Maude

Colours appear as colours to us due to which frequencies of the visable light spectrum they absorb. Red has the longest wavelength through to violet which has the shortest. If a material absorbs the longer wavelengths and reflects only the shortest it will appear red (turn the light off so there's none to reflect and everything loses its colour). For something to appear red it has to absorb all the other wavelengths of light, getting progressively shorter as you move up the spectrum. Shorter wavelengths have more energy and destroy the pigments in paint quicker than the less energetic long wavelengths, causing red pigments to lose their 'colour' the quickest.

I really don't need a small amp for home use as I practice with headphones, and I have the little Vox Pathfinder 10 for chucking in a carrier bag and taking round a mates house for quiet practice (I would recommend one of these for the budget), but in true Basschat style I now find myself wanting one of these. I really like the style of it. 👍

Two Minutes To Midnight - Iron Maiden

I saw this pop up on FB. This could be a load of waffle as I do seem to dream up a lot facts. I think he recorded Start with an Epiphone. He's been using this bass, which is a Waterstone I think, for the last decade or so. The ad seems pretty vague and aimed at someone who wants 'Bruce Foxtons bass' rather than care what actual bass they're buying. The seller, again I think, is/was in The Animals. I would absolutely love to own and play this bass in our Mod band, but I fear a £2.5k starting bid is a bit rich for me. Also I can't see it'll ever be particularly valuable as it's not an iconic bass used to record an iconic song, rather one he's used for one song at each gig for the last few years, and now wants shot of.

It looks like his own fb page is gone along with the Take That and Carpenters tribute bands that he was involved in.

I think this is the list so far, note that some have got their money back. @prowla@walshy @nick_gontarski (allegedly owed gig money) @ForbiddenWytch @DIYorDie @Jamie Snell @Jamiexsilver @wavydavy @Dangreen326 @SamPlaysBass @misterhank

Because The Night - Patti Smith

It's mad isn't it!? Whilst I agree with you, and also feel that overall they look a bit 'cheap' (I know, they are), years ago I'd have said beggars can't be choosers, or something along those lines. I mean, what do you expect for £150? Well these days? Quite a lot. There's all sorts out there for that sort of money new and I feel these will have a hard time competing. While the Glarry may look/feel better in person, all of the HBs I've seen haven't looked/felt cheap at all. I know it's a short scale but the Ibanez Talman shorty is the same money and looks/feels, and more importantly sounds, great. What's the equivalent HB P bass cost now? Genuine question as I haven't looked lately.

My Coo Ca Choo - Alvin Sawdust

New Order - Confusion 😁

I Like To Move It - Reel To Real Edit- It's the artist name not the song title, sorry.

The band is predominantly centred around around the Mod and Ska revival of the late 70s early 80s and Northern Soul, whilst also playing some original Mod stuff, The Who, Small Faces, Spencer Davis Group, Kinks, etc. So while you are correct about the basses of that era, the late 70s was all about the Rick, albeit the 4001 or 4003. Ok,ok I'm completely wrong, but the 4005 is going nowhere so pack it in! 😄

The caravan job, was five charges of fraud by false representation, and two of falsifying articles for the purpose of fraud, which his current suspended sentence is for, 22 weeks for each of the fraud charges and 26 weeks for each of the falsifying articles charges, to run concurrently. Again according to the media.

On his caravan holiday scam he created false bank statements to 'prove' to customers that he had refunded them. I should add that that's according to the media reports, which I've no reason to doubt.

On the subject of funding this project, my son, who has just started work a couple of months ago, has said he wants to buy me the bits for this bass for Christmas to repay me for all the help we've given him while he was at college, so I'll have something I can keep. Which makes me very proud. I wasn't intending on spending a lot to start with and certainly aren't now. The pickups and electrics I'm happy not to have original items, just decent mods that suit the style. I've narrowed down the pickups to a choice between three (at the moment). The originals would have been a pair of Hofner mini humbucker 'staple' pickups. I found a page on the Seymour Duncan website which interested me. https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/sd-mini-humbuckers-and-the-hofner-beatle-bass After looking up prices, the Hofner staples are about £200 a pair, and the Duncans are just over £200 a pair. Too much really, I might stretch to that but I'm not letting my son pay for them. Anyway, the Duncans are essentially Gibson Firebird mini humbucker replacements. So there's a starting point for looking up some budget items. I found some Warman mini humbucker for £35 a pair. I've got a Warman musicman pickup in another bass and it is fantastic, bought on recommendation from folks on here that I trust, so I'm happy to try another Warman. Whilst looking on eBay for them I saw two other types of rail pickups, a style Hofner used later on the 185/Artist and will probably get one of these three (well a pair of these three, but that doesn't make sense). Chrome mini humbucker. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warman-FireBucker-Pair-of-poleless-Chrome-mini-humbuckers-/164480598945?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 A pair of hot rails, different output neck and bridge) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warman-Warblades-High-output-rail-humbuckers-/184477106915?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 And another hot rail type but sold individually, so the same rating for neck and bridge. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warman-Jazzbar-bass-humbucker-13-31k-8-56-H-4-wire-overwound-/184564330420?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 The mini humbuckers look the most original and are probably the closest spec to original. But then I thought do I go for a more modern high output pickup like the rails? The style will work as the twin rails mimick the fret marker inlays. The pair of rails don't have casings though, just taped coil and might feel odd as I'd use them as thumb anchor points. I'm going to try and find out the specs of the Duncan mini humbuckers before deciding.

I know. I'd have loved one and for a bit considered buying Mani's black one that was on Reverb. But the reality is I wouldn't be able to gig a bass of that value, and as an investment it wasn't his John Squire paint splattered one so wouldn't ever be more valuable than a 'normal' one. Although it did end up reduced to the rough price of a normal one.

Get back, get back I tell you! I'll get the pitchfork! 😆

I can't sell the 4005, it's the perfect image for my Mod band............... that hasn't gigged since March and has absolutely nothing in the diary. 😄

No chance, Terry's dad was useless on the tools. It was more likely Bob's dad. 😁

I think you're probably right. I'm inclined to think the machining tolerance was probably rather relaxed back then, and as long as it measures 30" between nut and bridge, none of this really matters. Everything points to it being an Artist from between 63 and 65, and that'll do. I was just trying to rule out reasons it could be something else. I'd imagine no real records were kept of any changes to the basses over the years, and the best anyone can do to pin an individual bass year and model down is gather as much info as possible and the model with the most 'hits' wins, so to speak. At least I can be virtually certain that the body is genuine, as I did wonder, as @Richard R alluded to, if the body had been made to suit by someone. It wouldn't matter really but it's nice to know it's a genuine Hofner. I did wonder if many of these had a gap of varying size in the neck pocket, under the scratchplate, depending on hardware location. And when whoever filled the pickup cavity, they filled the pocket gap as well. Pickups, electrics and scratchplate won't be genuine though so why am I worrying 🙄 😄.

That's very interesting. On yours, everything is pushed towards the end pin, look at the distance from the scratchplate to the neck access cutaways. Very odd why this would be. I wonder is it definatly a UK versus Euro thing, or is it just very bad tolerances on machining/production. This could be the reason the neck pocket on mine has that infill though. As if the neck pocket was routed for the deeper neck (thus everything else) position, but mounted in the shallower position, along with all the rest of the hardware. If the different positions for hardware are a UK/Euro thing, is it possible that my neck pocket was routed for Europe but then built for the UK Market? Pure speculation but I'd have thought the change in hardware position would be an age thing rather than an area thing. Like they were made like mine up to a certain point where Hofner then moved all the hardware further into the body to reduce the overall length of the instrument, to lesson the reach to the first fret. It's all very intriguing. Thanks for your input in this thread @ikay 🙂👍

Hmm, on another page of that vintage Hofner site there is some conflicting information,both from the same person though I think. From this page it looks like the Artist bass never got the slider switches, and the Euro 185 got side dots on the neck but not the UK Artist. Mine has side dots. Also UK neck were clear lacquered and Euro necks were predominantly painted black. Mine is clear So maybe it's a Euro 185, white body and side dots? 🤔 I don't know because my brain hurts now. I'll do more digging later. Apologies if I'm boring everyone with these ramblings. 🙂

California Soul - Marlena Shaw

Looking back at my pictures, the red in the neck pocket is a red primer that was used under the purple paint. As it's only a dusting and you can still see the wood under it, I'm not convinced this was originally bright red. There should be more evidence of it in the neck pocket. The layers in order were wood, clear sealer coat, a white primer or topcoat, red primer (red oxide colour, not scarlet like the top coat would've been), the purple basecoat, and then a clear lacquer.

You, my friend, are a legend. 🙂👍 That is exactly how mine is routed. That info has now allowed me to peice all the puzzle together and place it between 1963 and 1965. The Artist (Selmer, UK market) was introduced in '62 along with the 185 (Hofner, European market). In '63 they had a couple of changes, different pickups and a string tree added. In '65 the selector switches were added. Your picture above is definatly routed the same as mine, apart from the later pickup mods. My headstock has an old hole where the string tree would have been, but no switches making it a '63, '64 or '65, according to this site, which seems pretty reliable and tallies with most other sites but groups all the info together. Scroll right down, the Artist is the bottom section. http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/gallery2/bas.html The only possible sticking point is that all UK Artist basses were either painted red or had a red vinyl covering. I thought the white under all the paint looked like an original coating by the way it sat on the sealer coat, more of a primer than a top coat through. Now either it was the original coating and the red vinyl went over this, or mine was originally red and all the red was removed years ago. The neck pocket does have a red tinge in there but it looked more like aged wood but I'll look more closely. The other place would be in the control cavity, which I just left the purple in, so an exploratory scrape in there wouldn't go amiss. Or it was a European market one which was white, but I not sure that's likely at the mo.