NikNik

So, every now and then I have a look at evilbay for a Hofner HS-185 bass, the first bass I ever owned. Tonight, for the first time in a while, two pop up, both modded. Hofner 1 Hofner 2 Thought they were from the same seller but not so. Oh, well, keep looking...

Bit pricey, no?

Have just viewed it on a laptop browser and it displays differently to that of a mobile one. The option is right at the top.

Is this a new thing? I don't recall seeing this before.

Whilst not bass-related, I spotted this ebay auction this morning for a Chinese-made Les Paul. The price states £190.74.....but the default option for this auction appears further down and states that price is for the case only! If, in your excitement, you hit the BIN, imagine your surprise three weeks later on receiving an empty case! Caveat Emptor, and all that, of course. I put the link into another browser to see if anything changed but case is the default option. Description says nothing about drawing buyers' attention to the options. Shonky movers. Les Paul Auction

In my early days they quickly became friends. After some time, some still were. Others became long-term acquaintances. One or two became enemies; several were to avoided forever.

And could it be just a matter of time before we start seeing this?

Epi Tobias

'...they make a note the instant you lay a fingertip on them however lightly you touch.' Imagine the intonation...

And I forgot - he's gone back to using that anachronistic Metric term 'Milimicrobe'. He hasn't used that for quite some time!

Seriously, WTF is going on with the tuners? I didn't catch it the first time but on looking again I saw that he's been hacking them. This is going beyond bodging and into the realm of bastardisation......for the sake of it! The nut is the usual MDP mess. Someone said that he can't do a set-up and this is patently obvious when looking at that nut with the D and G slots at ridiculously low cuts. That thing will be a nightmare to play. 'S' for special? Indeed.

Jesus H Christ!

That's exactly what he did on 'Continuum'.

Nice one. From now on, no expedited shipping. Not unless the buyer wants to pay for the upcharge as well as the freight cost and insurance!

A novel approach to fanned frets.

'..braille spots..' - this guy just gets better!

Two weeks back I used ParcelHero to choose a shipment of a bass to Portugal. I chose a 48hr service using FedEx. The bass was picked up on the alloted afternoon and 48hrs later, on the Thursday, was tracked to central France, where there is an international hub. The bass stayed there until the next Tuesday, where it thankfully reappeared on the tracking radar. I subsequently discovered that the Friday and Monday were holidays in France for All Saints' Day. The bass finally arrived in Portugal to the recipient a full week after expected delivery. When I approached ParcelHero about recompense I was not surprised to be told I'd get nothing back but I was surprised to be told that I should have bought 'delivery insurance'! So, what's the point of paying extra money for expedited shipping when it's not going to be open to some form of recompense when the item arrives a week later than expected? A similar approach to FedEx directly has been ignored.

Back in the '00s when I was a tad in debt to my bank the fkrs would 'phone me up on the landline and ask to speak to me. I'd say 'I'll see if he's in' and then place the handset next to a PC speaker in the other room and play a loop of a donkey eee-awwing and snorting and just walk away. I got immense enjoyment out of that. They eventually stopped calling me and wrote to me, just as I had originally asked them to do.

I recall an interview he gave for the magazine 'International Musician' back around '76/'77 in which he stated he used Roto RS66 but preferred them dead! He also made a comment about rubbing fresh replacements in tomato ketchup to deaden them but I wasn't sure if he was being serious or having a laugh.

Shipped a bass abroad recently on 48hr delivery via FedEx. Took 9 days. Told that I should have bought late delivery insurance.

I know that one. It's true. His Musical Director instigated it.

Fair enough. Tried Warmoth? You can 'build' your own neck. Of course, you'd need to get a body with the neck pocket routed out for it but these items are in no way as prohibitively expensive as they used to be.

That is debatable. He operates power tools and rides a motorbike with a side-car. However, he is driven by a desire to leave his mark on gear he buys and sells on. There's nothing wrong with that; I wholeheartedly applaud people who wish to do so! But MDP has been in the bodge game for at least six years and he has not progressed; if anything, he's regressed, if that was ever possible. The recent 'PCGC' pish that he's writing on headstocks in Sharpie and Biro could indicate someone who is not the full shilling but when one reads his snake-oil nonsense, you must come to the conclusion that he knows exactly what he's doing! He was on here earlier on. Why does he not step forward?

Huge Hands!

Beedster....he's been told to take up instruction on woodwork/guitar repairs on other fora but he hasn't. That much is clear in his handiwork. I can see your point about these recurring threads but they recur for a reason. And until he either goes and learns how to repair guitars in even a semi-professional manner, he deserves to be called out. That, Beeds, is not bullying.