Burns-bass

I’m on the same journey. (Slight set back after a critical family problem). My sight reading, intonation and playing have all improved massively. More than that, it’s hugely enjoyable to learn something completely new.

As a consumer, I despise AI.

And in copywriting and content, in which I work.

Agreed. I never get why someone would spend all the cash on getting a bass refinished and then try sell it for more is mental.

I’m not sure there’s much of a difference. If you play guitar, you’re a player, etc.

Hardware changes are a personal decision, and it’s cool. What gets me is when people try and recoup the extra cost for these parts when pricing items. Just because you spent hundreds on a cheap bass it doesn’t make it an expensive one. Accept you won’t get the cash back if you make changes on a bass and move on.

Internet is full of mad chancers like this. I think they consider themselves “dealers” as it legitimises owning a shed load of gear.

This is really true. I found that the strings felt like they were coated in some way which took a while to break in.

I agree with you Mark. You can already see late 80s Musicmans and Gibsons being marketed as vintage. (To be fair, the late 80s Stingrays are great).

The tension on a set of DB strings is much higher than electric bass strings. You need to ensure that the string end is secured under the string as it winds around the peg. This is vital as when you bring the string to tension the string can slip, which can be very frustrating indeed (also means you'll forever be out of tune! You'll also need to work in order. Don't remove all four strings at the same time as the sound post can fall over (which isn't good!).

That is an excellent job.

I would say vintage instruments are the very definition of an illiquid asset. Vintage guitars are a very poor speculative investment. This often becomes clear when you try to sell one for anything approaching the price you paid for it. If there’s a war or the stock market crashes or we have another meltdown (all quite plausible at the moment) the value of these instruments is going to go down massively as it did in 2007. Guitars are great fun but for the most part, poor investments for normal people. https://www.premierguitar.com/after-the-fall-the-state-of-the-vintage-guitar-market

Or the owner who was selling on commission asked for it back. Apparently most of the vintage guitar shops predominantly sell commission items. Makes sense that they wouldn’t want millions in stock hanging around. Also explains why they’re often very reticent to accept trade ins.

That echoes my experience too. A subtle movement of location made the bridge pickup not feedback. No idea why but why argue?

im pretty sure Chris knows that. I this his point was that for many people, vintage basses don’t live up to the hype…

I have all this stuff and it sounds terrible. Seriously, though, I play amplified blues on one band and there’s really no need to have a very delicate piezo. Worst gig I ever did was with a K&K Bassman pickup. Sounded awful and fed back all gig.

Ask it to create you an image of a glass of wine full to the brim. Literally doesn’t understand it as there’s no reference to go on.

Why not get the EBS Stanley Clarke and a Realist and blend them? This Will give you the best of both worlds and with independent HPFs you can tweak the tone and avoid feedback. Appreciate this probably adds another few hundred quid onto your search for tone but perfection isn’t cheap!

It may seem like I’m dumping on vintage Fenders, I’m not, it’s just this instrument where it’s so obvious. You can see it with Walls, too, and KSD basses as well. Am I jealous I don’t own these instruments? Probably a bit of that, but prices do seem ludicrous at the mo.

What we’re seeing is a sort of collective mania where dealers increase the prices of stuff like 70s Precisions. Private buyers snap them up and when the often fail to live up to expectations, list them at a small fraction under their purchase price. Dealers see this and consider if the second band market can cover it, they’ll ask for even more in their shops. And on and on it goes.

Private sellers assume they can achieve sale prices you'd get in shops. You also get people who consider themselves to be "dealers" – buying and selling to make a profit on what once was a thriving and growing market. In both cases, they tend to massively overprice gear and fail to sell it. Then they complain about a slow market. Private sales should be about 60-70% of shop prices. The market for instrument sales is falling, especially at the top end. What were once reasonably priced older guitars are now fetishised as artisan pieces of handmade luthiery, not the factory made, mass produced utility items they always were. It's BS in the end, but humans are dumb. (I say this as someone with vintage guitars!)

If that’s the case a drop D tuner won’t release enough string to lower the tone to D, would it?

Is the Stagg 34” scale?

Honestly, people worry about so much nowadays. I really don't remember all this junk 20 odd years ago. You just bought the best amp you could afford and configured it when you arrived at the venue. We're a world of worries.