bassaussie

On 04/04/2020 at 15:36, Stingray5 said:

L to R: Music Man Stingray 5 (1989) - Music Man Stingray fretless (2001) - Fender Jazz (USA Standard) (1998) - Tokai JazzSound fretless (198?).

L to R: Westone Thunder II fretless (1981/82) - Westone Thunder II (1981/82) - Tune SWB4-BB (200?)* - Tune TWB-6 (1991)
*(Note - photo of the Tune SWB4-BB is not to the same scale as the other photos. Body size is similar to the TWB-6)

The Westone basses are lovely looking instruments.

They look like this wonderful combination of Alembic, BC Rich and Aria Pro II.

5 hours ago, alyctes said:

What he doesn't know is the number of people (like me) who take one look and go "Why would I want to deal with this guy??!" and avoid him like the plague thereafter.

Mate, I agree with you, 100%. I've seen his auctions for years, and I would never consider dealing with him. But some people do, for whatever reason, so his ploy seems to work.

9 hours ago, yorks5stringer said:

The reason he posts things like this is to get people to visit his website. He's very fond of listing firewood, and as it shows here, it gets a reaction.

I'd agree with this. He puts trainwrecks on Ebay, we all talk about, then we all go to look at what else he has.

It's just a perverse form of advertising that seems to work, because he's done this for years.

I always thought this was such an incredible instrument, in the way it completely defied all the traditional ways to look at a bass.

It was made by a Swiss luthier named Claude Pagelli in the 1990s. There's some information about it on his website

http://www.pagelli.com/e-guitars-innovations.html

Look for "Golden Fretless". He also has some nice close up shots of the instrument.

Ironically, I mainly play Fender or that style of instrument, which I love, and I'm woeful on fretless, despite numerous attempts at trying to master it!

11 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Just about now, some insufferable know-all is going to steam in and say it was made by Fujigen Gakki, not Terada and will someone please correct the pernicious rubbish spread by the bloody Guitar Dater Project before it gets fire-bombed by militant vintage MIJ guitar fans.

But not me, guv.

I will say a couple of things though - it's not a Blazer, I think it's a Roadstar II RB630. The horns are a slightly different shape and it doesn't have the chunky brass bridge you'd find on a Blazer.

It's a bit messed around but is worth a little more than £30 - Pity someone's butchered the headstock, but it looks otherwise intact, & with a clean and new strings/a decent setup it'd probably fetch £150 or so.

I think if it was mine I'd reshape the headstock to look more like the original 1980 Blazer style. Just to confuse people like me.

About the bridge, it's not the original bridge. It's a Schaller 3D.

1 minute ago, Muppet said:

Yeah I looked them up too!! 

Thank God I'm not the only one who did that!

You know what they've done, right? The actual logo should have two rows of patent numbers. They've simply taken the bottom row, and hoped no one would look at the actual numbers.

1 hour ago, prowla said:

My guess is the original neck failed and this is a replacement.

The thing which I don't quite get is "and strings from the base shop london where the base would have been bought" - huh?

The pickups don't work, so it's a project.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

Also, according to the patent numbers on the headstock, this is actually a Fender Jaguar guitar, not a Precision bass!

12 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Bit of a stretch calling it a Fodera copy, apart from the headstock shape - it's a really good-looking bass. Just like Foderas aren't.

That's what I was thinking. I think he's doing it a disservice by saying that - it might be somewhat inspired by that brand, but given that 95% of the basses on the market are inspired by something else, what difference does that make?

I had a friend who used one of these as his main gigging bass for quite a while. Definitely one of the better copies from that era (you know - the "Lawsuit" period!!!! ).

I'm not a huge fan of the Fenders that were made around this time (say mid 70s to well into the 80s), and it always makes me laugh to think that people back then would derisively smirk at the "Jap Crap" that was being produced in Asia (mostly Japan), when in fact, a good percentage of those instruments were far better than the Fenders being made (and other major brands, in fairness - Gibson certainly falls into this category). I guess it was just the mentality at the time - we'd always believed that the Asian brands were inferior (not just with musical instruments, but generally), and that the European or American brands would always be better.

16 minutes ago, Alberto Rigoni said:

I’m asking to various vintage shop seller or expert.. 

Alberto, I think that's a wise decision, but I'd be inclined to go a step further, and ask for documentary proof of what the dealer/expert says about the bass. It might cost you some money to get an evaluation done, but given the value of the instrument, it would seem a good investment for you if it means you can sell the bass at the price you want, and at the same time be able to provide proof to any potential buyer that the instrument is everything you're saying it is. At present, there seems to be a lot of "maybe it's this, maybe it's that" on this thread, and while these things are possibly fun to discuss on the internet amongst people with no connection to the instrument, for you, each question translates to a devaluation of the price you can ask. If you have documentary proof, then you can provide an answer to all these questions.

I had to check the photos half a dozen times to convince myself that wasn't photoshopped.

That's just weird.

Is it heavy?

Sorry - couldn't help myself.

That's a brilliant looking body, it's amazing it looks so clean after so many years.

TE made guitar speakers in that shape, but with 3x12 speakers. I had a bit of a Google, and the model was the SC312.

I even found some old ads with Richie Sambora endorsing these with an accompanying head, the TVT9

On 12/11/2019 at 22:47, AlexJMcGibbon said:

Previous owner claimed it was originally a fretless converted to fretted, but I'm not sure I'd have known if they hadn't told me! Otherwise, the only non original components are the preamp toggle and jack socket, which I swapped out as they were crackling a little (originals included though).

If this is correct, I'm pretty sure that would mean the model of the bass would actually be MC940DS, not MC924DS.

Regardless, it's a great bass. Hope you do well with the sale.

What do you think of the price? Only asking as I own an L2, and I have no idea what it's worth.

47 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Beautiful!

Isn't it just? 👍 Amazing top.

On 12/10/2019 at 09:14, ped said:

..... unfortunately did not get a chance to fully consider your application.  ....
 

This wording is dreadful. There's absolutely nothing positive to be taken from it, whereas there's multiple ways to take it negatively.

You said you feel you may've dodged a bullet. I think you might be right. If they can get something as simple as a rejection letter wrong, imagine what else they can get wrong.

That's great that you put the two ads side by side, I'd wanted to do the same, but got lazy! But it clearly shows they were the same instruments.

I remember the first time I saw Cimar in Australia. I clearly remember the Blazer type headstock with the Ibanez styled logo (not the Mk I, the later style), and the salesman saying "this is a budget line from Ibanez". I know why this stuck with me, because this was just after I started playing, and a Blazer guitar or bass was what most kids wanted when they couldn't afford a Fender. This would've been around 1981, 1982, something like that, so that somewhat matches with the dates that website has. I think it might've been the black Bass (2210) in #6, because I remember thinking how strange it was to put a P bass pickup in a Jazz bass body (as a 13 year old kid I clearly wasn't the most lateral thinking when it came to bass designs!!). I know Cimar also released a guitar that loosely looked like the famous Charvel star design. If you do a Google search for "Cimar Star guitar" it's easy to find, but I don't know the model number.

I saw other examples of Cimars over the years, but I don't think they were hugely common in Australia.

On 11/10/2019 at 23:19, bubinga5 said:

Well the story starts from my Sei. Some might know that I sold it. To Carlsim on BC who is a total gent and a very cool guy.

Said bass was posted too Carl. Carl then got in contact with me. I posted in my advert that the preamp was a a UNI Pre. I meant to say it was a U Retro Deluxe but I advertised it wrong. My fault of course. Well after a few PMs back and forth Carl worked out that it wasn't either. It was actually a J Retro Deluxe. BUT the bell plate when it was fitted was not installed, so I presumed it was a U Retro Deluxe. Confusion much so. 

Anyway it was a pain in the derrière for Carl because he had paid for a bass that wasn't what he expected. So I sent him some money to get the Preamp that he wanted which he wanted being the UNI pre.lets hope it fits we/he said.But all was cool. John East sent him a Uni pre and bless Carl. He un installed the J Retro and then fitted the Uni pre which he is happy with. Carl after a few PMs sent the preamp direct to John

I spoke to John East about this situation through numerous emails and on the phone throughout this situation which he always answered. I then spoke to John about getting a new Jazz bell plate for said  J Retro. He said on the phone that he had a plate no probs.

Now this is where John East is not just one of the greatest designers of possibly one of the best preamps for a bass on the market, but one of the most easy to get hold of nicest guys and one on one its like talking to your next door neighbour  . I spoke to him and he said to send him the preamp, he would give me a free plate from his stock that has a slight blemish, he would then rewire the preamp and fit new knobs.! FOR FREE.!! all I have to do is cover the postage..  I don't really need to add much to this. I dont want want to endorse asking John to give away free stuff, but what a guy and what a gesture.

 

For me first off this is what BC is about . Honesty, communication, and wanting other bass players to be happy with what you have sold them. But really its a big up to John East. What a gentleman.. 

Can I just point out something in this story that you mentioned, as part of the story background, but you didn't really focus on.

This came about because you made an honest mistake, and when confronted by it, you behaved honourably and did what you believed was the right thing to do. You didn't make a fuss, you showed respect, and helped the other person out. Often times this might not have happened, but for me, it was your actions here that initiated a very positive experience.

I'm a firm believer in the whole "karma" principal - you do something good, eventually you get that good energy back. In your case, it just happened a little quicker and more directly than normal.

Not trying to take credit from John East here, but you deserve some props here as well.

17 hours ago, Bassassin said:

And no, the Cimar's definitely not Ibanez - like Cimar, Ibanez is a brand, not a manufacturer so it can't be. Both brands were owned by Hoshino Gakki Ten, but I don't think the Cimar was made by Fujigen, who made Ibanez at the time. I've had a few Cimars and there are significant differences & things you wouldn't see on a Fujigen. Age-wise it's from about 1980, and is likely a pretty decent bass.

Could you clarify something for me. One thing I notice with Cimars is that they used two headstock designs that were identical to headstocks used by Ibanez. What's the background on this?

The first is the one in the Ebay link from pete.young. I think Cimar had some guitars and basses called the "Stinger" which they used this headstock on, and Ibanez used it on very early Blazers (and generally, there's a distinct similarity between the Stinger and early Blazers).

Later, they changed to a headstock that is well known as being the later Blazer style, also used on Roadsters.

I found this page, which shows the headstocks I'm talking about.

http://www.guitar-letter.de/Knowledge/History/DieGeschichteDesJazzBassBeiCimar.htm

Go to section #5. Also note the wonderful stringing on the bass with the blue strings!

5 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

How many times does this subject have to come up before people finally cotton on?

ALL of these barking mad listings are, essentially, (virtually) free advertising and clickbait. He's not crazy, or if he is then he's crazy like a fox. It costs him peanuts to list these things at stupid prices, nobody buys them so he doesn't have to pay any commission to eBay, and then people like us spray the listing across the Internet and advertise all the other, sensible, reasonably-priced stuff that he sells.

It's a very canny business model, and I don't understand why so many Basschatters struggle with it.

 

Good point.

18 hours ago, KK Jale said:

I have long wished there was a way to block music-outlet-shop from appearing on ebay searches...

I've seen his Ebay auctions for years - I would imagine it has to be at least 10 years or more. I cannot figure out how he stays in business. He has to spend money on each auction, so unless he likes spending that money for no reason, then somebody must be buying stuff from him.

So that would be my question - what sort of person buys his stuff? For the life of me I cannot imagine why anyone would buy the garbage he advertises.

4 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

I must have missed that 😂

It's actually a pre-L screw, dating to 1963, or could be 1964. Many people confuse these, as the width of the cross on the head is .95782344 mm for both years. The only way to tell the difference is to measure the depth of the cross - for 1963, it's 1.09761524mm, for 1964 it's 1.09761522mm.

People who know their Fenders can hear the difference, there's clearly more depth in the sound of the 1963 screw.

I actually love the placement of the stickers on the headstock. It's like they've gone to the internet, made a list of every sticker they could see, sourced those, and said "right, where can we put these"! It's hilarious.

6 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

After a closer look, everything 😁

Not true. One of the screws on the scratch plate looks right.