gareth

Can you post photos of the neck pocket, neck butt, pickups, underside of pick guard  showing pots and wiring and control cavity 

7 minutes ago, GuyR said:

in common with every category of instrument, Vintage Fenders are not all created equal.

Agreed

But I do think in general the chances finding a good one diminish over the course of the 70’s as the seasoning of woods diminished making for heavier basses and the machine tools wore out and the gaps in neck and pup pockets increased leading to floppy three bolt necks on jazzes and tele basses.

But redemption came in the form of Bill Shultz and the American vintage reissue series 

1 hour ago, GuyR said:

Thankfully, we will now recognise it next time it is advertised for sale.

Wow

Looks exactly like my bass 

But my bass only weighs 8lbs 5ozs and the E string definitely ain’t dead

5 hours ago, TorVic said:

Hi All,

Following is an account of my experience buying and shipping an item from UK (Scotland) to EU (Netherlands) this week: 

(1) I bought a headphone amp from a friendly seller here for a price of 91GBP (~102EUR)

(2) I agreed with the seller to book the courier myelf to manage shipping complications. I have used UPS.com similarly for earlier purchases. I got the shipping box dimensions from the seller. The charges for insured, signed delivery in this case was 16GBP. 

So the total sale cost was 91 + 16 = 108GB (~121EUR)

(3) First change: while booking online, I had to fill in a digital customs invoice that was not required before. In this invoice, I had to fill the following details: 

"Description of Item:                                       Used second-hand bass headphone amp
Value:                                                                91 GBP
Freight charges:                                              17 GBP 
Country where it was made / assembled : China mainland* 

Total:                                                                  108 GBP"

(* The user manual mentioned China / The new retail price on the web was ~300EUR / 267GBP) 

(4) The shipment was picked up the next day and ready for delivery the day after. However, things took a new turn at this point.

(5) Second change: I received an email from UPS stating that import fees have to be paid for this shipment. The payment link showed the following details in EUR (BTW = VAT): 

"IMPORT FEES:              
 NOTE: the total value used for calculation of all Duty-based fees is 0.00.

Government Charges:    24.99
Brokerage Charges:       13.00
Freight Charges:               0.00
BTW:                                   2.73

Total:                                 40.72 EUR"  (~36GBP)

The government charge was 25 EUR (~22GBP) which is approximately 20% of the value declared in the customs invoice above. 
 
I assume the 13EUR (~11GBP) brokerage charges were for GBP to EUR currency conversion - this was a surprise to me. Not sure if all couriers charge similarly or worse. And it is not evident whether it is a fixed charge or depends on the amount - I assume it will be the latter. This together with the VAT adds a 10% charge to the sale cost.   

(6) So in the end, I paid 36GBP (~40EUR) import fees for a purchase cost of 108GBP (~120EUR). That's a ~30% additional cost on the sale (item + shipping cost). 

And that probably marks the end, for me, of any big purchases from UK on our beloved BassChat marketplace forum, for a while.

So long and thanks for all the fish!  

-Cheers, Vic. 
 

And I assume the same would apply if I were to buy an item from you and have it shipped to the uk

 I sold a bass to someone in Hungary this week but he got me to ship it to his friend here in U.K. from whom he will collect on his next visit 

I expect this will become a common practice 

Ian bought my defretted stingray and is highly recommended 

This is the best anniversary p bass yet

https://www.guitarworld.com/reviews/fender-60th-anniversary-precision-bass

Drive by truckers

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

Harsh, but probably fair.

What’s interesting is that three bolt necks can work but they need tight tolerances, necks that fit tightly in to neck pockets

Leo proved this could be done with the pre eb stingrays and then the early G&Ls 

I’ve had all of these basses and they work brilliantly but I’ve never had a three bolt fender bass 

19 minutes ago, SurroundedByManatees said:

Re: 3 bolt neck mounting. 

Indeed the 70s 3 bolt Fenders can be a bit loose. It's not to hard to stabalise though, by putting chips of wood in the right places.

I've got a good result on a '75 by narrowing the body holes for the 3 screws by inserting wood chips, and adding a thin slice of wood in the neck cavity where a gap was on upper horn side. Since then, it was much more stable. 

Like two ends of the spectrum 

The magic and mystery of Leos finest pre cbs basses to the horror of three bolt necks allied to worn out machinery unable to produce the precise tolerances necessary 

On 03/01/2021 at 17:02, GuyR said:

 There are usually two reasons for a pre cbs Fender to be pristine; either it has a sad story, or it is a dog, of which there are plenty. 

When I got back in to bass playing some 20 years ago after stopping to have a family - and cos I couldn’t stand that whole mark king slap rubbish - a dealer friend showed me a collection of old fender precisions and a Fullerton AVRI (1983) 

The Fullerton AVRI was easily the best bass and the cheapest, the one I bought and still have - along with lots of other Fullerton AVRI’s I have since acquired😀

2 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

All very laudable but please be careful. Who says "better use a CN23" and will people understand the importance of incoterms. You don't just select one at random.

I'm not saying this is necessarily wrong but I am saying that you should approach this with caution and don't just use something because someone says you should or you've just spent 2 minutes reading an explanation on the internet. Yes, this is straightforward for people who do it daily but it's not straightforward.

If you are a business. take advice from the carrier. They have the necessary experience to tell you what you need to do. The HS code tool could be useful although there are many such tools on the internet.

Again, apologies for the cautious note. Getting something wrong could end in confiscation.

1 minute ago, lurksalot said:

Thanks for that 

not dealing in used goods I hadn’t realised these vat options existed ! 

A pleasure 

Just now, Steve Browning said:

Not sure how many music shops operate the scheme. 

I suppose it depends whether they deal in s/h gear - if not no need

If they do perhaps they could business split it this was advantageous (and legal) - use margin scheme for business dealing soley with s/h goods and use regular scheme for business selling new stuff

Here you go

https://www.gov.uk/vat-margin-schemes

14 minutes ago, lurksalot said:

Doesn’t really work like that though 

 

Yes it does actually 

6 minutes ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

I had one of these for a while and agree about the build quality. Believe it or not, I actually struggled with a shorter scale and for some reason I had visions of me looking like George Formby playing his Ukulele, but I certainly enjoyed it. 

All that said, he was a great boxer and we had one of his grills that we used for quite a long time. 

Like this?

36 minutes ago, iamtheelvy said:

This gets surprisingly close, but has its own thing going on. Bit more of a mid-mid punch, rather than the low-mid tone of the P-bass.

Plus, I already have a Precision... 🙂

Yes certainly gets nearer than a Musicmaster - a squier vista gets even closer with a proper 4 pole pup

Get a precision

44 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

A couple on Gumtree:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/squier-by-fender-jv-62-vintage-precision-bass-.1983-made-in-japan-export-model./1373940677

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/squier-by-fender-jv-62-vintage-jazz-bass-.1983-made-in-japan-export-model.-/1373941899

I’ve obviously under priced the jv jazz I have on the for sale section 😉

Some of the most underrated basses are some of the Mexican fender which when you think about are basses assembled by Mexicans in Mexico as opposed to American fenders which are assembled by Mexicans living in America 

obviously parts vary 

Im thinking classic series, road worns and some signature basses

ive had lots of the above and lots of American and Japanese fenders and I’m always surprised at the used price differences between the Mexican basses I’ve mentioned and their American and Japanese counterparts

18 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I just worked out that by the time Her Majesty's Customs and Excise have had their way with me, choosing empress over the standard alder will have added about £90 to the price. Which is a lot more than nothing, but I've wasted a lot more money than that in my life 😉

Worth £90 for a sub 7lb bass

Wise investment 

6 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

Yes, it's made of empress, which isn't listed on the options page at the moment but which is seeming frequently available. I ordered through Rocket Music in Virginia - Greg there seems very good at knowing what G&L can do. (Fortunately he's also good at checking that the factory have actually made what was asked for....)

That’s a fabulous weight

12 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

I've been sent a photo of the SB-1 that is very slowly making its way to me. 1½" nut, just under 7 lbs weight. Hopefully will have it early February.

 

 

Under 7lbs?

Are you sure?