Jono Bolton

A top eBay tip (which I think I read on here) is to filter your searches by newly listed. That way, if anything has a low Buy It Now price you'll see it first. I did that when I was looking for a Matt Freeman, and got it for £195 BIN within an hour or it having been put on the site.

Even though I look on it all the time, I can't imagine buying a bass from eBay ever again; I've had too many hassles with either items not being as described, or even getting a seller to ship an item. I bought my P Bass from eBay and although it was a bargain, it took me nearly two weeks to convince the seller to ship it (he had listed it with a shipping option BTW, which I paid for, but he didn't seem keen to do it and at one point offered me a refund and said that he only put a shipping option "as a favour"). Gumtree is good for buying. I've bought a Squier Classic Vibe 60s Precision for £160, amongst other things, and recently saw a Cimar Strat copy and an Ibanez SB 70 for £80 and £50 respectively, but missed out on both. Stuff occasionally shows up on the cheap, but you have to move fast to get it. I've found selling on Gumtree to be a total horror show, with low-ball offers and trades for absolute garbage. There's one person in particular who always contacts me when I list a bass, offering me about two-thirds of the asking price, saying that he can come straight over to collect it. Every time. I know from trades he's offered me in the past that he picks up stuff from Gumtree and sells it on again a week later, usually at an inflated price. Selling on Facebook groups is no better either; no one wants to pay a reasonable price for anything.

I'll jump in as the Matt Freeman has been my main bass for a few years now. If you want to replace the tuners, [b]Schaller BMLs[/b] will drop straight in. That's not the 70s-style BMFLs, it's the ones with the same plate shape as your stock ones, so no filling or drilling required. It's a pricey option though. Personally, I wouldn't change them. I only put the Schallers on mine as I'd broken one of the keys. I couldn't source a single replacement, and Fender would only sell me a full set, and I found a used set for less. I actually found the stock tuners to hold the tuning better than the Schallers, and were smoother to turn as well. The pickup is a personal thing. I had 2 Matt Freemans at one point and one had a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder fitted when I received it. I took it straight out and put the original back in. My advice would be to see how you get on with it before dropping any more money on it. The bridge is pretty substantial as well, so unless the string spacing is an issue I can't see how a replacement would be any better. Although the bass has mini pots and fairly basic wiring, I've gigged and recorded with mine for the last 2 years and never had a problem. It's dead silent in terms of background hum/hiss too. Oh, and I paid £195 for mine

65-130. I throw away the G from a 5-string set.

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone know if Guy Lewis is still in business? I'd love an ebony tug bar for my CV 50s Precision but can't find any in the UK.

Offt, I've been thinking about these a lot recently. Not overly keen on black, but it looks in good nick, although I swore I'd never buy an instrument from ebay again.

I got this at the start of October, a Squier Classic Vibe 50s Precision that I traded a CV 60s Precision for. The scratchplate is new, there original had been painted black (badly) and was a bit of a mess so had to be binned. Luckily this is a proper Squier replacement, and looks pretty good. It's got a fat neck and is quite heavy, but it plays nicely. I'm not sure whether I'll keep it or not though.

[quote name='bassmachine2112' timestamp='1482929053' post='3203558'] HihoThanks for that.,The body is identical to my 84 apart from the colour as you say,the neck has a 92 serial and feels fatter a bit more a D shape than a C. Any idea what the body wood is. I,ve gigged this one a few times already and it plays like a good yin,got that ferrite snarl like my other one-happy days. Did you like playing it. [/quote] No idea what the body wood is, I've heard a few different claims including maple, ash and poplar. I preferred the older body as it was heavier than the one the neck was originally attached to. The bass in it's original state was prone to neck dive as the body was so light. It balances well enough now from what I remember. I didn't really play it much as the neck is too slim for my tastes. I spent ages putting it all together only to get a P Bass in the meantime that I favour over everything else. I had bought the Foundation as my very first bass was a Foundation in red so it was bought out of nostalgia. I did like the sound however, the super ferrites are great.

That's my old bass; it's not a '92. The neck is from around that time but the body was knackered so I bought the body, wiring and bridge from the states. The body is one of the earliest ones; the solid shaft pots mean it would have had the T-40-style pots which only appeared on the very first ones around '83 or so. It's also a different body shape to the later models.

My Matt Freeman has a gloss neck and I've never though it was problem. In fact, when I'm playing, I found that if my hand's sweaty it slides around effortlessly. Maybe I'm sweating too much! My pal's recording studio currently has a VM Jazz with a satin neck that I didn't care for. I like the amber tint on the gloss neck as well.

DPD are excellent; things arrive when they say they will and you can track your parcel every step of the way. They'll even tell you they name of the delivery driver.

Amazing! Thanks!

I got the paint off the body of the bass using nail polish remover, but any suggestions on the scratchplate? It's very thick.

As it turns out, the scratchplate on the 50s Precision is white and has been painted black. What would be the best method to try and remove it? Some of it got on to the bass itself underneath the plate, how can I get it off without damaging the poly finish?

I decided earlier in the year that I was going to reduce my stuff and managed to get down to 2 basses and an amp, cab and tuner. The second bass only made its way in as it was ridiculously cheap on Gumtree, so one is kept at home and one in the studio. I even sold my rack and replaced it with a single mini-stand so there's nowhere to put new basses. After years spent buying and selling and picking up stuff I don't need it was quite cathartic to eventually get rid of everything surplus to requirements. It's also refreshing to have gear that works as I've almost always had some sort of project on the go that never quite makes it to completion.

Had fun with this the other day...

Spotted on the Wunjo Instagram; a white Precision and a black Jazz: https://instagram.com/p/BKdHK8iB5UK/

Squier Matt Freeman > Peavey Mark IV > Peavey 215 came in at less that £450. If I swap the Matt Freeman out for my Classic Vibe it's a £400 rig. It's heavy, in both senses of the word. I love it.

I don't know how useful this is to you, but my Peavey 2x15 has two Behringer active PA subs in it. They don't sound very much like traditional 15s though, they're full-range drivers so have bags of clarity which no one expects (myself included). I can't imagine they'd be expensive, but I also can't imagine they'd be easy to find either.