NancyJohnson

I haven't seen a date posted? Their 2025 bash was 12/10/25...we're covering 2026.

THIS ^^^

Bonny lad, you know that Basschat is fundamentally the worst place you can go to for opinions, because you'll end up with dozens. You've listed pros and cons from the five versions you've identified - and I'm assuming your leaning towards a Fender - but remember nothing is set in stone; you can replace bridges/machines/other hardware, it's highly unlikely that you're going to need to replace a neck, you can buy a hardshell cases (and so on). Remember also that you'll save a few bob by sourcing a used instrument. My advice would be to go out and try a few. You may find that there are other manufacturers that may tick the boxes as well (Lull, Lakland, Sadowsky).

Ours will be better 😉

Happy days. It is a thing, this data gathering. What on earth do the colloquial 'they' do with it all? Where do they store it all? It used to be about putting the words anthrax or letterbomb into emails that probably proved emails were being monitored.

I am finding it a bit bonkers that people are spending Paul McCartney's kids inheritance to save this (failing) business. As far as I know, he bought his Hofner basses in the '60s and despite the free publicity they've had for the last 60 years, I don't believe he's been offered, or they've made, a signature model. Now we've got people suggesting he bail the business out. Why on earth would, or should, McCartney do this? This would like Chris Squire bailing out Rickenbacker or @cetera rescuing Spector.

Earn it, pay tax on it. Buy it, pay tax on it. Sell it, pay tax on it. Die, pay tax. It's all about handing over to government. It's just a matter of time until banknotes are carrying tracking chips, because HMRC know they're unable to keep check on cash sales. Governing, regulating, managing. Thankfully I'll be dead by then. That's it in a nutshell, isn't it?

Well, 2025 has been tumbleweed for me and to be brutally honest, I haven't missed the band-centric activity. Had another hand operation last week (success already); this has been hindering things. Pencilled in for a studio session in January. On the up.

I just took a look at their website; now there's always going to be some smart Alec that will comment to the contrary, but the whole business seems to be being carried by their proxy association with Macca. Less core instruments than Fender. I was actually quite surprised they had a couple of guitar models and upright basses.

Vester were one of those brands that came in very low pricewise and were pretty well made. Maybe 20 years back, I had a Vester Strat-thing, pointy headstock with dual humbuckers generic Kahler-style whammy. It was a quite lovely thing. More than capable. Less interesting were the circumstances surrounding purchase. I was looking at a pair of guitars at the time, the Vester was shiny and new, the other one - for not dissimilar money - was used, battered and tired, so I bought the Vester. Of course I did. I often wonder where the other one, a 1961 Les Paul Junior single cut, ended up.

A few years back I was doing some home demo recordings here; we had a couple of amps set up in a spare room and stuck Shure SM58 (vocal) microphones in front of the each cab and a Rode vocal mic up away from the amp to pick up room ambience. Sounded fine. Guitarist put a photo up somewhere and got an absolute deluge of comments about how stupid we were, that we didn't know what we were doing and how we should have used <insert assorted microphone types here>. The responses just reflect the world we live in, the results were more than acceptable (we just dialled in the tone we wanted off the amps), the SM58 was the only suitable microphone I had (I used to use it rehearsal spaces rather than catching herpes off the studio mics). Ultimately, any nuances in tone/frequency shift (etc) off the SM58 would be lost once everything else was added (drums, bass, more guitar). Plus, it was a home recording, not Abbey Road. People are idiots.

I've thought about these as a project; another neck from China (rosewood with blocks), reverse P. Maybe in 2026.

These two owe me peanuts. This is off a '70s Aria Primary Bass; it was truly knackered when I got it, so there's been a load of tinkering. I put a knock-off Jazz neck on it earlier this year as it was cheaper than a refret. It's gnarly. Bolted this one together this summer. Cheap MIM Jazz body, Precision neck from the same seller as above. Filled the bridge pickup rout, installed a reverse P pickup. Owes me about £200.00. Also gnarly. I have a brace of very expensive basses, but I adore these.

Filmed my piece for this about ten months ago, but disappointingly was cut from the final edit.

I used SIT strings a while back. Didn't think there was anything particularly different about them to any other budget string, although I did like that they felt kind of rough/gritty. Been using Elixirs for years. No reason to stray from these.