Bassassin

Scroll down to basses, links to big pics: https://www.ibanez.com/usa/news/detail/20181217190604.html But "affordable"? https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/ibanez-premium-afr-4-affirma-flamed-maple-top-natural-flat?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw-u0_srM3wIV7bztCh0Y0QmWEAYYASABEgJs-fD_BwE Also @alembic1989 sadly looks like there's no fretless version.

Speaking as a man (of sorts), I can say with confidence that I am far, far better than any, and I mean ANY woman, at urinating whilst standing up. And... er... that's it.

You might want to specify it's for string-through. The similar but larger rings around your tuner posts are also called ferrules.

Not overrated, but definitely overpriced. New ones (in fact, all of them post '84, I think) come with all the John Hall baggage and for that reason I don't think I'll ever own one. Big fan of the 70s MIJ copies - many of them, through use of modern finishes, components and adhesives improve upon their genuine 70s contemporaries and eliminate many of the flaws of older Ricks, for a fraction of the price. And quadruple the cool, IMO.

I was actually quite impressed by the control panels. I think it must take a lot of skill and patience, when lacking the correct tools, to be able to chew the plastic into a suitable shape.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Custom-built-electric-bass-guitar/264100454606 You could buy an intact example of this mid-80s plywood cheapo for about £60, and saw the horns into ugly shapes yourself - but why go to all that effort when this generous Ebayer has done all the work for you?

Wonder if that's the hit single paradox. Kayleigh, Lavender etc turned them into a chart act, despite the songs being part of a concept album - which was a pretty much unthinkable idea in 1985. I suppose though that hit singles became an expectation from the label/management and that affected the way they wrote subsequently. Fish-era Marillion was a band that (at the time) I liked despite thinking I probably shouldn't - them being as old-school prog as they were circa Script. My then-girlfriend was a massive fan & I saw them on the Fugazi tour at the Hammy O, front row. Absolutely blew me away, made me a fan in the space of a few minutes. Saw them again on the next tour when they played what - at the time - was unreleased new material, which Fish introduced as "a track from our next album - this one's called 'Side One'". That being half of Misplaced Childhood. I had a live recording from the radio of one of those shows, so was familiar with the early versions of the new songs for a long time before the album was finally released. The finished versions were insipid compared to the way they'd been played six months or so earlier, and quite different in many respects - the lyrics & vocal melody to Kayleigh were completely changed, and I remember Heart Of Lothian having some lovely vocal harmonies (from bassist Pete Trewavas) which were absent from the finished version. Never liked the album, and after the rather dreadful follow-up, Clutching At Straws, I really lost any interest in them. Which was a shame - because 25-odd years later, in a somewhat different life, I rediscovered Hogarth-era Marillion. Slowly working my way through the back-catalogue in (mostly) reverse order and finding them rather delightful! I may have rambled a little, if so I apologise, but it's Christmas and there is alcohol present.

Dead Leper were never as good, or rather, never any good - after the Getcha Rocks Off EP.

This. That era (Permanent Waves in particular) is the point where they stopped being a mishmash of plagiarised influences and defined their own sound, to my ears. Never been one for picking "best" or even "favourite" tracks but if I wanted to play a track that represented Rush to someone who didn't know them, it would be Free Will from PW. Hits every defining Rush feature, for me. Re: the article itself - a bit of a shame that even after Rush being validated by an outrageously successful 40-year career, the Grauniad writer can't get past the sneery put-downs - "widdly-woo music" and the inevitable implication that musicianship & technically complex music are intrinsically valueless. Seems some dismal & dated music hack tropes are destined to never go away...

If I bought a car where someone had covered the Lada badge with a bit of tape and scribbled "Porsche" on it, then yes, I would - quite rightly - feel like a complete tw@t, and deserve to have people pointing and laughing! The fakery of this bass is akin to that. It has features that have never been present on any Fender, ever, but are common on the majority of Japanese copies from the 70s. It's not like the buyer will get a dreadful shock & surprise when it turns up.

You and your faith in human nature! A lot more realistically, it's someone who thinks the seller doesn't know what they have, and they'll be getting a rare vintage Fender for a song. This buyer's under the impression they're ripping off the seller! You'd be including a significant proportion of the BC membership in that cohort, then! Seriously, if someone's too lazy to do an elementary Google search, then they will learn the hard way. And there are doubtless plenty more lazy mugs out there they can punt it on to, once they work it out.

I know - I contacted him myself and told him exactly what it was - and of course what it wasn't. However, the ad that resulted in the sale does not claim it to be something it's not. Heartless bah-humbugger I might be, but I can't feel anything resembling sympathy for someone who could be taken in by something as blatantly a knackered copy as this thing is. Research isn't hard, a simple Google search and some actual looking and comparing shouldn't be beyond most people!

Doesn't claim to be a Fender, though. If someone's that naive and doesn't do even the most rudimentary research, then IMO there's an argument that they deserve to be ripped off.

Yes - everything I've read says 30" scale.

I agree with 100% your points about all three bands - except IMO Opeth are always a delight live. I do like their last two albums (I'm progger at heart) but they'd benefit from a bit less restraint! Mastodon are the only band where I'd bought tickets to a gig, but felt so let down by the album they subsequently released (The Hunter, follow-up to Crack The Skye) that I didn't bother to go. The fact that I'd seen them twice before & got the impression they were lousy live didn't really help.

That's interesting - because Washburn was related to Daion - early MIJ ones, at least were made by Yamaki Gakki, who built high-end and original design Daions. FWIW in the early 80s my first proper bass was a B-20, which I now know 100% was a Yamaki build. Quest tends to be associated with Matsumoku - but it's true that the more research that's done into the 70s & 80s Japanese industry, the more such assumptions turn out to be wrong. Anyway - @Nibody - was the bass you're talking about an 80s oldie or more recent? If it's a current model that would rule out the Quest & other vintage pointy basses!

Definitely a hack-job Pervy. Would've been better looking if they'd left the lower horn intact. Someone's made a half-decent job of it, in fairness - biggest first-glance giveaway is the remnants of the departed headstock's scarf joint. Which might provide a clue as to why it became a candidate for the decap treatment...

It looks like a Korean version of a ubiquitous Japanese design from the late 60s or early 70s, inspired by Burns designs. These were probably originally made by Sakai Mokko (they turn up branded Sakai and often have the strip-ply neck construction commonly used by Sakai) but the same design seems to have been made by several factories throughout the 70s. I'm saying it's MIK based on the fact it has the Hofner staple copy pickup used mainly on Korean versions, and the assumption that if it had an MIJ stamp on the neckplate, @ChicoArts probably would have mentioned it! 90% of guitars with blank neckplates from this era are Korean, the rest are Kasugas & Moridairas & this is neither of them. Interested to know if there are any markings or stickers on the back. MIK guitars often have gold model number stickers, and circular inspection stickers. Should mention these - like most low/midrange cheapos from the era (which this is) turn up with millions of different names on the headstock, they're of passing interest if it's a known brand, but most names - such as Condor - are random importer/distributor brands, 99% of which are long gone now. Here's an early 2-pickup example, probably an MIJ Sakai build. Same basic design but different pickups, zero-fret, wheel-adjust truss rod, thumbrest positioned as a tug-bar, different hardware, etc etc.

I wonder if that depends on which Skids album is your reference point. I never liked Scared To Dance (too naive & basic-sounding) but got them properly them with Days In Europa & Absolute Game. To my ears The Crossing sounded like the natural follow-up to Absolute Game, & would suspect a lot of the music was written around the same time. Kind of agree about BC subsequently to that, Steeltown & The Seer lacked the cohesion & inventiveness of The Crossing, and by the time Peace In Our Time came out they were plainly being pushed to make music aimed squarely at US radio airplay.

Used RS66s for years, imo all the negative things about them are true - cheesegrater feel, they chew big divots in your frets, dead in a week. After I bought two consecutive sets with A-strings dead out of the packet, enough was enough. Strings of choice for me are Elixirs and have been for about 15 years now, and I always make sure I've got a few cheap 3-sets-for-a-tenner Ebay special packs lying around for emergencies. They're typically better than I remember Rotos being. Oh - and I hate that horrid red hairy crap they insist on wrapping around the ends.

Shillsville.

Great timing - going to be away until next week. I'm sure it'll be fine left in next door's bin!

I agree the way he treated his bandmates is pretty despicable but I can't help but be a bit impressed by how he managed to simulate an entire management/label/PR ecosystem, and convincing evidence of a fanbase & successful gig history. Maybe what's unique about Threatin is that using the web to do all this would be fairly inexpensive - I've known/known of a couple of bands who tried to play the system in somewhat underhanded ways, but broadly by chucking huge amounts of money around to see what would stick. One, in the early 80s, got picked up by a management company who thought a good way to launch a completely unknown band with no recorded material was to book the Hammersmith Odeon for their first gig & publicise the show with full-page ads in the big music papers of the day. I think about 20 people showed up. About 8 years back, a drummer mate got offered a US tour with a band, which he did. It wasn't quite a Threatin-level disaster, but he discovered that the bassist had received a massive compensation payment for an injury of some sort - and with that money financed the recording and manufacture of his entirely unknown band's album. He then decided the best way to publicise the album would be to (somehow) singlehandedly book a 15-odd date US tour, as well as TV & radio interviews & live appearances along the way. My pal, and a couple of guitarists got offered the gig as the original drummer & guitarists immediately jumped ship as soon as they realised that the whole thing was the bassist & his girlfriend/singer's vanity project. The gigs were all pretty much unattended, the TV appearances were local garden-shed cable TV stuff, they sold a grand total of zero CDs & t-shirts - and to add insult to injury managed to write-off the RV they hired for the tour before they got to the first show! The trip even involved stopping off at the Fodera factory in Brooklyn so the guy could pick up his new custom-order fretless!