Beedster

Perhaps as is the case with many orchestral instruments, and as raw materials become too expensive and in some cases prohibited, the quality of an electric/electronic instrument will win out over it's emotional/cultural value?

You get the sense that this seller has trawled celebrity auctions for decades, each time bidding on the items none of the other bidders wanted. It makes you feel a little unwell looking at them......

I guess the sad truth is that if you offer it for sale some prat will buy it. whatever it is

This is a bass forum

I guess their view would be "How are we supposed to know without taking the bass apart and checking everything", which I kinda get because there's a big cost in time - and I'd guess risk of damage - to do that with every instrument they get in trade/PX (and as well all know, with old Fenders there are a lot of variables and nuances). But yes, on this basis their initial response could have been "OK, we're sorry to hear that, we'll refund you and return the item to the seller as clearly not what he described it as to us". As is hinted at above, there are no doubt a lot of players out there with instruments that are not what they think they are because unlike some of us, they assume that the shop has done the due diligence

I had a tense standoff with a shop a few years back, very Fistful of Dollars (that's me walking to the shop in the pic below), about the fact that a bass they'd sold me wasn't what they'd said it was. Their initial stance was - this make you laugh - that it was a consignment sale so I needed to take it up with the original owner who'd clearly not told them the truth. Following a terse email this moved to 'We'll speak to the original owner and see if there's been a mistake' to 'OK, we'll refund you' following another email that pointed out that I'd paid them not the original owner etc. But what I was really surprised by was the fact that not only they hadn't checked the credentials of this particular bass, but that it was clear they routinely take the seller's word for it on all their consignment sales. I guess they get away with it more times than not ....

Completely agree 👍

I’ve seen upright players do equally daft things at shows……

Hence my avatar, one of the all-time great upright performances 🙂 In all seriousness, Tom’s technique is and always has been underrated, we should discuss it further here 👍

That might have been a little ambiguous …. What I should have said is that a seller asking £2k for a bass should have some idea what it is, and that irrespective of anything else, that he doesn’t know would be the deal breaker for me 👍

I wouldn’t waste any more time on it mate sorry 😕

He didn’t know….. 😆

I completely agree 👍

Nicely put, I often feel that fretlines are to all intents shouting 'Hey, we're the notes, don't you go anywhere else....."

Agreed Lawrie. It's going to be interesting to see the effects of Trump on people's emotions towards US goods, even legacy ones. 80's Japanese Fenders might ramp up in value even more than they have recently, which given they are of equal or better quality than many US Fenders - certainly 70's Fenders - would also represent a legitimate correction. I also suspect 70's MIJ instruments generally will start to creep up, I've played many that were likewise significantly better than Fenders of the same era at 10% of the price (calling @Bassassin......)

I'm very surprised there are no UK authorised service engineers, but am sure Andy @agedhorse will be along to help and advise 👍

That's a really interesting point, perhaps the market isn't really there after all, or at least thos who need them have largely got them, and needs have moved on? It'll be interesting to see if they do. And those Klos necks look lovely I remember seeing some really badly warped graphite necks, IIRC at least one of them was on an MM Cutlass. Interested in two points, firstly why do they have to be 'not too stiff', and in what way were the neck over-designed?

Given how well regarded Status necks are - there must have been thousands built and they only very rarely come up for sale meaning that those who have them hold on to them (plus there are always one or two people looking for them) - I wonder whether any other manufacturer will pick up the reins and either buy that part of the business from Status or start from scratch?

I found that the tone I ended up with using EBMMs was achieved using either old/dull rounds or brightish flats, tolling back the highs and the lows a little (on 2EQ models), and tonal heaven. Because it sounded more like a Precision

You could install a passive circuit, @KiOgon would not doubt be happy to advise and build it. If there was a Nobel Prize for bass circuits......

^ This I've owned many many active basses - Modulus, Status, Musicman, Enfield, Fender - and ultimately it took me 20 years to realise that I don't really like playing active instruments, no matter how well designed the instrument or the circuit. But it's not really a audio/tonal thing, I just don't need or like too many options, even playing a PJ I find myself trying to find the tonal sweet spot. I also tend to run my amp tone controls flat, with the occasional foray into using a footswitch if I need to emphasise a certain tone in a certain song, I don't use effects, and rarely even touch the passive tone control on my Precision or variant of, but can usually get a good range of tones by the usual means - pic/finger/thumb, palm muting/ghosting, varying the distance from the bridge etc. BUT....... I play music that usually allows me to find a tone and stick with if for the set (at present the set we're doing need two tones, standard Precision and dub, hence the footswitch), it would probably be very different if I was a pro playing functions, shows, or recording.

There's another thread on it somewhere