Roger2611

I will certainly bow to your greater knowledge on these basses, one query you say the Hondo's would not have a MIJ neckplate, I had a Hondo Precision with the thinner MIJ neckplate on it? was it only Jazzes that were not made in Japan or not made at all?

I would say that it is a SB801 (as it is a through neck bass) and possibly my old bass (The quilting on the front looks slightly different to mine but the light on my old photos is not great) Sadly I don't have any images of the back of my bass to confirm what it looked like, I had mine back in about 1988 and sold it on soon afterwards as due to poor technique I kept flicking the G string off the side of the fret board..........I have put a hefty bid in for it as I wish I had never sold it!

I have spent a fortune at PMT Northampton, I have tended to find them very good, they are not perfect and I miss the personal service you get dealing with a small shop but by and large I have been happy dealing with them

It is a cheap Japanese copy, possibly a Hondo as the neck plate is smaller than a Fender one, it has had a truss rod cover on it and the bridge has screws at the front so it is definitely a low budget Japanese instrument and in it's current condition probably only worth a tenth of what it has been bid to. I have messaged the seller, his feedback score suggests he has had issues before, I will see if I get a response and if not I will report it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/fender-jazz-bass-guitar-made-in-japan-in-need-of-tlc/401653350103?epid=1924933726&hash=item5d8467bed7:g:MqcAAOSw8R9cDBzG Totally fake Fender Jazz, already bid up to £107.00...someone is going to be disappointed!

Gutted, one of the true founders of the Manchester punk scene, we saw them in Leeds earlier this year, I never thought it would be the last time I would see them......RIP Pete

Slightly off the wall maybe but Killing Joke's Love Like Blood bass sound and especially how it sits with the drums in the mix has always been my favourite bass sound and one I have struggled to emulate on any recordings I have done

I totally feel for you, I really hope you get these back and I hope the thieving scum that took your stuff get their hands chopped off! I know you have probably done it already but if not, I assume these guitars are going to be tough to value so I imagine anyone tempted to buy /sell them will need a valuation, I would contact the likes of Andy Baxter, Bass Direct and any other bass specialist shops that would be able to value the basses? I am so glad the cats are OK, this is always my biggest fear if we got burgled

PM'ed

On a recent documentary Wilco said Fender had built him a couple of custom shop Tele's as exact copies of his famous beast, I believe he plays those now as he was terrified of losing the original (not sure terrified and Wilco Johnson really belong in the same sentence!)

Andy McClusky of OMD used the same primer grey Fender Jazz bass for a huge part of their career, he retired it a couple of years ago (just after I built a replica!) and now uses a modern black Jazz

ESP have recently built Jake two new guitars as he has had to retire the White Donald Duck stickered ESP, he does still have a green SG2000 in the back up rack for gigs but I have not seen him need it in many years.

Can you get hold of an inflatable double bass and just mime on that?

Hate to put a downer on this thread but, many years ago I had written some EBM type songs, I had done most of the music but needed a vocalist, I met this guy in a local nightclub who really looked the part, I spoke to him and asked if he was a musician, he replied "yes" we chatted and he wanted to give it a go, I picked him up a few days later and brought him back to the house, set up the gear and played him the songs, he picked up guitar lines for them really quickly, which was great, but then he tried to sing, sadly he was worse than terrible, he just couldn't sing a note, I think he knew, he said afterwards "I'm not really a singer am I" I said, "not at this point but you area a good guitarist and a good looking front man so we had something to work with" he said "he would go away and practise and to call him in a week or so" I never managed to get hold of him again, apparently he committed suicide the evening I dropped him back home! I still know some of his friends who have always said he was a suicide that was always going to happen so I should not blame myself!....To this day I have never put any vocals to those tracks

Totally agree, I reckon we could have a couple of really great music channels rather than 30 odd channels of complete poop, I find the music stuff on Sky Arts and BBC4 far better than anything on the actual music channels.