You know you're getting old when ...

[Maude]

Grab yourself a real vintage bass for just £399!

 

If that Shaftsbury is up for £799, this has got to be worth a try. 😄

[TheGreek]

You forget there is already a thread with this title...(with correct grammar)

 

[thebrig]

17 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

There's your problem

 

 

As long as people lose their senses when something old pops up, old tat is worth silly money.

This!

[TheRev]

My first bass was a short scale Jedson tele stye thing that I paid about £40 for in 1984.  If I could have bought any other bass, I would have, but it was all that was available in my remote corner of Ireland.  It was bad- so bad that when I eventually replaced it with a Marlin Swidewinder, it was a significant improvement.

Those Jedson basses regularly go for £300 plus on ebay and gawd knows how much more on Reverb. Utterly bonkers. You could spend a third of that on a new Harley Benton and get a bass that was three times better.

[casapete]

On 22/01/2021 at 13:31, TheRev said:

My first bass was a short scale Jedson tele stye thing that I paid about £40 for in 1984.  If I could have bought any other bass, I would have, but it was all that was available in my remote corner of Ireland.  It was bad- so bad that when I eventually replaced it with a Marlin Swidewinder, it was a significant improvement.

Those Jedson basses regularly go for £300 plus on ebay and gawd knows how much more on Reverb. Utterly bonkers. You could spend a third of that on a new Harley Benton and get a bass that was three times better.

I remember those Jedsons, absolute rubbish instruments. Sunburst with white plates, dreadful pickups and hardware including a feeble bridge and tuners. If someone pays £300 ( or any more than £30 TBH) they need to have a good word with themselves.

Edited January 24, 2021 by casapete

[TheRev]

4 minutes ago, casapete said:

I remember those Judson’s, absolute rubbish instruments. Sunburst with white plates, dreadful pickups and hardware including a feeble bridge and tuners. If someone pays £300 ( or any more than £30 TBH) they need to have a good word with themselves.

https://www.themusicinn.co.uk/bass-guitars/electric-bass/jedson-short-scale-bass-pre-owned

https://reverb.com/uk/item/578786-jedson-telecaster-bass-1969-75-sunburst

https://reverb.com/uk/item/1701501-jedson-short-scale-telecaster-bass-sixties-3-tone-sunburst

https://thebassgallery.com/products/jedson-short-scale

All £300 +

Although, no idea how much much the Bass Gallery one went for, but the fact that it sold means that someone paid actual money for it, which is still ridiculous.

[Maude]

I think part of it, and I do partly subscribe to this thinking although I play all of mine, is that some of these old guitars look really good cool just hanging on the wall. People will happily pay good money for a painting to hang on the wall because they like it so why should a guitar be any different? Some of those Soviet guitars are very cool and I love the look of an aged white Jedson Tele. 

As a usable instrument they might be rubbish but as a cool object they're worth money. Old broken farm machinery or cast iron mangles, sewing machine tables etc as functioning items are totally worthless but as interior/exterior design objects have a good value. 

In general, folks from the era of these guitars have disposible income and if it makes them happy then why not? 

If they're buying them at inflated prices to play then that's a different story though. 

 

[tegs07]

Is the “lawsuit” fallacy to blame for all this? Sure there was a lawsuit but not for Every Japanese maker.

Has vintage MIJ been mythologised to equal better than 70’s Fender? Rather than Tokai, Greco and Burny\Fernandes made some really good instruments?

Edited January 22, 2021 by tegs07

[thebrig]

9 minutes ago, TheRev said:

https://www.themusicinn.co.uk/bass-guitars/electric-bass/jedson-short-scale-bass-pre-owned

https://reverb.com/uk/item/578786-jedson-telecaster-bass-1969-75-sunburst

https://reverb.com/uk/item/1701501-jedson-short-scale-telecaster-bass-sixties-3-tone-sunburst

https://thebassgallery.com/products/jedson-short-scale

All £300 +

Although, no idea how much much the Bass Gallery one went for, but the fact that it sold means that someone paid actual money for it, which is still ridiculous.

25" scale?

I didn't realise they were that short!

[tegs07]

7 minutes ago, Maude said:

I think part of it, and I do partly subscribe to this thinking although I play all of mine, is that some of these old guitars look really good cool just hanging on the wall. People will happily pay good money for a painting to hang on the wall because they like it so why should a guitar be any different? 

 

Yeah I am partly guilty of this.. a big appeal of my Hondo is it’s very aged sunburst, ridiculously large and industrial looking machine heads and the ashtray bridge cover ....

[Maude]

24 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

Is the “lawsuit” fallacy to blame for all this? Sure there was a lawsuit but not for Every Japanese maker.

Has vintage MIJ been mythologised to equal better than 70’s Fender? Rather than Tokai, Greco and Burny\Fernandes made some really good instruments?

Unless it was an Ibanez guitar with a Gibson style 'open book' headstock then it's not a lawsuit guitar, and there was never a lawsuit anyway as it was settled out of court. Everything else is marketing hype. 

[Maude]

Here's a link to the 'lswsuit' story if your interested. 🙂

https://flypaper.soundfly.com/discover/truth-lawsuit-era-guitars/

[Burns-bass]

11 minutes ago, Maude said:

Unless it was an Ibanez guitar with a Gibson style 'open book' headstock then it's not a lawsuit guitar, and there was never a lawsuit anyway as it was settled out of court. Everything else is marketing hype. 

I think they common parlance is "Lawsuit Era" to make it sound as if the Yanks were prosecuting the Japanese for having the temerity to create guitars that were better than theirs, rather than the reality that they were legitimately attempting to protect their intellectual property.

[Shaggy]

1 hour ago, TheRev said:

My first bass was a short scale Jedson tele stye thing that I paid about £40 for in 1984.  If I could have bought any other bass, I would have, but it was all that was available in my remote corner of Ireland.  It was bad- so bad that when I eventually replaced it with a Marlin Swidewinder, it was a significant improvement.

Those Jedson basses regularly go for £300 plus on ebay and gawd knows how much more on Reverb. Utterly bonkers. You could spend a third of that on a new Harley Benton and get a bass that was three times better.

There was one of those Jedson Tele basses for sale last year in a local secondhand shop for £50.  It was normal short scale, not 25”.   Nobody touched it (including me).

[Maude]

1 minute ago, Burns-bass said:

I think they common parlance is "Lawsuit Era" to make it sound as if the Yanks were prosecuting the Japanese for having the temerity to create guitars that were better than theirs, rather than the reality that they were legitimately attempting to protect their intellectual property.

Quite. Gibson were rightfully protecting their design, but I hate the inference that every jap guitar labelled a 'lawsuit era' is magically transformed into a top quality instrument that had the big manufacturers running scared. True it might have been made at a similar period in time that Gibson challenged Ibanez (well Hoshino Gakki) but that would also mean it was built at the height of one of Fenders bad periods, so could just as legitimately be labelled a 'shite era' guitar. It doesn't have the same misty eyed feel to it though I suppose. 

[EssentialTension]

1 hour ago, thebrig said:

Grab yourself a real vintage guitar for just £899!

 

A guitarist I played with in the mid-1970s had a black Shaftesbury Les Paul just like that one. He had it set up with a highish action for playing slide. I recall it sounding pretty good.

His other guitar was a John Birch Flying V.

By the late-1970s I was in a different band with a different slide guitarist who had the very same black Shaftesbury Les Paul.

His other guitar was a Fender Telecaster.

That I can recall these events from 40 or 50 years ago means I know I am gettign old.

 

 

 

[Guest]

I thought I was going to have to give away my Westone Thunder I-A guitar, I've been quite surprised to learn that it still has some value. Unplayed this century! 😄

[Doctor J]

I never thought I would find myself on a planet where those wretched last gasp of crap early 80's Jazzes with the extended scratchplate cost £1700 but here we are. Look at this junk.

To save the cost of two screws - that's right, to scrimp on two screws worth of money - the bridge is held down by only three screws. As for that ridge sticking out under the treble side of the neck, well, you better hope the holes for the neck screws are big enough to move the neck a good 2mm south. I wouldn't rule it out, they made them bigger so the screws would just drop freely in to speed up production, ignoring their primary purpose of keeping the neck in the right place but, still, I wouldn't put the mortgage on being able to centre the strings on the neck. Then you get a a handy gap to stick your sandwich in on the bass side, so, I suppose it could be win-win?

Also, £1700 only gets you springs on the E and A saddles, you'll need to stop by B&Q on the way home and buy more yourself if you want a full set. I'm reasonably confident it left the factory with four springs but in 2021 you only get two of them.

It's past the 30 year mark where junk becomes magically desirable but, still...

£1700 🤣

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by Doctor J

[TJ1]

On 22/01/2021 at 12:54, thebrig said:

Reading this thread reminded me of the Shaftsbury Les Paul copy I purchased second-hand in the 70’s, I paid £50 for it at the time.

About ten years ago I donated it to a local charity shop, the following morning it was in the window for £80 and when I looked later that day, it was sold, I was pleased at the time because I didn’t want it any more, and the charity shop made a some money from it.

But then I started googling Shaftsbury guitars and I came across this, whether it sold for £899 I will never know, but maybe I should have held on to it a bit longer. 🤔

What makes it worse is the fact that the guitar pictured looks very much like the one I had, the reason I say that is because when I bought it, the jack socket wasn't the original, it was a homemade oblong silver one, exactly like the one in the picture, the rest of the hardware was gold.

Shaftesbury Guitars

12 October 2017  · 

Check out this vintage 70's Shaftesbury Les Paul we've got in stock! 

Produced in Japan within the ibanez factory this guitar features:

-Traditional style double binding

-Original 70s pickups 

-Bolt on neck (Unique for les Paul shape)

-Rose wood finger board

-Block inlays 

This guitar screams and has similar tone and characteristics of an old Les Paul however you won't have to sell your kidney to take this one home! 

Grab yourself a real vintage guitar for just £899!

Going by the photo only, without having any background knowledge of the model/brand I think a lot of people might think it is worth £900.

[NJE]

I remember when I was at Uni in 2002 walking around the small local pawn shops, when it wasn’t just cash converters.

There was a tiny shop near where I lived and it was full of bikes and DJ kit and at the back some instruments. He had two early-mid 70s precision’s one fretted one fretless priced at £400 and £380 respectively. 
 

The  fretted was sold but still in the shop and said I would take it there and then. Sadly he informed me some chap was paying it off at about £5 a week and he wished he could sell it to me.

In 1999 I got a brand new American Standard precision from Cranes in Cardiff for just under £600.

[dmccombe7]

My first bass was a Columbas Jazz bass which i gave to my mate to defret when i bought a Shergold twin neck 4 & 8 back in late 70's. I removed the name and made a mess of painting my name on it. He kept it, removed my rename effort and did it properly using stencils which was very neat, refretted it and his daughter learned bass on it and altho he still has it and offered it back to me i refused as he put all the work into it plus his daughter was still using it altho she now has an Overwater.

Here it is on the left of the pic. 

 

[Doctor J]

Had you just dined on honeydew? 😉

[dmccombe7]

26 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

Had you just dined on honeydew? 😉

Too early on Sun morning for me. I'm old so please be patient. I don't get it i'm afraid. 😀

Dave

 

[Reggaebass]

It’s right what some are saying about the jedson basses being over priced now, but mine served me well, I bought it in around 1978 and it was quite old then, it was my first bass and all I could afford, I had lessons and went on to play in 2 reggae bands with it, from what I can remember it sounded pretty good through a HH amp and 2x15 cabs , I’ve still got it for nostalgia, it hangs on my summerhouse wall, I’ve got pics but I think most have seen it now 🙂

[dmccombe7]

42 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

It’s right what some are saying about the jedson basses being over priced now, but mine served me well, I bought it in around 1978 and it was quite old then, it was my first bass and all I could afford, I had lessons and went on to play in 2 reggae bands with it, from what I can remember it sounded pretty good through a HH amp and 2x15 cabs , I’ve still got it for nostalgia, it hangs on my summerhouse wall, I’ve got pics but I think most have seen it now 🙂

I've never even heard of them so a pic would be good for me @Reggaebass

I do like pics. 😀

Dave