Hellzero

So, they'll have to sell it to you without VAT.

Nobody asked @franzbassist, but is it a new item bought in an official store or is it a second hand item bought from a private person? If it's new, the store has to withdraw the VAT that you'll have to pay has one of the incoming taxes, and in the end according to the exchange rate of the day, you'll end up paying almost the same amount as if you were buying it in the U.K. In case of a second hand item, as others said, get prepared to pay at least 30% of incoming taxes... In fact, I do the maths another way: I simply add 50% to the bare selling price of the second hand item as the shipping fee, the handling fee and the administrative fee or any other fee will be added to the declared value to calculate the final amount of the VAT. I've done it the other way round and unless the price of the second hand item is very low, it's not a winning situation at all.

Today is Monday, are you happy @LowB_FTW ?

And don't tell me the ECSC doesn't exist anymore...

I know some people who did it.

And I guess you meant EEC, not EU... 😉

If not utterly painful!

But, if I look a bit further, I can see fretless instruments, my wife being the nickname of Pino Palladino's fretless Stingray, my guess would be an old fretless Stingray, maybe the one that sold recently at Bassbros... https://bassbros.co.uk/sold-basses/1976-music-man-stingray-fretless/

A fretless Thunderbird, may I add @ezbass...

Go for one string then! Check his ideal city, it's worth a look: the poor in the sewer and the posh in the marble in daylight.

Got it, found the clue... 48 fragile firewood logs in 39 centimeters length!

I do. He used to be a talented classical violin player who stepped into "rock" music.

And if you can use a soldering iron, there's this kit which is an replica of the 1978 Music Man preamp: https://www.musikding.de/Classic-Bass-Preamp-Preamp-kit It's a available by batches and is back in stock right now. Check this too for more information as it's already been discussed here:

Thanks mate, but I'm not the OP. 😉

If your bass is already an American Music Man with an AlNiCo pickup, just change the preamp. You can use the regular 2 EQ preamp and wire 2 output jacks in parallel (one on the plate and one on the side) and use whichever you want. There's this preamp in the ads that will be perfect for your needs:

That said, about magic in the circuit or ghost in the machine 😉 , the special tone of Edward van Halen comes from a defective pickup, the special tone of Peter Green comes from an error in the wiring putting the pickups of his Les Paul out of phase in the center position, the special tone of Brian May comes from the accumulation of mistakes in the building of his guitar by his father (neck wood and building not allowing a standard gauge but an ultra light one, ultra low output homemade pickups needing an external buffer and booster, an overall very poor construction of the guitar giving such a thin sound he had to do a lot of tricks), ... So yes, the magic can reside in the circuitry Chris.

Interesting! 👍

Lovely! 😍

I don't care, I'm waiting for mine. 🤔🤦🤪

Waiting for your feedback as the reviews are too disparate...

If it's the year, it's 1981, but are you sure it's really an SB700 as models are not that easy to spot correctly?

In fact the 4 pole pieces protrude at the back of the pickup, which implied to have a specific routing for them in the pickup cavity.

The preamp was epoxied to avoid any counterfeit as the design was and still is totally non conventional. For the long pole pieces, it was Leo's idea for a stronger output and to follow the radius of the neck.

I guess you want to know the year of manufacturing?