RhysP

I had the chance to get a couple of these at trade price but stupidly decided not to & ordered myself a Jaydee instead. The other stuff Fernandes had on their stand was fantastic too - excellent replicas of just about every famous guitar you can think of - Jaco's jazz bass, Iommi's SG, Randy Rhoads' white Les Paul & polka dot Jackson, Matthis Jabs' black & white stripey explorers etc. etc. I wish I still had the catalogue. Not only that but while I was on the stand the guitarist sitting next to me trying out a load of stuff was Neal Schon - I was only in my late teens & I was a huge Journey fan so I was totally awestruck.

I've never owned one but I did play the full range of them at the Frankfurt trade show in the mid 80's & they were pretty fantastic. The guy I was with actually owned an Alembic series 1 at the time & he thought they gave his bass a pretty good run for the money.

Yes, it's active. I had a Levinson Blade B2 for about 20 years & it was a great bass. What model bass is it? Mine didn't have a passive option so without a battery it wouldn't work. I've also got an old Levinson Blade Texas Standard strat style guitar & that's active too.

Some very early 5 strings were made to be used with a high C instead of a low B. These days low B is very much the norm.

The budget instruments these days are from China, India & Indonesia; it's pretty easy to pay over a grand for a korean built intrument these days.

Just bought myself an Atkin OM STD with some of the money I got from selling my Zons & my Fylde. I had no intention whatsoever to buy another expensive acoustic but it was a pretty good price & it's just awesome; the best acoustic I've ever played.

GAK are doing a good deal on this Ashdown 2x10 combo at the moment - should be £549.00 but they're £349.00: http://www.gak.co.uk/en/ashdown-330-touring-210h/47920

I love the EMGs in my Spector Euro 5LX, they sound much better to me than the Bartolinis I had in my Zons. I've also got the EMG David Gilmour signature pickup set in my Levinson Strat & they're pretty awesome too - absolutely no noise whatsoever.

[quote name='bassbora' timestamp='1351457191' post='1851449'] This exactly is the reason why I only buy stuff on basschat. I feel that everyone here is genuine and you can trust that we are not trying anything on (I think that is true in most cases). [/quote] That is very true. Ebay was very much a last resort - I'd had the Zon for sale on here for quite a while but unfortunately nobody was interested.

[quote name='Blademan_98' timestamp='1351440737' post='1851221'] You know there was nothing wrong and I think that you will probably join the 'pick up only' club now! Glad it turned out ok [/quote] Cheers. The annoying thing was I did everything I could to discourage people wanting it posted - I offered a discount for picking up & paying cash, and also charged extra for a case if posting was required. Definitely "Pick up only" from now on......

Well, the buyer has just contacted me to say he is going to keep the bass "And sort out any problems himself". I just don't get it though - I've had this bass for years & have done plenty of session work with it - if the fret lines were as he says the bass would be unplayable. I gave it a final play just before packing it & it was perfect. I know I should be happy with that outcome but I'm really pissed off about the whole thing - there was NOTHING wrong with that bass when it left me.

Last week I sold my Zon Legacy fretless on Ebay. I posted the bass off to the buyer Wednesday & he received it Thursday. I hear nothing from the buyer until Friday night when, only after my contacting him, he informs me that the bass is buzzing unacceptably & the he feels the fretline markers are a different radius to the fingerboard & this is causing the problem. I've had this bass for years & have never had any trouble at all with it so find it hard to believe that something so catastrophic has suddenly happened to it. I have offered him a refund if he returns the bass to me but now say that he intends to get a luthier to look at it on Monday. I've notified Ebay that the buyer thinks there is a problem even though it was in a perfectly playable state when I posted it & that I've offered him a refund. I've just got a bad feeling about it, like I'm going to be hit with a make-believe repair bill just so the guy can try & get some money off me. I really don't need sh*t like this at the moment, my life is enough of a nightmare as it is.

[quote name='Pinball' timestamp='1351339118' post='1850261'] Punk was fresh and made them seem outdated then and I was more interested in like Led Zeppelin. [/quote] Surely they couldn't have seemed more outdated than Led Zeppelin?

My one & only bass strap is a Silver Eagle one I bought nearly 30 years ago & that's showing no signs of giving up.

Just sold my last Zon.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1351080336' post='1847007'] Like Coilte says though, oiling isn't something that needs to be done. I've oiled mine once in 22 years & that was about a year ago. [/quote] This. Fingerboard treatments are basically just another way for manufacturers to get people with more money than sense to part with even more of it. People are verging on OCD about stuff like this these days.

[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1351069855' post='1846812'] Only skimmed this thread, so someone might have already said it. But ordinary common or garden sunflower oil from yer local supermarket works fine. [/quote] There are all manner of things added to cooking oils to aid heating & retard burning that would make using them on a guitar a pretty bad idea. They will also go off & smell pretty bad.

[quote name='Sean' timestamp='1351033006' post='1846583'] Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a character called Gibson Rickenbacker in the film Cyborg. [/quote] It would have been great if they'd called him Daisy Rock.

[quote name='peterjam' timestamp='1350984540' post='1845759'] I understand that Tony Levin will sometimes only plug in and play the 'bass' side of his Stick, so it's like you can apply this instrument to any situation, but you should think about context - you don't switch all your foot pedals on at the same time, so you don't need to be playing bass and melody all the time. The fact that it comes with a stereo cable is leading me down the 'melody amp' road - Fender Mustang or Line 6 Spider IV? GAS kicks in again! [/quote] That's not quite right - Levin would just use a two-to-one adaptor & run his Stick into a single amp & play a lot of two handed bass parts. If you just plug in the bass side you're losing access to a lot of low notes on the melody strings which are also useful for bass parts. This is how he tends to play Stick with Peter Gabriel as most of his Stick playing is just for bass lines. When he tours with "Stickmen" he runs his Stick stereo into two amps & uses a shitload of pedals. Playing through two amps can be pretty strange, especially if there's a lot of space between them. A lot of people use a small mixer to set up different bass & melody sounds & then run into a single full range amplifier. Finally got the money together to order the Stick of my dreams & I've decided not to bother! I know what I'm like - it'll spend 99% of the time in it's case & that's a lot of money for something to dick around on once every six months.

Fender Jazz basses - hate the necks, REALLY hate that horrible chrome control plate, hate that slanted body shape, hate the shape of the scratchplate & hate the sound. I'm also really not a fan of four-in-a-line headstocks in general.

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1350936587' post='1845368'] But they haven't broken yet. [/quote] I'd leave it the f*** alone then if I were you. No point in making work for yourself, is there?

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1350934992' post='1845334'] Just a thought,but after 22 years,would it be time to aaply some lemon oil then? [/quote] Might be worth changing the strings too.

The logo is wrong for a '59 for starters.