Hand made fretless - starting bid £499

[Annoying Twit]

There are a number of hand-made basses that turn up on ebay. In this case, the builder is selling for £499 starting bid. I've looked through the listing, but there is no sign that the builder is a known luthier with a reputation.

With the reputation of a Jon Shuker or similar person, is it realistic to expect someone to pay that much for the bass? The materials themselves and certainly the labour and tool wear involved may mean that a bass has to be sold for that much to cover costs. But, if potential buyers don't have enough knowledge to know whether the bass is very well built or not, are there many people that would pay that price?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hand-made-fretless-bass-with-piezo-bridge-/161250515889?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item258b479bb1

Edited March 16, 2014 by Annoying Twit

[Kev]

That woodwork on that body is awful. I mean really awful. The neck looks fine, but that body.... Why he thinks he will get £499 is beyond me :|

[discreet]

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1394968971' post='2397134']
That woodwork on that body is awful. I mean really awful.
The neck looks fine, but that body.... Why he thinks he will get £499 is beyond me :|
[/quote]

It's not A1 I agree, but it is recoverable. Would need cash spending on it though, so...
It would depend on how it feels and how it sounds before making a decision about how much to spend, IMO.

[Annoying Twit]

With an Alder body, and an EMG Select pickup, is there any reason why it should sound particularly better than a lot of basses that you can buy new for much less? How it feels would be done to the skills of the luthier. But, we don't know how good he/she is at all, and hence would be buying blind.

I've seen a lot of hand-made basses sell, and there have been a number of them that have sold for a fraction of £499 even though they looked a lot nicer than this one, and had better bits on them. I'm sure that at least some of the ones that have sold have probably been excellent instruments - but it's a matter of knowing which ones.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Yuck ! £49.99 ?

[Kev]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1394970168' post='2397150']
It's not A1 I agree, but it is recoverable. Would need cash spending on it though, so...
It would depend on how it feels and how it sounds before making a decision about how much to spend, IMO.
[/quote]

Recoverable (largely due to the sheer thickness of the wood, how much does it weigh!) but why would you want to after spending (at least) £499 buying it??

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1394975806' post='2397220']
With an Alder body...[/quote]

That ain't Alder, looks like Oak to me. An unusual choice, but handy for keeping any ocean liners you may have knocking about from blowing away.

[discreet]

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1394979237' post='2397258']
Recoverable... but why would you want to after spending (at least) £499 buying it??
[/quote]

I wouldn't - I'm just being polite - it may belong to a Basschatter.

[tauzero]

Headstock shape seems to be modelled on the Kay Rickenfakers. It looks no better on this.