uk_lefty

"custom" = (1) I saw this on an expensive ad once, (2) I put a sticker on it "hand made" = I'm sure someone touched it "rare" = I challenge you to find any other Encore guitar or bass anywhere! "first to see will buy" = look, I'm desperate to get rid of this "if you're reading this then you know..." = I don't know "selling for a friend" = not my responsibility if it's stolen "plays like butter" = I saw this on a Fender ad once "plays like I can't believe it's not butter" = Squier "modified" = repaired (badly) "from a smoke and pet free home" = my dogs and cats don't smoke "buckle rash" = I'm careless "never gigged" = I can't get in a band, check how knackered the neck is from me not knowing how to tune "recent set up" = once set up at some point in time. Maybe "collection only from Liverpool" = stolen

I live very close to TheGreek and my bands tend to rehearse in Stevenage or Hertford. One of the bands has a good relationship with the guy who runs the Practice Roomz and he has set us up with some good gigs in the past. Baldock is a good town for gigging with its festival and I used to play regularly at the White Lion. There's plenty of pubs around and about that do "festivals" in summer, Todd in the Hole just outside Stevenage being a good big one, and a lot of community based ones too in Stevenage, Royston, etc. Plenty of action but you need to work to get it and it's not always paid (anybody who wants to debate that point please go back to any of the multiple threads on the topic). Terry Chapman in Stevenage is great for set ups and neck repairs. I've taken him all kinds of carp that I've bought off ebay and he's brought it to life for me.

@rushbo totally agree, especially multiplying out the number of things that can go wrong! I've had pedals that always worked fine suddenly overload everything with gain and noise once gigging, also had my guitarists board mess up during a gig and had to fill the silence while he tried to locate the problem. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, including some things you never ever thought of!

I like that take on the J, lovely!

Oh my....

I understand you! I had a 300w Ashdown combo, but a cheap Toneman one. It did 500w I think with an added cab. It never struggled but where I had the option to DI to a PA I always did.

Never even knew there was one in St Albans! Have always used Hertford, Practice Roomz Stevenage or sometimes WGC.

Don't know anything about the Laneys unfortunately but Ashdown RM Combos, and by default the Original combos, should be very lightweight and powerful. You can also add, or not, an extra cab for extra oomph. Fender Rumbles the same. Probably some good deals out there second hand if you can be patient. Otherwise the TC Electronic heads are being given away and they get good reviews, if you don't have to have a combo.

Or even any realistic offer inside the system when stuff has been hanging about for ages with no buyer! I've had good stuff on there for ages with loads of "can you ship it in a blue box to my hut in Canada so it arrives on a Tuesday?" or "great bass, these are easily worth £1000! I can give you £50..." but few serious offers. Then I listed a Fender and got the market rate same day.

I've done it out of necessity due to stage space and then stuck to it. In my two guitar function/ covers rock band I don't need any effects, a good solid bass sound does the job and I don't really need to tweak it at all during the set. I do, when I can or want to, but I doubt anybody really knows. In a three piece I'm forming I meed effects to make up some of the sonic space and cover for keyboard or synth parts. Thinking about most rock gigs I've been to with Pro bands. The bassist doesn't change between amp and cab sounds in between songs and have different tones and effects all the time. They just have a consistent solid tone with some boost or drive for certain sections, maybe one or two effects used sparingly here and there.

But a jazz bass should sound like a jazz bass. And a very expensive jazz bass should have a refined sound, whether modern hifi ish sound or traditional warm, the bridge pickup should still give you some honk, the tone control should be more than all or nothing. This was my point. Not that I was expecting active electronics, etc etc. I just expected it to be a very good jazz bass in sound as well as looks. Cant remember if I said it straight off but it's the best relic I've ever seen. I do appreciate that takes time, skill, expensive materials. I just wondered why all the effort went in to that and it got sent out not sounding great. Had it sounded fantastic I'd have thought £2,500 was a bit steep for me but understandable. However, without a good sound coming out of it is just wall art.

Especially if you then need to spend £250 on pickups etc to get it sounding right. This is my point really. For the cash that you have to spend, and even for the man hours going in to the build, surely you want it to sound good... I know that's a lot down to the beholder but really!

We stone spectrum DX on ebay. A bit pricey at £250 especially for the condition but anything under or around £200 would be a great deal IMO.

I expect there are some stunning instruments out of the custom shop. My one and only experience left me perplexed, it just didn't have the distinctive jazz bass sound.

Good point. Suppose it depends if they can shift a load of Chinese made entry level stuff with a suitable margin too. I'd bet for every 800w bass head sold there's a significant number more 15-20watt bedroom starter amps sold. I'll need an electric guitar amp soon and I'd always choose a Marshall over anything else because it's Marshall. I'd bet it would be the same in bass terms for a lot of beginners, it's an attractive brand name, distinctive looks, not sure why they didn't keep it going for bassists even with Eden in their stable.

If you're ever down near Hertfordshire you're more than welcome to. It's a lovely bass but my US Stingray is irreplaceable. I've also got a headless Washburn for the 80s nostalgia band so it's surplus to requirement, sad though considering how much time, stress and money that bass has cost me. Rehearsed with it last week and it's a belter.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a dog. It was just OK. OK in the mix. It just didn't do what I expect a jazz to do. It felt lovely on the neck but I'm honestly thinking a Sire V7 blows away most Fenders I've owned or played.

Nice collection. I don't think I've ever sold a bass through our forum, though I've bought two there over the years. It's really hard to find the lefty looking for exactly what you're selling and able to pay the going rate all at one special moment. I've got an Aria Pro II SB ELITE 1 that has had painstaking work done to make it a solid gigging instrument true to its original form and I can't shift it for almost 30% less than its worth on here, ebay, Reverb, etc. It's just hard to catch the moment I think, but with so little new stock I shops you'd think the second hand market would be going nuts right now. As it is I'm just waiting for the opportune time to drive down to the Gallery and put two basses in for commission sale.

Sounded poor in a band context and through an amp at volume. Regularly on the lookout for a second hand SY1 from now on!

Long story below, but my point is, what do you get for the extra money on a custom shop Fender? Seeing them at £4,400 up to over £10,000 now. I played one last night and have to say it was.... Alright. Last night I had the opportunity to play a lefty fender custom shop jazz. Journeyman relic, lollipop tuners, rosewood board with white binding... It was OK. I recently saw the Andertons video on the new Fender custom shop basses they have at over £4k each and thought they looked good and had good reviews. Luckily my friend paid about half that when he ordered his some years ago. I'm going to get my MIJ 75 Jazz reissue out later today to compare properly, but I just didn't see where the money went with this particular bass. The relic work was a lot more authentic than most I've seen, the neck felt lovely, but it just sounded OK. It seems the extra cash went in to relicing, matching headstock, a non standard colour, but I couldn't hear where any extra cash had gone. The bridge pup didn't honk like other jazzes I've played and the tone control had less range than others too. If I had been wearing socks I'm confident they would not have been blown off. I gave the bass a good tickle as everyone else was setting up, played the first two songs through a familiar amp, then put it down and got out my Stingray. The Stingray is a very different beast entirely but the feel and sound of quality was just a cut above the custom shop jazz I felt. From how this had been described to me I was expecting to going home, selling everything and getting a custom shop jazz on order. That will not be happening. I'd rather have a brand new US Jazz and Precision and enough change for a second hand car.

Ken Livingstone looks like a tortoise that's lost its shell.

I think he's got it dead right. Be in one of the biggest bands of all time, make shed loads of cash, live anonymously ever after. A plan I'm following, I just missed parts 1 and 2 off.

I'm tempted to add something like a Boss SY1 for synth sounds. I've come up with a couple of good sounds that I'll experiment with tonight at rehearsal (synth sounds, one v close to the start of Kids in America, one not like the original but doable for Sweet Dreams are..) but I've found what sounds good through good quality headphones or an amp at low volume does not always translate to the rehearsal room. I'm not taking my laptop to rehearsal to pee around with adjusting effects.

The drummer around the 2mim mark 😂

Are you in Hertfordshire? In which case I'd propose some kind of wacky races type escapade....