noelk27

Paid £165 to have my Tribute Series L2000 defretted and set up. (I supplied the set of strings.)

Yes, somewhere around Saltcoats. (Birthplace of Colin Hay - lead singer of Men At Work.) Nothing beats a deep November dawn in Ayrshire, and after a breakfast of porridge and honey, starting out on a cycling training ride across the spider’s web of country lanes that criss-cross the county. Memories!

Ayrshire, I know it well. In this modern age it's officially divided up into East, West and North, but oddly no South. Or is it East, North and South, but no West. I get confused. Greeting from East Renfrewshire.

Purchased a Yamaha BB1200 from Doug. (Quite possibly the one mentioned immediately above!) The trade, from start to finish, was completely seamless, and hassle-free, mainly as a result of Doug's attention to comms. Colour me satisfied! Many thanks, Doug.

Maybe it's a black on black Fender* Precision with maple neck thing, but I always loved Mark Bedford's tone. I say a black on black Fender* Precision with maple neck thing because that's also what Bruce Foxton was using, and I loved his tone as well! * Other brands may also have been used!

Name and shame!

You can do 80s on a budget: OLP as opposed to Music Man; Washburn as opposed to Status. But if you want something genuinely 80s, then you'd get something Aria, Ibanez or Yamaha for a limited budget. If it has to be headless though, and an iconic design, then a Steinberger/Spirit fits the mould. (No pun intended.)

[quote name='chris_b' post='613492' date='Oct 1 2009, 12:25 AM']Overpriced![/quote] My experience is based on owning two Strats. Unfortunately both proved to be horrendously disappointing instruments, the gold plate lifting within a matter of weeks on both being only one item on a long list of failings. That one word, overpriced, says it all as far as I'm concerned.

Aria, Ibanez, Music Man and Status say 80s more to me than Steinberger, but that's possibly the cost/price equation.

[quote name='tischbein' post='613114' date='Sep 30 2009, 04:12 PM']both rosewood fretboards ?? I´ve got one with an ivory fretboard.. and I know that´s a tuff one to defret.[/quote] One rosewood, one jacaranda. If you do intend to remove the fret wires yourself, then you should mask the touchboard with micropore tape, to protect the wood, before heating the wires and carefully teasing the wires from the fret slots. Heating the fret wires helps to break the bond between the seating glue and the wire/wood.

Just received a lovely, shiny Yamaha NE-1 from Nathan, and looking forward to putting it through its paces. As for Nathan, he was easy to deal with, and kept me informed at all stages. Cheers, Nathan. I'm off to listen to some Eminem now ...

Yea - G&L L2000 and Aria SB900. Both done by local luthiers. Both excellent jobs. But it's no guarantee that you'll get what you envisaged. One of these projects was more successful than the other.

[quote name='7string' post='612702' date='Sep 30 2009, 12:23 AM'][T]he neck was like a big tree chopped in half with frets added![/quote] That'll be because the neck was based on a '68 Fender Telecaster bass.

The worst offender I've heard, Duran Duran's Arena - everything redone in the studio. The best is Crowded House's Live At The Town And Country Club - a brilliant mix on the night recorded straight to ADAT. What you get on the CD is presented as a single show, although the best takes from the two nights the band performed were selected.

Take a look at the Takamine EG series. Streets better than any you've mentioned. You should be able to pick up a used example for under £300. Some outlets retails base models around £330 new.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='539517' date='Jul 13 2009, 05:03 PM']Noticing that there was a white US P in the shop I helped myself ... . It was marked as a Jaguar (!) and was reduced to £699. ... I asked about the label saying 'Jaguar' - doh. Seems wrong label was put on the bass and this particular white P is actually £1799 ...[/quote] The Queen's Bench decision in Boots Cash Chemists did indeed establish the law, with respect to the point at which a contract comes into being. However, in the situation outlined by the OP it would not be necessary to resort to this argument. The situation outlined is not one of mispricing but of misdescription. Such a misdescription would give rise to an essential error. Such error being discoverable would not have made a concluded contract a nullity but would certainly give a vendor the right to decline to contract, without a prospective purchaser having any right of recourse to current legislation. In the outlined situation the attempt to contract falls at an early stage, that of consensus as to description. The current statute law as it relates to mispricing was introduced to cover such situations as dual labelling, not that outlined by the OP, or postulated on by the vast majority of those commentating. [quote name='razze06' post='540425' date='Jul 14 2009, 03:07 PM']My only personal experience in mis-pricing on label was last year at gatwick airport, where i spotted a small laptop i've been looking up online for some time, priced at about 75% of its RRP (£211 vs £275 RRP). I quickly picked it up and broguht it to the till, where the guy told me that the total was the full £275. I told him that he had it labelled at £211, we went to the stand where the label was, checked serial numbers against the one i picked up, and agreed that that was indeed the advertised price for the item, and charged me accordingly. Obvious pricing mistake and a nice £64 pounds saved. ... Again, another anecdote that doesn't prove anything, but at least it's firsthand experience...[/quote] In the situation you've outlined, I wonder if this was an error made by the vendor's employee not fully understanding the operation of the duty-free pricing procedures which operate in airports, and retailing you an item absent of duty (a situation you may, or may not, have been entitled to avail yourself of, depending on your travel entitlements). It is common practice for the prices displayed in duty-free retail zones to show the price before the application of duties, with a statement displayed on the premises as to this circumstance - the rates of duty to be applied appended for the attention of non-entitled purchasers. Just an observation. [quote name='GreeneKing' post='540518' date='Jul 14 2009, 04:29 PM']People should really know the law if they're going to own a shop methinks.[/quote] While I accept your basic point, I would suggest that there are many acts we undertake on a daily basis, among these many connected with our professions, that we do not fully comprehend in their legal context. In the circumstances, it does seem the issues you outline are human errors as to such tasks as labelling etc, and not necessarily misapprehension as to the law generally.

[quote name='BarnacleBob' post='539343' date='Jul 13 2009, 12:59 PM']Is this B'nG I not just an SBR-60 with alder instead of walnut, hence the paint job?[/quote] Assuming the bridge is original - which I'm sure it is - you can tell that this is a factory-issue Black and Gold because the bridge is gloss back, with gold saddle assemblies and fixing screws. Exactly as it should be. Some confusion as to what is and what isn't a BnG exists, because Aria issued a large number of instruments with black finishes and gold hardware as standard models, but these will always feature an all gold finished bridge assembly. The bridge although the main giveaway isn't the only feature to look for, as the truss rod cover plate will also be particular to the BnG series. [quote name='Musky' post='539357' date='Jul 13 2009, 01:16 PM']I don't think any SB series used walnut as the main body wood (besides the pinstripes). They were all ash or alder as far as I know.[/quote] With the woods used for SB/SB-R series body wings and bodies, while ash and alder were very common, so also were sen, nato, maple and mahogany. The BnG version of the SB1000, for instance, used Canadian ash for the body pieces, in addition to the maple centrepiece. The Cliff Burton connection: This is something of a misnomer. Burton in fact used a standard SB-R60/Elite I model, active-wired, which just happened to be black with gold hardware, and not a factory-issue Black and Gold model. The SB-R60 and Elite I are the same model, Aria changing the name from SB-R60 to Elite I in '83. The bass model that Burton actually played gets a little confused with the model that was issued - which I suppose would be viewed as a commemorative issue - which is closer in specification to a factory BnG model, but featured a matt black bridge assembly, and non-standard pickup/wiring. As for value, fretless models are more common than you'd think - there being a real surge in the popularity of fretless instruments in the early/mid 80s - but this being the lined/marked version is a little more desirable than the unlined version. Saying that, I picked up a fretted BnG SB-R80 a few months back for £280 - including original Aria hard case, and with two sets of DR LoRider strings thrown in. The seller was originally asking £350.