Happy Jack

My strategy? Buy nothing, sell nothing, wait and see. I suspect that whatever you do for the next year, you'll end up later wondering if you'd have been better off doing the opposite. When in doubt, do nowt.

A-a-a-a-a-and ... goodbye eBay for private vendors. Just walk away.

Not sure I agree. The point made by the OP is arithmtically correct; yes, you're still out of tune but - for a given finger placement - you're less out of tune on a longer-scale instrument (which helps). Unfortunately there's a quid pro quo in that the movement required to go from being badly intonated to hitting exacty the right note will be correspondingly larger. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Pah! You know NOTHING! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/355982559774?var=0&shprz=EBAY_GB_220&_ul=GB&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&toolid=20006&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338986375&customid=Cj0KCQjwkZm_BhDrARIsAAEbX1EmZox7L4Ql3upieiOm6fBvtDVEylGwzXbARnJJqT8Hbxh6A85CvCIaAsAgEALw_wcB&gbraid=0AAAAADcddnZ0Hle4bcnvb3ceAofK6gbeR&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkZm_BhDrARIsAAEbX1EmZox7L4Ql3upieiOm6fBvtDVEylGwzXbARnJJqT8Hbxh6A85CvCIaAsAgEALw_wcB

Sorry @jonnybass, I only had that bass for a couple of years so I never had a need to replace the strings - the ones on there now were there when I bought it. Worse, I'm pretty sure that I didn't buy it from a Basschatter; I've just waded back through five years of PMs and there's no sign of it.

Is it too late to warn the OP that he has probably invalidated his warranty? 😉

Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr. Epstein.

Just over two years later the band has changed, the technology has improved, and my playing is unrecognisable ...

29th May 2008 at The Luminaire (Kilburn), my first ever gig with my first ever gigging band singing my first live vocal. My daughter forgot to switch on the recorder until halfway through the song. A bit pitchy but could have been a whole lot worse. The guitarist was going through massive back trouble and was totally zonked out on heavy-duty painkillers, but that's a pretty creditable solo. 02 Looking For My Baby.mp3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Backdated-Melody-Maker-Seventies/dp/1915858224 Following a post by Joel McIver I bought this, and I've just finished reading it. It is comfortably the best read I've had in years ... and I read a LOT. Can't remember the last time a book had me laughing out loud (and I don't mean a bloody emoticon) so much or so often and, as a child of the 70s (I'm 68) every single bloody page meant something to me. The book is so well written that I didn't even feel jealous; I just felt like I was there with him. Trust me, you won't regret buying this.

You mean the bit where he shoots himself off like an arrow?

I stomped so hard that my pedal went through the floor.

That appears identical to mine as it was when I bought it, about 15 years ago. I recognise that vendor name, pretty sure he is/was a Basschatter. The price isn't outrageous but it's more than I'd be interested in paying, especially if the original electronics are in as poor a state as those on mine were.

If Jack (a) had a multimeter, and (b) had the slightest idea how to use one, then no doubt Jack could indeed do this thing. I leave electrickery to those who don't realise that 'amp' is short for amplifier.

I originally found this link on Flat Eric's blog, and a very fine read it is too. https://westone.forumotion.com/t971-westone-us-design-development-history

The original pickup on mine seemed to be a no-name clone of a Schaller. It had really weak output and had become microphonic ... not a great combination.

On a black example like mine, the poles aren't black. All the black bits you see are indeed wood, and there is no evidence anywhere of an earthing 'mechanism'. Something that probably needs to be stressed is that these basses were not high-end, boutique instruments cooked up using only the finest ingredients. Far from it. As built, they were novelty basses designed as something of a joke and absolutely built down to a price. All the electrics/electronics without exception were compete pants ... cheap, shoddy pickups connected to cheap, shoddy pots using cheap, shoddy wiring. My bass is just glorious, precisely because I had a luthier strip out every electrical component and replace them with decent stuff. The core of the rebuild was this: That's a Dark Star pickup which I was lucky enough to pick up cheap on eBay many years ago. Although the same width as the original (well, duh!) it's a fair bit 'deeper' so the slidy bit on which it's mounted had to be extended by nearly a centimetre. For the avoidance of doubt, the sliding mechanism works really well as a tone control, with the upgraded electrics my bass sounds excellent, and it attracts attention everywhere I play it.

It's only First World War buffs (like me) who'll get the reference ...

Bizarrely enough, I'm playing a festival in Mons (Belgium) on 25th/26th September. Is there an impending Expat BassBash, I wonder?

Paging @Bassassin ...

Crossbeam's gone askew on't treddle ...

So it's not so much "good buy" as "au revoir"?

If he paid me $12,500 I'd be up for it ...

Any unusual basses in the collection, or are they all 'normal' 3/4 and 4/4 basses?