martthebass

I reckon the prices have dropped about £100 in the last couple of months for SR4/Sterling 4H's. I deffo think they are undervalued at the mo, but then again MIA Jazzes and P's are also down (Std S1 P's in good nick seem to be down around 4-450 against 500 this time last year). One thing to consider tho is out of the 4000 or so memebrs on BC, maybe only 2/3 of those are active and only half of those on the GAS trail so the money pool is small compared with the bay. So if you can be arsed and have the time then maybe the bay it is and get the favourable response MarkyTB had. I sold my 2004 St4 a few months back for £650 and the best offer I had on my 2005 SR4 recently was £550. At that point I guess you have to be pretty GAS'ed up to sell. Fortunately I wasn't ^_^ All that said tho, that was a pretty good score H.

That brings tears to me eyes. SRF did you have the neck fitted by Status? I fitted a Status fretless neck to a Jazz a couple of years back - it worked ok but it would only fit well on one out of the 2 Jazzes I had. Pity the Black neck wouldn't suit my Red Ray so well.......or would it?

[quote name='artisan' post='281182' date='Sep 10 2008, 03:43 PM']the best sound fretless for me & many other old farts has to be a fender jazz--mwaah to die for.[/quote] +1. Can't go wrong with a Jazz F'less

Just picked up one of these off Nick (Old Horse) as they were out of stock at BassDirect. I use it with my LM250 - good fit and well padded, also enough oddment space for IEC lead, cab leads and other bits/pieces. Deffo recommended at the price (£25 delvd).

[quote name='Marcus' post='278839' date='Sep 6 2008, 09:50 PM']Is that a girl on drums ?[/quote] Looks that way. Is it a girl on the bass? (That is a skirt isn't it?)

[quote name='Marcus' post='278109' date='Sep 5 2008, 06:38 PM']Hi I used to own a skyline BG, it was good, well made but something always felt like it was built to a budget.[/quote] I owned this after Marcus and concur. Howver if I could find one at about 8.5lbs..........

Another painless transaction with the Nickster. Cheers Bud.

I fave of mine - 'It's my life' Talk Talk. And a bit more soulful to help develop expression - 'Will you?' - Hazell O'Connor

[quote name='rjb' post='276216' date='Sep 3 2008, 01:05 PM']I simply can't understand why anyone would waste their cash on a US when for the same price they can get a Lak Skyline that will kick it around the block.[/quote] Don't try to understand - we're all different in our preferences, expectations and requirements. Regarding set ups - I've had 2 warwicks, I could set both of them up better than any Fender (or Lakky for that matter) - didn't make me want to play them on +2hr gigs

[quote name='Doctor J' post='276087' date='Sep 3 2008, 10:44 AM']Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the use of CNC or automated building techniques. The cheaper CIJ basses don't have the route, they still have the proper routing as found on the old Fenders. They are CNC'd too. There are a huge selection of J clones, many of them CNC'd which don't have that routing either. The bridge pickup is routed in the old fashioned way too, so why make such an abhorration of the front of the bass when it really isn't necessary? There are a lot of mass-produced US made instruments which don't have that routing either. Is the cost of running a wire 2 inches under wood really going to drive Fender out of business? I think not. Fender are facing more competition than ever, the availability of instruments to the average player worldwide has never been greater. It mystifies me why they would take such a blatantly shoddy move in the face of this competition.[/quote] Depends who's running the business......the artisans or the accountants. If the cost saving per route is $10 and they make 100000 basses per year - voila an extra $1M profit per annum. Sad really but you have to consider are they there to make basses or money? Personally I don't care if it has a route or not - I'm not taking the plate off, IMHO it looks a bit crap to leave it off. CDB - I'd love to buy a NYC Sadowsky. If I ever derive a sensible 'income' from this hobby and gain a higher level of talent I'll consider it - I don't posess sufficient of either presently and I don't want to be a 'gear snob'. I guess the MM and Fenders will suffice in the interim.

[quote name='Doctor J' post='276025' date='Sep 3 2008, 09:12 AM']Shocking stuff The point is, they used not to do it, now they do it, purely to save a few cents. Did they not learn from what happened in the 70's? One would expect Fender to be continually trying to improve on their old processes, like their competition does, not to go backwards.[/quote] Think there's competition at work here. I bought my first 2nd hand Fender Jazz back in 1987 for the princely sum of £400. I bought a 2nd hand Jazz earlier this year for £475. If CNC and other cost saving initiatives hadn't been brought in over the last 20 years then I guess a new Fender US Jazz std would be +£2000 and I suppose they would quite likely be either out of business (completely out of touch with SE Asian production) or scaled down to a 'specialist' provider like Lakland (US). In the long run if bassists don't think they are as good as or cost effective against Chinese/Indonesian/Jap Fender they will cease production. However, I don't think we always look at 'cost effectiveness' when we buy basses - we're buying musical instruments that hopefully give us a warm fuzzy feeling when we play them. It's easy to knock Fender but they produce the bass equivalent of the Ford Mondeo - it does it's job. If you want perfection go custom.

My MIA Fender Jazz (1999) is 3 pieces of wood and I suspect my MIA P bass (2004) is also. Doesn't bother me too much I've had MMs and Warwicks with3 and 2 piece bodies - maybe it's just pot luck. They are both definately better put together than the 2 MIM Jazzes I've had (particularly neck finish and join) but for me the sound is also somehow much better on the US made. I'd put quality (overall) at about Lakky Skyline levels personally but maybe not up to MM. For me the weight is fairly consistent also - all the recent ones I've played (1999 - 2007) have been around the 8.5 lb mark which is spot on for me. Money..well that's a bit different, I really don't think I'd pay list at £7-800 on the old S1's but with near mint second handers at £500 I think is hard to beat.