ZilchWoolham

Like previous posters, I don't think there's a problem with sellers on BC trying to swindle anyone with fake Fenders, but it could be a problem further down the road, since we don't know what will happen once it's changed hands a couple of times. I'm perfectly fine with people playing and owning instruments with fake logos, but I don't think you should sell them on with the logo intact, even if you advertise them as such, simply because the next owner might not be as honest as yourself. 

"Solid body again" he said, tapping a hollowed out body made from dried porridge. 

On 2017-12-16 at 22:31, Bassassin said:

And here they are attempting to gouge £400 for a piece of borderline-unplayable throwaway plywood sh!te:

https://notomguitars.com/collections/basses/products/1970s-unmarked-short-scale-jazz-bass

Ignorant and unscrupulous.

Agreed, shameless really, but now it's gone! 

I'm wondering if maybe there should be some criteria imposed for inclusion. Perhaps I should at least try to organise the list in some way beyond alphabetical order. It's getting to be quite long now, and I think there's a rather large discrepancy between some of the shops listed in terms of relevance to bassists (particularly those looking for vintage gear). Some deal exclusively in vintage basses, while others have as few as three used basses in stock. Any suggestions welcome! 

On 2017-12-20 at 22:43, Chewie said:

Fantastic by Wham!  

Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables

 

 

 

 

Now that's diversity. 

The original 80's SB-1000 had a really wide nut at a whopping 45mm. On the other hand, the string spacing was narrower than standard at the bridge. The SB-R models (not to be confused with the RSB models) had normal string spacing and a narrower nut, and the SB Elite models had normal string spacing and the narrowest nut of the bunch, at 40mm. As far as I know only the dual pickup SB-R150 had the same "attack mode" switch as the SB-1000, though. 

That is correct. I don't know why they have it that way, but that's how it's been done ever since the series' inception. The V prefix has remained the same, too. 

EDIT: To nail down a specific year, anyway. I'm sure some changes have been made over the years. For guitars the fret markers at the twelfth fret were changed to a more accurate position in 1998, and I assume the same happened to the basses.

Updated with three German shops! One was brought to my attention by @Creeper in this thread; the other two I found while Googling vintage Hamers. Overall, the prices aren't... well, the lowest I've seen. Occasionally, with smaller establishments, there are deals to be made, but I'm not familiar enough with German customs to assume anything. Vintage Guitar in Oldenburg does have a rather extensive stock.

53 minutes ago, Kevin Dean said:

Back in the 80s Someone kicked our door in ,so I dropped my Peavey mklll combo from the landing above the door ,followed by a cracking sound & a call of I've snapped my arm .

 

Was it still functional afterwards? 

Well, if the Antiques Roadshow hasn't convinced you to go to more car boot sales, this thread definitely should! 

7 hours ago, AidanB said:

Thanks for all your responses, it's making it all a bit clearer. 

I've attached a quick recording of both guitars playing snippets of different styles. In each case the J bass is first then the P bass. The recording shows the character of the two different guitars (especially as the P has flat wound strings) but I don't know that it captures exactly what my ears hear in the low bass spectrum. Recorded with an SM57 Beta in front of amp into Logic with no added processing.

Jazz vs Precision.mp3

It definitely sounds like an active Jazz and a passive Precision, and as a matter of fact, I prefer the Precision!  I think, at least for now, you just prefer the sound of a Jazz bass. But, like chris_b said, there are many variations on the Precision, and you could certainly find one that's closer to your ideal tone. 

8 hours ago, Conan said:

The seller was correct (although EMG do make some active pickups as well, but it's most likely that you have a J-set and they are passive with a preamp). 

5 hours ago, Rikki_Sixx said:

I don't mean to derail the topic but is there somewhere I can find out more about this? It sounds interesting! I always assumed a pre-amp would mean active pickups - does this just allow for better control with passives?

5 hours ago, Conan said:

http://www.emgpickups.com/bass/j-models/active/jset.html#info

Hmmm... it seems I may have been incorrect in assuming that the pickups were passive... 

The active/passive terminology can be a bit confusing as a bass can have active pickups but a usual passive tone circuit, which is what it seems Aidan has, or active pickups with an active pre-amp/tone circuit, or passive pickups with an active pre-amp/tone circuit. EMG's active pickups all have a built in pre-amp that doesn't offer any tone-shaping, but is simply there to boost the signal to a usable level. Passive pickups work on the principle that with more windings, the output is increased, the mid-range is boosted and the highs and (I think) lows are tamed.  Because an active pickup uses a fewer number of windings and instead uses their own preamps to boost the signal, the output is high while being significantly more detailed in the far reaches of the audio spectrum. 

This, as far as I know, all happens within the pickup itself. Then the signal can be fed either to a normal passive tone stack (EDIT) tone/volume combo, directly to the output, or to an active EQ system. Some of the basses we call active, though, don't actually have active pickups, but rather traditional pickups fed into an active EQ. I'm hoping I didn't just add to the confusion here!  

Without having heard them, I'm going to guess that what you're hearing is really just the tonal difference between a Jazz bass with (presumably) active pickups and a passive Precision. Ballsy and punchy means different things to different people, but a Jazz bass normally has a sharper attack than a Precision,  and with EMG's that difference should be even clearer. It makes sense that your Jazz seems a bit deeper, too.

Do you usually play with both pickups turned up? This scoops a lot of the mids out of the sound, leaving more room, so to speak, for the lows. With the bridge pickup solo'd, you're getting mostly a lot of (very) high mids. As a contrast, the Precision is quite heavy on the low mids. To me, a Precision is punchier than a Jazz, but that's because I define punchy as having a beefy, prominent midrange. 

I'll have to list a few, for different reasons. 

Elvis Costello because My Aim Is True is my first musical memory, and my first musical enchantment. The cover got so worn out you could take the record out from all sides. That's where it all started for me. In fact, some of my earliest memories altogether are of listening to Elvis Costello. 

Devo because they got me through my later childhood and early teenage years. I took to the whole concept, and they gave me the strength and motivation I needed to Be Stiff and not bend over.  

Jethro Tull because I started listening to them just as I had become decent enough at guitar to give songwriting a try, and because they opened up a new world of music to me. No one has had as big of an influence on my songwriting and acoustic guitar playing as Ian Anderson. Playing Tull songs is also how I first started singing - as it turns out, my range is very similar to that of Mr. Anderson, although I can't reach quite as low as an A1! My favourite band, still. 

Have you tried a B neck? Found on most 70's Precisions, as Bridgehouse pointed out, and most modern non-reissue Precisions have at least a similar width. I used to think that I was only really comfortable with Jazz necks until I tried several new Precisions and realised I hardly noticed a difference. They don't feel nearly as enormous as a 50's C neck. Then, of course, you also have to consider the profile and thickness front to back, which can vary considerably even among necks of the same width. 

Don't really see the problem to be honest. It's just a sample library, no? 

Does it turn me into Glenn Cornick? 

1 hour ago, matski said:

If you're ever in the Nijmegen area of Holland, I'd recommend Paul's Bass Matters:

https://bassmatters.nl/en/home

Generally, he sells new stuff but does have the odd vintage treasure every now and then. For instance, he has a 1961 Fender Jazz in stock at the mo.

Great find! Nice stock, and fairly priced, too. A wunkay for €wunkay and an early Spector for €1250 - both sold, though.

On 2017-11-18 at 20:26, Sibob said:

Plenty of people much prefer the sound of bolt-ons to neck-throughs, you get a much more present attack with Bolt-On's (arguably a preference for the type of music typically played on Thunderbirds).

It's why plenty of boutique companies offer both options, because one is not 'better' than the other.

Si

Again, my preferred basses are all bolt-ons, so I've nothing against the construction at all. That being said, it is the cheapest way to attach a neck to a body (that's why Leo Fender did it). I don't think any bass should cost £4K, but if it does I'd expect, apart from top level craftsmanship (which I'm sure Mike Lull provides), expensive tonewoods and an elaborate construction. Something like the neck joint on a Warwick Thumb NT, which is the most gorgeous joint I've seen on a bass. Neck-thru but without the neck being visible from the top, yet without veneers, and with a fretboard that seems to be growing out of the body itself. 

Great initiative from Fodera, and good samples, too. In the first few clips they definitely go from brighter to darker to darkest (perhaps more like deepest). Once they started fiddling in the upper register I couldn't really hear a difference though. I couldn't really tell the slap clips apart either.  

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

Classic and Cool is run from a private home but, having been there twice, Mark is only too happy to meet arranged visitors and puts no pressure on you to buy at all. A thoroughly decent bloke.

That's good to know. What can I list as his location? 

44 minutes ago, BassBus said:

there is also something quite special about a plain ash bodied bass. Just the simple clean lines of them look so good.

Agreed!

I like ash, and flame maple (not on everything though), but that's about as far as I'll go in terms of wood figuring. There's this certain wood you'll find on fancy basses that looks like marble, which I find incredibly off-putting. I like transparent, but coloured and somewhat glossy finishes, so I want enough grain for the wood to be recognisable as such, but nothing that looks too much like a Rorschach test.

5 hours ago, Kevsy71 said:

Thanks for starting/maintaining this list Zilch!

I've browsed (but not bought from) Really Great Guitars - seems to be online only.

http://www.reallygreatguitars.com/product-category/really-great-guitars/bass/

 

They do have a repair shop, but I can't find an exact adress. Might be possible to pop in and have a look if you make an appointment?

4 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Is Classic and Cool an Internet-only outlet?  The only clue as to where they are physically located is the STD dialling code and that is not a reliable indicator.

It seems so. I think it's all run by one chap, who's also responsible for the Limelight basses favoured by a lot of folk on this forum. 

5 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Oh, Cotswold Bass Guitars was (is?) a great place to get a reasonably priced vintage Fender. Website seems to be down, but before it went down it had the most incredible 65 LPB Fender Precision, which I wanted but couldn't afford at the time.

Do we have anyone local to the area who can confirm whether they are still operating? 

18 hours ago, Chewie said:

Watch the prices in Vintage And Rare in Bath.........  they're relative to the rent of the place.........!!

 

While some are in general a bit steeper than others, I think it's safe to say that none of the establishments listed here will ever sell their basses for BC prices. But that's shops for you! 

33 minutes ago, Tonteee said:

Wouldn't Promenade Music in Morecambe qualify?

Just barely, but yes!

Maybe I should make some kind of distinction in the original post between those who stock mostly vintage and those who stock mostly new. Any input on sorting and categorisation is welcomed! 

20 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

David J Pymm.

Added! Did you buy your lovely Precision(s) from him?