Roger2611

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

As others, not bothered by chunky or slim necks I will happily play either, but give me a bass with a sharp edge where the fretboard meets the neck and it will be out the door in no time (for some reason every Fender 50's Classic P Bass I have played other than the one in my avatar seems to have had that sharp edge yet the Roadworn's don't)

Northwest Guitar Parts have had some nice P Bass maple boarded necks recently complete with screw head adjuster in the heel, I brought mine for £99.00 and it is as good as any of the genuine Fender necks I have. They are the normal bigger headstock type but a half decent local carpenter should be able to reshape it to suit

Top bloke, held the bass for a while whilst I made arrangements to get down and collect it, nice and easy transaction, I would happily trade with you again Many thanks Rog

[quote name='NickD' timestamp='1459420057' post='3016312'] I'm disappointed! I wouldn't look at it as an either/or decision. Two fingers is the conventional method, and for me works best for most applications, but I use 3 fingers for triplet feel stuff, and for shuffle feel tunes and a lot of the folky stuff I'll often use my thumb, index and middle fingers together, guitar style (if that makes sense). I'll use a pick from time to time too if that seems called for. Based on the material you want to play I'd weight practice towards what feels most comfortable for that kind of bass line, but would continue exercises around the other methods, so you can pull something different out of the bag if it's called for. Having a few different picking techniques is helpful with original material, as I find the lines I come up with are quite different depending on what picking style I use... gives you more to work with. [/quote] Totally agree with NickD's post, there is a video on Youtube somewhere of a guy playing the solo from Chic's Everybody Dance, he is almost picking with his thumb whilst playing the higher notes with at least 3 fingers, it is the only video I have seen that seems to get close to the original sound Bernard Edwards got, I tried but can't get anywhere near it, with you experience of classical playing you may be able to pick that up far better than I can

More holes in the body and pickguard than in a lump of Swiss cheese! Not being a Jazz expert but for 61 shouldn't it be a stack knob bass? Even if you could guarantee that most of it is a 61 bass I am still not sure I would part with £1000 for it, shame really as it is probably a really nice player, just too many issues

I think it is a late 70's / 80's case, I guess if you have a mint Precision with non original case it would be worth having, at £70.00 posted I would probably take it for my 79 Precision but at £140.00 it is too expensive. I brought a USA Strat last year just for the case, the guitar was offered cheap enough to buy it, take the case and sell the guitar on for slightly more than i paid for it so my 62 reissue now has a genuine Fender case

I retro fit the Gotoh 201 bridges to all my gigging Precision basses, I don't trust the standard bridges after having had a saddle screw unwind mid gig on a couple of occasions, I don't know whether is improves the sound in any way but it improves my peace of mind, the Gotoh is a direct swap, it can be easily be undone and if a high mass bridge is good enough for Nate Mendel's Precision it is good enough for mine. A cheaper fix is to put a drop of clear nail varnish where the screw meets the saddle, in theory it will hold the screws tight but will crack under adjustment thus holding the saddle in place until you need to adjust it, I have done it with my 79 Precision and the saddle screws have not moved since but as I have not needed to adjust them again so I have not tested the latter bit yet! I think they are a worthwhile investment

Don't insure, probably should but the lack of insurance does make be extremely careful of where gear is at any point whenever it is out of the house

I need to sell basses before I buy more, purely down to space restrictions, that tends to keep a bit of a lid on the GAS as most of the time I can't be bothered with the whole selling thing.....I have just agreed to buy a fretless Bass Collection off here which has prompted the sale of the Tokai Jazz Still on the list to own is a Ric but that will mean the sale of the Warwick to fund it, but the Warwick is that good, it is a limited edition....if I do sell it then don't like the Ric there is no way I would be able to buy another one, that's why that hasn't happened yet. I would still like to own a Wal but that would mean the sale of a couple of basses to fund that one and they would be instruments I really don't want or need to part with

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1458959262' post='3012477'] The price something is listed for and the price it actually sells for are two very different things... ...a number of sellers are overly optimistic. [/quote] Definitely, I guess it is down to clever marketing, by producing limited edition basses that sell for high prices, sellers are always going to "big them up" no one is going to spend thousands of pounds on an instrument then try to sell it on a couple of years down the line with an advert that says "crap expensive Ltd edition Fender for sale, grossly overpriced when new, so grossly overpriced used!" Fender maintain a desirable image and the Ltd availability means owners try to keep strong values in their used instruments.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1458845182' post='3011552'] Our fault again, eh..? ([i]Sigh[/i]... ) ... [/quote] If in doubt blame the drummer, if the drummer swears it wasn't him, it was probably the dog

you lot are encourageable

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1458779682' post='3010897'] Another approach thread. Let's say you get this gig and you have to learn 20 songs you don't know in a week. What would be your approach to learning the songs? Blue [/quote] Panic, sheer unadulterated panic followed by caffeine....lots of caffeine, lots of YouTube and some crib notes such as intro CADB x4 etc....but you know as soon as you get on stage and you have then on the floor in front of you...you won't be able to see them or the drummers industrial fan will send them wafting off into the distance......more panic!

Eva Cassidy, Randy Crawford Paul Young (in his heyday) Tony Hadley all beautiful voices Jake Burns (SLF) for sheer balls out power vocals

It's funny how we talk about versatile, does that actually mean "does not sound like a Precision" My active basses have a wide range of sounds but never sound like a Precision.....Our guitarist / singer moans if I use anything other a precision through the Mark Bass rig for every gig even if a house amp is available...he says the songs are written around that bass sound....I think he is lying and just wants to see me carrying gear in and out but I know where he is coming from. Basses for metal, most players of that genre seem to use active basses I wonder if it is the tight compressed sound of an active bass that is needed to fit into the mix?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FRIED-EGG-ABSTRACT-cool-scratch-plate-pick-guard-for-acoustic-guitar-/281967078356?hash=item41a68c2bd4:g:HfEAAOSwQPlV7smx My first thought was "no one in their right mind would buy that" then I notice someone has already placed a bid!

Bucks Fizz.....yes really!

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1458747394' post='3010480'] Visualise yourself playing it as you listen along, maybe accompanied by a bit of fret hand twitching [/quote] A bit of air bass never hurt anyone

[quote name='keefbaker' timestamp='1458648676' post='3009366'] Ageism is still very real in music, whereas other artforms it isn't. At 60 you're not "past it" to be a painter or "past it" to be a writer. But you know... a lot of the time it's all going back to the idea that band members should make the contents of people's pants feel funny. It was a lot better when ugly people were allowed in bands. [/quote] Ugly people are allowed in bands I am a case in point! Our originals band are all rapidly approaching 50 yet we have more promoters wanting to put us on than any band I have ever played in before.....maybe an original "Inde" band in there late 40's is in demand because we turn up on time, have reliable gear don't, pee off the sound engineer and yet still make a good noise....I suppose the best way to describe it is we are not hard work

Our band had a policy of if a gig was booked and someone then decided they couldn't do it then it was their job to ring the venue, apologise, explain and book another date with the venue...I think that is a fair policy. Why should you do all the hard work only for a lazy guitarist to go and create a load more for you. I broke my arm the other year and I was still made to ring round and do the grovelling, despite a couple of months notice we still lost two venues who wouldn't tolerate bands cancelling gigs...as the above post says it is very easy to damage your reputation and very hard to recover it

£850 does seem rather steep for a Fender fretless neck which from the description may have had the fretboard swapped and a Jazz bass body of unknown origins