anzoid

Don't see these very often - the Ray34s and Ray34CAs pop up pretty regularly at the £400-£500 mark, but the Ray14, modelled on the Sterling aren't seen around much, and this one has a good start price:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Musicman-Sterling-SB14-Bass/163627569583

Yeah, have done a few bits and pieces:

Put in a new wiring loom from @KiOgon - basically the first thing I do in any passive bass It's got a series/parallel pull/push on the volume knob for a little bit of extra variety and overall the choice of pots opens up the sound a little bit.

Installed a pair of Entwistle JBXN pickups because I wanted a bit more growl - the Duncan Designed pickups are a little too polite for me.

The rest is just swapping out the control plate, scratch plate and knobs for black versions - eventually I might swap over the rest of the hardware to black... though currently thinking I might go back to the original look (or sell the whole thing...) - can't make my mind up.

Overall, it's a lovely bass, I prefer the satin finish on the neck over the gloss that my VM fretless has.

11 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Randomly changing the price for a higher one when relisting can be a legitimate technique especially if you have watchers who aren't bidding. Drop the price a couple of times and then put it back up. Eventually someone will take a punt.

Interesting... not a tactic I've thought of and can't quite work out how it would work. If I'm following something for it's interest value alone (i.e. won't bid on it ever) I keep a sort of mental note of prices (and raise eyebrows if it goes up), and if I'm looking to buy I know what I'd pay anyway before I even think of actually placing a bid.

1 hour ago, edstraker123 said:

Obviously he's promised the wife he'll sell it if she lets him have another bass !

Had sort of thought there might have been "it's me or the bass" moment as he plaintively cries "I'm trying my hardest to sell it...just no-one wants 80s basses any more..."

Didn't sell and now back on at a higher price than was originally set... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1989-Philip-Kubicki-EX-Factor-4-Strings-Red/333130792992

13 hours ago, julesb said:

I'll have to write that one off to experience then. Oh well.

I wouldn't give up just yet... "no longer" doesn't necessarily mean there's no money about. (In fact could be trying to get a message out to everyone he's screwed going for the sympathy vote...) At worst you'd be a creditor in a bankruptcy (which may or may not be worth pursuing). The tosser still stole money from you and your band whatever his own circumstances are. You did the job... he failed to pay you.

More from barmcgabarr have just shown - looked at eBay's "Report an item" options but they have nothing that covers this kind of sharp practice... the "closest" option is "Fraudulent lIsting activities" but the following option is just "You suspect that a listing is fraudulent". Nothing else fits and I can see that just being ignored. The people who do this are complete tossers.

Well, any weight lost from the sale of gear brought for that purpose will be made up in Frittata, cherry scones and chocolate cake... we're doomed

At least you could reshape it when you got tired of its current vaguely pointy ugly shape. Or use it to make biscuits.

18 minutes ago, Soledad said:

Good point - I think it would be worth finding a Korean but also actually seein / playing. I'm in no rush at all but I can feel a 5 string in me bones...

As long as you leave the 4-strings to me My fretless Thumb impresses me more and more each time I pick it up. Anyone got a Korean WPS 4-string fretted they want rid of?!? Anyone...?

10 hours ago, Soledad said:

OK, thanks - gets a little more complicated then. So Rockbass will be same hardware etc, but inferior woods, and far east build - ? 

Pro will be German or Korean depending on date, but is same hardware, similar quality woods but if Korean, maple necks - ?

German Pro is the one to go for short of limited editions/custom shop - ?

Now there's only Rockbass, Pro Series Team Built (made in Germany) and Custon Shop Master Built (big money...) The current Pro Series seems to be pretty much equivalent to the old Standard series German Warwicks. There are also older, discontinued German Pro Series (I think their serials started GPS, but can't find any picture) that replaced the Korean Pro Series after 2013 when production moved back to Germany. Not sure how older Pro Series relate to newer Pro Series

The Warwick site has a Support page which is great for a deep dive into discontinued models: http://warwick.de/en/Warwick---Support.html

You can select the "Brands" and then choose models and stuff. Bit of a rabbit hole of information

So, yeah - Rockbass is still the budget line (though prices have shot up ...)

Old Pro Series - same hardware, good body woods, mostly maple necks, though it looks like the Corvettes (Ash or Bubinga bodies) may have had Ovangkol or Wenge... consistency in marketing and all that...

New Pro Series - pretty much like the old Standard series with Ovangkol and Wenge.

Custom Built - go talk to your bank manager first

Overall - I'd buy an older German Warwick (or another Korean Pro Series Thumb if I ever see one...)

10 hours ago, Soledad said:

And is there an easy way of I/D-ing the Korean pro from the german one, other than knowing date - is it just and always maple neck?

I think you'd need to look at the serial number the Korean Pros should (I think, and someone may correct me...) start "WPS". There's a Thumb fretless on eBay at the moment: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warwick-Pro-Series-Thumb-BO-4-String-fretless-Bass-Guitar-2011/113415570013 and there's a picture of the back of the headstock that shows the serial number format. The 11 at the end is year of manufacture, so for a Korean Pro Series you'd be looking for 11, 12 or 13. (That one is more than twice what I paid for mine... so not sure if I just got an absolutely amazing deal, or that one is seriously over-priced...)

The original Rockbass series had some good basses but the looks weren't all that and they had one piece bridges. My Corvette was active but ate batteries and had other issues so was returned for an ESP LTD 5-string (this was back in 2010). I had a modern Rockbass Corvette passive 4-string a little while back and it was very very good, and I'm not sure why I sold it really. On Thomann you can buy Warwick hardware and you can but a cheap bridge which is of un-specified material and a brass bridge which costs about three times the price. At a guess the Rockbasses will use the cheap bridges and the German Warwicks will probably use brass bridges - though whether that would be Master Built & Team Built... I read somewhere (sorry, no link...) too that whilst all Warwicks use MEC pickups (which were developed in-house by Warwick after things fell through with EMG, related to the history of the Streamer, Spector and certain lawsuits), the preamps vary on the active basses. So, Rockbasses get generic, no-name preamps whilst Pro Series and German Warwicks all get MEC preamps.

The modern (post-2013) Pro Series looks pretty nice. Andertons have a GPS BO Thumb currently at £1,300 (https://www.andertons.co.uk/warwick-bass/warwick-gps-thumb-bo-4-in-solid-creme-white) which looks rather nice - completely out of my range but it has Ovangkol for both body and neck, but hard to tell from the picture whether it has the bell brass frets you get on older German Warwicks.

And yeah... Warwick seems to love making things complicated to follow. After I got my Thumb I spent quite a bit of time trying to work out exactly where it "fits" in the Warwick line-up And I still can't quite work out if I got an amazing deal, or just paid an average, reasonable price for it. (Very happy with what I got for the money either way!)

You should be able to pick up a decent condition German Fortress around the £500 mark. (The Bass Gallery - with which I have no connection... - has a couple at the moment for a bit more than that.)

The original series Rockbasses (which had the Rockbass logo) are a mixed bunch - I had a Corvette that was dreadful. The newer Rockbasses look much much better, but given that second hand German Warwicks are still very good value for money (though prices seem to be going upwards...) it would be worth hunting one down in preference to a Rockbass. Also keep an eye out for second hand Korean Pro Series basses (now discontinued) - they sit somewhere between the Rockbasses and German Team Built/German Pro Series basses and are very good (but seem pretty rare), but not sure they ever did a Fortress.

2 hours ago, Soledad said:

Thank you for sorting that out - I didn't have a clue on that. Seems to me the RockBass is half (or even less) the German built and if they are all the same components etc does it matter where it was put together? Or is it more about woods and finishes I wonder.
SO, views on Rockbass v German would be welcome if poss please. Makes me wonder the Pro 5 fretless I missed at a little under £500 was a bit of an oversight on my part... haha.

LeftyJ has got it apart from the older Pro Series - 2011 to 2013 - these were Korean rather than Chinese and used (as far as I can work out...) the same body woods as their German compatriots but had maple necks. The electronics were the same as the German models - MEC Gold pups and preamps. Rumour is they were discontinued and production moved back to Germany because they were competing just a little bit too well with the German models of the same era. They originally retailed around the £900-£1,000 mark as best I can discover.

I've just bought a Thumb Pro Series bolt-on fretless and it has an Ovangkol body (with high polish (poly?) finish), maple neck with tiger-stripe ebony fingerboard and is a seriously good bass for the money it cost me. If a fretted Korean pro series Thumb came up I'd buy it in a heart beat, and probably be willing to pay a couple hundred more than I payed for the fretless... yeah, got (I think) a bargain.

6 hours ago, Soledad said:

Great thread for great basses. There's a 5 listed for sale here, and owner has pics of original brochures, the fine Wapping High Street price list etc.  Those pics would be nice archived.

Personally I feel the price is a tads strong... but maybe I'm still on the old money. (A grand... ??) 

"tads strong" -  I feel you have a gift for under-statement.

SGC Nanyos are lovely, I've had a couple and they are very very good. But £1,000 for that with the damage highlighted... somewhat aspirational. (Which may also be an understatement... but GLWTS to the seller...)

11 minutes ago, skidder652003 said:

That gold hardware is Fugly as Fug no matter who designed it!

Absolutely Swapped out for black it might look halfway decent though?

Wonder what the quality is like - if the body and neck are good could be worth a punt for putting in some new pups and stuff.

Looks like someone is ripping off Warwick, who ripped off Spector on this particular design...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sx-Arched-SWB1-Electric-Bass-Guitar-RRP-399-99-Warwick-Jazzman-Style/292981220727

27 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Went with Parcelforce (I checked but didn't see anything relating to speaker cabinets being 'excluded').

Cost £78(!!) (including insured for £500 and VAT) which was a fair bit more than I was expecting - so worth bearing that in mind when you are quoting for P&P - I only passed on half of that to the buyer when I was selling. (That covers approx up to 30kg).

Anyway Bill from Parcelforce came today and I helped him load on to the van. Over to them now!

A thank-you from me to all you good folk who pointed me in the right direction  

The look of resigned weariness that says "How the hell am I going to get that out the other end?!?"

Bought a pair of these from Mr Wishbone - they're pretty immense and sound good. Also, very easy transaction and stuff arrived well packaged... someone buy these!

11 hours ago, Jimothey said:

I've just checked and it's the same seller using 2 different accounts,1 private and 1 business! The listing on the private account tells you to contact the business account for more details?? 

But you can still buy the one on the private account using the "Buy it now" button?!?

One claims to be a 2000 model and the other is 1998... so something ain't quite right.

I absolutely love Status basses - pretty much any of them have been on my GAS list since forever, since I started to play bass. I have had the pleasure of owning a 5-string Streamline and currently have a Washburn Status S1000 - and overall just cannot get on with the wide flat necks The hugest disappointment because everything else about them is wonderful and seeing all these beautiful basses... sigh.

1 hour ago, hypercarrots said:

According to that second picture they put Nathan East in a 20 ton press 😮 Bet that made a mess... interesting bass though.

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

With the speaker it isn't that cheap when you consider that the BG250 208 is £250 with a 2x8 built in

True - but two cabs plus the amp would make for a sweet mini stack

Checking out the footprint of the new 2x8 cab and BG250-208 - the combo is about 3cm wider and slightly deeper, so not sure how nicely the combo would stack with an extra cab.
My BG250-208 sits quite nicely on top of my Ampeg SVT210AV though (I think it's the only BG250 series combo with a speaker out too...)

Also, looking at the pics of the 208 cab - there's no pass-through or in/out jacks for creating a stack, and I can't imagine the BAM200 would have two outputs, so you'd need some fancy cable to drive two cabs... hmmm.

It looks as though the matching 2x8 cab is going to come in around £150 - https://www.thomann.de/gb/tc_electronic_bc208_bass_cab.htm

Mini rig of BAM200 + 2 cabs for under £450 😮

Depending on space (hitching a lift with BreadBin) I'll be bringing a Trace Elliot "Elf" with Ampeg SVT210AV and a cheapo "Red Sub" (Gear4Music) fan-fret 5-string. Maybe also a 2018 bright yellow Steinberger XT2 just to dazzle everyone