GeeCee

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1269806' date='Jun 15 2011, 05:55 AM']We take foreign payments all the time, by paypal, credit card, or bank transfer. If there are any extra charges for processing foreign payments i've never heard of them. Our margins on small items mean that we always make a profit. Quite often this involves shipping something that weighs only a few grams and only worth a couple of quid.

I'm not doubting Ken's business acumen, but something is very wrong there.[/quote]

No, I think Ken is right, at least speaking as a private individual in the US, not sure about businesses. PayPal does charge a different amount (e.g., 3.9% for payments under $3K vs. 1.9-2.9%) when handling "crossborder" payments and if I use my credit card to make a foreign, i.e., non-US, purchase there is a fee associated with that purchase related to the currency conversion. Credit card companies have started including that on the printed statement.

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1269011' date='Jun 14 2011, 01:38 PM']My new beautiful new Calibas 6 string. The serial number suggests that it's a 1988 model.

It off to John tomorrow for a set up and service.[/quote]

Let me guess about a stone, right?

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='1245217' date='May 26 2011, 04:12 AM']The GA 24 is around 14 inches wide I think Steve....![/quote]

It is.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='1230637' date='May 13 2011, 11:57 PM']I've got Gilmour playing fretless on Big Bottom with Spinal Tap on DVD at the Secret Policemen's Ball[/quote]

Ah, you are right, I stand corrected. He did play fretless (Musicman, not Jaydee tho) on that song.

[quote name='RhysP' post='1228675' date='May 12 2011, 07:41 AM']To be fair Gilmour is a pretty good fretless player - he used to use a fretless Jaydee Supernatural. He played it with Kate Bush when she performed "Running up that hill" at the Secret Policemans Ball concert.[/quote]

David Gilmour didn't play the bass in that particular concert (though he can play fretless). It was Tony Franklin and his Roadie IIA.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='1230363' date='May 13 2011, 03:03 PM']DUDE YOU HAVE ONE OF THE LEGENDARY JACO FRETLESSES!!![/quote]

Supposedly, one of up to three identical fretless basses (with up to three more fretted basses) that were in production in John's workshop when he learned that Jaco had died. I write "up to" since John told me that not all of them were finished. It's a nice bass, unlined ebony fingerboard, EMG pick-ups, patterned after a (his?) '62 jazz bass. Would Jaco have liked it, who knows? Could he have got on with an unlined board? Would he have wanted to change batteries?

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='1230352' date='May 13 2011, 02:50 PM']Could anyone who has a GA24 give me the body width? I have a vague recollection its something like 15"?[/quote]

I will check and get back to you, but I think it's narrower than that.

Here are mine:

[attachment=79827:IMG_3064.JPG]

L-R: GA24 5-string, Series I ("Classic") Mark King, Calibas 6-string fretted, Jaco Pastorius (basically a '62 jazz copy) and Calibas 6-string fretless

[quote name='Waldo' post='1194147' date='Apr 9 2011, 06:15 PM']I singled out Mark King becuase he's had signature basses from Alembic, Status, Fender and Jaydee plus Ashdown amps. Just seems excessive![/quote]

Doesn't seem that bad for a 30+ year career and other than the Fender he did use the Jaydee and Alembic for a number of years before moving to his current long-term relationship with Status.

My $0.02

UPS and Fedex generally have similar pricing. Personally, I prefer FedEx, though others will prefer UPS. If you ship instruments long enough you will have your own horror stories about both and can make your own choice as to who breaks what less often. The price will depend on who is being billed for the shipping. If a business is sending the package, you should be able to get a better rate, compared to a private seller. I would think it would cost something around $300+ to ship a bass to the UK privately using FedEx's International Economy service, which is about a 4-day turnaround based on my experience (and assuming no customs hassles). I have a FedEx account which lets me ship for about half that price. International Priority and International First services are dearer; though the less time the package spends in their hands the better and it may be worth it to you. As mentioned previously, at least here in the US, UPS will ask for import duty plus their fee when they deliver the bass assuming you're in when they deliver, else they will bill you later. FedEx will bill later, but you pay the same (including a handling fee). The shipping price is based on volumetric weight, so you need to have the dimensions of the package as well as the weight to get an accurate cost estimate. As others have indicated, taking the neck off will give you a smaller package and cheaper, but you will forego the hard case.

USPS is the US equivalent to the Royal Mail and has nothing to do with UPS. It is possible to ship instruments with them, but there are size limitations, so the bass in case and an oversize box may be rejected as too large. USPS tends to be cheaper, especially if you take the neck off, but they are slower and you don't have the ability to track the package as well as you can with the courier services. Based on my own experiences, very little ever gets truly lost forever.

As always, insurance is everything, and you need to read the fine print to make sure that the instrument is covered. Just because they take your money for insurance does not mean that you are actually covered should you need to make a claim. Musical instruments may be excluded or capped at a certain value and you may need to satisfy certain minimum packaging requirements. Remember also that your insurance valuation will factor in to how much your are charged in tax.

First Bass Owned: ... Kay Precision copy

'Go To' Bass: ... Jaydee GA24 Session

'Your' Bass: ... Jaydee GA24 Session

[quote name='sheldon' post='1118070' date='Feb 6 2011, 01:57 PM']hi , can anyone help me with information on my Jaydee Custom bass , it was brought quite a while ago but i have had no joy in finding any reference on the net to the model .


As you can see it is based up an Precision bass but the previous owner has had all its electrics upgraded to what you would normally find on a Supernatural and then had it refinished by John Diggins.

[url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/shahpur/jaydeeback.jpg"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/sha.../jaydeeback.jpg[/url]
[url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/shahpur/jaydeebackhead-1.jpg"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/sha...ebackhead-1.jpg[/url]
[url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/shahpur/jaydeecloser.jpg"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/sha...aydeecloser.jpg[/url]
[url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/shahpur/jaydeeclose.jpg"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/sha...jaydeeclose.jpg[/url]
[url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/shahpur/jaydeehead.jpg"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/sha.../jaydeehead.jpg[/url]

The overall condition is good but there is some crazing in the finish and some " sinking " where the original pickups were.

thanks in advance

sheldon[/quote]

What others have said, call John or send him an e-mail ([email protected]) and give him the serial number and he can tell you more about it. It's not a standard model, so it must have been a custom build for someone. I recall reading about a guy who worked for Jaydee who had a blue Jaydee Thunderbird and a blue Jaydee Precision built. Perhaps it is or rather was his.

[quote name='noelk27' post='1116138' date='Feb 4 2011, 09:21 PM']No offence, Doug, but don't see what you can be claiming an intellectual property right in, as hybrid fretted instruments (where the fretting wire doesn't extend the full way across the touchboard) have been around since the 1500s. What you would have done in the 80s, and what Ibanez is doing today, are simply interpretations of concepts that have existed for over 400 years.[/quote]

Don't think Doug's claiming any IP rights here, just quibbling with Ibanez's claim to a first in relation to the electric bass guitar.

[quote name='Doug Wilkes' post='1116088' date='Feb 4 2011, 07:52 PM']hi this is doug wilkes here . slightly incensed couse ibanez have done a fretted fretless bass and claimed a world first on it . as you should all know i was building all variations of fretted fretless basses in the eighties from my factory .unfortunately at the present i cant put my hands on the reviews of said instruments in guitarist and other mags at t time. any input out there would be appreciated ,doug wilkes[/quote]

Hi Doug, Here is a picture of one of my old basses that I had posted in an earlier thread on this topic, plus a scan of an old Guitarist article from 1985. Should be what you need. Oh and welcome to Basschat.

[attachment=71204:Wilkes_2h.jpg]

[attachment=71207:IMG_0005.jpg]

[attachment=71206:IMG_0002.jpg]

Edit: Scanned first page a second time to A4 size.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1103648' date='Jan 26 2011, 08:55 AM']It was more quality control issues than anything that people seemed to complain about, silly things like the screw holes on the neck not matching up with the bass making it impossible to fit, or the screw holes being poorly done with stripped threads. When people got on with them, they seemed to be very positive about them.[/quote]

Their customer service is or was pretty bad too. I had asked Moses to build me a custom neck patterned after a Jaydee MK that I was going to ask John Diggins to use in a custom build. After about a year they still had not started and would not return phone calls or e-mails asking for an update on the project. They did eventually refund me the money and with a few extra dollars for interest, after I had started a Talkbass thread moaning about their non-responsiveness, but frankly I would rather have had the neck as I was really intrigued by the idea of a Jaydee with a graphite neck. To their credit, they were open to the idea of a one-off build. I had asked Rob Green at Status Graphite if he would be interested, but he would have needed to make a mould which would have cost thousands and was cost-prohibitive. As CK has indicated, their standard jazz necks do shift with changes in ambient temperature, which to me rather defeats the point of a graphite neck in the first place. Oh and the one I had was fabricated with the truss rod access at the body end so you had to take the neck off every time you needed to adjust the truss rod as well.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='1101599' date='Jan 24 2011, 06:42 PM']Interesting - don't think I've seen a Schaller like that before. However - differ all you want - that pup wasn't originally installed on this bass! Having seen the route, which is plainly original, I'd say it would have had one like this:

[attachment=69930:8polepup.jpg]

These are a lot better than the Tele-style ones & pretty common in the better-quality early Jap Ps & Js - obviously designed to be hidden under ashtrays, though! Here's a 70s P body fitted with one:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250759920082"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=250759920082[/url]

I would imagine the scratchplate aperture on your bass has been been filed to accept the Schaller - you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell if the work's been done well enough.

J.[/quote]

Have to agree with Bassassin, that's not the original P/U.

[quote name='Bass Culture' post='1067782' date='Dec 23 2010, 08:50 AM']I tried one of Peter Cook's basses myself as a youngester, when I was employed to distribute leaflets for my local music shop at The Live Music Show in London, in about 1980/81. I'm not sure if he had a stand there or not but I seem to remember he had his own event going on at the same time at a hotel near by. I also remember trying a Wal at the same time, as well as the Washburn (could have been Westone) headless that was modelled on the Status bass at the time.[/quote]

If it was the Status-licensed Washburn 1000 then I would think your dates must be off. Would be a few years later than 80/81, no?

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1089542' date='Jan 14 2011, 12:05 PM']I smell a scam or at best a chancer who's changed his mind!

Can you clarify if the guitar was an ebay/paypal sale because if it was then that's a whole different kettle of fish! 'IF' it is an eBay/paypal sale I think that the expectation would be that you would be required to refund once you have the guitar back BUT I am aware that my sister sold something (value £30) on eBay and the buyer claimed it was lost in the post so despite my sis offering a refund as soon as she heard back from RM, paypal refunded the buyer regardless! If paypal are involved I'd be ensuring that they are aware that the buyer is now in another country.

Saying all of that, if it isn't ebay/paypal I'd be sitting pretty waiting for the LP to be returned first and there's nothing the guy can do to force you to do otherwise![/quote]

If it was paid for using Paypal, make sure that you don't keep the money in the account or otherwise carry a balance in the account, else they can take the money without your sayso in the event they decide to go with the buyer should he make a claim. That said, it seems like a chancer to me. He has nothing to lose by filing a dispute with Paypal, but you do.

[quote name='philw' post='1081493' date='Jan 7 2011, 03:26 PM']My thoughts exactly. It would have had an ebony board if fretless to any degree originally, so is undoubtedly a later conversion.[/quote]

Purpose-built fretless Wals usually had an ebony board, but not always. Some people (admittedly not me) do prefer rosewood and there are several examples on the Wal serial number database. The time period (1985) would put it around the time that Doug Wilkes was selling basses like this, so maybe it was a custom request. That said, I agree this was probably done after the fact.

[quote name='philw' post='1081493' date='Jan 7 2011, 03:26 PM']Wouldn't have had dot markers on the fingerboard either.[/quote]

Not true, again owner preference, look at the late Mick Karn's Wals.

[quote name='Shaggy' post='1081348' date='Jan 7 2011, 12:52 PM']I'd have thought it would have been an ebony board if that fretting arrangement was original, but could be wrong. It was common on Kramers of that era - can't see the point of it myself.[/quote]

Laurence Canty had something similar done, as did Alphonso Johnson I believe using an Ibanez Musician bass. It does make sense, slapping and pulling on the lower notes, fretless on the high notes.

[quote name='levelitup' post='1077953' date='Jan 4 2011, 04:47 PM']There is some paint damage (peeling) on the back of the body due to many years of use (wear from my big right tit) lol.[/quote]

Is it just the lacquer that's peeling or is it the paint as well? Have you got a quote from Bernie on how much to fix it?

Someone once sent a Jaydee to me in a hard case with just one layer of bubble-wrap around the case. I almost had a heart attack when the courier handed it to me. I couldn't open the case for a few minutes afraid at what I would find. Amazingly, it was fine. The case was a Hiscox and unmarked too. Oh and this was a shipment from the UK to the USA. Go figure. One that did not turn out too well was another transatlantic shipment. This time a seller sent me a Firebird guitar without a hard case, just wrapped the guitar in bubble-wrap and stuffed it in a cardboard box. It was a sickening feeling as I unwrapped that one and the headstock fell to the floor .

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='999520' date='Oct 24 2010, 06:07 PM']Hmm, I think the previous owner was wrong.[/quote]

Kiwi is right, you have a Series II bass, though the picture of the pearl bass is a Series III.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='903435' date='Jul 23 2010, 12:52 PM']Hey was just wondering what you guys/girls thought of the Jaydee Celeste...i know it was quite popular with JazzFunk bassists in the 80's 90's...what sort of tone could one expect...?[/quote]

They are nice enough basses, at least the one I tried was, but they were never popular with anybody. You might want to speak with John, but I don't think he made very many of them at all.

[quote name='Cairobill' post='864168' date='Jun 11 2010, 06:15 AM']It's a shame that Karn could have been core to the sound of a successful group and still come out the other end with no real financial benefit.

It's highly likely that Sylvian being the main financial beneficiary in the band contributed to Japan's split up and the band's difficult internal relationships.[/quote]

I would recommend that you buy and read Mick's book if you have not already done so (and Mick gets the royalty). While it's a frustrating read at times since it was/is self-published (I think) through LuLu and Mick comes across as someone who could be quite difficult at times, it's amazing how little it would appear he got out of his Japan days. That and his subsequent struggles to finance albums and tours, was quite an eye opener.

[quote name='Mowac' post='832764' date='May 9 2010, 10:34 PM']I had it done by a local guitar luthier that lives only a few miles from home.
He has worked on a dozen bass projects for me. He fixed the neck issues that I had on my Jaydee MK2 in cherry red
and refretted it for me. He relaquered my Washburn-Status headless also. He has replaced the nut on several of my basses and makes them by hand. It's a luxury to have a very skilled luthier that close by.[/quote]

How do you get around the loss of the decals on the front and back of the headstock when the old lacquer is stripped off? Also, am I correct in thinking you're located in NC? I have a JD bass that needs some work done on the headstock that will likely require a partial refinish and did not want to ship it back to John (too expensive).