prowla

That’s quite amusing. I had no interest in meeting him, especially when he wanted to sort it out man-to-man; presumably the intention was to intimidate me, but I never mentioned that myself and my three sons hold karate black belts, so it might’ve been an interesting workout. For me and some others here, we got our money back and I found the process quite enlightening, TBH. I do know there were/are others who haven’t managed to get a resolution and I heard a couple of shocking stories in my interactions with folks. So I applaud your efforts!

...a variation on "if you know, you know"! 🙂

I can't relate to Squiers for that sort of money; I understand that there are the "If you know, you know" advocates, but to me they are budget instruments which punch above their weight rather than really being worth that much. Still, folks with cash to spend evidently disagree! 🙂

I've got 3 Spirits: a 5-string, a guitar, and my Rickenberger. They are indeed strange things to play, as they have no weight/substance to them.

People who tell you how you should play are donuts!

From a dumpster...?

This is a real Frankestein!

@cetera - Charvel 3B, ESP Surveyor '87, Fender FSR PJ Precision, Hamer Impact, Italia Imola, Spector NS2, Spector Euro, Spector EuroX (Spectorbird), Spector Pulse II, Gallien Krueger 400RB & Legacy800, GenzBenz Neox 2x12 @TheGreek - All short scale this year - a @Jabba_the_gut short scale 5er, Mini Ray, Short scale P bass @Harlequin74 - Zoot Performer, Status Shark, Spector QV4 , Markbass TTE501 and Matching CAB. Maybe the Lehle Basswitch… @Frank Blank - @Jabba_the_gut short scale fretted and fretless, JMJ Mustang, QSC K12.2, Grace Design Alix @TrevorR - Mk 1 Wal, Wal Pro IIE, Aria SB700, Frankenjazz, pedals and MarkBass LMII & Traveler 2x10 @bnt - travelling light, probably a couple of pedals such as T-Rex Diva Drive, Orange KongPressor @bass_dinger - 1999 Washburn XB500, 1994 Washburn XB500, Washburn XB925 in zebrawood, Washburn XB925 in bits, Boulder Creek 5 string (likely to be for sale, SWR Workingmans 12. @greentext - 2008 Spector NS4-H2, 2015 Sandberg VS4, 2000 Trace Elliot T-Bass, my pedalboard and my tin of picks 😈 @prowla - Probably a couple of Rickenbackers and some interesting oddities. Amp-wise a Markbass EVO and a 1x12 (last year I bought some others to try and never switched them on, as the EVO sounded spot-on).

Might be an option worth exploring.

They need to adapt their CNC to do a headless.

It's marked as sold.

Shame about the replacement bridge and tuners. I'd revert the 4000+1 mod; it looks like the pickup is in the wrong place anyway. The pickguard cutout is a bit messy and it looks like that was the original 4000 pickguard hacked, so the search would be on for a replacement. The genuine wear looks good to me, apart from the name carved. A 4000 is on my nominal shopping list, but this one's asking price is at least double what I'd pay.

I think it's OK to use CNC machines for the initial cutting and then do the remainder by hand. That's what Rickenbacker do now.

Rics are styled after the famous Tsunami picture.

"input jack" has be running for the hills!

£650 - crikey! Mine ain't in the best nick and I think it's been overpainted from blue.

I agree - do something about it!

(You do in the UK too...)

Can you make sure it doesn't rain, please? 🙂

I've got three older wooden necked headed Statii and they are very nice to play. However, I inherently associate the name Status Graphite with (erm) graphite basses (and headless ones at that!) - I've got a 4-string one of those too. So, I'm finding this announcement a bit confusing, but maybe it's just the start of the process. But it's good to see the man back in business either way! (The pic is three of mine, with the other being a Groove.)

Great - I missed the travelling musician rules update - thanks! Yes, I did mean the buyer! 🙂 Yes regarding non-EU manufactured kit; it just means it's more expensive to buy from box-shifters there. Now, whether UK-based companies treat that as an opportunity or not is a question only they can answer.

There were a couple of half-baked aspects of the ready-baked deal, two of which affect musicians: Access for Touring bands - this needs to be sorted out, but perhaps is a thread in its own right. VAT & duties on used kit - this is not acceptable IMHO; why should individuals flogging s/h kit be taxed? The taxes on new kit should be similar to before; it's just where they're collected which has changed: VAT is charged once (ie. you do not pay both EU + UK VAT). Import duties are not payable on EU-manufactured kit. Import duties are applied to overseas imports, but they were anyway. Bigger companies (eg. Thomann) handle the taxes for you, so it's invisible. Caveats: If you are dealing with a smaller company, they may not be geared up to handle the tax and so it'll be levied at the point of entry to the UK. The courier companies will handle tax at the point of entry, but they may charge a processing fee of £10-20 for doing so. If you run a smaller company, then there is new admin overhead in processing taxes/duties; I would've thought this could be automated and I guess there are programs to handle it (or it could be handled in a fairly simple spreadsheet). Other factors: Covid has arguably bumped up the prices of items as people have had money to spend and nothing to do. The war in Ukraine has bumped up prices of everything and inflation is much higher than pre-Brexit. Interest rates have gone up significantly, affecting the prices of everything. The OPEC cartel has raised the price of oil, which increases transport costs. There has been some opportunistic price-gouging by manufacturers & suppliers. Me, I have to say I mostly bought in-UK anyway, as shipping costs could be a bit pricey pre-Brexit.

That looks really crap.

Given that it's a Hardly Bentone, would it have been worth that much in good condition?