Frank Blank

I am heading up to Warwick on Saturday to take up a new bass for set up and pick up one that's just been done. I was thinking of dropping in there to do just that. Oddly there is something about those Jaguars that leaves me cold, purely a look thing.

Man, I'm pretty sold on the Chowny SWB Pro, the looks alone slay me.

That's a lovely offer, thank you. *faith in Internet restored*

In that case we are, you were offering me short scale bass recommendations.

Brilliant, thank you, just in case I ever drag myself away from modern, somewhere near 1k basses that I now usually go for.

That makes perfect sense. Are we also discussing things on Fretboard..?

You live, you learn. Do such people lurk on Basschat?

I think that feel that you mention is a very natural symbiosis that occurs once you find an instrument you truly like. Do you think part of that symbiosis may be because the instrument is vintage rather than the instrument itself having any inherent superior properties over something modern?

You can do such a thing? Sorry, not 'you', 'one'.

This is true. I think I would seek advice on here if I were to make such a purchase.

So are we to assume that hand assembly makes the instrument better if, in the final analysis they mostly sound the same? It is an interesting thought about the quality instruments surviving and the older ones not making it.

Yes, I think this is the perfect summation of the thread really.

I think this is an important differentiation. I buy instruments to play, as I am sure everyone contributing to this thread does too but is there something in the vintage instruments (other than future investment potential) that makes it worth having over a modern instrument? I think, if I found a very expensive vintage bass that I loved, before I bought it I would seek out a very similar modern version and see if there was any difference.

An excellent point. See, your last line is what niggles me, I don't think I have the knowledge or experience (and I am not, for a moment, suggesting you do not btw) to know if vintage instruments are worth the price or not. Common sense tells me not but am I missing out on something revelatory?

Man that's a beautiful bass. I've just bought an Aerodyne that is currently being set up, I purchased it about a week before I had the short-scale revelation so I expect it will be on sale here within the month. I am interested in your choice of words comfortable and genuine. Comfortable I understand within the context of your post but genuine? Genuine in what sense that a modern instrument isn't?

I am losing money in reselling too at the moment but I think that's par for the course when you are seeking exactly the right instrument, at least they go to people who are possibly on a similar search, if not at least they may get played by someone else and that's better than them sitting in a rack gathering dust.

I agree with you entirely but I think people like me who write and play music but have very little technical knowledge about their instruments sometimes feel they are possibly missing out on some great instruments that would somehow make the job of writing and performing easier. Obviously common sense makes a nonsense of this but still I get a niggling feeling sometimes when I see someone like Gillian Welch (an artist I really like) using a 1956 Gibson J-50 or her musical partner David Rawlings playing a 1935 Epiphone that they know something I don't, yet when I listen to their recordings I think there is nothing in the tone of their recorded guitars that suggests that you couldn't get the same sound from modern cheaper instruments. This always leaves me on the horns of a dilemma, do they know something I don't? Or do they use such old instruments because they think they should? Or (more than two horns here, obv.) are they genuinely playing such instrument because they love the feel of them, a feel that cannot be found in a modern instrument?

I actually think it helps the debate a lot in that there is no set perspective, one can have one's own taste and preferences about an instrument but I think if this thread has highlighted anything it is that there is no definitive set of criteria that make a vintage bass superior to a modern one or vice versa. There may be something about the materials used in construction, the manner of it's manufacture, but in the end personal preference seems to hugely outweigh any other factor, somehow that pleases me a lot. One thing I do know is that the reasoned arguments and totally friendly discussion on this thread has kind of warmed an old misanthrope's heart! If I were ever attracted to a bass that was considered vintage I'd be straight on here asking for advice, that's for sure.

A million...

Apart from me.

I’m all for the square cut sandwich but profess no preference with beer.

I suppose we are settling for the instrument that we like in the end, if that is vintage so be it, if it is modern then likewise, so be it. In the end we are satisfying ourselves and if part of that is to own something older with some history or some nice wear then that's part of what you are paying for.

I like that, owning part of the history, it's a kind of belonging isn't it. I feel it too, even having a modern Fender, its still a part of the lineage. All these musings are really helping.

So what does a 51 P bass have over a 2017 P bass?

How odd, I was stung by a wasp that alighted unnoticed on my ice cream between licks when I was a child, can't abide ice cream...