tauzero

Having contacted the seller (after missing seeing the auction in the first place) and going and having a play on it, this is a very high quality bass. Nice sound, with lots of control (vol, blend, treble, bass boost, mid with sweep, coil-tap switch) but the neck was just a bit too chunk for me. I think it's a similar sort of chunkiness to a Spector (but I haven't played one of them for a little while).

Even that JB is still there.

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1326285916' post='1494890'] How about basschat+1, so we can join in with particularly heated exchanges we just missed out on? [/quote] Bah, ibtl.co.uk has gone.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1326415240' post='1497101'] Somebody needs to play that bass. Because, looking at the lack of wear and tear, it hasn't been played for a very long time. [/quote] Alternatively, it's been properly looked after rather than being carried around in a bin-bag and used to hammer tent pegs in. The blowtorch-and-sander "professional" relickers should be forced to take a good hard look at what a 50 year old bass can look like.

Just realised, it's very local to me. Can't think of any local bassists who own it though.

Nine days to go and the R-word in the auction title? That's a gonner...

Currently at £1-50, that would be a bargain.

He's put an amendment on the listing which seems reasonable, although the original description (but not the title) says it's Fender. I think it would have been more reasonable to pull and relist, but there you go.

iAmp 800 purchased from John - all very painless, he sorted out the packing and I sorted out the courier, good communications, and kettle lead included

Get an Ashbory, pair of headphones, and a 1/4" jack to 3.5mm jack lead to plug into the laptop for your practice amp.

PMT do the Peaveys, which is handy for your credit note. I preferred the neck on the Grind to that on the Cirrus (just) when I did a mammoth 5-string comparison at PMT in Brum a while ago.

Got about as far as learning that middle C is the note by the keyhole on the piano that we had in the house (my dad was a reasonable pianist, probably influenced by my grandfather having been an organ builder). Got about as far as learning that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star played the way I did it on vioin sounded more like a cat being tortured. Then my brother got an acoustic guitar and I kept borrowing it and learnt a bit, then got my own electric (a Vox Stroller) and learnt a bit more. Started playing rhythm guitar with a band at school, playing Glenn Miller stuff. I'd got as far as a Les Paul copy when I went to university, and joined up with a few others in the same hall of residence to form a band. As the other guitarist was a bit better than me and we needed a bassist and the Fender Soundhouse had just had a fire and Hayman had gone out of business, I bought lots of bits of Hayman 40/40 and put it together. Played a gig that actually got us some money then dropped out of university. Took me a little while after that to restart musically, and I finished up on bass as my main instrument. I still play guitar too, and own a keyboard (which I am by no means proficient on, and there isn't a keyhole so I don't know where middle C is).

He's selling a motorcycle lift as well. Does anyone fancy asking if it would lift a 2004 Ford Focus?

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1325767486' post='1487274'] I guess that's possible, but in that case the bass is sold, according to their website. But would an established US firm really be selling a bass on the London craigslist? With a price in Sterling? [/quote] Perhaps they thought they were advertising in London, Minnesota. The old birmingham.misc newsgroup used to attract an awful lot of Yanks who assumed that it was for Birmingham, Alabama.

Right... Happy Jack's (which was subsequently mine, and is now with another BCer) is a Guild Mk I. De Armond/Fender went on to re-release the Mk I with better tuners (not the friction type of the Guild Mk I). The Guild and De Armond are very similar, and are the Mk I. Ashbory went on to produce the Mk II. This is what's being auctioned off - it's 22" scale, a different body shape, 2-a-side (and different again) tuners, and there were something like 73 made. However, there doesn't seem to be a huge demand for them despite their rarity - mine (good condition, a couple of small chips to the paint) cost me around a third of what this auction is starting at, and I was the only bidder. I have seen a neck/body sold a little while back (I think for somewhere round £100). They have been known to fetch silly prices though. I think there are a very very small number of natural finish ones, and I think they'd go for a lot.

I use a 5 with the covers bands and a 4 with the ceilidh band. I also use a 6 now and again with one of the covers bands. I do occasionally have momentary string confusion, although I'm more likely to get confused when playing on the D and G of the 6-string if I forget I've got to move down one more string than normal.

Another vote for the Thumb NT for me. At nearly £40 a fret back in 1987, they had to make it so you could use all of them.

I was watching Fifth Gear earlier, and the bloke with the Hitler moustache on his chin was going on about the rugged good looks of Landrover's concept replacement for the Defender, so I think there's a target market for taste-impaired twats with Hitler goatees. As evidence, I present the concept car in question:

[quote name='simon1964' timestamp='1324207166' post='1471707'] I'm probably being thick, but how can you tell it was ended early? I read it as the winning bid being £67? [/quote] I don't think it would have been £67. It's ended because the item has been sold - so the offer to buy (which would have been for more than £67) was made through That Ebay and accepted through That Ebay. Er, I think. PS. If the auction had gone through to completion, the orange bit would have said "Bidding has ended on this item".

And me.

You'd have thought that he'd have thought to mention the J pickup which has mysteriously materialised, possibly as part of the defretting process (who knows what rituals professional defretifiers go through to achieve their aims?)

That's so annoying, I completely forgot about this - only remembered a few minutes ago, which is a few days too late really.

"For J pegs contact [email protected]" Ah, the curse of fonetik spelling...

Looks like someone who'd once seen a Gordon Smith was drunk in charge of a bandsaw.