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Bravewood Precision


Happy Jack
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Bravewood is basically John Elliot, a Scottish luthier who specialises in relic'd basses.

[url="http://www.bravewoodguitars.co.uk/"]http://www.bravewoodguitars.co.uk/[/url]

This particular example is unusual, in that it was made (to order) in 10/10 condition with no relic'ing and with the Seymour Duncan 1/4lb pickup and the Badass bridge fitted from the start.



More pics at [url="http://tinypic.com/a/20gg7/3"]http://tinypic.com/a/20gg7/3[/url]

In other words, there was no attempt to fool people into thinking that this was a 1967 Precision, which makes the retrofit of a Fender decal to the headstock quite bizarre. If I keep this bass, I will remove it eventually.

The bass was made with a gold anodised pickguard (which I have) but it reached me with this Tortoiseshell pickguard fitted, and that looks WAY nicer (IMHO).

It's hard to do justice to the neck with the photographs, this is a seriously nice piece of maple. The nitro finish on the body is also pretty lush. The straplocks are the counter-sunk Dunlop jobbies.

I'm made two significant changes since I bought the bass. I've added an ebony thumbrest which uses the existing screwholes in the scratchplate. I've also added a John East P-Retro which, combined with the SD pickups, really makes this bass sing. Both these mods are entirely reversible and leave no traces. If a buyer really doesn't like the P-Retro, no problem; I will happily remove the P-Retro for use elsewhere and adjust the price. But you'll be missing out on a treat.

There are no ashtrays and the bass is currently strung with new LaBella FL flatwounds. It sounds absolutely gorgeous.

Condition is interesting in that this is not a relic'd instrument, but has now been around long enough (eight years?) to have accumulated some genuine playwear. This being nitro, there are small marks on the body - I've just counted eight very small or near-invisible ones, plus one rather larger one that can be seen from above when playing. Everything works exactly as the maker intended, no issues whatsoever.

Weighs (with strap) dead on 10 lbs.

[size=4][b]£1000 ono[/b][/size] (less if I retrieve the P-Retro)

PLEASE READ THIS BIT!

I'm having my first serious GAS attack in ages, and I need to raise somewhere north of £2000 in the next week or two. The building site that is [i]Chez Happy[/i], and the project manager that is Mrs. Happy, both mean that the funding is only going to come from selling some basses.

But which ones?

The answer seems to be ... most of them. So I'm listing most of my basses for sale, and if/when I raise enough cash to satisfy my GAS then I'll withdraw what remains.

DESCRIPTIONS

I don't do the whole describe-the-neck thing, and tell you what it feels like or how "fast" it is (does that help when you play a song by J.J. Cale?).

I don't tell you how low my action is. I don't slap or tap, so there's no point asking me. All my basses are set up for reasonably robust finger-style playing. If you want to know the sort of music I choose to play, check out the Band link in my sig.

If my description didn't mention a problem, then there isn't one (IMHO).

All that said, obviously you should always try before you buy if at all possible. If you can't do that yourself, then I'm perfectly happy for you to ask a knowledgeable friend to come round and check a bass out on your behalf.

OFFERS

All the basses I'm listing are excellent in their own way, or I wouldn't own them. None are clunkers that I'm desperate to get rid of.

BUT there's not a lot of cash out there and (given that I am not looking for trades at all) I am prepared to entertain offers ... in fact some offers can be quite entertaining. :)

DELIVERY

Each bass will be supplied with a hard case or a gig bag, as appropriate. Each bass can be tested in and/or collected from London, either in Chiswick W4 or the West End WC1.

I can post if I really have to, but I greatly prefer to do business face to face. If I'm posting, then I use my firm's courier - they are very reliable but they are NOT cheap.

No, I will not queue up at the Post Office with a bass. No, I will not use DelBoy's ultra-cheap delivery service. No, I will not wait in at home all day in case your chosen courier decides to put in an appearance. Bin there, dun that. :)

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[quote name='BassBod' post='1180100' date='Mar 28 2011, 09:37 PM']Yes..tis a good 'un. If I didn't have the Sadowsky.......

Best P neck I've played![/quote]
I've played it too and its lovely. If I didn't already have an incoming oly white P bass ...

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Now don't go putting him off..I'm here counting my pennies..chink..chink...may take a while, but I'm up to £12 .56p already...so keep HJ busy and remind him that all really good Pbasses have to be sunburst, I read that somewhere on the internet.

Have a bump while I'm looking for some more cash. Won't be long....

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This bass has provoked some completely un-warranted GAS in me. I can't stop looking at the pics!!!
Thanks goodness I'm too skint to buy it :)

Good luck Jack and can I just ask - Are you sure about off-loading this one? It must be one hell of an instrument you're after!

Regards,
Jon

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[quote name='edster' post='1181289' date='Mar 29 2011, 08:05 PM']Been checking out the Bravewood website, Some seriously special basses on there! I'd never heard of them. Which city is he based in? Pity HJ isn't selling a Jazz, I wouldn't be able to resist.

Awesome bass bump![/quote]

If HJ was selling a Bravewood Jazz you would not have been able to buy it because I would have taken it within 30 seconds of it being listed. I have a Bravewood P and it sits very happily next to my 66 jazz and presses all the same buttons for me.

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Thanks for the comments guys, and yes, the bass that has sparked this massive GAS attack is really very special.

I'm not even slightly happy at the prospect of selling the Bravewood, but the reality is that I have too many P-basses and my frontline gigging bass just has to be a 5-string anyway.

I've tried gigging the Bravewood too, simply because it's just SO nice, but constantly switching between 4-string and 5-string (as I did at my last two gigs) is just barking, and not doing my playing any favours.

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