Bassassin

There's a guy on the Rickenfakers FB page who does very good custom trcs with any design or text you want. Sure he'd happily do a Shafty one. Nice bass btw, these were very good quality.

Wasn't the T-Bird a custom order through A. N.Other forum? They got a certain number of member to commit to a purchase so Bach got them built, as far as I remember. I'd be very confident Bachs aren't made in the Czech Republic but from what I've read the quality is very good indeed, considering the price. Their range isn't quite as exotic as it used to be, but glad they still do the RB - one of the few modern-day Fakers I have GAS for, for the reasons Meddle states.

Either ply or veneered butcher-block - I've seen both types on Columbuses. I did have a Cimar Jazz 10 or so years ago (which is one reason I know this isn't one!) and it was ply. [sharedmedia=core:attachments:74442]

I have this: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Gordy%20Blueshift%20DoubleNeck/gordy02_zps4dzlqpiz.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Gordy%20Blueshift%20DoubleNeck/gordy01_zpszuvp8til.jpg.html"][/url] Which is a Gordy Blueshift Custom, from 1985, bit more info [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/266670-twin-necks/page__view__findpost__p__2831705"]here[/url]. The band I was in at the time is on indefinite hiatus, so in a sense it's surplus to requirements now (if it was ever needed, really!) - but the fretless neck's the nicest I've played, and the bass is a genuine one-off. Or should that be "two-off"?

Oh right, it's this one again. It's worth considering that the descriptions attached to items listed on Ebay might occasionally turn out to be a pack of lies.

99.9% it was a Columbus before it was refinished & had its logo sanded off. Columbus was an incredibly common UK brand but Cimar is very uncommon. Seller seems to be making stuff up in order to pretend it's got an Ibanez connection. Which it hasn't and wouldn't really, even if it was a Cimar. Which it's not.

Very nice - some lovely atmospheric, melodic playing there. Thankfully free of any of the frenetic clattering or anaemic blooping that typifies the average bass solo!

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1482262034' post='3199076'] I suppose it's partly my fault as I was only an occasional buyer of 'Prog' magazine [/quote] Likewise. Plus I stopped buying it altogether after they got in touch with my band & offered us a slot on the cover CD. Only after we excitedly clamoured "yes please!" did they mention the £1000 it would cost. Unsurprisingly, we declined and I don't feel guilty about that - but it's a damn shame this has happened.

I doubt you'll find a more miserable song than this: [media]http://youtu.be/SzaflC73iTk[/media] Even more miserable these days than when Peter Steele wrote it, too. I guess it's what he would have wanted.

Very nice, always liked these. Makes me wonder about prices of Yamahas from that era & actual differences in the model range. I had a BB400S which, apart from being fretless, lacking a scratchplate and being a few years later (83, I think it was) looked pretty much identical, build & components-wise. These sell for about £150 - £180, on a good day & don't appear to be much less scarce. Wonder why there's such a massive difference in value?

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1481466282' post='3192454'] I feel that those who shout loudly about how crap vinyl has always sounded have only ever heard a 20s hand-cranked gramophone with hawthorn needle and large horn, or at best a Dansette! Once you've experienced a really good vinyl system you'll know what all the fuss is about... Now I'm off to oil my beard and sculpt my man-bun. [/quote] In fairness I'm sure an eye-wateringly expensive audiophile setup playing high-end pressings would doubtless sound immeasurably better than the cheapo Amstrad separates system I deafened myself with Motorhead on when I was 18. But the bottom line is, no matter how superlative your system might be, you are listening to the sound of a pin being dragged along a lumpy plastic trench. There's only so much you can do. Now you mind how you go on that fixie. Not good for the knees.

Maybe, but I suspect it'll just end up hung on some Shoreditch hipster's wall.

[quote name='jimdolore' timestamp='1481310052' post='3191468'] I know this is an older post, but I just stumbled upon this. I still have my first bass, which I bought in 1991 and it's a white Fenix by Young Chang Jazz Bass. I just checked the serial number and it is E737650! Who knows how long it had been sitting at the store before I bought it new, but I'm guessing it was made in '90 or '91. [/quote] Dating these things is a bit unclear. According to some sources the serials are the same as MIK Squiers that were made in the Young-Chang factory. YC apparently lost the Squier contract because they were selling identical guitars off the same production runs under the Fenix brand. Doubt Fender were that keen on the name, either.

It's a lovely-looking bass and that's woodgrain, not a blemish or imperfection. I really like that finish, btw.

Agree 100% with BRX's post. Had a massive vinyl collection as a yoof (the alternative was cassette) but when I finally got a CD player & decent system in the mid 80s it was a revelation. I did miss the 12" sleeve artwork & presentation, and coloured vinyl was fun, perhaps for about an hour or so in 1979 - but I'm not a big wearer of rose-tinted specs. Vinyl was always crude & crap - now it's trendy hipster crap.

Performance-enhancing drugs?

That Jazz looks like a bitsa made using a [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Half-Paddle-Maple-Rose-Fretless-4-string-Bass-Guitar-Neck-NK26-/131919547486"]blank headstock neck[/url] & that's presumably the best the builder could manage. Now this, on the other hand, is what you call a fugly headstock: And this isn't far behind:

Bloody hell. Someone dragged that piece of scrap out of the cut & flogged it for £160. And I though[i] I[/i] was a gyppo...

Unfortunately I think they are within their rights to decide that the instrument is no longer available for sale & can refuse to honour a purchase on that basis. Really hope they don't, as £629 would be a awesome deal.

Beautiful example, Andy.

One of these had an Ebay residencey for a few months a year or two ago, same sort of price & the seller making all sorts of unverified claims about its provenance and wonderfulness. It got discussed right here commencing [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/7473-japcrap-spotting/page__view__findpost__p__2536091"]with this post[/url]. Interestingly the Ebay link, complete with pics, is still working: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Takeharu-Bass-Guitar-MATSUMOKU-Made-in-Japan-Very-Rare-model-/121417792460"]http://www.ebay.co.u...l-/121417792460[/url] It's quite a cool-looking bass but apart from the slightly unusual body it's all a bit generic, tbh. It's a set-neck rather than neck-through, which you occasionaly see on MIJ instruments from this era.

Pretty sure you could achieve that effect by pouring acetone over a £5 black plate. If you really wanted to.

[quote name='josie' timestamp='1480383285' post='3183973'] Just back from seeing Marillion at the Manchester Academy. Awesome. New material, still proper classic prog rock, complete with strange complex visuals - rare to see live these days. Not my most favourite genre of music, but well done, live, in a room packed with hardcore fans it's one heck of an experience. [/quote] They're a band I've only quite recently rediscovered after being a slightly reluctant fan during the Fish era - had a Scottish girlfriend (& now ex-wife) at that point & she was massively into them, but dropped them like a stone after the big guy left. Wasn't really the sort of thing I was into at the time so never paid too much attention afterwards. However, saw them again 4 or 5 years ago and was blown away, particularly by Hogarth who's got to be one of the most charismatic, captivating & expressive frontmen I've ever seen. It's hard not to feel I missed out on so much of their career over the previous 25-odd years, but their new material is breathtakingly good. Saw them in Glasgow last Wednesday and they were on fire. Superb band.

Can I assume covers recorded 10 and 15 years ago won't be eligible? Even if they'd be exactly the same if we'd recorded them yesterday?

I've seen a lot of variations on this thing, would not want to point to any particular maker but I don't think it's a Teisco. These were around throughout the 70s and the same design was even produced in Korea in the late 70s/early 80s. From some of the details (the machined aluminium knobs, for example) I'd say this was early 70s or perhaps even late 60s. The brand name doesn't give any real clue about it, during the Japanese guitar-making boom from the mid 60s onward, there were hundreds of different workshops producing instruments for export, many of them very short-lived and long since forgotten. Distributors would badge instruments to customers' requirements, meaning the same instruments would be sold across the world with any number of different brand names. It appears to be near-identical to the one pictured in [url="http://www.matsumoku.org/models/aria/catalogs/75_aria/75_aria_catalog_pg1.jpg.html"]this early 70s Aria catalogue[/url]. However that doesn't mean it's an Aria, and I very seriously doubt that it was anything at all to do with Matsumoku.