PaulKing

ere she is ...

Well here I am, and the price has already gone to £160. I expect it'll go over £1000 ... possibly. But maybe not, i'll come back to that. Kays are very highly prized collectors basses. But they are not all good, and even the best aren't THAT good, although there are enough decent ones that they're worth all the attention us vintage plywood fans give them. In general, earlier are better for acoustic tone, a desirably warm thumpy tone.later, post war models used thicker ply (as steel strings were taking over from low tension gut). They have several infamous design faults that leave most with severe health problems: #1 Neck joint. It's crap, and breaks easily. IF it's properly set and tidily glued, a fixed neck is no problem. HOWEVER the bass for sale here looks messily done (maybe only an aesthetic problem), and could easily have been fixed with PVA glue (bigger problem, nightmare to undo), and looks at a horribly shallow angle ... leaving the bridge height very low, a low string tension and probably weakened tone. Need a profile photo to be sure, but I'd say this neck needs removing and resetting at a decent angle. Plus new bridge. [i]Minimum [/i]£500 to get it set properly. #2 Sunken top. Can't see on this bass, it looks OK from the pictures. #3 Broken scroll / peg box. This one looks OK #4 Broken end block. Cheap poplar wood weakens and breaks internally, causing endpin to pull forwards at an angle. Expensive rebuild - take bass apart, replace block of wood at base, re-fit end pin (probably a new one, the originals were sh*te), refit top onto bass. ouch. Otherwise, this looks in good shape cosmetically. A hole in the ribs ain't a massive problem, can patch up cheaply or expensively, whatever floats your boat. They usually have the emblem missing from the tailpiece like this one, although it does look like the original tailpiece. I'd say this as from the 50s, but a serial number (from printed label inside, and probably stebncilled onto the inside surface too) would confirm that. What's it worth? In good times, a good Kay will sell for £2-3,000. It's not good times right now, maybe £1500-£2500. This one needs lots of work, ballpark £1000, to reach its potential as a fine collectors bass. To buy and play, I'd spend only a few 100s on this, it looks like it won't play very nicely ... bad neck angle. To buy as an investment, with more cash to follow ... if I really wanted a Kay ... maybe I'd have a budget of £750-£850 in mind, with a view to spend at least the same again, and be left with something worth £2k or more. It's not a dead loss. Mine was not in dis-similar condition, I paid £750 for it, and spent about the same again. I now have an AWESOME drool-worthy bass that gets comments from vintage experts all over the world. But it was a gamble. I reckon Kays in this country number only a dozen or so, certainy only in double figures. This is the third Kay I've seen come up on UK ebay in over 5 years. And I look almost every day. (I bought the other two by the way... ) We'll be wtaching!

[quote name='daz' timestamp='1348346246' post='1812703'] I went to see The Stray Cats, many moons ago, and double bass player Lee Rocker did the whole [i]standing on the bass whilst playing it [/i]thing, etc etc. [/quote] Great point. No hang on, I've lost it again. Was there one? Etc etc

[quote name='FLoydElgar' timestamp='1348258408' post='1811639'] Do bowing... very important... Depending how serious you are with the instrument... Get yourself a good tutor preferably someone who's a pro! Buy Niel Tarlton's Bowing method books and off you go.... with a decent tutor... you'll be fine! [/quote] Well it depends which bit you quote! I was going on 'do bowing... Very important ... Depending how serious ...'. But fair enough if I read more into that than you meant. Anyway, no need to remove posts, all meant in the most constructive way, no harm done, I was just fighting my corner . Over reaction alert!

Nice, love that clip. Bet he couldn't slap it though. I'd give it a go... Meanwhile, thoroughly nice to see some bass chatters last night, unexpectedly. Happy jack and bluejay, I didn't even really twig who you were straight away, so sorry we didn't chat longer! Cheers for coming anyway. Happy jack, I'm very happy to find an afternoon one weekend and swap tips. There'll be no bowing, and my intonation will only be good ENOUGH if you know what I mean...

[quote name='FLoydElgar' timestamp='1348258408' post='1811639'] Do bowing... very important... Depending how serious you are with the instrument... Get yourself a good tutor preferably someone who's a pro! Buy Niel Tarlton's Bowing method books and off you go.... with a decent tutor... you'll be fine! [/quote] I do fundamentally take issue with that ... We're back to the horses for courses argument. Or maybe just a definition of the word 'serious'? Anyway, Db is a more versatile beast than even us players often give it credit. I acknowledge that bowing has to be an integral part of classical, and probably most top level jazz technique, due to its unforgiving reliance on intonation and fingering. So if the only way to take DB seriously is to play orchestral, chamber, pro level jazz ... OK. But I couldn't be much more serious about my playing, within the confines of day job, parenthood etc. it's a very serious hobby, costing money and as much dedication as I can find. But I realise I will never have the time to approach arco and orchestral playing, neither do I have any interest in doing so. Meanwhile, what I do I do well, I practice hard, I take seriously, and I derive huge, life-affirming pleasure from ... without ever reaching for the bow. You know what I mean... I'm not pissing about, playing at this, not in my book anyway! I will concede that to reach any kind of professional level .... if that's how we're going to define serious ... bowing is the way forward. And i know my own technique would improve if i took to the bow. Maybe that's what you mean. But I get a bit touchy when people write off amateur hobby pizz playing as somehow less serious or significant.

Fascinating, I can't place that. Sweet and characterful bass, will have to look harder at it. I'd guess we might never know, but my money's on German.

Yeah, nice score. It sounds a million dollars in that clip. Pull the strings harder than you think, you have to get the whole bass to vibrate, not just excite a little electromagnet... You can't pull too hard, when the need arises. Some people buck the trend, but most abandon guitar style fingering .. angle your hand downso findgers point to the floor, and use the wholeside of your finger to pull those really big notes. 12mm on the E is on the high side, but not unusual. If you play Stanley Clarke jazz noodling, you might go down as low as 5-6mm ... but 9-10 on the E is about average i'd say, for most pizz. If you want to play properly, learn witha bow - it does improve intonation immensely. But don't fear that bypassing the bow will mean you can't play perfectly well in most circumstances. I still can't bow for toffee, and I've been playing blues/roots music at at good level for 25yrs.

[quote name='artisan' timestamp='1344451194' post='1764841'] ok got my finger out,here's some pics of my f-hole covers made by Jim Fleeting in Ripon who also fitted my 2nd sound post so my bass is "almost" feedback proof & stills sounds mega [/quote] That's what mine look like too ... I managed to get some thinner foam for the outer surface, so they sit a little flatter too. Just a cosmetic thing... Nice work. damn ... pics won't upload... hmm

I'm always transfixed and astonished by his playing. Remarkable and beautiful.

Nice blues sound Steve. More clips anywhere...? I used to know the Railway on Chapeltown Road .. in fact I used to see a girl who lived up the road near Turton Tower. Stood on that railway platform many times... Enjoy the 'tour'

Hope some of you guys made it. I was with the 'little' jump -jive (hey, more jump blues and RnB than Jive actually... and less of the 'little', 6 of us on stage with piano and upright bass make quite a mess of sound geezer! ;o)). I also got a slot with Jules and the Gamblers later in the eve. Cheers to all those who turned up, esp at 2pm!

Bob fillings??? Damn auto type... Bob gollihur.

I hope the superior kit turns out well, it's a new thing. There are some well proven amp-top dual channel mixer preamps, Dtar solstice is popular. For tailpiece mounted, k+k make one that is widely used, it's a fiddle though, and I don't think it's quite the sound bob fillings credits it. Lr baggs mixpro is small, easy to use, beautifully transparent, a much better bit of kit for mixing clicky and bridge pups on the tailpiece. I've given up on blenders now, use 2 wireless sets to send to independent eqs, then input separately to amp.

Rev speaks wise words. All I can add to it is that, on at least the 4 basses I've tried various pick ups on, Underwood consistently gives me reliable, easy to EQ, forgiving on fit/positioning, lovely organic sound, plenty of mechanics, just everything I want. Beats bassmax, realist, shadow, planet, polytone, blah.

It's really easy to fill the notch in your nut, even to rebuild it and start from scratch. Use Milliput epoxy modelling clay, which dries like ebony, sands and carves like wood. You have to paint it black, but it works. I've filled bridge notches, extended bridge feet, altered bridge wings and rebuilt nuts all with Milliput, great stuff.