LukeFRC

Shot up loads in last few years - though some of that I think is down to macro economic stuff as much as anything. If a brand new stingray is now £3k that kinda makes sense. I was thinking about buying a 60s fender two or three years back… I didn’t because… - prices were starting to mental and I quickly couldn’t afford it - I was spotting a lot of behaviour that I would file under “dishonest”… eg I almost bought a refin ‘65P from someone I could trust (and should have really, we were only £200 apart), it popped up again a few months later as ‘all original’ at triple the price… I almost bought another off an old guy on eBay with a hideous refin and really distinct damage on the headstock… a few weeks later that neck appeared on reverb on another body as “all original” - and the top end of the market will always have value and collectorability, also there will be also great sounding instruments which will have value because of they sound great… but I was reading an article the other day about people leaving expensive antique furniture to family in their wills and it ending up getting binned… because the following generations live in smaller houses and flats - the things that one generation values isn’t necessarily what the next will - and you are banking on millennials and younger not only playing bass but also valuing the 60s golden years of their grandparents generation as worth the extra over something made new. Again the top end of the market won’t be affected but I don’t think you can gaurentee values are going to rise constantly- (esp when all the generation meantioned with massive guitar collections start dying and all those guitars come onto the market…)

Didn’t vintage guitar prices dip after the 2008 crash?

Looks cool - matching headstock would be nice too - does it have binding? Dark wood would look good with a white binding line. Actually dark wood would look good full stop

If I were advising young players I would be suggesting if they have to splash out a secondhand AtelierZ, Shuker, roadworn fender or something, just play the thing, have fun making music and keep saving for your deposit on a house…

cheers for the reply

So when you’re building an instrument suggesting pickups and electronics are standard, do you kinda have an idea of ballpark tone it will have based on the spec, or is there a bit of a unknown till it all comes together? I’m not really trying to start the tonewood debate but the degree to which you control the whole thing through the build process? sorry jumping on you as “ask the expert”!

this is OT but it is quite amazing how much difference our playing can make. My main bass for years was super bright sounding - so my fingers learned to bring out more low end. Give my bass and amp setup to a mate of equal level and he's getting so much more top end and a different attack on the notes for fingerstyle played in the same position.

are you suggesting that everyone's been focused on a Wal as the magic ingredient ... and the tone is all in his fingers?

yeah but they have a sound, and if you really want that sound they are the only option. As well as this they also have a recognisable recipe setup, set number of body shapes, mahogany body with a top, with maple/mahogany/sometimes hornbeam neck and rosewood or ebony board.... you buy one Wal Mk1-3 you can expect it to sound much the same as the ones your bass heros did... Who else uses filter preamps as their thing? Alembic, Wal, ACG Which builders use multi coil pickups? Wal, ACG, Ovation(?), Atlansia So it comes down to Wal, or ACG who aren't trying to clone the Wal sound, who's preamp sounds different and who doesn't have the recognisable repeatable recipe of what they do. I tried a Uber ACG once, it had Wenge and bubinga neck and board and I think a wedge and bubinga body... it sounded glorious but probably more in common with a Warwick thumb than a Wal. So while ACG are lovely and I would like to own one... I wouldn't know what I was getting if I bought a secondhand Uber spec one... which is going to keep the price down... Then add a price bump when Wal stopped making them, a lack of supply when they started up again... and the fact that after a certain point the relative cost is irrelevant - I grew up in Essex and I know for a fact that like-for-like my house would cost double on the outskirts of Chelmsford as it would on the outskirts of Leeds... my better made, better sounding, friendlier Northern alternative just isn't what some people want. So they stump up the money and buy a Wal.

I wouldn't have a problem with the look of that bass at all. However if I sold all my basses I would still probably be short.... so it's not really going to happen.

Eude - if you have something to apply the eq curve Funkle was playing with on page 8 of this thread... how does that sound ?

Isn't strength the main reason?

depends. There's some people on here that the answer would be yes too. There's some pro working bass players the answer would be yes too, on the basis that they were big grown up people wanting to borrow a professional tool. Ideally I would be interested in the music and get on the guest list as a thank you. My mates mate who's got someone coming over and needs an instrument, when I don't know them, the music or the level of professionalism ... probably not

While I sadly haven’t lived in Edinburgh for coming up to a decade now, it still feels like home… so that’s no bonafides to being able to take part in this thread… I struggled with tips for IEM for a while, with comply tips I was getting good but not great isolation, and a tendency to work loose if moving around - some triple flange silicon ones are surprisingly good, stay in place and easier to clean. (And way cheaper/longer lasting) so worth a try

Near retail price as it’s been “extensively upgraded” with a quarter pounder and a different colour scratchplate… or sellers who tell me the price of how much some tech charged them to fit the set of strings (on an electric bass) and then expect that cost to be added to their asking price…

I get frustrated that the idea that for any given year Fender Japan made basses over a wide range of price points ... yet when they come over here all the attributes of the most desirable ones get given to all of them... For instance, some of the first run of Squier JV Stratocasters reportedly had US parts, for a short while.... yet how often have you seen Fender JV basses being sold with "US pickups and hardware"??! All the bloody time

"I love this and it's the best bass I've ever played but..." - when you know they bought it off eBay/gumtree a month ago for £800 less than they are trying to sell it for.

I honestly think if you can play it competently the bass you play is pretty much irrelevant for vollenteering to join a local church’s band. 5 strings does let you transpose keys easier. and (controversially maybe) a simple bass to mix for vollenteer PA teams is a bonus vs the gear geekery you find on basschat. I tend to grab my Sadowsky J most the time at church - mainly as it’s easy to mix. The Warwick streamer with ACG preamp I used to have sounded amazing solo, but was a pain to get in the mix right. that said I use a hx stomp as a amp and use a high pass filter to cut off the top and bottom - again to make it easier to sit in the mix

I went to art school so we were all into our art and up-to-date on the current market. A lass on our course spent a fair bit of her student loan on a series of signed Banksy prints and I remember her being absolutely ripped to shreds one drunken evening by some of the other guys for both not being 'working class'*, and wasting so much money on rubbish graffiti art. Years later she sold them and bought a house. * whatever that means.

After noticing this I suddenly remembered I tried a Rickenbacker in 2018!

You didn’t know Jesus used to read the Melody Maker?