NancyJohnson

I've got some spare Fender [b]pickguard[/b] screws at home that you're welcome to...Phillips head. These are the screws that you'd attach a Precision bass scratchplate with and are smaller than those that you would attach say a jazz bass bell plate with, which are much bigger. I might also have some pickup screws as well; I'll need to have a search, but no springs as I tend to use sponge underneath. PM me your address if you want them. Best P

So you'll be looking for a talentless bloke who has trouble clapping in time and never looks at the camera when he knows it's on him then. P

[quote name='walbassist' post='387214' date='Jan 21 2009, 10:01 AM']If so, let me know please![/quote] My wife's employer has an office there. She goes a couple of times a year. What are you hankering after? P

[quote name='steantval' post='382795' date='Jan 16 2009, 08:31 PM']...we all have a passion for the band from the late sixties and early seventies called FREE...[/quote] Not wanting to sound pedantic, but there's no reason to put Free in capitals! I know there's some young'uns on the list and if they haven't heard any Free then they need to shape up and go listen to some of their bass heritage. Good luck with the gig. Love first gigs. P

William Calhoun on drums Vernon Reid on guitar Corey Glover on vocals Paul Anthony on bass Probably would have had to have been while they were touring Vivid or Times Up. Muzzy would have to have been called out to fight a fire somewhere in lower Manhattan. P

More interestingly, have you actually seen the guy who he's making these for though? It for an all male transvestite band. I'm not kidding... P

[quote name='The Admiral' post='378587' date='Jan 13 2009, 07:21 AM']First bass was : From : It cost : Which today is :[/quote] #1 - An Arbiter SG bass (white) #2 - £35.00 #3 - £202.30 (Interesting that my second bass - a Columbus Jazz copy @£65 equates to £376.00...blimey) Good thread. P

There's quite a long thread about it and here: SIMMONS. The bass either ended up with Micki Free (who was in a band called Crown Of Thorns with sometime Kiss collaborator Jean Beauvoir), or it was stolen, or it got broken and rendered useless when it was dropped by a butter-fingered roadie. There's a new Lobue fansite up too: Lobue Site P

I've got three bits of Ashdown gear - all MAG - a 1x15, a 4x10 and an old red-face 2x10 combo; the combo (which is a bit tatty) and the 1x15, have been part of every jam and gig I've done in the last ten+ years; the 1x15 (along with the new 4x10) continues to see use as part of my new(er) setup. In this time, Ashdown have provided a few odds and sods (knobs etc.) free of charge/postage paid. they've answered a few queries and have been courteous each time. Customer service is alive and well at Ashdown. I just don't I don't understand why people knock their gear. I suppose because some of their range is [i]affordable[/i], and to some that to some this equates to it being rubbish. My preferred sound is, ummm, gritty; a bit Geddy/JJB and I don't see any of the toneless, wooliness or wump qualities which people put forward tend to be the main argument against Ashdown. They're robust, portable (ooh, my back) and certainly capable enough for any application; I've also run guitar, vocals, drum machines and keyboards through the combo and used it for stage monitoring as well. P

These look very yummy...the black one looks lovely. [url="http://www2.gibson.com/getdoc/bbfc3c88-40dd-47b4-8da6-8fd01dd112ac/EBTPTBBH-Finish-Shot-jpg.aspx"]HERE[/url] The headstock looks a little more chunky than the Gibson, but the Epiphone logo kind of carries it off. I have a black BadAss II somehwere here from my unfinished Spectorbird project too. To affirm the US pricing, the 5-string carries an MSRP of $999, the 4-string $832. P

[quote name='AndyMartin' post='375177' date='Jan 9 2009, 02:27 PM']Then don't buy it. Obviously you're not going to get one for less than it costs to put in the shop, but if you're determined to have the latest offering from Fender then you will have to pay what the shop is asking. Wait around 6 months until there are more in the country then you can shop around and the price will be discounted. You can be sure they won't remain at that price. I've been eying an ESP in a local shop. It's been there for nearly 8 months without selling and the shop has just dropped the price by £350.[/quote] Andy I work in retail and figure I've got a reasonably good handle on the way things are in my specific area, and that broadly follows trends for any saleable commodity. First, let's get one thing very clear. I'm not buying one of these basses. I was merely answering your claim that the buyer determines price, not the seller. Second, I notice that your original post just said 'then don't buy it'...the other two paragraphs followed [much] later. Third, to address your original comment, in business a retailer signs an application with a wholesaler to sell their products. Generally this contracts the retailer to abide within the terms and conditions set out by the wholesaler. The wholesaler will suggest a selling price for each SKU (stock keeping unit) to which the retailer should adhere. This means that, to a degree, the wholesaler can control the retail price, which can be deemed as being able to keep the retail price artificially high. This also means that you will not find any great bargains as product will be priced by the technical terms of: 'there or thereabouts'. The retailer will be given leave to discount product, or, in the case of your ESP, perhaps to recover the cost price of the product if it doesn't sell; this could be in form of sale or return of product for credit, or agreement to discount the product to recover the cost price (as maybe the ESP wholesaler wouldn't deem it worth the bother to have the product returned, booked back into stock, then credited/refunded to the retailer). This isn't rocket science. It's business. Guitars do sit on racks for yonks...a store near me still had a red Charvel on sale some twelve years after I saw it for the first time. If you've, as you have said, been eyeing up a guitar for eight months and now it's drastically reduced, then go for it, young sir. I look forward to seeing your purchase in the porn section on Sunday. P

[quote name='AndyMartin' post='375033' date='Jan 9 2009, 12:54 PM']The buyer determines the price, not the seller.[/quote] I'm sorry? Fender (like every company) will have a RSRP - a recommended sale retail price - that they give to the retailer. It's really down to the retailer what they want to sell it for, but the retailer will also need to operate within Fenders suggested level of discount. The buyer can haggle, but the retailer knows full well what they can go down to pricewise. P

Bucking the trend here, I do like the look of old basses, or more to the point, basses that look like they've been dragged along behind the van and/or have some history. That said, when I saw the prices (Andertons, Guildford were quoting £899 for the Jazz), I was pretty shocked. Also, one thing I didn't like at all on the ones I've seen is that the relicing is all the same - through to the wood in the same places. Have a look. Remember at the end of the day, this is all about reinvention; the Fender company have a core of may less than ten models - basses...Jazz/Precision/Jaguar and guitars...Jaguar/Jazzmaster/Telecaster/Stratocaster/Mustang - and they've been making most of these for over for 40 years, so they can't be going too far wrong. Fender know the market reasonably well and they are after all in business to make money, rather than trying to please everyone. So what if a new SKU has some dinks in it...if you don't like them, then move along the bus. You'll find lots of shiny new ones elsewhere. P

[quote name='budget bassist' post='373770' date='Jan 8 2009, 04:09 AM']So i post on the EBMM forums a lot, and for anyone not following there's some stunning new stuff coming out soon! Two entirely new bass models and a stealth stingray by the looks of it! Not bad for a company like musicman eh? First is called the "big al", basically a bass version of the albert lee guitar. Second is the 25th anniversary bass, modeled after the axis guitar, not sure what it's called though. Both will be available in H, HH, HS HSS or SSS and will have the bongo's 4 band EQ plus pickup selector buttons and active passive switches (and i thought the bongo was versatile!!!!) Personally i think they're both really nice looking! Also ernie's son just released a picture of a stealth stingray and said nothing more, so i'm taking it as a hint that it will be put into production soon, i hope Here are the pics! (first 3 are of the 25th anniversary, so obviously the next 5 are the big al and the last is the stealth ray) Enjoy[/quote] I love the black Stingray. Can I ask where these photos came from? The MM site is pretty awful...nothing on there. P

Harking back to one of my earlier posts [What constitutes a build diary?], I think this project truly encompasses the spirit of a home build, by someone who has the tools, knowledge and ability to do the job. This is exactly what I was trying to get over in my original post. Al has built [himself] a great looking bass, on a reasonably tight budget and for all the right reasons. It looks great. Well done. P