Kev

Probably not unusual. The very early thumbs had a different shape than your 87/00 and the modern thumb is a slightly different shape again. All quite subtle but noticable to a Thumb aficionado, just can't remember the actual years they changed. I did think there was another change in the 90s so its interesting your 00 and 87 are completely identical.

Not good at all, I agree he should have sent you out a replacement bridge in that case, or taken the bass back for remedying. Did he at least offer to pay for the suggested local shop's work to resolve?

Did you buy the bass new, and how long after delivery did you ask for help?

Totally agree! The trade off for the chinese models seemed good value when they were introduced at £1k or so, but now that they're getting to £2.5k (the price of an AB1 the last time I bought one in the not so distant past), I don't know anymore. There are a LOT of basses out there you can get with that kind of money.

Not a bad shout really, they Chinese basses do seem to be going up in price more than the Canadian, relatively speaking?

The red is certainly the highlight of the range, don't mind the black one though.

I'm lost again 😅 so it does allow pitch changes, or can this only be achieved with heavy bending?

That's wild. Is the exchange rate that bad? £3k for a combustion is just nuts. Proper Canadian Dingwalls were a good deal less than that in the not too distance past...

Thank you, that's made it click for me. It's certainly clear that it's not for me, as it sounds like it'll suck the life and dynamics out of a bass line even more than what normally happens in a studio! I can perhaps see the application, but have to say in all the years I've been tracking bass, I've never run into that tiny variance in pitch ever being an issue. And what on earth happens when you bend a string then, what would that sound like, just the same?? 🤔 So presumably this bridge locks in place somehow, so changing tuning mid gig would be an issue?

Okay, so say for example you have cheap or lousy tuning machines that slip and let the bass go out of tune occasionally, or in different temperatures the neck shifts and the strings thus go out of tune, this bridge will stop that from happening? It still seems like it solves the most minor of inconveniences though, unless there is something else it does that is revolutionary? There was SO much excitement on socials when it was announced and I'm clueless as to why, as it can't possibly be for tuning stability.

Took advantage of a rare bit of garden sunshine for a quick snap. To suit my preferred playing style/position, I've added a dummy pickup ramp made of ebony I had made by Chris at Alpher Instruments a while ago that I never used. Works well 🙂 (don't panic, the screws are part of the aesthetic, it's held down with tape 😉)

So it's primary purpose is to hold tune? How can a bridge achieve this,without the tunining machines and lack of locking nut coming into play? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm honestly just totally lost as to its purpose or how it works

I'm still not following. With my regular bridge, when does my string pull out of tune with regular playing, or when does the tension change? What will the Evertune change for me?

I keep trying to understand what this is and what it fixes. Someone layman terms it to me. I play 4 string basses in drop B tuning. My basses intonate as well as I could expect and never need to be retuned during a typical set. If I was to use this bridge, when and where would I see a benefit?

YeahI wasn't sure if my "headstock" was a little bit longer, but guess it'd be fairly negligible. Perhaps I should hunt out somewhere who has the Progo in stock, rather than the PITA of buying and returning if its no good.

Cheers for that, I auto assumed MS. Looking at that pic, I'd actually say mine was longer, and I'd be loathed to use it without the padding (really like extra protection at the bottom, the Mono Vertigo is a dream). Hmm.

That's interesting, as I'd have thought the Ibanez was longer than my Leduc headless, need to get my own tape measure out...

Thanks for suggestions all. Anyone any experience with the Gator Pro-Go guitar bag? Looks nice, priced well and seems to have an interior length of just shy of 43 inches? EDIT: I have since found at least two other internal lengths quoted, one of which is as little as 1003mm, so not inclined to trust this one now...

What are people using? Imagine there are a good few guitar cases that'll do the job but many don't have the neck/body proportions right for obvious reasons. Bass cases just seem a waste of space!

Wait what?? What is it??? It looks like an Indonesian ibanez????

Yeah that's what I thought. Interested to see how the others look, but there's not going to be a huge amount to set them apart from the other chinese combustions really, bar the preamp.

Can't tell if this is because of suspected false identity, or something else? Will and BassBros are 100% trustworthy and reliable, and asking to check the bass before handing over money is 100% how any bass shop would do it, they're never going to take a risk on something sight unseen. Though if I was you, you're close enough to Leamington to justify taking the afternoon and going down there, rather than risking couriers or worrying about sending your bass to a stranger.