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[quote name='JTUK' post='1133248' date='Feb 19 2011, 12:02 PM']Well, there is no point trying to convince they are any good...they may just about be playable for some people. I have given reasons why they will not be any good as the parts will be cheap and the build nasty, IMV. If a bass retails for £199 or less, then you can't expect any more as the retail and distributor could take the biggest part of all that leaving it with a build cost of...??? The whole thing is designed to be cheap ..there is no preimium built in quality here, none whatsoever..everything is done at lowest possible cost. If that is not a definition of cheap and ansty, I don't know what is. People are talking about shimming necks and putting replacement pickups etc, so this is not a good build. It might suffice for the job you want it to do but that is about it. You shouldn't expect any more and if you get it..BONUS. I am just replying to the OP who asked if they are any good. The answer will be no, but they may be worth the punt for £59.99[/quote] Fair enough, it's sound reasoning. I just disagree with your assumptions. Still, like I said earlier (and tom1946 gave evidence for), I feel like you might be looking at these the same way at these people looked at japcrap years ago. Even if they're still not your cup of tea, I think you'd be surprised.

[quote name='JTUK' post='1133060' date='Feb 19 2011, 08:45 AM']Look, they are cheap and nasty. there is no doubt about it, just as they would be if they charged full price in the Hi St. You can go to any shop that sells this type of budget gear like Encore and the like and find this type of bass. They are terrible basses..and I have seen plenty of them...most music shops would be trying to sell them. I'm sorry if I am telling you this and you don't like it but there is no way they are not cheap and nasty The plating will be poor, the paint poor, the wood poor, etc etc ... if may well be true that these issues apply to basses that cost much much more but it doesn't make any odds. The only way they are not cheap and poor is if your definitions differ widely from mine. but there is widely and widely. They might be worth the money to you and you might enjoy them for whatever reasons and that is fine..but some things cost nothing for a reason. I've seen enough of these things to define them as cheap and nasty, I don't need to view every single one and I'd be quite happy if you'd actually got a decent-ish playable one by a stroke of good fortune but these aren't designed as decent instruments, they are designed to be knocked out and fill a void. We don't need to go around in circles again..some of you are entirely happy with your purchase, that is ok.[/quote] I was working under the impression you just felt differently for a reason, but now you're seeming more and more to be that close-minded uncle people in the family don't talk about. The one with whom there's no point arguing with.

[quote name='JTUK' post='1132273' date='Feb 18 2011, 02:32 PM']How much are these new..? The component price must be pennies. Even if they can bolt them together with a degree of success, and they resonate ok.. no dead spots, decent output from the pickups..grub screws on the bridge stay relatively tight so the bridge doesnit slip...the tuners can keep them in tune..?? [b]These are all ssues that have plagued Fender, amongst others and that is without the planks of wood being machined well enough to actually be capable of a decent playing action.[/b] If the action was 3mm, then it isn't playable, IMO. and nor should you bother. Look, I am happy, ...well, not really, I don't care, as I don't have to play them, ... that they have a use but these can't be good basses. Useable...?? but that depends what you want/expect.[/quote] I get the impression you have incredibly high standards. Nothing wrong with that, though. It does explain your reluctance in settling for anything other than perfection (although I'm hardly advocating these are perfect, let's not even go there).

Well, as always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not only that, but this kind of instruments is prone to very patchy QC, which means you can find a few gems in a sea of mediocre stuff. Besides, [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=121356&hl=cheapest+bass+expensive"]this thread[/url] is evidence enough of what's been advocated for a while - good players make the cheapies sound good. TBH, I feel like these instruments are facing a similar prejudice japcrap endured a few decades ago. Maybe I got lucky or maybe I'm just not nitpicky, but mine has a straight neck which fits very snugly in the neck pocket, an accurately positioned bridge and tuners which, well, keep in tune. Admittedly, the pickup sounds somewhat thin, but I managed to get my hands on a Fender HW1 pup for just over a score, which makes it a very much playable instrument for not much money.

I also find them very useful, but we appear to be a minority.

Bought an other pickup from Chris and had the same experience - no frills, good communication, and good stuff

I just added a couple of tracks more. Keep 'em coming. I've found a few very cool songs I had never heard about.

[quote name='tom1946' post='1121494' date='Feb 9 2011, 03:43 PM']I have 5 of them now. I cleared the shop out at Guisborough [/quote] Crikey! I hope you have many uncles with many attics EDIT: [quote name='allighatt0r' post='1121405' date='Feb 9 2011, 02:33 PM']Just snagged a pick-up from an 80s Jazz Special (the model Duff McKagan uses apparently!) from eBay for £32.77! What's the best place to get some CTS pots + Sprague drop cap? There's a New Zealander that does a kit for ~£25. Anyone had experience buying from him?[/quote] Gah, I was watching that and completely forgot. Uh well, at least I know it's going to be put to good use.

[quote name='tom1946' post='1116173' date='Feb 5 2011, 06:54 AM']Hope all goes well Ped. Is the '6' a peugeot 306 gti6? Please don't make the site look like talkbass, it's gash [/quote] Actually, I'd quite welcome a shift from IP boards to vBulletin. The topic subscription utilities in the former are just atrocious. Still, I would hardly think there's any plan to move away from IP boards. An upgrade to version 3(.1) is the logical step.

[quote name='icastle' post='1118443' date='Feb 6 2011, 11:45 PM']The neck pocket never fits - I suspect they always cut them slightly too small to allow it to be sanded to fit all neck widths snugly. That suspicion aside though, being too small isn't a problem - 30 mins with a bit of sandpaper will soon fix that! As for the screw holes, even Fender move those around (MIM/MIA). Again, no big deal, fill the old ones with woodglue and matchsticks and drill some new ones - you ain't gonna see it under the scratchplate are you? [/quote] Actually, it is a perfect fit to both a MIJ Squier and an SX. Sure, it's easy enough to make it work with some elbow grease. Just saying it isn't clear cut.

[quote name='Bass_Guardian' post='1118409' date='Feb 6 2011, 11:04 PM']I cant find any posts saying people have as yet changed the pickguards..more planning to than have done. Will happily be proved wrong as i want answers [/quote] I've got a tort Fender 62 pickguard, but it is definitely not a straight fit. It'd need some work around the neck pocket and I don't think the holes would line up too well.

What I do find amazing is how the same information is interpreted in so many distinct ways by different people. It is good evidence that eBay is a place one should describe (or ask) everything up to the last detail.

[quote name='risingson' post='1115618' date='Feb 4 2011, 05:18 PM']I think your right as a musician to be absolved from any criticism on an online forum is effectively rescinded as soon as you've joined up and started posting. I'm not saying it's right to go about criticising someone without considerable forethought (if at all really), in fact for the most part whilst I thought your post was funny, it probably was badly worded for those that don't know you well enough to know that at times you can be tongue in cheek. However, if you join a site and assume you're safe from being called out by forumites that are unable to conduct themselves with any decorum then you've made a mistake. [b]It's the internet, people have a habit of saying what they want because more often than not they won't suffer the repercussions in regular life. Everyone's an armchair critic when they want to be.[/b][/quote] The fact that it is the internet does not excuse the fact that people choose to act like complete tools. Personally, I do my best not to say anything through the web I wouldn't say face to face. It is all fine and dandy to rant at a PC screen, but on the other side is someone real. If I wouldn't like to see random people being nasty to me, why should I be nasty to them?

[quote name='mcnach' post='1115572' date='Feb 4 2011, 04:43 PM']why not? it's the *total* that matters surely. If the total cost results in a good instrument for teh money invested... why not? I paid £40 for a used Westfield Jazz that felt and sounded great. I was amazed by how good it was. I eventually spent £135 on a used J-Retro01 preamp for it... and it's a killer bass. £175 sounds like a bargain for the amount of bass I got in teh end. No?[/quote] Because I just don't get that attached to instruments. They're tools, as far as I'm concerned. As so, it will problably see a new owner if (when?) I decide I want something different, and I am not looking forward to having the value of the components depreciate that much (I have seen a few basses here shift for about a third of the street price of the individual components, which is something that puzzles me). Besides, I try to spend as little as possible doing what are, in the grand scheme of things, small changes.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1115271' date='Feb 4 2011, 01:47 PM']I'd like a USA Fender Precision P pickup...[/quote] I see we thought of the same thing Mine's on the way, too (though it's a Highway1 pup, which I'm not sure is exactly the same as the am standard). EDIT: And I definitely didn't pay more than the bass for it. That's something I couldn't make sense of.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='1114949' date='Feb 4 2011, 09:19 AM']Okay, more on the 6-stringers, plugged the tele in. Oh dear... weak and crappy pickups, crank them and they feedback in totally the wrong way. String change might help the weak sound, as it came with girls strings on (9s). Also, took some bits off to have a look, and the assembly was a shock, to say the least. Each of the holes on the p/g had 2 corresponding ones in the body. It had been shunted up after the control plate had been moved up, cos the bit of wood it should have been screwed to had broken off. This left the neck pup at an angle as the p/g was pushing it. Explaining why it was so much weaker than the bridge one. On the bright side, looked like a decent lump of wood. Maybe not alder, but certainly not ply, looks a bit like the alder body of my old Ibby SB70, and feels decently chunky and solid. New nut, new strings and new bridge are first on my list of to dos, then pups if that doesn't help. Might change the neck eventually though. Advice, tom was right, these are dogs. If you don't feel the compulsive need to rebuild every instrument you own (like me, often described as an obsessive turd-polisher, but not in THAT sense) then don't buy one. Actually, even if you are, don't buy one. However, if you have, be nice, don't send it back to a charity shop and demand your money back, just skip it, trash it on stage in a townsend style, or burn it to keep warm. Don't sell it to some poor kid and put him off the instrument for life. [/quote] Wow, I feel really lucky. My strat is pretty spot on. All holes line up and even the cavity is better than I expected. The action is nice and low, good intonation and the neck is pretty straight (and it doesn't bend). Actually, even the R is less shabby than in the P pickguard. Still, I'm worried about the pickups. They sounded bad, but I assumed it was just because it was being played through the bass pod. I'll have to wait for a couple of weeks for my loaned guitar combo to come back home to have an opinion.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=111439"]They must be related[/url].

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1112152' date='Feb 2 2011, 11:23 AM']True. No one who's [i]really[/i] famous plays bass. Like -say - Barack Obama, Jackie Chan or Bill Tarmey. Really famous people get really famous because they want to be noticed. [b]By contrast, 99% of bass players shun the spotlight. Showing off is just not their muffin. Therefore nobody [i]really [/i]famous will ever be spotted on BC. And that's the way we like it.[/b][/quote] I like the way you think.