kodiakblair

We live in a time where manufacturing has never been cheaper or more productive. Material cost of ash has dropped 25%, maple is down 30% from 2020. FMIC hourly rates are the same as 6 years ago, maybe longer. Fender charges what they think the market will pay and what will keep their books looking good for owner Servco Pacific Captital. An alteration to the system used by cheap Japanese guitars/basses of the 60's.

No truck with plasma, takes up valuable space needed for caffeine, codeine and nicotine. My body is a temple 😎

I can't say all of mine were excellent, wasn't too keen on the Sarzo and I loathed the T-45 😁 Some I thought were great but those were mostly lower tier models, Patriot and Zephyr being stand out IMHO. Course that says more about my needs and expectations, contented root note player like myself has no place owning a Midibase; didn't stop me buying one 🤣

Just had a saw slip, ripped down length of the thumb and bite a chunk out the index finger. Logged into BC while waiting on the blood to congeal, might have affected my sarcasm detection skills 👍

What were you were saying? https://vintagejapanguitars.com/the-true-story-of-lawsuit-guitars/ https://www.adkguitar.com/blogs/news/what-do-we-mean-when-we-say-lawsuit-guitar#:~:text=THE Lawsuit Guitar,that lawsuits were very rare. https://flypaper.soundfly.com/discover/truth-lawsuit-era-guitars/

It will end up in the for sale ads along with the rest. Just need a burst of energy for photos before paying my subs, must be 30 odd Peaveys in the cupboard so that energy is a big ask 🤣

Urban myth. There was only ever one law suit. Gibson filed against Ibanez over the 'open book' style peghead. Never saw trial as Ibanez had went with a different shape before any date was set. That's the whole 'law suit' saga in a nutshell. In the 90's Fender tried to retro-file their body shapes as a trademark, but this was in the USA and again never gained any traction.

Afraid I can't help if it's a 1st gen model, mine now lives in Hungary. Still have a 2nd gen 🙂

Had a couple of those. Left is the Dyna-Unity, centre a standard DynaBass, right is a Unity. On the right my, now sold, Dyna-Unity Koa.

There were a couple of models. Peavey signed up Brian Bromberg for a signature bass and allowed him to go to town. Called the B-Quad, they came with Modulus CF necks. This is my one . Few years later, 1998, they revisited CF necks but this time it was a under-sized maple neck with a carbon wrap. There was the 4 string model, G-Bass, 5 string G-V. Mistaken identity/crossed wires/wishful thinking have led to an urban myth the G-Bass/G-V also had Modulus necks, total BS 🤣 My old pal recalled the raw necks were shipped out to a gun factory, Bell & Carlson, for wrapping. Never found a G-V but did snag a G-Bass.

That was not a good look, I'm always surprised they agreed to take part. Only saving grace was all my contacts there had moved on years before. Sad thing is we get outraged at Peavey but it's just how US manufacturing is done, there was no union at Peavey; no union at FMIC, Gibson EBMM nor G&L. Think you can guess the union policy at RIC 🤣 Back on the Milestone topic. My pal Ronnie was head engineer for Peavey, when the neck on his T-40 went to s**t he replaced with with a Milestone neck; added a peghead pinstripe with a Sharpie and called it job done 🙂

Och, nobody is paying big money for Peaveys whatever their origin 🙂 They're popular with a small crowd in the USA, mostly those low on cash but high on the desire to own anything 'MIA'. Elsewhere they're not really noted as a brand, I think it's down to the timing. First Peavey guitars and basses (T-series) came out in 1978, two things were happening then. Quality of US instruments was pretty poor, late era Gibson/Norlin & Fender/CBS. Japan moving away from supplying cheap copies to good quality original designs. T-series wouldn't have looked out of place in 1973-74 but were old hat in 78. This habit of being 4 years behind everyone else is one they never managed to kick 🙂

Owned 68 of them so know a bit about them. OP's Milestone comes from the Samick factory, Peavey haven't built any instruments themselves since 2010.

Thanks. It's just the light, both neck and fretboard are Panga Panga.

Aye, this hole just keeps getting deeper 🤣 Paulownia has a long history with stringed instruments. The Chinese have been making Guzheng from Paulownia for about 2000 years now, it's 1300 - 1500 for the Japanese Koto. Feurich use it in some of their grand pianos. John Suhr charges $3.5k for his Paulownia Strats.

Facebook at it's finest. The 'Pine' Gear 4 Music use for their Chicago basses is Paulownia, completely unrelated to any variety of Pine 🤣 Having built a bass with Paulownia for the body I can attest to it's softness, a step above Balsa as far as Janka is concerned. Despite it's softness G&L were quite happy using it though they went with it's Sunday name Empress Wood 🙂 Not to be outdone, Fender released a limited (1000 units) run of 'Empress wood' Telecasters. Thank you 🙂 My good pal Mark Provan (Bonnywood Guitars) handled that one, he did me proud.

I'd be surprised if they did. The pine used for bodies doesn't come from B&Q. They go for Mexican or Indonesian/Cambodian varieties, a damn sight harder, heavier and denser than most mahogany earmarked for guitar building. Poplar is an interesting timber. More expensive than Ash, shares many similar properties with Alder. It's great for bodies and burl veneers but like Alder too soft for fretboards. Perhaps you were getting confused with the treated Monterey Pine which has been used for fretboards on recent years ? Sadly much Poplar goes the same way as Alder; making pallets. Good thing it doesn't burn so great; plenty Alder goes out as wood pellets or matchsticks. Pine body. Poplar body. Mahogany with walnut drop top.

Nothing unusual there. I'm a regular visitor to Talkbass, plenty complaints about dog basses coming from Sweet "we do a 55 point QC test" Water 🤣 Folk often cite set up issues with budget basses but they can be found at all price points. Thing is there's a weird guilt mindset with budget gear, buyers are desperate to find a fault; same faults get tagged as quirks with bigger ticket items.

Money is also saved as lumber is bought from USA sawmills which are either owned by the factories or they have a part share in. Kawai and World Musical Instruments were pioneers there, setting up their own mills back in the early 80's. Is this a budget instrument thing ? Common complaint folk trying Fenders in music shops make is the poor set ups. Do you think shop staff grab some tools and mess about before putting the basses out for the public ?

Admittedly guitar factory wages aren't high but it's hardly slave labour. If you're in the 'Land of the Free' and work for Ernie Ball you can expect $16ph, work for Fender in Corona and it's $18ph. For a comparison, the In-n-Out burger bar down the road from the Corona plant pays a starting wage of $22ph. It's just factory work so workers get factory wages. Over in Zheng'an, China the cost of living is 1/5th that of California but the guitar factory folks are on $4.5 - $5. There a few reason why bosses there pay a bit better. It's home to 130 guitar factories, if next door pays more you risk losing your workforce 🙂 If none of you offer OK money then you all risk losing your workforce to the big cities. Prior to the Guitar Park opening 25% of the county's migrant workers were in the big city guitar factories, keeping them happy and productive is now vital to the local economy. Exception to the $4.5-$5 rate is Zhang Weiyi. His place produces about 180 guitars per year but they carry $8000 price tags, he needs the cream of the crop for his work force 👍 South Korea has a higher cost of living than China but still much lower than the US. $9 - $9.25 is the going rate there.

Must have been something in the water last week, I spotted a Westone Thunder III listed for a mere £1400 🤣🤣🤣🤣

That headless of mine has the old Wilkinson SC, 62mm x 16mm.

Thankfully @Hellzero jumped in and saved me from burning out what few braincells I have left 🙂

I've a black one on this. Where I bought it though is a tough question to answer 😃