sgt-pluck

Too much? I've lost contact with prices for vintage instruments. Offers?

Hello all - offering this up here on the forum from whence it came - some of you may recognise it.

It's my lovely 1981 Ibanez Blazer as upgraded many years ago by The Burpster. A few of us have owned it, including Basszilla, The Burpster obviously, Kennyrodg and myself - and so deserves to 'stay within the family'!

The bass is in nice condition for it's age, and was comprehensively upgraded with (I think) Schaller hardware everywhere, including the pups, machines and bridge.

It's a fantastic bass - low slinky action - great neck profile and from what I can remember has awesome tone. The whole machine reverberates in the most pleasing way when played.

Anyway - I stopped playing years ago and it's been in storage with the others for ages. I've just bought another bike to do up that I can't afford, so whilst it's a bit of a 'wrench' I really need to stop hoarding and let it go!

I'm pretty sure I paid £400 all those years ago, so lets try it at £350 plus shipping. I'd much, much prefer collection if you can do it - I'm not far from Guildford.

Comes with a so-so hard case.

Thanks for looking - BTW I'm away this weekend so if I don't get immediately back to you, that will be why.

Interested in a Tokai Jazz? Sent you a PM.

I don't like the look of that either FWIW. It would have to be a very good price for me to buy it - enough of a discount to cover the cost of a proper professional repair ( unlike that one by the look of it! ) to a snapped headstock....

Bit of a Japcrap bonanza on eBay at the moment! No less than 3 Tokia JS's, 3 decent Aria SB's plus others, a veritable forest of Westone, a couple of briefly repopular Hohner headless, a lovely BB1200 - whats going on?! Prices seem to have errrr, 'recovered' somewhat too - some scary numbers being plucked out the air... Shame, cos there's a couple of pieces I quite fancy amongst that lot!

Pluck

That site is down for me - it's not Mark E. Smith is it?

Pluck

Where abouts are you, how old is it and can you elaborate on it's condition / post more pics?

Thanks.

Neil

I would

Mind you, Fender QA around that time wasn't at it's peak by all accounts - that one has been well loved though.

Pluck

Looking very nice indeed.

Mmmmm. I think the ability of a given bass to sustain well has to be a good thing ultimately. But. I've often experimented with shoving bits of foam of varying firmness (word?) under the strings at the bridge to deliberately limit sustain. And I like it Don't play like that often though, to be fair.

Pluck

Yep that was great - I love people like him - inspirational.

Pluck

Sweet - don't forget to post pics/impressions

Pluck


[quote name='Bassassin' post='560951' date='Aug 5 2009, 10:17 AM']I'm now sorted out for a bridge thanks to The Bass Doc (Howard) so I'll probably be getting on with this sooner than I thought. I just need a 2-way mini switch (buttons on Ebay), one speed knob (spares box) and a control cover, which I can make.

J.[/quote]

Was that on eBay last week?! How did I miss that?! Nice buy. I've been looking out for one of they also - I have a the g****r version which is very nice. Last one I saw went, as you say, a good sum and far more than I would've expected for a little-known japcrap brand.

Funnily enough IIRC the last one I saw had a broken bridge also. I think I remember discovering that a few basses had the exact same bridge, the grabber-esque Hondo for example. Not inconcievable that a replacement may find it's way on to eBay?

Nice find.

Pluck

I saw that. I kind of think that if you know enough about basses to know that a '59' is an attribute of note in a Fender, then you might also recognise that NOT HAVING A NECKPLATE COULD BE AN ISSUE!!

Or.

Is it just the worst fake job ever?!

Or.

Is it stolen? I've a bass I bought off eBay years ago which has something like an Allparts neckplate, instead of the OE neckplate on which would have been the serial number. The bass is definately genuine, but I can't think of any reason for removing the neckplate (and therefore serial number) other than to anonymise the instrument?

Pluck

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='557718' date='Aug 1 2009, 12:31 PM']OK, here we go.

First, some reference shots against my 75 P:

[attachment=30065:CIMG0127.JPG]

[attachment=30066:CIMG0129.JPG]

[attachment=30067:CIMG0130.JPG]

[attachment=30068:CIMG0131.JPG]

Second, a complete set of Ibbypics can now be found at [url="http://tinypic.com/m/54vxb7/3"]http://tinypic.com/m/54vxb7/3[/url][/quote]

It's clearly superior to that rubbishy old Fender. Tell you what, I'll give you a couple of hundred for the Fender and that'll mean you got the Ibanez for free - how about that?!

Seriously though - that looks very nice indeed. I don't get on with fretless, otherwise we may have had a bit of a bidding war on our hands!

Pluck

Be very careful if it's nitro. One 'test' for finding out if your finish is nitro is to dab a cotton bud doused with nail varnish remover ( acetone ) under the bridge or somewhere inconspicuous. Nitro will dissolve in acetone.

Pluck

[quote]5. If you believe the price of the item is too cheap/expensive, then please PM the seller as to why. Do not ridicule or undermine the seller by posting how much you think it's worth or how much it can be gotten for elsewhere, the laws of supply and demand will determine if the item sells at that price.[/quote]

I don't understand why we can't ridicule folk on silly prices - you can on most other forums I visit ( within reason ). As the rules state, supply and demand will ultimately dictate the price - but why can't we have some fun in the meantime?! Plus, as this thread ably demonstrates, you can often tell quite a bit about a seller through his responses to queries on price, which ( to me at least ) is as important as the price itself.

Pluck

The obvious one is Solid Air but I'm a big fan of albums like Sundays Child and if you can find it, Live at Leeds. There's quite a bit of live BBC/OGWT stuff on youtube as well - well worth checking out to see two wonderful musicians at the top of their game totally sparkling off each other.

Enjoy!

Pluck

Have a listen to the inimitable Danny Thompson - especially what he did with John Martyn. No big solos but feel and tone all the way :-)

Pluck

Do you know what colour it was to begin with? If it was a solid colour, it's probably made up of errr 'less than pretty' slabs of wood and mightn't look so good natural. Having said that, a lot of Blazers were natural to begin with so it might look great back in it's original state.

[url="http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/lacquer.html"]This guy[/url] sells nitro in a rattle-can, and has some good tips too.

Good luck - be sure to post pics when it's done.

Pluck

[quote]Mate, only worth mentioning on this thread once it's passed the ten owners threshold[/quote]

In which case I'll mention it purely to make you floozies feel even worse

Pluck

My Blazer has been owned by at least two b'chatters. It has reached the end of it's journey now though

Pluck

This was on eBay a few days ago and didn't sell. I agree with Pete - I've got a BB1000 and I love it - beautifully made with some lovely touches like the detailing on the bridge. Relatively rare too. They just don't seem to get the love like some other jap brands.

Only weird thing about this one is that it definately does seem to have a Rosewood f/board yet all the specs I've ever seen list ebony - which mine is too. Still, not doubting it's originality and it's in lovely condition....

Pluck

Whenever I get a new bass, I always set it up with as low an action as I can ( just so that I know everything is tiggeddyboo ), then raise it up a little. I'm sure that even a bedroom levels the tone is better with a slightly higher action. Cheesegraters for the win!!

Pluck

Well the guy just sent me a pic of the headstock which shows the neck construction with the arched fretboard, so that confirms it for me.

Be interested to see how much this fetches in that kind of condition - would have been a very decent sum or year or so ago.

Pluck