mickthebass

[size=4][color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][quote name='Musky' timestamp='1353093323' post='1871659'] [i]Precisions[/i] from that period (i.e. the 70's) didn't have through stringing. The original single coil Precisions did have through stringing, so your fiesta red one would have been one of those or more likely it had been modified. Odd Fenders turn up from time to time, but I've never heard of a P Bass from back then leaving the factory with through stringing. Any info you can contribute is always welcome though. [/quote][/font][/color][/size] [size=4][color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]If only I'd thought that to finish a discusion in 30 years time to take some detailed photos oh! it also had a strap butten on the rear of the head below the tuners.[/font][/color][/size] [size=4][color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Still we have established once and for all that through body stringing is not a way to tell the difference between a U.S.A., a Mexican, a Japanese or a squire, Precision style fender bass? Have we?[/font][/color][/size]

[b] [size=3][color="#000000"][font="Trebuchet MS"]My Fender Mustang bass short scale which is older than 1977 has through body stringing, so did the fiesta red precision I bought in 1971 second hand now long gone, had it also.[/font][/color][/size][/b]

[size=3][font="Trebuchet MS"][color="#000000"]Have a look at this Fender precision U.S.A. genuine 1978 bass guitar on eBay lot number 181019270838 it has no through body stringing, has no half moon on the pick guard to adjust truss rod and also so looks a lot like the one I got conned with in the midlands but I’ve been wrong before.[/color][/font][/size] [color="#000000"]Mike [/color]

[quote name='gsgbass' timestamp='1352517799' post='1864210'] I just picked up a 2012, 4003. I never really took the time to play one, and really closely look one over until recently. My Fender Precision played well, but I liked the sounds, and the feel of the 4003 better. This was made the first week of Sept., 2012. [/quote] Looks absolutely fabulous, can I ask what you paid it? It was brand new at that age I take it? Hope you have as much joy as most owners say they have. Mick The Bass A.K.A. The Tube Dude, That just in case you need help with a tube amp.

To sort this matter out once and for all I will see if my contact at Sky who included the sting in one of their late night real life police chase things can get a copy of the programme to put on utube for us all to see. These serious criminals were using sale of counterfeits of all sorts of musical instruments, ipods, watches, perfume, tee shirts, trainers, etc some sold from the shop, some sold on auction sites, some through grifters with hard luck stories in pubs, etc some to money lenders shops, all to launder money from the sale of some sort of medicine, called the Herb of Jha, that they grew in a hidden hydroponics at the other end of the factory units, in one of the units they even posed as a branch of an internet service provider, had hundreds of fake internet server racks to explain why they used so much electricity. These were some serious hard men involved in a wide range of dubious enterprises. They brought Vietnamese illegals over here just to be gardeners.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1352468622' post='1863469'] Replacing all of the stuff on a Squier with US stuff and all the other work and time would make it cost more than buying a Fender for a dealer. And probably make an as good or better instrument. As for the Ricks on ebay, depends if you think over a grand is easy to come by. [/quote]sorry I don't understand your logic squiers at trade like argos used to buy them were 75 quid and a u.s.a. bass costs 750 quid plus that is a pretty good markup, the labour was minimal cause they only worked on them when the were not tending the plants!

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1352382754' post='1862378'] Body end truss adjustment is a cross screw head type thing, not a nut (well, it is a nut inside, but there would be no point in putting a bit of threaded bar in, because it can't be seen). Never take stuff to dealers for adjustment, they aren't techs. Sounds a lot like you just had a Fender, and a dealer who didn't know what they were up to and broke the end off your truss rod. [/quote] Sorry but when I said a threaded rod I was trying to describe exactly what the standard U.S.A. truss rod adjustment looks like the truss rod is a thin steel rod that is threaded at either the nut or body end and fixed at the other depending on which construction has been used it is fitted into a routed slot in the neck that is covered either in a maple fingerboard by the so called skunk stripe on the back or a rosewood finger board as an alternate, at the nut end adjustment is made by an Allan key compatible short bar about an inch long which is drilled and threaded on the inside and screwed onto the threaded end of the truss rod and is tensioned against a reinforced shoulder in the neck just under the first fret adjustment if ever necessary is made through a small hole by the nut using the supplied Allan key some CBS necks had a bullet shaped chrome plated slotted bar/nut which protruded on the head just above the nut. Body adjustable trusses have a similar inch long bar drilled and cross slotted screwed to the body end of the truss rod and tensioned against a shoulder just under the top final fret this can be seen if the pick guard has a semicircular cut-out in line with the end of the neck, on the modified neck there was room because the truss rod in the nut adjustment neck finishes about an inch and a half or so back leaving room to fit this fake but convincing adjustment, add some two pack wood filler to the Allen screw hole at the nut and you have a convincing U.S.A. neck. After being shafted I made a point studying everything I could about Fenders and Squiers. One supplementary question if Rickenbacker basses are so hard to get hold of how come there are 20 on Ebay at the moment? One shop even has two for sale? And Finally:- As an engineer once said to me, about a bass line I’d just stressed over “That sounded great did you play it with a pick? Or a shovel?"

[quote name='Nibody' timestamp='1352356712' post='1862037'] THIS Also Fender USA basses have a different Truss Rod adjustment to Squier, which would make it glaringly obvious that it was a Squier not a Fender. So you are saying he removed the Fingerboard, bought in bulk US truss-rods of the correct type (including re-routing the neck to accomodate the Heel-end truss rod adjustment, whilst expertly inserting a plug of the correct wood, shaped to fit the headstock at the nut-end )? To the degree it fooled a fender dealer? Sorry not buying it. [/quote] [quote name='stu_g' timestamp='1352357776' post='1862040'] plus the fender machineheads neckplate and through body stringing and different bridge [/quote] Sorry, I was away playing at a shads revival in Scarbourgh and thought my bass neck was bowing a bit, I had had the bass a year then, so I took it to a dealer in the town he said he would have a look while I went back to watch the other tribute bands when I got back he said that the truss nut was just a bit of threaded bar slotted and glued into a drilling in the body end of the neck, the real truss adjustment was at the nut end filled with plastic wood, it did have a string though body and the winders looked just like the modern fender/shallers on my current usa standard precision bass so did the bridge. I cannot claim to have seen every model of squier bass but I know there are a lot of different variations out there some more like a true USA fender and some not, I am not looking for an argument. I am just saying be careful as I found to my distress you never know what you are getting.

I really must apologize to all the members that I have upset with my comments about counterfeits clones and other fakes. I am perhaps then the only member who knows for sure he has been duped by a squier precision bass expertly converted to a U.S.A. made bass, that had even fooled one of our local fender dealers, with cloth vintage wire and many other tells that meant comparison with even a known vintage model of impeccable providence proved difficult. Only after the previous owner was found by trading standards to have sold many fender USA basses in towns and cities across the midlands, saying he had waited years to get the guitar of his dreams, but then he lost his job and his wife fell pregnant and then his car failed the M.O.T. so he’d be willing to let it go cheap for cash, did he give up a mail order music shop running from an industrial trading estate. As a Fender main dealer they had been buying squiers by the dozen and converting them to be almost indistinguishable from the real thing, forged decals, case candy, slightly worn left casually in the case pockets for realism, they even had documents for the squiers to people pulled randomly off the internet in case their sales were ever checked, paid V.A.T. and tax, LTD company the whole shooting match, trading standards said it could have been going on for years, they had asked me to attend court as one of the victims but I wasn’t needed and got my money back in time to move to my wife’s new job in the south of England and never really heard anymore. But they must be out there somewhere just think £650 for a Argos £195 squier and some paint and wire. It makes you think when I hear people say they had a certain bass but it wasn’t as good as other ones they’d tried so they sold it on. I have seen site on ebay selling Gibson trade marked volume pot’s so even that’s not a reliable safeguard. I just don’t know how any of us can be sure of what we are buying. Still as someone said [i]“[/i][i]So you concluded the forum was against clones from the glowing review posted here, and the multiple threads regarding them and how good they are?” [/i] That’s alright then just as long as they are good it doesn’t matter if we’ve been ripped off.

How sad it is to end your comments with pretentious quotations. How did it go? “Just another turd floating in the toilet bowl of life”

[font=comic sans ms,cursive][size=5]I thought this forum was against cloners and fakers. Now we are giving them positive revues, no wonder Rickenbackers C.E.O. is complaining . Although it is not all that cheap! £599! Someone will have to make up their mind on policy? I mean, have you read this:-[/size] [size=5]A review from online forum Basschat had this to say.[/size] [size=5][i]This bass is made from maple body and maple neck through construction same as a [color=#FF0000]genuine ric[/color], the neck has a rosewood fretboard with triangular pearl inlays and a heavy laquer finish again the same as a [color=#FF0000]genuine ric[/color]. the electronic side of the bass now, it comes as standard with seymour duncan [color=#FF0000]rickenbacker[/color] replacement pickups which cost around £200, i took the scratch plate off to have a look at the wiring and the work seems to be of a high standard and high quality wiring is used, the paint job is of a high standard the sheer quality of sound this bass produces if it had [color=#FF0000]rickenbacker[/color] written on it you would be happy trust me on that!! i cant put this bass down it just sounds better and better, for £599 its a great buy and if you are looking for a [color=#FF0000]ricK tone [/color]but dont want to pay the big bucks , and a[color=#000000]part from the obscenely ugly headstock [/color]i can recommend this bass 100%.[/i][/size][/font]

[color=#000000]Talk about fake rickies take a look at this lot, we’d better tell the CEO about this it on evilbay Item number 230878499400 what a hoot. “Sound Cartel” wah whatever next. [/color] [font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=#000000][attachment=123008:shine.jpg][/color][/size][/font]

In 1991 when Robert Maxwell Died “At Sea” my band, contracted to mirror group video lost everything, music rights, fees, copyright and I lost all my guitars and amps which I found out belonged to the suits, not me, my guitars Gibsons, Fenders, Rickenbackers and Martins and my many Fender amps all went out the door taken by Crombie coated, gold teethed thugs. Much less of a loss you might say than the mirror pensioners who lost it all. But over the last few years I have made do with Squires and Epiphones, tangelwoods and transistor fenders, I had to go without a 12 string and 4000 series bass. But now things have got better and I have gradually replaced my collection, all but a ricky bass, the prices are outrageous and Rickenbacker are not to blame, all this talk about having to wait years for delivery for new stock, what a load of rubbish, its retailers with their false perception of value of both new and second user items that’s causing the problem’s and this has stagnated the second hand market to. I have spent an hour or so for about a year now looking for a fireglow 4003 on ebay and what do I see the same old basses, brand new being listed over and over again and never selling I checked the serial numbers of these so called new basses and some of them are five and six years old surely that must indicate to the shopkeepers that the market price is just to high! It’s just the same with the private sellers relisting the same bass month after month for £1500 second hand bye it now. Some get so embarrassed when their “investment probably never been out the box” doesn’t get a bid and they withdraw it saying sold else ware, only to relist change the photos etc a few weeks later. And if I have to read this particular passage again which they all cut and past as though no ones seen it before [color=#FF0000]“The 4003 Classic Rickenbacker bass - famous for its ringing sustain, treble punch and solid underlying bass. Rickenbacker 4003 in stunning finish. A bass famous for its ringing sustain, treble punch and solid underlying bass. A subtle strip of binding graces the elegantly curved body and the Rosewood fingerboard. Deluxe triangular inlays and stereo capability are standard features. Solid body 20 frets 84.5 cm (33 1/4'') scale Maple body Maple neck Rosewood fingerboard Neck Binding Triangle inlays RIC tailpiece and bridge Neck Through body 2 pickups Single Coil pickups Mono and Stereo output Schaller Deluxe machine heads.[/color] Blah Blah, we all no how good they are, they are not however linked to the gold standard. Anyway I probably have no friends left after this rant. Bye for now