classic_se_deko.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...sic_se_deko.htm[/url] There was a TE-80 Telecaster too, but it's gone already. (I've just woken up and switched the computer on). [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_l_400lh_sbk_classic_se_deko.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_te_80_nt_deluxe_series_deko.htm[/url] @landwomble - great to hear that you are enjoying your instruments. The 'chip' on the back of the acoustic bass is probably the 'D' stamp, is it not? EDIT: Left handed Les Paul still there. I'm so used to all Les Pauls disappearing as fast as, that it's a real novelty seeing this sitting there for minutes. And, I don't know what time this went up this morning, it could have been there longer.

Sometimes it takes a couple of attempts to get what you want. I haven't seen Harley Benton doing a bass VI style bass. There is the [url=http://thebassgallery.com/special-offers/rjt-60-b-bass.html]Revelation bass VI[/url] which is a bit cheaper than the Squier and also appears to have a longer scale length. There are some Harley Benton traditional six string basses, but I don't remember seeing any deko examples of them being sold. At least for a long while.

[quote name='Coldflows' timestamp='1432333144' post='2780684'] Just managed to order a couple of guitars for £30/delivered so I'm hoping next time I'll find a bass. Would be interested in the program if you do decide to make it available. [/quote] What models did you get? There were a couple of dekos this morning, but nothing that stands out as interesting and no basses that I noticed. (I"m not online all the time, it just seems like it ). There's still a cheap classical guitar available. http://www.thomann.de/gb/startone_cg_851_4_4_deko.htm

There's a b-stock online for £99. But, Gear4Music B-stock items tend to be quite damaged. This one has a loose pickup. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SubZero-Detroit-Semi-Acoustic-Bass-Guitar-Sunburst-FAULTY-RRP-179-99-/351397982289?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51d0f3b051

It does look quite a bit like the star bass. I might just be being fussy, but to me the star bass and Eastwood Classic 4 look 'right' to, me, but the Gear4Music one just doesn't quite look right. Particularly when the Warwick has this finish:

I like seeing new affordable basses. But, there's something about this one that doesn't quite look right to me. What do others think? [url="http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/SubZero-Detroit-Semi-Acoustic-Bass-Sunburst/TVG"]http://www.gear4musi...ss-Sunburst/TVG[/url] Not nearly as nice looking as the Eastwood Classic 4, IMHO.

Congratulations and HNDBD (Happy new deko bass day). Both of my dekos had truss rods that were working perfectly and easy to use. [quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1432295097' post='2780101'] When I first read that line, I thought for a minute that you'd written a program to come up with explanations for your wife! That would probably be quite popular on here. [/quote] I did once write an 'artificial intelligence' program that students could use to ask advice on whether they could have extensions for their coursework. The technique was quite simple, it asked them to enter their reasons for an extension, it then showed a progress bar for about ten seconds, and then told them that the answer was 'no'. Perhaps I could write something similar for buying basses. It could have all sorts of input boxes and areas for information pro and con buying a new bass, show a progress bar for a while, and then report that yes, it is reasonable to buy a bass.

[quote name='landwomble' timestamp='1432283751' post='2779936'] Is anyone using any software to monitor that page for changes? I did try setting up an alert with a free web service but it didn't appear to work. My shorty P bass and 5 string acoustic attempted delivery this morning - bloody quick! The van is coming back this afternoon so I have a few hours to think up an explanation for my wife... :-) [/quote] I wrote my own program to do so. There are seeming issues with their pages, and I have put in some ad-hoc code to detect and recover from requests to Thomann getting lost, and occasionally the program gets thoroughly stuck and turns pink to let me know, whereupon I stop the program and start it again. Apologies to long term readers for repeating things from many pages ago, but when it spots dekos, it announces so through the built-in mac speech synthesiser, and automatically loads the deko page into my browser. I haven't specifically offered the program to anyone, nor has anyone asked me for a copy, but I see no reason why we couldn't distribute it around the users of this thread. I'll leave that open for discussion first as there have been comments on this thread that it was wished that dekos had been kept more secret than they are (if that's possible?), and perhaps some would opine that assistive deko-finding programs shouldn't be distributed.

Did anyone see all the dekos that went by this morning at 8am? My computer was on overnight (a mistake, actually), and picked up dekos going up at 2:58am! They then all sold at 5:58am, but I suspect that my computer powered down or something, and that's when it came back on again. (Except that I was asleep then, so ?????) Hopefully it's not annoying for me to mention them, but there was a good selection 50s P-Bass 1975 Jazz Bass ES335 Copy Guitar Rosewood TE-70 Telecaster guitar and a standard round back acoustic guitar.

Given the size of the city and the shops in it, I think that Leicester shops do a reasonable job of supplying bassists. Can't compare to the specialist shops in Brum, but Leicester is a smaller place. I'm not sure how many bass amps there are in the shops though.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1432164127' post='2778859'] These are MIJ as far as I know. Very uncommon basses - the 2-pickup version came up on Gumtree locally about 5 years back for really, really stupid cheap money, and I tried to dig up some info. Best I could do at the time was a catalogue on Tokai Register: [url="http://www.tokairegistry.com/images/catalogs/tokai_85-86_electric_p11.jpg"]http://www.tokairegi...lectric_p11.jpg[/url] I think the Gumtree bass is an LBX60, rather than a 32" scale MBX. Anyway £115 does seem appealingly cheap - I'd definitely go & have a look at it. J. [/quote] Thanks. I must admit that I am tempted, but my thought was how many Japanese four string fretted basses do I need? Compared to you and others, my set of two of them is a woefully small number, but my gut feeling is saying that I don't want to give up my swim technique lesson this evening to go and have a look at it. And if it's still there on Friday or the weekend... This is one of those situations where I was hoping that someone else would want it, and go and grab it, meaning that my post has contributed to the greater good of the forum. I have personal budget for spending on myself, and if I just don't spend it, it builds up. Then it might get to the point where I have enough to guilt-free buy an Ibanez artist 77 or 78 model, if one comes up at their normal prices. The price of the Tokai is probably less than a third, but more than a quarter, of what the artists used to sell for when they turned up. (Haven't seen one for yonks). I wonder if Kirby Muxloe is far enough outside Leicester that like Ibstock it appears to be a bad place to sell Japanese basses collection only (I presume that gumtree functions like eBay collection only in terms of attracting buyers). I'm going to leave it for a few days, and might decide to see if it's still for sale when I have more time (e.g. weekend). If it sells before then, then it's gone. Apologies for not being more enthusiastic, but I can't buy every bargain.

@KB - That Bass Maniac bass looks very nice. How is it? This mid-80s Tokai MBX45 bass is on gumtree, and is located not too many miles from me. I don't know the model, how are these? Are they Japanese made, or perhaps Korean? http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/bass-guitar-tokai-mbx-45/1117109763 £115 doesn't sound that expensive to me. But I don't know what these are worth.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1432067657' post='2777907'] And when does he expect this bid? [/quote] If anyone ever wants to believe that human beings have retained their optimism, a quick look at ebay will confirm this for them. I'd guess he's expecting a huge bidding war any day now.

[quote name='landwomble' timestamp='1432076744' post='2778015'] It's there now on mobile.... Treat yo self! [/quote] I haven't seen that before. I was guessing that the mobile site would still be showing it even though it was sold out. But, there it is: [url="https://m.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_jb_75_na_vintage_serie_deko.htm?o=2&ref=mrl_a_2&search=1432077716"]https://m.thomann.de...arch=1432077716[/url] It says 'sold out' on the link some posts further up, however.

Back from the gym and the 70s Jazz is gone. All that's left is a short scale strat. Not that I would be likely to buy the 70s Jazz right now, but it would have at least put some interesting temptation on the table. Anyone get one?

My fretless bass was similar when I received it. My PJ was the opposite, way too much relief.

Looking forward to hearing what they're like.

In hindsight, maybe the 'order confirmed' is the point of no return. I'm trying to remember how it went for me. Certainly I have received everything I've ever ordered, but I've only mentally thought that I've got it when it's been dispatched. But, I can't remember if anyone ever didn't receive their instrument once they'd received the 'order confirmed' email.

[quote name='Huge Hands' timestamp='1432040019' post='2777453'] Ha ha, I just had a go at ordering the 5 string acoustic too before my browser updated with your message. I got a confirmation too - unless there's more than one I guess I'll be disappointed! [/quote] Quite often there is more than one. If I remember correctly, it's the dispatched email that confirms that you're getting the item. I think the confirmation of order email can sometimes be rescinded.

[quote name='landwomble' timestamp='1431991918' post='2777140'] Appreciate I'm taking a punt here but is there any reason to think that I won't receive what I've ordered, or do you have some negative experience? [/quote] Some people order a bass, but then receive an email saying that Thomann are out of stock. These are factory second basses, sold as 'decoration only, not for playing.' The majority of them are playable with no major flaws. Occasionally one will have some major problems. The worst was a ukulele bass with a broken trussrod. Another P bass (if I remember correctly) arrived with non-functioning electronics. In that case, the purchaser (apologies for not going back through the thread and working out who it was) decided to upgrade the electronics, rather than fix them. So that we didn't learn what was wrong in that case. If you get an instrument that you don't like, you can still return it under the consumer contracts regulations. If you think you might want to do that, please look up how to return things under the CCR, and what you need to do in order to do so. @Coldflows - the basses appear to be solid bodies. Some of the guitars that were taken to bits over on thefretboard (thanks Andy for recommending that thread) had more ... interesting construction under the finish. E.g. solid body but a wood grain sticker over a thin MDF top. EDIT: Shorty and LH Progressive bass gone. Black 5 string acoustic still available.

Just past 11pm seems a good time to be watching for Dekos. Occasionally in the morning at about 8am too, but 11pm seems the best time to be waiting ready to pounce.

[quote name='landwomble' timestamp='1431989735' post='2777123'] I've just bagged the shorty and the acoustic 5 string... Let's see. I'm hoping the shorty will be good for terming my daughter bass guitar! [/quote] Good luck on getting the instruments, and for them being in good usable nick when you get them. You might want to consider turning the PB-Shorty into a PJ-Shorty: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/253875-turning-a-harley-benton-pb-shorty-into-a-jb-shorty/"]http://basschat.co.u...to-a-jb-shorty/[/url] I was wondering if anyone else was awake. (I'm watching the entire series of Z Nation on Netflix, so am awake).