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Ha! I'm not a smoker so am going to bypass that option! The iron chloride I used to stain the wood left some dark patches so I'm quite happy with that look... I don't know if that was a just a thing on Clapton's strat though - or whether other famous relics suffered the same?

Like @Musicman666, I’m quite surprised that they hadn’t already moved some, or all production to a lower cost geography. “Made in UK” might have been part of their USP but surely not at any cost. Unfortunately, businesses have to move with the times.

Another update - THE BASS IS BACK! Arrived very early at 8am yesterday, and after a little time to warm up in the house and a couple of setup tweaks for relief and action, this bass is now 100% where I want it. Low, low action, fast to play, great tone, and looks amazing. Robin has done a great job of getting the finish right - you have to look really closely to tell it's had work done to it at all - the neck binding in particular is a lovely piece of work, blending back into the original around the headstock. Truss rod now works in the normal direction, with a seriously long key available (nice one!), the carbon rods are in there doing their job, and the whole bass just feels so much better. Thanks @Manton Customs!! If anyone would like to see some pics of the completed article on here, let me know. Cost was seriously reasonable considering what's been done here - the bass overall cost to me is still a lot less than a new one, and I can have confidence that it won't need work like that again. It really is a stunning instrument.

If the brand continues never mind pre-CBS, we'll have Hiscox cases pre-TFT (TrumpF*ckinTariffs)

Perfect! 10/10!

Still confuses the hell out of me that a 5-string version of the L2000 is called the L2500, but the 5-string version of the L1000 is an L1005 and the L1500 is an L1000 with the pickup moved towards the bridge position

I reckon this is the end of Hiscox UK, but not the last you'll see of Hiscox cases. Brand name will be sold and made elsewhere.

For an accurate ‘70s period relic, you need to add the cigarette burns to the headstock 😉

The Rent Is Always Due - Neil Young

I don't see those replies as elitist at all. They make a valid point. You say you don't have much money to spend on this, but you'll be willing to risk a couple of hundred quite (that I can see on DH Gate for this model) on what is effectively a lottery and potentially unplayable, and non-retrunable. Not to mention, you may have to pay import taxes as well, and you're willing to spend more money and time to upgrade it? There are far cheaper and risk-free options available that are more likely to be perfectly playable, even giggable, straight out of the box. Harley Benton from Thomann, or Gear4Music's in-house brands for instance. Don't like them - send them back. Or try your local Facebook Marketplace - you can try them out in person before buying them. Reading between the lines, it sounds like you really want a Duff McKagan bass on the cheap!

Like so many bass players, I have recently been investigating the lightweight route (lazy, perhaps, but it certainly beats dragging a wardrobe across gravel and up stairs to gigs) and found this thread. My setup until now has been a Laney Nexus 400w tube head with a 1x15 and 4x10 Laney RWB cab underneath for the open air gigs where you really need to move some air. For indoor gigs I have been using a MarkBass CMD121P and have recently had to add a New York Traveller 121 extension cab to keep up with the guitar players. While the Laney rig is EPIC, it is also HEAVY (but worth it for the right setting). I am finding, however, that I am dialling out everything that MarkBass seems to add to colour their kit (very marmite on this, I know a lot of people love MB kit - and they are great for the weight and the price… if you like the MB sound). After a lot of reading, I took got in touch with Stevie at LF Sys for a final piece of advice and very quickly took the plunge to invest in one of Stevie’s finest Monaco cabs. (Stevie was honest enough to say that a pair of Monaco’s would not be the same as the Laney rig, but would get me to the same ballpark - after playing through just one Monaco, this was really close on its own so can certainly see that 2 stacked Monaco’s would definitely be all I could ever need on those outdoor gigs where the back line has to do all the work). Originally, I was looking for a solution for electric bass so also managed to bag a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 to pair with it - and it certainly does not disappoint! (Understatement there - my jaw hit the flaw at how great this sounded!) One of the bands I play in has a couple of guitarists that seem to have their amps constantly set to 11. At these volumes, the MB rig was getting muddy and the Laney was rig overwhelming. So: enter the GB Streamliner and the Monaco… wow! This setup gave me the heft and richness of sound I was looking for in bass tone and sat in the mix with absolute clarity without drowning out the rest of the band, and absolutely none of that mushy muddyness that can so easily and often creep in! This then got me thinking and wondering how it would fare for upright (being a clean FRFR cab and all)… so GAS strikes again and I managed to bag a Genzler Magellan amp for a steal on e-bay and tried that last night. Again, I was truly impressed. All of the rich, ‘substantial’ sound of the upright and all of the harmonics developing beautifully with each note played. It really was ‘my bass, only louder’. This is one versatile cab, taking the tube grit of the Streamliner with electric bass with ease and, the very next day, providing a really clean sound with the Magellan and upright bass. Definitely a cab that I would recommend to any bass player - upright or electric. Bearing in mind that, as the Monaco is 8Ohm, I was only using 1/2 the max power of each amp yet the volume was plenty (and then some) for the two rehearsal settings. I have a feeling that I may shortly have a MB rig and a Laney rig up for sale… although parting with the Laney will be hard, but I suspect it may start collecting dust as the Monaco really does get to the same ball park. Thank you Stevie!! Obligatorty pic for reference:

Most mixers only have one headphone out, so you’ll need something like this to take the mixer stereo headphones out and power two sets of headphones. https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0835-AAF If you go down this route, don’t forget to buy a TRS to TRS cable with the right size plugs to fit your mixer.

I've worked on plenty of Ric truss rods and nearly always clamp the neck straight, prior to carrying out adjustments. It is an efficient way of taking the stress off of the rod during the process of straightening the neck.