lowregisterhead

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ELECTRIC-GUITAR-PROJECT/254447037865

The neck is certainly from a Black Eagle... the slot in the headstock has been filled in and re-shaped. Why oh why??

That's interesting, but even if there were genuine legal grounds, it would make absolutely no difference in the real world. People want what they want. Over the many years I've been playing I've been 'discriminated against' on the basis of looks, fashion sense, taste in music, hair length, age, skin colour, and instrument choice, to name just a few. But it was ever thus, and shows no signs of change, in fact in terms of undercutting on price, it's been getting much worse over the last few years. Not a profession for the faint hearted!

It's 17mm spacing at the bridge.

Yes, I think that's very likely. It sounds great, whatever it is!

Not sure, I had a look on the back, but there are no markings. I had another 55-76 a few years ago, and it had the same. I imagine the exposed pole pieces were to mimic the Stingray look, and possibly get a more similar tone. A Bartolini wouldn't have the same bark, IMO.

What about birthdays, anniversaries, Easter and Thanksgiving?!? :-)

I'm by no means sure I really want to do this, but I'm tentatively offering for sale my very rare Lakland 55-76 Deluxe. This bass is the holy grail for Stingray fans who would like a wider string spacing and 35" scale! The bass has a Teal burst finish over a flame maple top, maple neck with ebony fingerboard, and 19mm spacing at the bridge, with thru-body or bridge stringing. It also has a removable Stingray-style see-thru scratchplate. Weight is 4.3kg. I bought it a while ago from a guy in the Netherlands as a fretless, and had it fretted by a very skilled luthier who has the distinction of having re-fretted some of Peter Green's guitars, so I knew it was in pretty safe hands. The result was astonishing - the ebony board has been polished until you can see your face in it, literally. Not surprisingly, it also plays beautifully, and has that big, fat Stingray sound in spades, with the legendary Lakland B string. The oddity about this particular bass is that it has no serial number - the assumption is that it was made very early on, perhaps even the first or prototype of the model. This would place its date of manufacture at somewhere in the mid-90's, when Lakland was still in its infancy. Although it will certainly be US made, it also doesn't have the usual 'Made in the USA' stamp on the back of the neck, giving more credence to its early manufacture date. The tuners are Hipshot in design, but with no markings. I also have a Lakland 55-94 whose serial number dates it to 1998 that doesn't have the USA neck stamp, and has the same style of tuners. It's in excellent condition for a 20+ year old bass. There's a small crack in the lacquer next to the neck pocket, and a couple of tiny dings on the body that I've tried to show in the photographs, but otherwise it's in very good shape indeed. Now we come to the colour. I've tried photographing it with three different cameras, but it always comes out more blue than it appears to the naked eye - in reality it's closer to a Teal Green. Any interested parties are very welcome to pay me a visit to have a closer look at it. I'm near Woking in Surrey, a few minutes from junction 10 of the M25. The pickup is wired to a 3-way coil tap switch with a Bartolini NTMB-L918 3-band preamp with a push/pull volume pot for active/passive switching. I fitted the chrome knobs, but the original black rubberised ones are also included. The bass comes complete with a Hiscox Liteflite case. I believe that you can still get this model from Lakland as a special order, but with the build cost, deluxe burst finish, ebony fingerboard, Bartolini electronics, shipping and import duty, it would take several months and you wouldn't get much change out of 5K. Also (and I say this as a huge Lakland fan) in my opinion the older ones are just better made! Taking all that into consideration, I feel the price I'm asking of £2995 plus shipping is very fair. Payment by cash on collection or bank transfer/Transferwise only. Sorry, but I'm only looking for a straight sale, so no trade offers please.

For sale is a Steinberger Spirit XT-25 fretless. I bought this on the 'Bay a while ago, something of a spur-of-the-moment purchase. It's actually a lovely bass with great tone and playability, but I slightly overestimated my abilities on fretless, so it hasn't had a great deal of use! I know they say you should persevere with these things, but I'm getting old and cantankerous, and I'm looking for the path of least resistance these days... I can't seem to find a new fretless version of this bass online, and it's not listed on Steinberger's website as a option, so the fretless fingerboard may have been a custom addition. If so, whoever did the work made a nice job of it. It's in good used condition (see photos) with a lovely rosewood fingerboard, and everything works. It plays beautifully, and sounds great. Comes complete with its gig bag. The price is £275 including shipping within the UK. Sorry, but I'm after a straight sale, so no trade offers please.

For sale is my MTD Kingston Super 5, bought new from Bass Direct last year. It has huge amounts of tonal range from twin MM-style pickups with dual 3-way coil tap switches and 3-band eq. 35" scale with a great low B. Satin Black finish, Laurel fingerboard. There's a bit of finger swirl in the finish below the strings, but otherwise it's in excellent condition. Here's a link to the specs: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/MTD_Super_5_DB_Maple.html It had a tiny amount of neck dive when I bought it, so I upgraded the tuners to USA Hipshot Ultralites (£125 for the set) and it sits beautifully. The original tuners are also included in the sale. £725 including UK shipping. Sorry, but I'm looking for a straight sale, so no trades offers please.

For sale is a rare Parker Fly 5. I bought this on a bit of a whim earlier in the year, but I'm finding the string spacing is a bit tight for my gorilla mitts, so it's not getting the use it deserves. A huge tonal range from magnetic and piezo pickups, specs are below. A few small dinks, shown in the photos, but in very good overall condition. £1200 including UK shipping, contact me for shipping costs anywhere else. Collection from near Woking in Surrey welcome. Payment by cash on collection or bank transfer/Transferwise only please. Comes with Parker logo'd Levy's padded gig bag. Sorry, but I'm looking for a straight sale only, so no trade offers please. Specs: Sitka Spruce laminated body with Quilted Maple front and back, the neck is Mahogany wrapped in carbon fibre, the headstock is Curly Maple. The fretboard is glass and carbon fibre with stainless steel frets. Fretboard radius 10"-15", 34" scale. 24 medium size, hardened stainless steel frets, lightweight aluminum locking Sperzel® tuners. GraphTech® nut, width: 1.8". Mono-Rail II bridge with individual Fishman piezo pickups, gain of each adjustable from within the control cavity. 17mm string spacing at the bridge. 2 Custom DiMarzio Ultra Jazz™ hum-cancelling pickups with active Fishman EQ. Controls are: master volume, magnetic pickup volume, magnetic pickup pan, stacked magnetic active 2 band EQ, stacked piezo tone and volume.

Reminds me of a Vic & Bob quip on 'Shooting Stars'... "True or False? Jim Kerr of Simple Minds was in fact born in Spain, and was christened Juan..."

There are a few snippets of info on solo and collaboration work on his Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Forbes I was surprised when he sold his Wal on eBay a few years ago. As he had writing credits on quite a number of Simple Minds tracks, I'm sure he doesn't need the money!

There was some drop damage on the bottom corner which the seller had professionally repaired after he first offered it for sale last year. Looks like they did a good job.

I predict someone will 'repair' it with wood filler and it'll turn up in a branch of Crack Converters within 3 months...