geoham

At least they turned up, in my case it took a week for an officer to call me! My conversations with the officer suggested a really narrow view - ‘based on what I know now can I arrest this person?’. I’m thinking - does the seller have my other gear, or that of any one else? If not, they can surely get some intelligence. But nothing like that at all. I really don’t get it. I assume that people join the police to do some good. There always seems to be plenty of resources to deal with social media trolls or motorists, but there seems to be little desire deal with crimes like theft. I can only infer the police focus on those crimes they can get quick and easy prosecutions for, compared to actually doing some good in the community. Presumably all related to improving crime stats and budget cuts. I’ll stop my rant now.... George

May still be an option - they only sold it a week or so ago. It was taken just before lockdown, then sold shortly after the shops reopened.

Wow! Unbelievable!

I'm actually flabbergasted on how little interest the police have in investigating. Apparently simply selling stolen goods barely warrants a conversation, as it's difficult to prove any crime - that the seller stole it themselves or even knew it was stolen. My suggestion of searching their house for the Helix and other items was basically laughed at. The shop are apparently entirely innocent. It's not reasonable to expect them to share information between stores (I'd provided all the details to my local branch) or Google a serial number. The fact that the seller was willing to let it go for so little (probably about £90) is no cause for concern either - only a guitar expert would be expected to know what a used Fender Jazz would be worth. For those of you that don't know the area, Rutherglen isn't particularly easy to get to from Airdrie without a car and there are plenty of other similar shops that are much easier to access, assuming the thief is from the local area. However, I had several workers in my house the day of the theft - booked via a shop much closer to Rutherglen. I'd suggested that if the seller happened to be one of the guys that was in my house that day, then that would surely be worth investigating a bit further. But apparently not, it doesn't prove anything. So, I'm optimistic that I will get the bass back, as soon as the police can find time to go in to the shop. But using the seller details to try and find my other bits or get a prosecution probably won't happen. George

That's a fair point... I'm hoping to hear back from the police today, the office was going to go in over the weekend if she had time. George

I've had that conversation with the store manager and received assurances... but I'm not exactly confident in their abilities. I think I'll put in in writing to be certain though. They insist they don't have the Helix, seems weird a thief would try and off load gear at two different places though. Thanks, George

I think we're on the cusp of a happy ending for the Jazz Bass at least, no sign of the Helix or other bits - though it's bass I care most about. The shop won't give me the bass, which is understandable - they want the Police to collect it. The Police seem to be the biggest problem right now, two days and three calls later and still no sign of them showing any interest whatsover. It's apparently not as simple as them just going to the shop (I don't see why!), and I need to wait for them. My concern is that Cash Generator unwittingly end up selling it again! George

Here's the 20 year old... And the newborn. (Stock pic)

I've made my mind up... once I finally get it back, I'm keeping one strung with flats the other with rounds. Chopped and changed too many times over the years. Not quite identical twins!

I've made the police aware... though they need to email it to the station handling my original case and have it assigned back to the original officer. Oh, and I can't just pop in due to Covid restrictions.

Via the power of Facebook, we've found the guy! He posted in a music gear group that I'm a member of, trying to sell it for double what he paid for it an hour before! He's going to take it back and get his money back. Shop already aware of what's going on, so should be relatively simple to get it back now. Assuming the cops don't want to hold on to it as evidence for too long. I've already replaced the thing with one quite similar to it! What to do with two blue Jazzes....

Hey guys, You may recall I posted a few months ago about my Fender Jazz being stolen from my car in Airdrie, near Glasgow. This is my original post here: I've found out today that Cash Generator in Rutherglen (also near Glasgow) bought and sold it this afternoon for £180. If this was you, please get in touch and / or return the bass to where you bought it? Many thanks, George

Exactly the same for me!

I think I read somewhere it was Guy Pratt who played on it, though it was just a comment on YouTube or something. Does anyone know who played on it? George

I'm perhaps being a touch harsh... I bought the bass from PMT, and shipping was slightly delayed due to the Covid-19 situation. It appears they shipped it to me as soon as they received it, it was still in the original Fender shipping box. It may be that PMT would have set it before shipping under different circumstances. The main thing is, it's set up exactly how I like it now and really is a great sounding bass. I've owned two Fenders from new before (purchased from McCormacks in Glasgow in 2003, and Wunjo in 2013), and both were set up reasonably well. Though I suppose that's the risk you take when buying online vs in-store. There is a clear incentive for a bricks and mortar shop to set something up before selling it. Though I recall taking my son to buy his first guitar and he tried an entry level Epiphone Les Paul. We said we'd take it, and they salesman brought us a new one, still in the box - suggesting it would be in better condition than the one from the wall. It needed a little work when we got it home - my kid noticed a huge difference after I sorted the relief and action. In hindsight, I guess they must sell quite a lot of those entry level guitars and setting one up nicely makes sense to them. Anyway - I digress. I still have GAS for a Betsy... George

I seriously considered one of these for a while. I had my Jazz Bass stolen a few months ago and needed a replacement. I ended up going for the Fender Vintera 60's instead, with the rationale that I prefer flats on a Jazz and use it for the more 'vintage' numbers in our set, with my Lakland covering the modern tones. To me the passive alnico pickups in the Fender trumped the Betsy here. But always had some doubts, particularly as I love Guy's work. Hearing that yours arrived well set up and in tune does give me a bit of buyer's regret. My Fender was not set up whatsoever. Zero tension in the truss road, intonation all over the place. I got it setup how I wanted, but it was fairing time consuming, given the truss rod adjustment at the heel, requiring removal of the neck. Anyway, really good that you're enjoying this - it looks a great bass! Once I start gigging again and my gear fund gets topped up, I may end up acquiring one of these myself. George

I got by for a couple of years on a ZZ Top branded P I borrowed from school for home practice. Then got by for another few years with just a Tanglewood Rebel, which I traded in and had just a Fender Jazz for about 10 years. I've had a peak of five basses, but these days I 'need' three.. A four string Jazz with flats A five string active with rounds A fretless This is enough to cover everything I do, mostly classic rock covers and a wee bit of jangly guitar original stuff. George

I'm in a similar situation. Social distancing has led to a couple of remote projects. I simply connect my Helix LT to my laptop via USB, and run Reaper - there's a free 60 day evaluation, then it's only $60 USD. The Helix works well as an interface, and my old Zoom B3 did too. So it's possible you may already have what you need to dip your toes in without spending anything. I've no requirement to record anything other than bass, so this works for me. If you want to do more, I can also recommend a Behringer interface like the one mentioned by @Mudpup. My keyboard player has a similar model with two XLR inputs and it does a great job for both keys and vocals. George

Just as few as possible. 😀

Let me bring you up to speed in as few bullet points as possible! After Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd, Roger Waters gradually became more dominant - being the main songwriter on their most famous albums (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall). By the time of The Wall tour, keyboardist Richard Wright had been sacked from the band (apparently for too much cocaine and not enough creative input...), though was retained as a sideman for the live shows. Waters' final album with Pink Floyd, The Final Cut is widely regarded as a solo album - with little creative input from Gilmour (guitar/vocals) or Mason (drums). Waters then unilaterally dissolved the band - firmly believing there was no Pink Floyd without him. Gilmour had other ideas, and the resulting legal battle gave ownership of the Pink Floyd to him and Mason. Wright rejoined too, officially as a hired-gun at first. Pink Floyd, now led by Gilmour played huge tours with spectacular shows and recorded two more albums. (Three if you count The Endless River, which was mostly outtakes from The Division Bell) Waters pursued a solo career, often upset that Pink Floyd were selling out stadiums with sets made up largely of material he had written while he had less success. (Comparatively!) Pink Floyd's last tour was in 1994, and the last performance was when Waters rejoined as a one-off for Live 8 in 2005. Obviously I've glossed over much of this, but I think that's enough to give the general background. George

Please tell me this was intended as a joke...

Great bassline. Seems like its mixed criminally low on the record though!

Homer Simpson?

Sounds quite weird indeed. The fact it's going away when you touch the strings etc would suggest an issue somewhere with earth wiring, but the fact you've replaced the pots would hopefully suggest otherwise, unless you made the same error twice. It's probably worth checking against a wiring diagram to be 100% certain, and possibly confirming a good solid bridge earth connection. Here's some things I'd try... Try in a different room. I had an issue once, where if my active Lakland was plugged into an amp which was plugged in to a socket in the same room as a powerline adapter, i'd get all sorts of weird noises. Only this bass in this exact scenario. I know folk have had similar experiences where problems only occur in certain rooms. If there's a pickup at fault, I'd expect it to just be one - unless you are exceptionally unlucky. So, does the hum occur with one or both pickups? I'd first test by just using the volume pots, then try removing the suspect pickup from the circuit entirely and running it in isolation to confirm. Check you don't have any pots, wiring etc touching the inside of the control cavity - it's probably got conductive paint on it as shielding. If you have a multimeter, measure the resistance between various earth points - like between the bridge and the back of a pot. It should be as close to zero as possible. Anything that gives a value significantly greater than just touching the two points together should be investigated. Also use a multimeter to check the DC resistance of the pickups, a quick Google suggests the following values for your pickups: Neck: 8.3K, Bridge: 7.8K. I wouldn't be worried about a small difference here, just anything significant like half or double the expected value. Good luck! George

Yeah, I’m a great believer in constructive feedback. There’s a QC card with four signatures on it. Genuinely, if one of those signatures was mine and the end user wasn’t happy I’d like to know. Realistically, I know these are factory workers and probably signing 100+ of those every day and may not care what some bloke in Scotland thinks!