Bassassin

Toss-up between Tool & Opeth. Neither really fit my playing style, but phenomenal music & stupendously good drummers. Metallica for the $$$$ is tempting but I'd end up slapping Lars twice. Once for being a rubbish drummer & once for being Lars... Jon.

Oh gawd, that's all I need - more SR GAS. It's [i]gorgeous[/i], ain't it? Jon.

I've had a few, I suppose! Most recently I swapped a bitsa 70s MIJ Jazz copy (which owed me about £40 and some elbow-grease) for a 1983 Aria SB Elite Black & Gold I. The Aria's had a hard life, and is in need of some tlc & some minor repairs - but considering the srp of the recent [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/aria-limited-edition-cliff-burton-signature-sb-black-and-gold-reproduction/99253"]Cliff Burton sig reissue[/url], I think I didn't do too bad... Probably my no.1 bargain would have to be my £60 CSL Jazz - which I bought from a local pawn shop purely to flip for a few bob profit - until I played the thing. Simply the nicest Jazz - no, the nicest [i]bass[/i] - I have ever played, and the one I'd grab first if the house was on fire. It's been pimped mercilessly in the 10 or so years I've had it, so in its current form has cost a little bit more than 60 quid, but it's a complete joy. Will have to sort out decent pics of it - this doesn't do it justice: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:66973] Jon.

I never got a t-shirt! Go on, send us one - don't mind doing some free promo! J.

I'd happily try it as a freebie, but I've used T-Cut on literally dozens of renovations. I admit this is a fairly extreme example but: Before T-Cut - [sharedmedia=core:attachments:45519] After T-Cut - [sharedmedia=core:attachments:48413] The lacquer underneath had been seriously roughened with coarse abrasive. A few hours' worth of elbow grease & T-Cut brought it back nicely, the scratchplate shone up well too - couldn't do much about the warping though!. So I'm genuinely interested, how does the Eterna-Shine stuff differ? J.

Couldn't they just say "robbed the wrong shipping container?" Jon.

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1436594194' post='2819351'] It's not though [/quote] In what way? J.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1436612384' post='2819494'] [url="http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/columbus-japanese-bass-guitar/1124358935"]http://www.gumtree.c...itar/1124358935[/url] I've no idea how good these are. Looks a bit unloved. [/quote] Not £100 good, that one. However the Schaller 3D tailpiece is rare as **** and probably an easy fifty quid's worth. Jon.

Like T-Cut, only £24.

And now £155! [url="http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/kimbara-bass-guitar-4-strings-in-exelent-condition-must-be-see-/1124405106"]http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/kimbara-bass-guitar-4-strings-in-exelent-condition-must-be-see-/1124405106[/url] J.

I remember trying one of these amps at the old NEC Music Live show a while back. It looked like it might be a cool little thing to practice with - right up until I plugged in. Tinny, gutless & distorted at barely-audible volume... Maybe If I'd persisted I would have been won over by the drum box & its handful of 1970s home-organ presets - and of course that most indispensible of bass effects, reverb. J.

I'm in a band with a spectacularly good drummer - in fact the rest of us quietly agree he's probably the most gifted musician any of us have ever known. Not that we'd tell him though. And that's also the reason we put up with the fact he's pretty much never available. Jon.

Bass has presumably had the electronics ripped out ("converted to passive", he says) so I'd say it's £100 for the bass, £100 for the silly little amp. I wouldn't want the amp. Jon.

[quote name='wotsy' timestamp='1436477609' post='2818574'] Good looking Kimbara bass: [url="http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/kimbara-bass-guitar-4-strings-in-exelent-condition-must-be-see-/1124405106"]http://www.gumtree.c...see-/1124405106[/url] [/quote] That's rather lovely - and rather rare. Top-end, replica-standard Matsumoku build from the late 70s, this'll be basically the same as the Aria Pro branded version: [url="http://www.matsumoku.org/models/ariaproii/catalogs/77_lclsst/77_lc-ls-st_pg7.jpg.html"]http://www.matsumoku...st_pg7.jpg.html[/url] £175 sounds like a bit of a steal for this. J.

For ther benefit of anyone who's not seen a P copy like this before, it's a 1976 (according to pickup code) Hohner, made in Japan by Moridaira. The 8-pole pickup is a Maxon, and is single-coil despite the double rows of poles. I'm really pleased that the problem's turned out to be the pots, because working examples of these pickups are really hard to find these days. As I type this, I'm looking at two dead ones out of a 1972 Jazz copy, which are sitting on my desk being useless! Jon.

[quote name='ben4343' timestamp='1436431235' post='2817997'] I got a deko TB70 a couple of months ago, and it is a [i]stonking [/i]guitar. I think you'll be very pleased with yours when it arrives. [/quote] I [i]almost[/i] caved in & bought a Deko T-Bird back then. Good sense took over, but as a result I check this thread every day, just in case... Never had a T-Bird. That's a good enough excuse, right? Jon.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1436139237' post='2815353'] I'm interested in the pickup combo, but oh, the colours... Tort just does not go with that body, IMO. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-SPEAR-FLEXTOOL-BASS-GUITAR-WITH-3-PICKUPS-IN-JAMAICA-GREEN-SUNBURST-WOW-/111711340499?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1a0283c7d3"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item1a0283c7d3[/url] [/quote] There was a 70s Rick copy available in that same green/yellow burst. It's affectionately known as "SnotGlo". Jon.

Zero-frets make absolute sense regading open-string height. I've had to adjust the nut on pretty much ever bass & guitar I've owned. Apart from those with zero-frets. The other positive is that open strings resonate on the same material as fretted notes, meaning there's no tonal difference - which is likely when the open string's terminating at a bit of plastic or dead animal! Adjustable nuts are a great idea - albeit irrelevant witha zero-fret. Thomann do very affordable alternatives to the Just-A-Nut: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...er_nut_bass.htm[/url] Jon.

Made in Japan by Moridaira, early to mid-70s - there were no proper copies made in the 60s. I saw this listed when the seller had it up for £250, claiming it was US-made or some such tripe. You got this for a decent price and hopefully it's a good example - apart from the hideous pup cover, it looks original and in good order for its age. Moridaira copies from this era are pretty uncommon but I'd say the truss cover & pickup (not a standard P type) point to this being quite early - later MIJ copies were a little more authentic. This to me makes it more interesting & desireable, and I'd be interested to see a few more detailed pics when you get it. If the pickup turns out to be an 8-pole Maxon (very common on early 70s copies) it may well have a date code stamped underneath. The big black oversprays on the contours indicate that it's probably not solid wood. I think it's likely to be butcher-block - ie constructed from laminated blocks (usually mahogany) with a veneer front & back. This is extremely common on Fender copies from this era. Jon.

£5000 for a bess amplifyer? I have no idea what's going on with Ebay these days. Back in the old days you could pretty much be guaranteed to never need to pay more than £30 for a base gitar. Jon.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1435989305' post='2814152'] I had a fender clone with a date decode able sn. Made in 1990 so I disagrer [/quote] 'Kay - so how does the date code work? Got a link to the necessary info? As I said, that was just a bit of (mis)information I picked up somewhere, & I would expect it's not necessarily right - certainly not for recent basses anyway.

What's it a hybrid of? A Jazz & a really rubbish idea? And how are you supposed to play that bit of fingerboard that extends halfway up the body? You'd need facehugger fingers. Jon.

[quote name='KF2B' timestamp='1435956702' post='2814047'] Hi mate, thanks for the "vote". I asked the same in Talkbass and a guy there thinks it´s a APB-40. Darn if these Tokai´s are a hard to tell apart from each other... [/quote] If it's recent, chances are it is an APB40, but still the same bass. For some reason, Japanese manufacturers (Tokai's a Japanese brand, wherever they're made) almost always derive their model numbers from the list price in Yen - APB32 costs 32,000 Yen, APB40 will be 40,000 etc. It's not just Tokai who do this - Greco were using the same system at the beginning of the 70s, and still do. Odd!

Looking at the more recent catalogues on Tokai Register, your bass is very similar (or, identical as far as I can see!) to the APB32 model which appears in catalogues between 1995 & 2000: Regarding the date, I've read that Tokai's Fender clones don't use date-decodable S/Ns, although this doesn't seem very likely to me. I'm not really familiar enough with Tokais to have educated opinion on country of manufacture - but my MIJ Talbo reissue (from 2000-ish) doesn't state a country of manufacture anywhere, so the same may be the case for the Fender copies. So, mid/late 90s APB32, from where I'm sitting. Unless anyone else knows different... Jon.