An Ebay disaster in the making

[velvetkevorkian]

If you can determine that the truss rod works I would keep it. I quite like the post-apocalyptic aesthetic.

[LukeFRC]

the biggest problem I would have with it would be the straplocks! But you knew that when you bought it, and the colour/finish too.

All boils down to that truss rod. If it works I say keep it. Warwick frets seem to be lower and a bit flat in my experience. I personally cant see that hurts your playing to much if you can set it up. The brass nut prob needs replaced with a new JAN (€23.70) And I think that with the LEDs it will work out okay.

[Musicman20]

Send it back...buy one off here.

[velvetkevorkian]

[quote name='Rich' post='799096' date='Apr 7 2010, 07:15 PM']Ah, well that's different. "[i]The frets are in very good condition and the neck is straight[/i]", yeah right. Straight compared to what?[/quote]
Its entirely possible that the neck [i]was[/i] straight when it was sent- I would expect to have to give any bass that had been sitting in a post depot over a long weekend a good setup when it arrived.

[throwoff]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='799166' date='Apr 7 2010, 07:14 PM']Where is the serial number located?[/quote]

Depending on the year its either on top of the headstock or on the back

[littleal]

Poor little thumb It's just asking to be saved, i'll bet that'll make a beutifull bass once the paint has been stripped & the body's all oiled & waxed.
You say it sounds good & most thumbs do,, if you can get the neck sorted you should keep it, maybe see if you can get some kind of payment from the seller to help with bits & pieces.
You need to save that thumb Dude

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='throwoff' post='799380' date='Apr 8 2010, 12:20 AM']Depending on the year its either on top of the headstock or on the back[/quote]

Like the man says ^ but seeing as how it has a volute and the guy claims it is an 02 you'll find it (or not) on the back of the headstock running down between the tuners. I say 'or not' because you tend to find that the painted models have the serial number filled in with paint during the finishing process!

[Rich]

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='799370' date='Apr 7 2010, 11:57 PM']Its entirely possible that the neck [i]was[/i] straight when it was sent[/quote]
General consensus seems to be that Warwick necks are reeeeally stiff. Would it be likely to move around a lot in shipping? Plausible I suppose, but likely?

[WalMan]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='799259' date='Apr 7 2010, 09:31 PM']Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm overwhelmed by the number of replies to this within just a few hours!

I guess it's now just a case of waiting to see what, if anything, the seller says. Hopefully push won't come to shove with this! [/quote]
You say you really like the sound & fancied the LED's, and he has offered a contribution or full refund, so while things may not be quite as expected if you can agree a reasonable contribution it looks fair enough to me - but what do I know.

I would always factor in a £30-50 setup on an ebay purchase so if you can agree a fair sharing of the extra go for it. Sounds like taking out the LED cost it cost you around £400. Is that reasonable for a Warwick, I don't know but it sounds it? Then again as before, what do I know

[JTUK]

hmmmmm not a good story.

Would the bass be worth it to you for the £250 extra you might have to spend to get it right..
A great tone goes a long way, in my book, but I'd be asking myself why he sold it. Maybe he has had a few quotes himself
and knows more of the history of the bass than he has told you; maybe he really doesn't know and is selling as he wants something
else..

Difficult to say, so I'd go with your gut feeling on this.

Hope it works out

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='WalMan' post='799491' date='Apr 8 2010, 09:15 AM']Sounds like taking out the LED cost it cost you around £400. Is that reasonable for a Warwick, I don't know but it sounds it? Then again as before, what do I know[/quote]

Retrofitting LED's to a bass is a personal thing (especially if they are your initials ) and unfortunately no matter what the cost to have them done it is money ill spent as it doesn't increase the value of your bass by the cost of fitting. If they cost £400 to have fitted at best they'll add £100-£150 to the value of a standard bass BUT in some circumstances the LEDs can actually devalue the bass... especially if they are someones initials. The eBay seller did state that he was knocking £120 off the cost of the bass if the buyer wanted to have the LEDs taken out and to have normal inlays fitted; in fact he offered to have the work done (obviously not then discounting it £120).

Love the idea of LED's but they are a bit bling!

[JTUK]

And a battery drain.. Lovely idea but after the initial 'coolness' of it, ( subjective ) I don't use them and I am not sure I would commission them
for me.
Maybe, like sat nav, they become essential to some and are a good sales bonus but will not add their value to the bass, as said above.

I'd be most concerned about the essential playabiliity of the bass, the LEDs are secondary.

[fluffo]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='798983' date='Apr 7 2010, 05:41 PM']Last weekend I saw this Warwick Thumb 5 NT on Ebay for what I thought was a pretty decent price. I made an offer on monday and the seller accepted it. It was posted out on Thursday and, after spending the Easter weekend in the TNT depot in Rotherham, arrived yesterday.



It's a pretty cool bass, red Sims LEDs, Headstock laser and an inlay that happens to be my initials (the other way around though! )

After being assured that the only issues with the bass are cosmetic (The paint is coming off all over the place), the frets were in excellent condition and the neck was straight I find the following:



The nut is in the wrong place (Yes, those are post-it notes I put in the gap!)



The frets are very low and worn.



The neck is in desperate need of a truss rod adjustment.

So in short, ITEM NOT AS DESCRIBED!!!

I took the bass to Jon Shuker out in the peak district today and he said it would probably need a refret and a serious setup. If there are truss rod problems it'll get very very costly. I also sent of a lot of emails to various luthiers to get their opinion. General consensus is that it needs refretting and a setup at the least to fix the frets and nut. I sent he seller a very polite email detailing all of these issues and suggested that he could either give me a partial refund for me to get the bass repaired or he could give me all the money back and I'll send the bass back to him.

I really love the sound of the bass and I've been after a thumb ever since I started playing bass. Part of me is telling me to just get it all repaired and maybe even get it back to a natural oil finish (and get rid of those strap buttons) but another, more sensible, part of me is telling me to walk away when I still can because there might be other issues that I've not identified yet.

Please advice, Basschat![/quote]
If you paid via paypal then put a dispute in with ebay, you got 45 days to do this from time of sale, ebay don't care about sellers in the slightest only buyers ,wait the time it takes to go through and they will give be you your money guanteed, don't leave any neg feedback this will only fuel a fire, in other words do it after its settled.

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='fluffo' post='800068' date='Apr 8 2010, 06:51 PM']If you paid via paypal then put a dispute in with ebay, you got 45 days to do this from time of sale, ebay don't care about sellers in the slightest only buyers ,wait the time it takes to go through and they will give be you your money guanteed, don't leave any neg feedback this will only fuel a fire, in other words do it after its settled.[/quote]

Have we actually quantified what the dispute 'is'? I'm not taking sides or trying to come down on the OP but afaik it hasn't been established that there is a fault with the truss rod/neck and imho the frets are OK, not brilliant by all accounts but it's a used bass and I'd not be that upset about their condition, the nut is a replacement which has left a gap but the nut does its job, maybe the seller should have stated that the nut isn't original but it is very easily put back to original. So what is the beef?

[budget bassist]

I don't think it'll take a lot to set it right, personally. Just had a look at my streamer (didn't have to hand last night) and the frets on that are very flat indeed, plays fine though

[Beedster]

Call this an 'eBay disaster'? More like a slight incident, if that. Having looked at all the above, I can't see anything that isn't the case with a substantial percentage of eBay bass deals, and those issues that are real are easily sorted.

Now my eBay USA Modulus Flea, that was a real disaster, £700 repair bill in total, and I've heard far worse stories than that!

Good luck either way you decide to go with this

Chris

[TDM]

Update:

The guy has emailed me back:

- He assures me the fretboard is Ebony (Am I going crazy? I have two slotted Ebony fretboards on my shelf along with a Jackson guitar that has a Ebony fretboard - looks and feels [i]nothing[/i] like what's on this)

- The original JANII was replaced with the Brass nut

- £100 refund

I'm not sure what to do at this point. £100 barely covers the work I'd want done at minimum, which is a nut replacement, setup (and possible a fret level). And I'd have to shell out more than that to strip the finish to get the bass the way I'd really like.

In the interest of being nice to the guy I could just take the refund and try and sell the bass on to get my cash back. Do you guys reckon £650 would be a reasonable price for it?

If not, I think I will get a full refund. Even if the fret/neck info was given to me in an email instead of the description I hope it's still within my rights to send it back on the basis that the fretboard is wenge and not Ebony.

Edited April 8, 2010 by thedonutman

[XB26354]

That board is 100% wenge.

[thisnameistaken]

That neck looks alright to me. The rod on my Thumb is pretty stiff too, I think it's just the nature of those dense laminate Warwick necks. On the positive side they don't tend to move about too much.

If it was mine I'd have someone stick a newer just-a-nut on it, sort out the strap points, get rid of the LEDs (but if you like them fair enough - you save money), the frets do look marginal but it's hard to tell from your photos, still a refret's not such an expensive job if the bass is a keeper.

Ultimately the only thing that would be bothering me would be the paint job, which I would probably just decide to live with rather than attempt to strip. I think you got quite a bargain there.

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='800110' date='Apr 8 2010, 07:38 PM']Update:

The guy has emailed me back:

- He assures me the fretboard is Ebony (Am I going crazy? I have two slotted Ebony fretboards on my shelf along with a Jackson guitar that has a Ebony fretboard - looks and feels [i]nothing[/i] like what's on this)

- The original JANII was replaced with the Brass nut

- £100 refund

I'm not sure what to do at this point. £100 barely covers the work I'd want done at minimum, which is a nut replacement, setup (and possible a fret level). And I'd have to shell out more than that to strip the finish to get the bass the way I'd really like.

In the interest of being nice to the guy I could just take the refund and try and sell the bass on to get my cash back. Do you guys reckon £650 would be a reasonable price for it?

If not, I think I will get a full refund.[/quote]

The fingerboard [u]IS[/u] Wenge not Ebony!

I bet the guy wishes that he'd taken my earlier offer of £600.

[Beedster]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='800110' date='Apr 8 2010, 07:38 PM']I'm not sure what to do at this point. £100 barely covers the work I'd want done at minimum, which is a nut replacement, setup (and possible a fret level). And I'd have to shell out more than that to strip the finish to get the bass the way I'd really like.[/quote]

Dude, if your tech charges you £100 for a setup and a nut replacement, do yourself a favour and get a new tech! Fret level, OK, perhaps you might lose a few quid.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='800110' date='Apr 8 2010, 07:38 PM']In the interest of being nice to the guy I could just take the refund and try and sell the bass on to get my cash back. Do you guys reckon £650 would be a reasonable price for it?[/quote]

I think it would be a fair price, but you'd have to find a buyer willing to get all the work done on it which might take a while. And the LEDs are going to divide opinion so your potential market gets even smaller.

It's a risk I think.

[xilddx]

Fingerboard is wenge. The frets are worn but they aren't that bad, maybe about a third lower than my fairly new Corvette $$. No sweat, level and re-crown them yourself with a Thomas Ginex kit, piece of piss. The relief doesn't look too bad. The finish is another matter, but you knew there were issues with that.

Some Warwick experts on here seem happy to have offered to shell out £600 at least for it, so £650 isn't bad. You like the LEDs, that's why you said you bought it. Did you get a bit excited about a potential bargain and not ask for better photos and forgot to send detailed questions perhaps?

EDIT, looking at the pics again, what do you mean the paint is coming off all over the place? Kinda looks ok to me. Are you, perhaps, one of life's exaggeraters?

Edited April 8, 2010 by silddx

[Rich]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='800110' date='Apr 8 2010, 07:38 PM']- £100 refund

I'm not sure what to do at this point. £100 barely covers the work I'd want done at minimum, which is a nut replacement, setup (and possible a fret level). And I'd have to shell out more than that to strip the finish to get the bass the way I'd really like.[/quote]
I agree with what others have said, 100 quid should be more than enough to get those things sorted.
And the main reason it was cheap in the first place was because of the bashed paintwork, so it's a bit unfair to bring that into the equation. TBH the further it goes the more it sounds like you're trying to talk yourself out of keeping it, so the best thing is just to send it back and get a full refund. You obviously aren't overjoyed with it.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Rich' post='800145' date='Apr 8 2010, 08:12 PM']I agree with what others have said, 100 quid should be more than enough to get those things sorted.
And the main reason it was cheap in the first place was because of the bashed paintwork, so it's a bit unfair to bring that into the equation. TBH the further it goes the more it sounds like you're trying to talk yourself out of keeping it, so the best thing is just to send it back and get a full refund. You obviously aren't overjoyed with it.[/quote]
See, I'm starting to think it's not the bargain he hoped it would be, but is trying to turn it into one because he actually likes it. Plus, on a point of principle, the description wasn't accurate.