BassAgent

I so totally agree. Same goes for refrets. I've had all my 3 vintage Fenders refretted and they're all refins (but they were already refinished when I bought them). If they didn't have new frets, I wouldn't be able to play them properly. I own a vintage Höfner guitar from 1959 that I also am going to have refretted. It's unplayable now.

Not particularly. A friend of mine had a gorgeous Dakota Red 1966 he bought from Andy's. That was my holy grail. I do have a JMJ that is brilliant so I don't have a need for an old one, but still...a competition would be cool.

I was eyeing vintage Mustang basses. And then I saw the prices they go for nowadays. Blimey.

Yeah the neck was incredible. I just didn't get on with the 70s pickup spacing. Otherwise it would still live in my house

Blimey. However: I thought all 1960 Jazzes had stack knobs?

The craft of woodworking, of course.

Oh boy how I love semantic discussions.

Self-taught, then. He had an education in accounting.

I stand corrected! Absolutely true.

Oh sorry reading it back it was formulated a bit too bluntly. Didn't want to make you sound dumb or ignorant

Leo Fender was not a luthier and he never claimed to be one. He was an engineer and inventor.

Exactly. Same goes for not crafting your own hardware. Any person who builds a stringed instrument from bare wood but uses existing hardware (e.g. Hipshot or Gotoh) is still a luthier in my book. It's the wood crafting that counts.

I'm pretty surprised nobody has named this yet: Lakland Skyline 44-64 Vintage. Excellent quality, sounds and looks like a Precision but with a nice, slim neck. I had one for a while and sometimes regret selling it a bit.

Not too many, only two: First series JV, bought for an absolute bargain (75 euros), sold for a lot more, still regret it. I know the current owner but he won't sell it back to me. The Skarbee bass. Excellent.