kodiakblair

Are wages relevant ? The Corona plant employs between 300 to 400 people and produces 350 instruments per day , say 350 staff produce 350 guitars . Shifts are 9 hours with , according to "Payscale.com" , an average of $18 ph ; $162 a day. Cheapest USA guitar is the Telecaster Performer at $1300 retail , labour accounts for 8%. The Zhunyi Shenqu factory in China employs 600 people producing 1650 guitars per day , 2.75 guitars each. Shifts are also 9 hours , paying just $5.30 ph ; $47.7 a day. Zhunyi build for Ibanez and cheapest Ibanez I could find was the Mikro at $150. Total for 2.75 of those is $412.50, labour again accounts for 8% of retail. Two factories with polar opposite prices and wages yet the same labour costs. Thing that interests me is the wages. Living wage calculator for Corona gives $24.72 as minimum rate for each adult in a family of 2 adults and 2 kids , FMIC's $18 average lets those folks down. Living wage for Guizhou Province ( where Zhunyi are located) is given as $3.06 for each adult in a family of 2 adults and 2 kids. On $5.30 the Zhunyi folks are doing better than some of their USA counterparts.

Never tried the Harley Benton EQ but I would vouch for the Caline CP-24 , very handy range of frequency bands. https://spartanmusic.co.uk/products/caline-cp-24-10-band-eq I like this drive pedal of theirs too. https://spartanmusic.co.uk/products/caline-cp-20-crazy-cacti Another vote for the Caline Orange Burst recommended by @Japhet Also no cheap pedal thread should be without the Behringer BDI12 , it's just a great bit of kit to have. Price is the icing on the cake 🙂

This /\/\/\ I always think of Reverb as one of those used car lots seen in American movies , windshield prices are not set in stone only an invitation to trade.

I loaned Brian the plate on my 90s MIJ reissue. If you don't want to buy one ready made just ask him for the PDF.

Very nice @Little Dragon Owned a few Retrovibes myself.

@Pinetop Jackson Answer to your YT question regarding the Milestone IV age. Usual production run for a Peavey model was 3 to 4 years , this one ran 1999 to 2003.

Careful , that can be a dangerous path to take. Bought a £76 Harley Benton just to see how little £76 got you . Come April it'll be 8 year since that fateful decision 😮 Turned out £76 got me a cracker of a bass. A few grand of basses were made redundant after buying that it. Still has all the original hardware , never even did the peghead reshape 🙂

From Allparts not so small print. "All necks may require fret leveling and polish, and may need to be fine tune to fit your instrument. This is normal and not a defect". Much the same for Fender necks. "Because Fender genuine replacement necks have not been mounted to guitar bodies, nut slots must be cut by qualified personnel. Other installation processes may be required, such as fret work, fitting the neck to the neck pocket, and other instrument setup procedures".

Gotoh are still made in Japan , Schaller are still made in Germany. Some of Hipshot's products are made in the USA , KickAss and TransTone bridges are made in Korea. I've basses from China, France, Korea, Indonesia, UK, USA and Vietnam. Amps from Germany ,UK and USA. Cabs from UK.

I've a few sig basses , all Peaveys. Not one was bought due to the "artist" involved 🙂 Peavey Sarzo and the follow up RSB model , Ellefson Scorpio DE, Jeff Berlin Palaedium, Randy Jackson's RJ-IV and finally the Bromberg B-Quad. All decent enough ; the stand out sig from Peavey wasn't really sold as a sig, just had the fella's initials. Tim Landers designed TL series. Three on the right ,not the pointy one👍

As usual Andy is bang on the money 🙂

Pity you didn't buy it start of the month. Complete bass sold for £38 , would have made for a very affordable conversion 👍

Not sure what the shipping would cost but you can buy them split new in India for £46 👍 https://www.devmusical.com/Product/Givson-Challenger-4-String-Electric-Bass-Guitar/P366/130

No can do I'm afraid , you definitely lose something with split singles IMO. Been a bit difficult here to make comparisons as only the Fender wears roundwounds. Two with tapes have standard singles . Common ground would be the three with TI flats , snag there is the standard single is a ceramic Peavey . Much as I'd like to claim my massively over wound Bloodstone custom is the best , in truth it's Jess Loureiro's 51 split. Could be the age of the strings or the pickup height , might just be the arrangement of the scatter wind . Whatever it is , the Loureiro sounds fantastic. Still sounds a bit polite compared to the Fender mind but fantastic all the same 😀 @Bassfinger The Bloodstone at 28mm is 9mm taller than a standard single coil.

Dropped in no problem but that was my pine slab body , pickup rout maybe shallower in a CV. I'll post the overall pickup height later today , well passed this laddie's bedtime 😀

Are we still European ? It'll be hard to beat Martin Herrick in Wales or Dave at Bloodstone. https://www.herrickpickups.com/products/tele-51-bass-humbucker/ If you'd like to hear some audio , discreet did some for this project build. After a couple of years with me , v4.0 now lives with stewblack 🙂

@funkle Dave built it as 2 coils and yes , it's massive. I thought about the Duncan "Stinger" after seeing folk on TalkBass mention them. Thing was ; Duncan's Custom shop wouldn't do business with Europeans , nor Thais 😮 Never been impressed by Duncan pickups in the past so took that as an omen. Dave quoted an extremely attractive price and it was here in 4 days 👍

Annoying ! Might raise a smirk the first time you visit the site , gets old very fast after that. Split singles I have enjoyed. Jess Lourerio. Herrick. Bloodstone. This one's a bit tasty , had Dave build me an 29.9k ohm overwound split like the Duncan Stinger 👍

Tis a marvelous thing 🙂 I'd pre-ordered so it arrived before shop sales went live 😀 Can't believe 7 years has passed. Solid bass , weighs about the same as the JB-75 👍 Mate pestered me for 2 years to sell him it . Now the bugger is playing my Retrovibe Super-P , shall I make enquiries 😁

I don't worry about it either. First job was unloading cement wagons ; no forklifts back then , driver just dropped the hundredweight bag on your shoulder and you were off to trot 🙂

Don't recall any reports of light weight JB-40s , my pal's 40 weighs about the same as his JB-75. It's as Mark said , big bass bodies made from ash tend to be heavier.

I feel pangs of jealousy , what a cracking bass . No wonder you left the Zodiac behind 🙂

Another pain free transaction with Ian , strings this time . The Man's a credit to BC 👍

@Jolltax Cheers pal 👍

@Jolltax If you're going to pass on the Peavey , any chance you can PM me the shop address. Lassie in Cumbria was in touch this morning , she's looking for a Zodiac 👍