Ou7shined

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1282762' date='Jun 26 2011, 07:22 AM']....debate is often contrary, saying the same thing would be agreement....[/quote] Rock on..... (or off depending on you point of view) I love a good mass debate.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1282852' date='Jun 26 2011, 10:40 AM']There are good and bad basses from most manufacturers every year. However for basses like Fenders, over the years the bad ones get destroyed, parted out or mod'd until they are good so by the time they are "old" most of the bad ones are long gone. Remember that all these "old" basses were new at some point in their lives and many of the classic bass sounds on recordings from the 60s were done with instruments that were only a few years old at the time. What I find interesting is that as time progresses it only seems to be Fenders that continue to go up in value even from the acknowledged less good periods of manufacture such as those from the late 70s. Form my personal experience of the time working in my local music shop the new Fender basses we were getting in were almost without exception horrible while the basses from Aria and Ibanez were in every respect far superior. Despite this, nowadays a late 70s Fender is generally worth far more than an Aria Pro II or Ibanez from the same year.[/quote] Nominated for the "most sensible post today" award.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1282755' date='Jun 26 2011, 07:03 AM']No you did, no tapbacks [/quote] Injected, injected, can't be infected!

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1282754' date='Jun 26 2011, 07:02 AM']But why assume that wire has made such amazing improvements and changes in tone without any evidence other than it would work nicely for your argument? There are other ways to discern facts than simply declaring them boldly.[/quote] Again I didn't state it as a fact. I merely threw my hat into the ring with a "real world" suggestion to the OPs question of a difference between then and now. My suggestion that pickup wire may now be purer is based on the idea that consistent production techniques have improved over the last 60 odd years. I hope that by arguing against this you are not suggesting that the quality has remained the same over this time period.

Have you had a look underneath? Sometimes you'll find a makers mark.

[quote name='4000' post='1281991' date='Jun 25 2011, 11:32 AM']So you have to know what's in a meal before you can say what it tastes like? I better get back in the kitchen.[/quote]

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1281966' date='Jun 25 2011, 11:14 AM']And the years of working with loud power tools has fine tuned their ears to subtleties that can raise their prices substantially. Most luthiers don't even know the real names of the woods they use. Try pointing at one of their guitars and asking is that acer rubrum or acer saccharinum and of the 2 which has the most symmetrical dimensional stability. Then ask if it's good for metal.[/quote] I think we may be taking a wander down "conjecture with some anecdotal content" lane again.... well you started it.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1281948' date='Jun 25 2011, 10:51 AM']This statement. "todays wire will be 99.9999% perfect." Not a lot of people here using the whole sentence [/quote] Cheers for the reply. Some banter is always better than none. No sorry I don't have any proof that modern wire is 99.9999% perfect. I'd hoped that with it being such a ridiculous figure that most folk would have gotten the gist of what I was saying without taking it too literally.

[quote name='skidder652003' post='1281293' date='Jun 24 2011, 05:41 PM']cant see a BIN price?[/quote] Whoever placed that bid saw pay to that idea. It was around £950 or something.

[quote name='redstriper' post='1281307' date='Jun 24 2011, 05:50 PM']....My old one sounds better to my ears....[/quote] That's the clincher right there. [quote name='redstriper' post='1281307' date='Jun 24 2011, 05:50 PM']....The market for vintage Fender basses must have very little to do with their sound and more to do with collectibilty and investment value.[/quote] Spot the dog... also the "Behold, I'm serious" factor (*ducks* ) can attract the wealthier players amongst us. There's without a doubt a certain cachet to owning [b]and[/b] playing a vintage instrument and deep down no matter your stand point we probably all want one.

[quote name='paul h' post='1280934' date='Jun 24 2011, 01:17 PM']Seriously though folks, this raises some serious issues that need to be seriously addressed. Seriously. I think we should all club together and get the problem sorted. I'm serious. Vibrating G String, you take musicians. Ou7shined you take custom luthiers. I will take the large guitar manufacturers. Can someone else take please pickup manufacturers? Right, if we start emailing everyone now we should be able to tell everyone they are wrong within a year or so. I suggest the subject line "You are 100% WRONG". That should grab their attention. VGS: I suggest starting with Marcus Miller. I once saw an interview with him where he claimed he preferred maple fingerboards because they were brighter. What an IDIOT! MILLER! You are 100% WRONG! O7: Luthiers. Take your pick. They all seem to have opinions about wood. They are all WRONG! Maybe send them some links to plywood suppliers to help them out? That would be cool. Whoever takes pickup manufacturers...GOOD LUCK is all I can say. Those bastards are always going on about how ceramic and alnico magnets sound different. It makes me sick. GO GO GO! We've only got 24 hours to save the etc. etc. [/quote] I'm game but can I have a different group please? I don't want to take on luthiers. They know better than anybody on the planet the properties of wood.... the fact that they don't pass on what they actually know to the punters is up to them (the reason being it helps put food on the table). There's a word for it.... ah yes marketing. Like, where do you go when everyone has a razor with 5 blades - the 6 bladed razor of course. It makes shaving better! (my heart sinks) Meanwhile over on Razorchat we find the guys who gush wildly over the 6 blades for a closer shave, then you still have the guys with their boring old 5 blade razors who (while obviously are subhuman morons) somehow still managed to get shaved. The Razor company side with the 6 blade guys. Besides, I know that body wood (even ply) affects tone*... it's just not much. *sustain is affected more but we're not on that subjet..... yet.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='1280724' date='Jun 24 2011, 11:22 AM']Ah, yes you're right certainly. But the (oh dear god what am I starting) different tonal characteristics between a hefty maple body and a standard alder one will be there for the hearing (what I mean is, if you build it from maple, it will be a lot less fendery). And 'tronics are just as debatable as woods, whilst differing pups certainly sound different or better, I'm not sure I could pick out the hand-wound from the scatter-wound from the machine wound, or the ceramic from the alnico in a line-up either.[/quote] But in the grand scheme of things, the body wood contributes less to overall tone than the tronics. For argument's sake I'll pluck a figure out of the air along the lines of 2% - 98% to illustrate the difference. I agree about the ceramic / alnico thing. They are just floating magnets for gods sake.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1280654' date='Jun 24 2011, 10:40 AM']That's just an assumption. Have you seen any data based on measuring?[/quote] Here's some data for you... You are 100% wrong. It wasn't an assumption, it was a proposal posed as a question - hence my sentence starting with "I wonder if.....". [quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1280654' date='Jun 24 2011, 10:40 AM']Almost all if not all vintage explanations are simply conjecture with some anecdotal evidence in the best cases.[/quote] Have you proof of this? Your statement seems to be based upon conjecture with some anecdotal content. Whoopah!

[quote name='neepheid' post='1280618' date='Jun 24 2011, 10:16 AM']Indeed - serial number BD100313 makes it 1981 according to [url="http://support.guildguitars.com/downloads/datingyourguild.pdf"]this[/url]....[/quote] Phew TFFT. The second I posed it I thought oh no I've got it wrong and Matt's gonna pull me up again.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='1280569' date='Jun 24 2011, 09:45 AM']It's the maple body for sure. That thing is clearly unique, you may never replicate it exactly, however hard you try. And as for point 2, refret, and set it up so the dead spots and intonation are gone.[/quote] Come off it DV, the body wood isn't going to make it louder. It's down to the 'tronics.

I had to take a screen cap before they fixed it.

[quote name='evilLordJuju' post='1280426' date='Jun 24 2011, 01:19 AM']Really nice looking bass! I've looked at these a few times over the years, and even bid on them. Haven't been lucky enough yet. Do you know what year it is?[/quote] I think it's an 81.

Sea Foam Green.... ish.

I wonder if it's the inconsistencies in the wire used for the windings that could be the biggest factor - todays wire will be 99.9999% perfect.

[quote name='MB1' post='1279674' date='Jun 23 2011, 02:44 PM']...."Localish and No trouble here!"...[/quote] You never miss a trick Mart.

This is a sweet bass. I gave it the once over a week or two ago and I have to say that although it was just through my "living room noodling" set-up, I can tell that it has a set of really nice tones to offer - full, articulate with that sweet "split harmonic" (I don't know how better to describe it). The action and general set up was off (Matt had only just got it) but it still felt playable. I think that my parting comment was that this could well knock Matt's L-2000 trib off the top spot in his collection.... and coming from a G&L nut that's saying something.

[quote name='icastle' post='1277961' date='Jun 21 2011, 11:52 PM']So they stop phantom pregnancies as well... [/quote]