Sean

Compared to Andertons and GAK for similar tech, package size and scale of spend where next day shipping by DPD is also risk free without paying a fiver. I’ll respectfully disagree.

I’ll monitor the latest order and see what happens. I don’t mind a small premium for rapid delivery but I also like the choice to send it not so fast and get it “free”.

There's not many places on God's World of Bass where you can put £700 worth of stuff in your basket and still have to pay a £5 postage fee. I don't want an explanation from anyone. It's just an observation and I've already placed my order. The last time I ordered on a Monday evening (after hours), 3rd Feb and it turned up on Friday 7th at lunchtime and that was 24 Tracked! I only have to spend £50 with the string people to qualify for free shipping and that often arrives next day on a 48 Tracked! It's just that BD is the only place that sells certain things.

My general rule of thumb is, get the aftermarket hardware out and the original stuff back in before you sell it. Obviously, if you've sold the original bits, then you can't, or in the case of preamps, rewiring, upgraded pots, copper cavity, fret work, where either it can't be undone or the cost/time of undoing would be prohibitive, then you just do your best to make them work in your favour and try to convince the buyer that they add real value. There's also brand-specific expectation. It's reasonable to expect a Fender or Squier to have had upgrades and I believe many of these either bump the price up a little, like a Lindy Fralin P pickup or they give you differentiation against other sellers and something to negotiate with. With say a US or Euro Spector, I want stock, please. I'll ask a seller for a photo of inside the cavity as part of my due diligence. It's a big ticket item, I'm looking under the bonnet first. I did it yesterday when doing the price analysis. A completely unmolested, functioning set of electrics, as they left the factory, on a 20 year old high-end instrument adds more value for me than a DIY installation of an expensive Darkglass or Aguilar unit.

It's kind of like Sunk Cost Fallacy. Take my SRMS mentioned just earlier. £1000 retail + £600 mods/upgrades. Seller calculates used price based on £1k + £600 = £1600 (what he paid) then used price calculated @ 65% = £1k. Because "it owes me £600" or £400 depreciated. Realistically, it's a £600-700 bass on the used market. £500 trade-in.

It depends! My JB1 has had some work on it, fret job, set up, copper-lined cavity, upgraded electrics. IMO, no, that doesn't command a higher price. It might give me some edge over another seller. One of the 6 on the analysis list I made had some lovely upgrades done with OEM parts but IMO, it was no longer original and £300 of upgrades probably translated to £100 uplift in price. I have an Ibanez SRMS805 (former BC bike) with US Barts, US Bart preamp, reconfigured switching. These upgrades (~£550-600 with parts and luthier labour) transform it into a "pro" level piece of kit but I paid maybe £50 more than a stock one on the used market. The G&L L2000 I recently sold had an East preamp MMSR, fret level, crown, set up at Shuker and all new wiring. It sold for peanuts. I took the Xtender off for the sale as I knew that wouldn't add value and I could sell it here as an accessory. So, in a nutshell, mods tend to either benefit the buyer or in the case where they are irreversible, can drive the value down. If I found a lovely Spector Euro that someone had put US Barts in and a Bart or Aguilar pre, then it would have to be an absolute steal as I'd have to convert it back to EMGs. If that bass had been routed to accommodate, say an MM-style pickup, to me it's now either firewood or a trip to Jon Shuker for major surgery and the price should reflect that.

Have you got the contact details of the landlord at that Tickled Trout? We're desperate for a booking at the moment? 😉

I missed out on that sell-off. Mine is a classic case of clearing out and creating space. Sire has emerged as ultra competitive, roasted necks are now standard on lower mid-price basses, things are changing.

100% agreed. My '21 G&L Tribute JB1 has been hanging around at 40ish% of a new one for over 2 months. I've got studio speakers for peanuts, no one wants them. I've never seen it so slow.

Do you think that the boomers selling drive the market price up or down? Obviously, they have no worries about slow moving stock, so are they pushing the prices up because they are more flexible or driving them down because they want a quick deal?

Some interesting comments here. 50-66% of new price seems about right to me from what I've seen and based on what I'm reading. You lose 20% VAT as soon as you buy a new one. I've been looking at some used examples of a specific model of bass on eBay. A new one is £2600 shipped from your "friends" in Warwick. There are 6 on the list, same model, similar specs, same pups, preamp, varying condition, postage and seller fee included. The price is rounded to the nearest £ shipped to my door, what I need to pay. All sellers have 100% positive feedback except #5 with 96%. #4 has the best listing IMO. #6 is a trader. 1. 2018, stock, condition 9/10 @ £1995 (77%) 2. 2012, upgraded (nicely with official parts not aftermarket), condition 9/10 @ £1664 (64%) 3. 2004, stock, condition 7/10 (multiple cracks in the clearcoat) @£1843 (71%) 4. 2005, stock, condition 8.5/10 @ £1333 (51%) **Sold 3/3/25 20:45** 5. 2010, stock, condition 8.5/10 @ £1894 (73%) 6. 2008, stock, condition 9.5/10 @ £2429 (93%) None of them are limited edition, collectable or have a gold brittania in the cavity. I've deliberately not said what make and model to try to get the focus on the data. Those that know, will know, YFKI. What do we think of this spread?

This below is typical of JMB. A lot of the time people just don't check their messages. This is my current "unread sent messages". The last two are now over a week old and haven't been read. It's par for the course on JMB. It's not instant, relies on email notifications and it's clunky. Bandmix wants about £12 a month to give you any functionality and I find it easy to find Bassists but not anyone looking for one.

I like the lower cutaway for access.

A question. Knowing what we know about Fender's designs being made for mass, low cost manufacture and there being compromises between design and quality, how do we think basses like this V7 stack up quality-wise versus what was coming out of FugiGen Gakki? Obviously they don't compare to some of the neck-thru exotica we know but against the best of the flat-sawn, bolt-on, "Leo inspired" designs, where are these? Should I buy one? Convince me.

I think it's fair to say that Spector has shifted it's focus from Metal a little but I'm not sure who the target player is for this.

I don't think I've ever seen pickups like that before. what do all the switches do? Whatever you think, you can't argue with Eko's choice of trussrod adjustment.

I can sympathise. I'm in a similar situation. JMB seems to have a lot of people who are just awful at communicating, don't follow through on what they say they'll do and who have a very high opinion of themselves, like the drummer/guitarist chap you've come across shows. A band I know and see occasionally is looking for a replacement drummer and I was saying to them that you have to kiss a lot of frogs before finding the one. I looked back at all the bands I've played in and how they started and this now is the first time in 40 years of playing in bands that I'm unable to use my existing network of contacts to find a band that I want to play in or even needs a bassist (or guitarist). It's like becoming single after decades in a relationship and finding out that the game has changed. I've resisted messaging a couple of bands because I thought I was getting desperate, there were red flags, " middle-agers that rehearse on Sundays between 7pm-1030pm to get together to play songs we like...", "lots of ideas but no full songs yet", "want to write songs about controversial topics", another that has a dozen rambling unstructured guitar/drum demos in Drop C# tuning and all in the same key with uninspiring drums. @NancyJohnson are your expectations too high? Well, based on what you've said so far and the parallel experience I'm having, I'd say no. I understand the argument about 50% of the band you want and turning it around to 90% but my 50% expectation is quite high and I've been in those 50% bands before. My nearest and dearest have told me to start my own thing like I did last summer but the drummer (21yo) has developed some serious health issues (can no longer drum) and the guitarist (co-writer/co-singer, close friend) got offered a job in Spain. That was an organic band formed from brilliant people I know, not recruiting strangers. I've started going to more local multi-band shows and open mic nights just to expand my network but it's not easy. I've "settled" before and it's been dreadful, so I'd say, don't compromise, keep your expectations where they are but keep searching and keep on kissing a few frogs. It will happen.

This is what we have from what I see 12 string guitar 6 string guitar with Floyd 5 string bass, 24 fret 4 string bass, 24 fret 7 string guitar with Floyd 6 string guitar with stop tail piece

That is a lovely P bass. Black blocks, EMGs, roasted, nice bit of exotic.

Nice live video of Poundcake by Satch, Sammy. Mike and Jason attached to that article. Peavey seemed a bit ingenuous with the break up terms of their contract with Eddie. They had a deal with Michael Anthony and he had a signature amp at one time that was a more or less standard Peavey head with some chili pepper stickers on it.

The Peavey family seemed so remote and out of touch, not just with the workers but with industrial processes and technology. Yes, they gave some cash to 3 people but all that is lost in accounting as business expenses. Seeing all that electronics being tested was cringe, the checking of how square that combo case was a measuring tape, ufff. I've quality audited a few German electronics manufacturers (even as far back as 2008) where their QA is so sorted and process-driven that they don't even need to test finished product. It was like the 1970s at Peavey. Peavey is using Innovation Amplified as a strapline. Just a quick look at the website tells me that that is so far from the reality. Their premium products are the HP2 guitar which is a rebrand of the Wolfgang guitar from the 90s, which in turn is a rehash of the Musicman original, and the 6505 head, which is a rebrand of the 5150 that ceased to be in 2004! Tehy seem to be very focussed on 120w guitar heads at a time when players are scrapping off their big valve amps. They have TE, so what! They show capos and phone tripods on their home page, I can get those cheaper at Heston services. There is nothing on that Peavey website that gives me even the slightest bit of GAS. Sad but true.