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Happy Jack

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Posts posted by Happy Jack

    RickenFakers

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    Another "Ibanez" surfaces ...

    [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-Copy-Bass-Guitar-in-case-for-restoration_W0QQitemZ250130079834QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-Copy-Ba...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

    Riverside silent bass?

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    [quote name='odub' post='15510' date='Jun 11 2007, 11:58 AM']Has anyone got any opinions on Riverside be[Myleen Klass]es?

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Riverside-Silent-Fre...1QQcmdZViewItem

    Long story short, I'm being sent to Bermuda in 2 weeks with work for 6 weeks and I don't want to be without an instrument. So something cheap and light and well, not total rubbish is in order.

    Apparently it’s way too expensive over there to consider buying, though you can get to the US for a hundred quid and 2 hours flight.[/quote]

    Did you particularly want a fretless? Y'know, for probably less than £200 you could pick up an Aria Sinsonido on eBay or similar. Might well be a better bet. Just a thought.

    Jamming Sessions

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Strange to see this thread just now ... just last Thursday I went along to the jam night at The King's Head in Acton (West London) and ended up on stage for the first time ever.

    The organiser, house band and regulars seem like a pretty good bunch and several went out of their way to make me welcome, but (as posted by others above) it wasn't so much a jam session as a series of blues and/or rock numbers performed by a series of semi-scratch bands.

    Given my almost complete lack of experience, I'm not in a position to argue whether or not that's a good/bad thing.

    And my [i]debut[/i]? Two guitarists (one of them a regular to try to hold things together), a drummer, plus me. I thought we were going to play some slow blues numbers ... erm ... not quite. We played three numbers, only one of which I'd ever heard before, two of them were up-tempo, and the guitarists seemed to be playing in different keys throughout - although I suppose that could have been me. :)

    Won't stop me going back this Thursday, mind.

    Bass for sale... I thought I knew my eBay

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='paul, the' post='15298' date='Jun 10 2007, 10:09 PM']Bidder two is only inexperienced (rating) because the ID is only used for shill bidding. All the bids are to make it look very popular and desirable.[/quote]

    How can you tell that from the information available? All we know about Bidder 2 is that he (or she, of course) has completed between 10 and 49 transactions, having signed up to eBay sometime between June'05 and June'06.

    Worst-case scenario: He has bought 10 cheap CDs so as to get some feedback rating.
    Alternative scenario: He has bought 25 vintage Fender Ps and Js, and sold 24 of them.

    We just don't know, do we?

    Bass for sale... I thought I knew my eBay

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I think some are being a bit harsh here.

    I've seen this pattern plenty of times, and I've seen little evidence that it's shill bidding - it's far too blatant for that.

    Bidder 2 is clearly very inexperienced (look at his rating). He's put in three bids to reach £5.50 to beat Bidder 1's £5.00. He's now Highest Bidder but also Reserve Not Met. So he puts in five more bids with £10 increments to reach £50.

    He's still Highest Bidder (of course) but also still Reserve Not Met. He knows it's worth way more than £50, and he's getting a bit carried away, so he chucks in a couple more bids to reach £200. Still no joy.

    Then he goes to lunch (look at the times). I'm thinking, maybe a certain amount of ardent spirits were involved, or possibly quite a lot of brewery-related products. Anyhoo ...

    He comes back two hours later, and he logs on again, and this time he goes for it. You can almost see him sitting there, gritting his teeth as he bids again and again in £100 increments until finally he reaches nirvana at £800.

    He's now Highest Bidder and the Reserve is gone. The bass will be his ... erm ... assuming he's actually got the £800. Oh sh*t. Suddenly, it all goes quiet.

    You'll see this bass re-listed in a couple of weeks. Not because it's some sort of con by the seller, but because a dodgy buyer has screwed up.

    Any takers?

    London Bass shops

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    +1 on Wunjo's - Brian's a really nice guy, too.

    Don't forget Macari's on Charing Cross Road, main dealers for Hofner and Dean, and still run by actual members of the actual Macari family. When they say "where the Beatles shopped", they're not joking. Anthony Macari is another pretty genuine guy.

    Chris Bryant Guitars, now on the corner of Denmark Street and Charing Cross Road, are another nice bunch of people, but their basses are strictly low-end (no pun intended) stuff. If you're happy with Crafter and Westfield (no sneer intended - nothing wrong with cheap, well-made gear) then they're worth a visit.

    P bass - what's it all about?

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    While you're at it, have a look at ...

    [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Precision-Bass-RARE-In-White_W0QQitemZ120128802229QQihZ002QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Precision-Bas...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

    :)

    70's Fenders

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Like Paul Cooke, I'm class of '75 (well, '74 if we're being picky). It's undeniable that the one benefit you (sometimes) get from being older is a higher disposable income, and I'm a bit like a "born-again biker", re-visiting stuff that I stopped doing a long time ago. I couldn't get back into bikes because I never stopped riding them ( :) ) so basses was the next best thing.

    My point is that buying/collecting basses requires nothing more complicated than money, backed up by some knowledge of the subject. Playing them requires talent and practice and dedication, while being able to tell a good '75 P-bass from a bad '75 P-bass requires something of an entirely higher order.

    Prices for '70s P-basses have gone through the roof because there's a lot more money coming into the market (think of those guys in the City who get £1m bonuses [i]every year[/i]) and most that money is coming from guys like me, who play a bit of bass in the garage, don't really know what they're doing but they're having fun, and ... well, you get the idea.

    Incidentally, I have zero interest in Fenders - I collect Hofners (they're cheaper and IMHO more interesting). And no, I don't get £1m bonuses. :huh:

    RickenFakers

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    Pas avec un trois-metre bargepole, mon ami.

    French seller with feedback of four, posting to mainland France only. Claims that it has all four original strings (!) and has never had any problems, despite knowing virtually nothing about the bass's history. Doesn't state if the electrics work at all. No case mentioned. Lousy photos.

    I'd rather bid for the Hondo!

    RickenFakers

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    But you can't keep a good bass down ...

    [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Shaftesbury-Bass-Guitar-Rare_W0QQitemZ150126758526QQihZ005QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Shaftesbury-Bass-Gui...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

    RickenFakers

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    [quote name='Bassassin' post='7978' date='May 28 2007, 10:30 AM']I thought it was clearly the reflection of the case lid - and I don't know if a bit of paint off the bottom edge of the back merits a refin on a 27 year old bass.

    The point was that it's only £200 dearer than a tacky Oriental copy.

    J.[/quote]


    Jon,

    Next time I sell a bass, would you mind endorsing it for me here on BassChat?

    Within a day of you pointing it out as a bit of a bargain, the price has already reached £785! Just another 5 days to go, then ...

    RickenFakers

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    Rather tidy? Either he's the world's worst guitar photographer, or that bass is the one for which the phrase "cosmetically challenged" was invented. Quite apart from all the missing paint, it looks as if the back is actually two different shades of blue ... erm ... I mean AzureGlo.

    The seller has excellent feedback so it looks as if WYSIWYG. I'd reckon that price was about right once you factor in the cost of a re-fin.

    RickenFakers

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    [quote name='Bassassin' post='4057' date='May 21 2007, 11:12 PM']Spotted these yesterday:

    [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270122334297&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=017"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=017[/url]

    A rather ordinary Shaftesbury ...[/quote]

    ... which just went for a slightly astonishing £300!

    Collectors of vintage basses

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    Vintage = made before I was born?

    Bloody Hell, I hope not. The bass guitar was only invented a few years before I came along so, by that definition, there's precious few of them about.

    I think "vintage" is a deeply subjective concept, but there are a few features that we can all agree on. Ideally, a vintage bass is one that is:[list]old
    rare
    well-made
    a thing of beauty
    perhaps valuable
    perhaps improved (tonally?) simply through being old
    [/list]
    I'm only interested in Hofners from their glory days, roughly speaking that's mid-50's to late-60's. Although I have some solid-body Hofner basses (3 in fact), that's mainly because I wanted one of each model; my real interest is in the semi-acoustic and hollow-body basses, instruments built the traditional way by genuine craftsmen. Every one of them (and I have 6) ticks every box on the list above.

    They're also great fun to play, and I play ALL of them regularly, but they are limited instruments and it's nice to be able switch to a full-scale bass with roundwounds.

    Collectors of vintage basses

    in Bass Guitars

    Posted

    Since buying my first Hofner early last year, I have been well and truly bitten by the bug. I'm not sure at what point having "a bunch of Hofners" becomes having "a collection of Hofners", but I suspect I'm about there.

    Anyone else out there been sucked into the whole vintage thing? And what are you collecting?

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