bassaussie

PM sent Thursday. Would just like to know if you're interested or not.

[quote name='chris_b' post='666056' date='Nov 26 2009, 12:37 PM']When all the original 59's have reached really stupid money .....[/quote] I thought they already had!!

Wow! What an amazing instrument to see for sale on Basschat. These questions will get asked sooner or later, so I might as well throw them up now. What's the situation with all the hardware? Is it all original, or which parts have been replaced? Are there any routs or repairs on the instrument? Other than the refin, of course. Do you have any other pictures? Other than that ..... um, wow!!

[quote name='Gwilym' post='660565' date='Nov 20 2009, 10:37 PM']when I sold this to Aussiephoenix it had the original Sadowsky single coil pups in the bass. As I recall, the pickup covers have the Sadowsky logo on them. From memory the weight was closer to 10 than 9.[/quote] I thought 10 was about right. When I was talking to Aussiephoenix about this, I thought the best description was that it wasn't a lightweight like a NYC Sadowsky, but it also wasn't a heavyweight like a 70s Jazz. It's in the middle area between those, and 10lb would be around that area.

[quote name='Flanker' post='649822' date='Nov 9 2009, 05:59 PM'].... - it was one of Adrian Garcia's basses. ......[/quote] Really? I never knew that. That was very sad when he passed away, he came across as a really nice bloke.

I've played this bass a few times at Aussiephoenix's place, and it's an awesome bass. The thing that really struck me was how comfortable it is to play. I'm more of a 4 string player, but with this bass, I found myself noodleing around fairly easily, and it was easy to forget I was playing a 5. The B string on it is really nice as well, although that's something I've noticed with every Sadowsky 5 string I've played.

I don't know if this info will help, but I'll add it anyway. The Bantam line was introduced in Australia around 1984 or so. Thing is, I can remember a guy buying a regular one (single neck) either in 1984 or 85, and I can still remember the price, which was AU $800. Reason I remember the price is that I was absolutely mesmerised by the original Steinberger bass around that time, and that was selling for $2400 in Australia. When the Bantam came along, and also the Riverhead version, they were both priced around the same area, $800 or so (the Riverhead was a bit more expensive, say $900) and I was stunned that they could give the same features for 1/3 of the price (I didn't know a lot about basses back then!! ) . I can also remember the price for a Hondo Alien, another attempt at a headless design, and that was around $450. So, I checked on the Reserve Bank of Australia website, and for 1984/5, the Aussie dollar to GBP fluctated between 70p down to 50p. Which gives a range for the bass of £400-£550. This is probably not a bad guestimate for the UK value, as UK would've reflected similar import duties and taxes as the Aussie price. Since Bassassin's RRP from the US indicates that the double neck was around 50% more, that would suggest a price range of around £600-£800. Now, how any of that will impact the current value, I don't know (and to be quite honest, I don't really think it has any bearing at all), but I think it might help in guessing what the original value might've been. I've seen a few of the single neck basses sell in the US over the last few years, and they don't come along all that often. Thing is, even though they're rare and people are always interested in them, they don't command huge "vintage value" prices. Here's a few from Talkbass, they were easy enough to find by doing a search. [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=549491&highlight=bantam"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.p...ighlight=bantam[/url] [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348656&highlight=bantam"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.p...ighlight=bantam[/url] An actual double neck. Started at $1250, down to $1000. [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290444&highlight=bantam"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.p...ighlight=bantam[/url] I hope this helps. If this post in any way contravenes forum rules, I'll happily remove it.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='594398' date='Sep 9 2009, 11:35 PM']Well today was interesting. As well as on basschat I stuck it this bass up on gumtree (advertised for a higher price) this guy is very interested, rings up and we chat, lots of 'whats your lowest price you can do' chat, so tell him, option with a case option without a case. he drives from an adjacent town to come have a look at it. apparently as it is so damaged with dents on it (you can see them in the pictures) he doesnt want it. Goes away- then starts trying to talk me down via text, 'aw ill do it for £xxx', oh 'all do it for £xxx and throw in a squier' and that. The fact is if he had made me towards his last offer to start with I would have taken it happily! As it is it's just a bit annoying, maybe on gumtree folk barter more but it's just a daft, it has no concept of how much the thing is possibly worth. It seems like some wierd capitalist form of polite bullying. Thing is I am a stubbon obstonant person, and maybe importantly don't actually need the money at the moment. I was chatting to my wee brother and think I may lend it to him. (I tell the guy 'sorry but no, my brother is going to be taking it', he still then ups his bid... scheesh, he wasnt a very good player either!) It all makes me realise how nice and respectful of each other we are on here! The worst ive had with folk here is someone giving me a daft low offer to which I said no. It's nice we respect each other. It's been an honour to be offered a trade on some of the basses I've been offered! Anyway, I bought this bass as warwickhunt had it for sale and i loved the look of it, sold my status shark bass (the one doing the rounds on here), saved up (working on minimum wage at that point) and then pestered him (he had decided to keep it at that point) until he sold it to me. It is an amazing bass, the only reason I have it up for sale is as I found a natural wood one (sept 1991) which I prefer the sound too. The natural one was cheap enough that I don't need the money at the moment, and as such I'm taking ol' bluey down from sale for now. I'll hang on to it untill the time I need the cash, for a car or engagement ring or food or whatever. However, this is basschat, and most of you are good people; so as I did to warwickhunt, feel free to pester me if you want to cross my palm with silver and take ol' bluey out for a ride every night. Cheers Luke[/quote] Good for you Luke. This sort of technique has been around since buying and selling began, but it seems to have been stepped up quite a bit lately as buyers test sellers to see if the seller is a victim of the current economy or not. I just had a situation that was sort of related to the same issue. I recently decided to sell a few of my basses, not because I need the money, but because I wanted to clear some space in my house. I'd spoken with one chap a few weeks about one of the basses, and he was very excited about the instrument, but did the old "oh, I'm so poor, no money at present" routine, and all went quiet. A few days back, he offered me 1/2 of my asking price for the bass (note that the original price wasn't some grand adventure in profiteering, I'd researched it quite well, and made sure it was very competitive). To be honest, it could've gone two ways for me, I could've been very offended, or I could've just laughed, and fortunately I felt the second way. I wrote back and asked why I would silly enough to cut my price in half, but thanked him for the offer anyway. Seriously, I'm glad you stuck to your guns on this, even if he did make a decent offer.

[quote name='eubassix' post='588453' date='Sep 3 2009, 11:38 AM']SOLD (on ebay @ £410)[/quote] That's very impressive. I bet the buyer is non-UK based, though, as the weakness of the pound is making it easier for non-UK buyers to throw larger values at UK items. Still, for the Eubassix (and any other UK sellers), it's brilliant.