Beedster

I agree, vague descriptions, deceptive camera angles, and false information. How for example does a body posses 'killer tone', I strongly suspect that he didn't build up a complete bass around a £20 piece of close-to-firewood junk just to check it's tonal qualities before dismantling and listing the body only for sale......

Agree with the previous reply, people aren't watching to buy, they're watching either out of a form or morbid curiosity or to justify selling their own tat at similar rates. Not only true of junk BTW, just the same with vintage Fenders and explains in part many of the high asking prices (they often don't sell for anything like the optimistic prices at which they're advertised, sellers either accept best offers or find a way of turning an eBay listing into a private sale, but the hight early price often sets the tone for subsequent negotiations)

Good combination (it's what I have on my Jazz) 👍 Best advice I can give is keep a close eye on this form, on eBay, and on Reverb and buy used, aim for Warmoth, Allparts, or Might Mite in that order. If you're buying new, Warmoth are always good but expensive and can't be bought new without importing from the US which adds duties/taxes Allparts are excellent necks 98% of the time but when bought from the UK distributor often come unfinished (risk of uneven frets etc) and without a nut, both of which add time and cost. Mighty Mite are good 80% of the time but if you get a 20%er it could be quite poor. Given you're budget - which is decent - the above's where I'd be looking

Might also be an idea to let us know what bass you have/what neck you need 👍

This is probably quite helpful 👍

The reasons why people might buy stuff are many, complex, and odd. Many sellers rely on the fact that there is a person out there who will buy the most worthless of tat, the seller’s just gotta have a lot of tat and a lot of patience 👍

Many thanks @Muppet, I'll have to investigate further 👍

Re the decision process, I think we’ve all learned from this that it’s not the album, it’s how you play it 👍

Thanks Dave, it's a funny thing, I initially chose Blonde On Blonde because because we had to start somewhere, we wanted to do something that was classic but a little off the beaten track. Despite early reservations, including my own, we came to love it. It's a funny thing, when you have to play the whole album, in recorded order, the potential for disagreement is significantly reduced. And we were a bit worried, the final song is Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands is very slow and in textbook terms is the worst song you could ever finish a set with (no encores if you're playing the album and only the album) but the vibe in the room was awesome as one by one, bass, then drums, them Hammond, dropped out leaving that beautiful guitar part soloed and then..... silence. Couldn't have ended better. Next album is, to say the least, a contrast Re video, we chose not to record, the whole thing for us is that it's a moment, we'll never do it again, so we don't want or need to analyse. We've done it, we move on. Lovely to see that around 50% of the room were recording so if we get anything nice - and in which the bass part is even vaguely competent - I'll post here. Thanks for your comments mate 👍

In truth my fave gig for many years, not the most competent or accomplished but extremely satisfying. First outing for BandKamp, a bunch of friends getting together to rehearse an iconic album for 2-3 months, and then gig it live once and once only before moving on to the next iconic album. First was yesterday when we did Dylan's Blonde on Blonde (tying it in with the Chalomet movie) at The Ballroom in Canterbury, which is a lovely venue. We were expecting an audience of about 10 but to our amazement had around 120. We played the set our way and had a ball doing so, and had people dancing; to Dylan! A few folks said the same thing afterwards; I don't really like Dylan but really like your set. Job done 👍 Hard to let the album go as over 3-months we've come to love it, but as we've all agreed, we're not in a relationship with it, we've simply had a brief flirtation. Time to move on

The possible it can do Jack 👍

Poorly done defret, poorly maintained neck overall, and not even a nut installed. Very little real vintage value, £500 would be optimistic. If it stays there long enough some f***ing idiot will have a beer or teo and buy it however 🤔

....but apart form that I'd say go for it 😆

To add my extra (small) thoughts to what I think are several pretty conclusive opinions above, here's some more reasons why you shouldn't defret 1. Fretted necks are forgiving on the wood. Wood moves over time and wood wears over time. Poor alignment or uneven surface of a board is generally masked by frets but brutally exposed on a fretless. After the defret you may find that you have to have the board smoothed, which is expensive anyway but more so with a maple neck as you will also have to have it refinished 2. Maple fretless necks are lush - I have three - but they wear very quickly and need to be looked after, for example they do not like heavy handed players. They have low resale value/desirability by comparison with rosewood/ebanol/ebony in part for that reason, which is probably why I've been able to pick up three quite cheaply 3. You may have to have your neck refinished anyway depending on how much damage is done to the existing finish during the defret. That is expensive 4. You will almost certainly need to cut a new nut for your neck once its fretless (I have never found an odd the shelf nut that I was able to install unmodified on a fretless neck). This is not a big job of course but the costs are all adding up 5. If as you say you're keeping the bass for sentimental reasons, turning into an instrument that might be crap or that you might not like very much or might not be able to play - after all you say you fancy giving fretless a go - seems a bit counterintuitive 👍

Mate, apart from the fact that we’d all miss you and your contributions, you do realise that BC is like Hotel California; you can check out any time you want but you can never leave 👍

Yep, the problem with web discussions is that it's all two easy for people who - were they in a bar or at a gig with a beer in their hand would get on famously and have a good chinwag - to get quite worked up about stuff (I've been there too many times). Here's a round for y'all 👍

It was really good to see you back, shame it's going to be an 'albeit briefly'

So, I just installed a set of Thumpers I've had hanging around for a few years and they're, well, very very thumpy. Now that seems fair enough given their title, but I'm a little surprised by an almost complete absence of top end to the point that the tone control makes a difference but it's pretty subtle. Is that normal for these - which I can't believe is the case but I'm prepared to be put right - or do I have a gremlin in the works?

Very well put mate 👍 Personally when I see equipment demo'd in the usual fashion, slap or technical funk in one or other form - I find it a turn off, and over and above it all too ofetn being an ego trip for the person doing the demo (understanadle biut not necessary), it's not letting me know how the gear is going to sound when I play the rock/blues/soul stuff I tend to play.

Agree, but the debate does show what a bloody minefield vintage Fenders are, hope no-one's fallen out over it 👍

I think it’s part of the appeal

Such an entertaining video (as are their others). I've had a couple of disagreements with Alex over the years, largely - well entirely - my fault, but we should all be bloody grateful that Alex and BF are out there doing what they're doing, and that they're doing with such class and without compromise. I've often wondered why they didn't get into combos given how highly rated their cabs are, but I'm guessing they've identified the direction of travel with this unit. Well done guys 👍

In my experience when equipment does fail it's rarely in the comfort of a home practice