Roger2611

It's one of those games where you take a random object and call it something totally different, for the first 5 years of my sons life I always told him that Cows were called Lions, well it's the privilege of parenthood isn't it Edited for poor grammar.

There is no reason why you cannot do it yourself, I assume the current finish is in nice order, if so it is a case of roughing up the areas to be painted, carefully masking the areas you don't want painting, prime it, paint it, polish it, job done, I would also suggest going for Nitro Cellulose cans from Northwest Guitar Parts, I have used their paint for my last 3 paint jobs and have achieved results way beyond what I would have expected from a can and better than most of the jobs I see on the cars returned to me by customers who have had repairs done at "top" insurance approved repairers.... My only concern is that if you paint your Alembic you will probably destroy a lot of the value in it irrespective of who does the work and to what standard.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1461520304' post='3035359'] I think the trick is to stop thinking of the tone of your bass in isolation and start thinking of the tone in the context of a band. I can only really judge a bass, once I've listened to it in the mix at a gig or rehearsal. [/quote] Very much this, I took my fretless to rehearsal today as I really want it to become my go to gigging bass, we recorded the songs with the fretless (a range topping Bass Collection 512) and then recorded them again with a bitsa Jazz bass, sadly I am in total agreement with the rest of the band the Jazz sounded right. Fretless on standby for another project I guess

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1461408997' post='3034383'] Bad Company's Boz Burrell did a top job of making a fretless sound 'normal' at the appropriate moments and all slippy-slidey at others. Definitely try and keep your fretless requirements together, I wish my band would do this, but I don't listen to myself when I write them [/quote] Now that is a great idea, I am going to play fretless at rehearsal today and just try and make it sound as fretted as possible for the tracks where I would usually use a Precision, unfortunately with a lot of our songs at the moment I do use a pick so today I will commit the cardinal sin of playing a fretless with a pick for some songs!

I really like the track Paisley Park, it was not a track I was familiar with until recently, I love the space in the song

Yeah, I don't really like it

I am glad it went well, I wish I could convince our band that the fretless sound is the way to go, I will just have to keep writing basslines that suit fretless better, I can't wait until fretless becomes more mainstream in popular music again

Just shocking, at this rate there isn't going to be any celebs left by September, this really is a crap year. I only downloaded the track Paisley Park last week RIP to a fine showman

Say Hello Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell Let Me Go - Heaven 17 Come Live With Me - Heaven 17 Whiteman In Hammersmith Palais - The Clash Complete Control - The Clash All have been favourites for years but at the moment Belle and Sebastien's Nobody's Empire would have to be right up there

It looks like a better build than many "hand made" horrors I have seen advertised, it looks better built than many factory jobs on the market, sadly it's actual value will be a long way from its sentimental value to the builder

I still have my first guitar...yes another Saterlite but a Strat this time, it played brilliantly until I decided to repaint it Silver and hung it out of my bedroom window on a bungee strap to dry.....yep you guessed it...twang followed very quickly by crash snapped the headstock clean off and splintered the body, I managed to glue it all back together and it has hung on my wall ever since. My first bass was a Precision of some kind, from what I remember it weighed a ton but played and sounded ok.....absolutely no idea what happened to it, probably swapped it for another six string guitar or some beer or ciggies or something

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1460874692' post='3029401'] I couldn't care less if it's a so-called 'signature'. I would happily play a Les Paul. [/quote] Interesting case in point, the Les Paul is almost like Hoover or Biro in that it has become synonymous with that shape of guitar / Vacuum cleaner / ball point pen, so although I suppose it is a signature model it is not in the same sense as say a Slash AFD signature version of the Les Paul signature guitar (especially when the original AFD guitar was not even a Gibson) Also there is a lot of debate as to how much Les Paul actually offered to the guitar. [quote name='skej21' timestamp='1460879555' post='3029425'] . It's funny that the OP talks about the idea of the original simply being 'the best of the bunch'... Maybe Geddy's original jazz was the 'best of the bunch' in the shop and they then modelled his signature on it which was the 'best of the bunch' when I went in to the shop. Funny world! [/quote] I was actually thinking of the Geddy Lee bass being a possible exception to the rule and possibly having been a "great bass" in the first place but then again, never having played the original we simply don't know how good / playable the original is and how much Fender have modded it to be friendly to the masses. There certainly are signature basses out there that offer real difference to the standard instrument and, to me, they are certainly going to be worth the extra money to buyers who want that exact model but it is things like the Dee Dee Ramone bass that is just a White on black Precision (whereas a lot of photos of Dee Dee show a red tort guard) with a maple neck, the only thing different is the neck plate which wouldn't have been on the original anyway. I just see that as a cynical money maker I remember Fender offering a Duck Dunn Precision a few years ago but reading about the original it was apparently virtually unplayable in the set up he favoured and Mr Dunn didn't even like it! I assume most of us would be happier with a stock instrument in the same colour scheme? I am surprised Fender haven't launched a post London Calling album cover version of the Paul Simonon bass!

It's funny how many people are attracted to artist signature series basses, I wonder how many of the original basses were the "best of the bunch" basses, in most cases I expect they were the one hanging on the wall of the nearest guitar store to the bank where the record company advance was cashed that the now revered bassist looked at and thought yeah that will look cool. Fender are offering the Dee Dee Ramone bass As a huge Ramones fan, I can't remember reading anywhere a credible story where Dee Dee found and fell in love with this truly fantastic example of a Precision bass, from what I have read probably the only reason it wasn't sold to pay for his next fix was because it was locked away in a studio somewhere! I can't think of any examples where the bass (or any instrument) is more influential than the player, I understand the desire to own a bass that looks like the one your hero played but unless the bass has some very special features that are unavailable on a standard instrument, I can't see the point in paying any more than the standard price for it. A perfect example would be the Sid Vicious Precision...would Sid really have known a good Precision if it hit him over the head? The guy in the audience in San Francisco who got hit over the head with it would probably be better able to tell you if it was a good bass than Sid would have been. Your thoughts ladies and gents?

I had one in my Sterling Ray 34, along with a John East pre-amp, it was a huge improvement over the standard electronics but wasn't enough to make the bass a keeper in the end

I am hoping the dealer LTD editions will at least hold their valuable (so I can off load my $$ German dealer only edition) The problem is knowing where to value it, with vintage Fenders there is a pretty set pricing structure for the various age and desirability of the instruments but with something like my $$ , I don't know what it is worth (I know what I traded it for) so I don't expect that many others will be able to put a value on it either, at the moment it sits in its case until such time that I feel it may make sensible money (which to me is the value of the bass I traded it for) I guess not being able to put a value on an instrument will hold its value down?

I liked the black, I think I liked the mint as well but sitting here in the dark I thought it made the bass take on a pinkish hue? I just showed Mrs2611 the mint picture and asked what colour the body was, she said pink as well

I am really into building my own basses at the moment, mostly Fender clones, nothing better than taking a bunch of parts, doing your own paintwork putting it all together and setting it up to be a really nice bass, the last three I have built have all been gigged over their genuine counterparts with loads of compliments. My most recent is a Candy Apple Red Precision, red over gold nitro finish which has already crazed like an original nitro bass should, I think it looks fantastic and I actually find I have more connection to it over an off the shelf bass because I built it.....if that makes sense

I'm too scared to look, I have been around the site for a while now and fell for the infamous Japanese guy playing the bass in a dress picture, I can never un-see that so if I don't look at this video it is not something I have to worry about un-hearing it

Mostly Precision's the current go to seems to be a Candy Apple Red Precision I built and sprayed recently the finish has already started to check really nicely other than that it will be my Roadworn P or the 50's classic P on the odd occasion I will gig a replica of Andy McCluskey's Jazz Bass again one I built recently.

Not sure about the originallity of the case either it looks like one of those Ebay special Fender stickers has been stuck on, it may be an original case but I am not sure it is a Fender case....could be wrong through.

I was reading an article recently where they were saying the super hyped prices of 2008 /9 were down to two collectors battling over every proper vintage guitar that came on the market, their battle fueled price rises throughout the market, eventually one collector went bust, ended up in jail with his collection liquidated, this prompted the price crash that is still rattling on now. Consensus seems to be that the people that got their fingers burned a few years back are now out of the market replaced by fresh new money prepared to fuel the crazy investment markets again so expect prices to rise for the real top end stuff which will have a knock on to the less desirable "vintage" instruments.

I sold a bass recently where the buyer paid by Paypal,despite living only 19 miles away, we arranged a meet fairly locally, I got the buyer to message me his reg via Ebay then Mrs2611 covertly filmed the handover with with the guys reg clearly captured.

I think there has been a sustained decrease in values of older, formally very valuable guitars and basses, only an hour ago a really nice 66 strat from a top dealer went unsold at £8999.00 on Ebay, a few years ago that would have gone north of twelve grand. My friend has a pukka 62 Strat which he retired from gigging when the insurance value hit £30.000, basically he couldn't even get insurance to use it for overseas gigs, now its value has dropped back to around £12.000 he does take it out and enjoys gigging it again even if he does keep an eagle eye on it. There have been one or two 59 Les Paul's come up for sale in recent months, I think both were offered at less than £50.000, bearing in mind a few years back a good 59 was upwards of £250.000, that is a substantial drop in value. I was reading recently that whilst the market is weak for the less desirable instruments, ala the late 70's Fender's, the real high end original, proper vintage gear is starting to go up in value again

Impressed with both the Cassidy and the Starfire basses, unmoved by the Coronado bass, it was Ok but I wouldn't have brought one, totally underwhelmed by the Gretsch Electromatic basses which is such a shame as I love their guitars. The one which impressed me most as a player was the Jack Cassidy bass and aesthetically it was the least appealing to me as it was in Gold so it must have been good

He plays a Dingwall, I look up to him...he, on the other hand, plays a Hohner.....I look down on him......I play a Precision, I know my place I can't play jazz fusion.....I don't even know what that it is.....I am un-educated