Bassassin

I have Schaller 3Ds on several of my basses and they are excellent - beautifully made, easy to set up and great-looking. However I'd wonder if changing the bridge is really the best solution to the problem you describe, as it sounds like misalignment of the existing bridge might be the reason. Have you got any pics?

Interesting - and tbh looks like something you'd expect to pay a lot more than £125 for...

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1483354844' post='3206397'] I have to say, Christine and the Queens, the number they did with the dancing, was fascinating. Highlight of the show for me. [/quote] She was the only thing worth watching it for IMO - very talented lady. The rest was often pretty painful/cringeworthy. Particularly the re-imagining of I Got You Babe as a creepy incest song.

Leaving aside the whole marmite "relic" thing - this is what I don't get: It's a basic Fender Jazz copy. Why is it £1500?

It's a rebadged Kasuga Scorpion. Not sure what the background to the Pro Martin brand was but I've only seen the name on Kasuga original designs in the UK/EU,so I assume they used it as an export brand. Might be connected to the fact that CF Martin used Kasuga to build "entry level" acoustics in the early 70s, prior to the launch of the Sigma brand. Doubt it was "official", though... Oh, and £100's a silly bargain, these are beautifully made instruments. Chances are it's a defret, but even so, if it was local to me I'd be proper tempted.

If you go for an SR, buy a used one - for £250 you'll get an SR500 or SR600. Or two used SR300s. For reasons no-one's clear about (because if you get on with the skinny necks, they're great basses), used Soundgears really don't hold their value and there are always s/h bargains out there.

[quote name='Harryburke14' timestamp='1483277215' post='3205813'] I personally like the look of it. [/quote] Yours for £850 - what's stopping you?

Likewise. I've had 2 80s MIJ Squiers (an SQ and an A-serial) from similar types of ads. The "cheap old bass that's been in the loft for 20 years" syndrome.

Looks interesting, tuners look MIJ and the exposed earth wire to the bridge suggests (to my none-too informed eye) a specific vintage reissue. Worth a punt if you're local, imo. Also, it's a Squries! Makes a change from all these Squires, Suqires & Squizzes.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1483030868' post='3204302'] Yup. Just you. [/quote] OK. I'm fine with that.

Not seen those before - closer to the 4004 than what they do now.

These are very good - I had 2 MIJ SR800s (fretted & fretless) but for reaons unknown SRs do not hold their value - even high-end Japanese ones. If I remember I got about £220 for my fretless (near-mint & pretty uncommon) and swapped the fretted for another bass worth about that amount. So yes - over the odds, if it's on Ebay it won't sell for that amount, so it might be worth contacting the seller and seeing if he'll do a deal, possibly minus an amp I'm assuming you don't need! FWIW a 1992 Fujigen-built SR (looks like an SR800) was listed recently at £200 - attracted no bids. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ibanez-soundgear-bass-Guitar-/272491517207"]http://www.ebay.co.u...r-/272491517207[/url]

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1482934446' post='3203605'] Don't be daft Jon. Now a year or so later they are trying to get £340 for it. [/quote] I didn't imagine it would although it would be err, interesting to know that there really were people out there willing to cough that much. Although thinking about it, that Migma would look [i]awesome[/i] on the wall of some hipster pad in Shoreditch... I can't see "Migma" without reading "Smegma". Just me?

They also do a R*ck*nb*ck*r 4004-ish 5-string, which I'm confident is also not available from Fender/Squier. Or Rickenbacker. Or anyone else in the world. I do quite like the fact their Ibanez SR-influenced bass has the same reversed P pickup that the early MIJ SRs had. FWIW Ibanez SRs "borrowed" fairly heavily from Tune's Bass Maniacs & Nanyo's Bass Collections, amongst others, so it's arguable what exactly the Bach could be considered a copy of...

Fenix was the brand name of Korean manufacturer Young-Chang, which was the factory which took over the Squier contract when it moved from Fujigen in Japan. Most early Fenixes were basically hot-rodded, rebranded versions of the Squiers that Young-Chang was building. Inevitably, Fender took a rather dim view of this business model (and of the Fenix name itself, apparently) & promptly took their contract elsewhere. There are suggestions that lawsuits may have been involved, and the fact that Fenix headstock shapes rapidly became a whole lot less Fender-y certainly does imply concerns over legality. Fenixes do have a reputation for good quality (as do Young-Chang Squiers) and there are some gorgeous Strat variations out there. Sadly the basses were less exotic but still very well-made. I have a Fenix Strat copy, and in all honesty it p!sses all over the E-serial MIJ Squier Strat I also have.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1482871385' post='3203264'] Perhaps, but I saw a Futurama up at £600 not so long back. I put mine in the skip, they really were that sh*te. [/quote] Did it [i]sell[/i] at £600, though?

Interesting. Definitely a Faker?

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1482664705' post='3202133'] My ears pricked up when I heard "The Queen is missing..." Now that would have been a story! [/quote] I wouldn't be too certain - can't help thinking news like that might well be held back if it happened at Christmas. Now if I was a betting man...

Interesting and very strange-looking, certainly. But £850 for what is by any measure cheapo communist-era East German tat? Contender for the most spectacularly ambitious overpricing yet seen on Ebay, surely!

Don't have any nagging GAS at all really - but I just know something will turn up & I'll end up pulling the trigger. If I have any New Year Resolutions, one will have to be to sell more basses than I buy next year!

They are, yes.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1482540158' post='3201413'] Doing a bit of googling, it looks like there was some legal interaction between Gibson and JHS/Vintage last year over their SG copies. I haven't waded through the details of it all, and it doesn't look like Gibson actually won, but I can see how that might encourage smaller companies to reconsider whether doing Gibson copies was really worth the bother. [/quote] That's a fair point - thinking aout it, many of the "post-lawsuit" era MIJ LP derivatives tweaked the body styling, thinking about the likes of the Aria Pro PE series and Ibanez Performers. I think SGs are a bit more of a niche design than LPs, so the prospect of Gibson getting shirty might lead manufacturers to just drop those models, rather than have the hassle.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1482536306' post='3201389'] Have you ever considered building a body to take either neck to give a fretted or fretless neck? [/quote] No - I think it would be a shame to cannibalise a unique instrument like this - besides the fretless half's perfectly easy to play - all the time you're sitting down!

I was never a huge fan tbh, but Quo were the first "big" band I ever saw, with a bunch of my longhair school mates, at Wembley in 1980-ish. Also - and probably more importantly - stuff like Down Down & Paper Plane were the first songs I ever played outside of my bedroom, when I started jamming with other musicians. Sad day. RIP.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1482515165' post='3201259'] I recall they had some nice looking SG guitars a couple of years ago, but they're not doing them any more. Did Gibson have a word with them? I've noticed that several brands of SG and Les Paul copies have moved to slightly tweaked outlines in the past year or two, which makes me wonder if Henry J has borrowed a leaf from the John Hall playbook... [/quote] I would have thought it was way too late for that. Gibson designs have been freely copied for so long that if it ever was a registered trademark (which I doubt) it would have long since slipped into the public domain. The whole deal with so-called "lawsuit" copies in the 70s revolved around Gibson's then parent company challenging the use of the "open book" headstock - and nothing else, which suggests they never claimed ownership of the body designs anyway. They didn't get far challenging PRS over their singlecut, if I recall.