prowla

That's nice; it's good to see a non fender-alike!

Careful posting about genuine Fenders here...!

Ah yes - that's true.

Well, I think Billy Sheehan really did that with his bass(es), putting a neck pickup in. I'd also quite like to get a custom build with Ric pickups.

Yep - it should be fun (the official Ric name is Fireglo). If that falls through and you are patient, you can get a Japanese Matsumoku for around £350. The thru-neck Japanese ones tend to be maybe £100-150 more and some folks look for £600-700 for a Greco and the other top-end ones; however, that's getting too close to real Ric money for me. One of the things I want to try is converting one to a single pickup, with a spare Seymour Duncan I've got. I've also got all the hardware for a '78 if one comes up.

That's some sort of a loop effect!

OK - that's North to me. The reason I asked is because a shop near here (Berks) has had a Rockinbetter in for a while. A Chickenbacker to abuse sounds fun, but beware of spending too much on it is my advice.

Whereabouts in the country are you?

I think maybe my threshold is lower than others'; on the good side, it does have its TRC, but on the bad side the headstock looks a bit marked up. The problem with the Chickenbackers is that they are a different size to Rics and especially the bridge is in the wrong place. Funnily enough, I'm actually looking for a barebones (no/duff hardware/electronics) Ric or copy to swap parts around on, but because of the above a Chickenbacker would likely not be suitable. I really don't like Rockinbetters, but some folks seem to like the Retrovibe ones (and the owner plays them on stage professionally).

I'm watching it... Some might say more, but £250 absolute tops for me and probably less; I think they're plywood body. Have you seen that two of the strings are wound the wrong way? I'm not bidding on it, btw.

Is it the Hondo - I think they're Korean.

Hmmm - they don't quite look right. I like the 70s Japanese ones.

I subsequently bought another, a Shaftesbury, which was in a bit if a state and is currently having new binding applied. It came with a blank TRC, so now I'm looking for a Shaftesbury one! So it was only a temporary leave of absence...

Again too sneery - not answering.

Why do you keep trying to deny the facts and the law?

Well, I posed the question and then there was a frenzy of responses, questions demanding answers, and so-on, to which I replied. Why do you want to know whether I've bought a fake? I've mentioned a couple of instances of knowing people being stung; surely that's sufficient. Let me ask you a question: Do you think a site is for the benefit of the sellers or the buyers? And another: Do you think that if someone spots something wrong they should just walk away because it's none of their business, or should they flag it up? As for your last question, that is just too sneery to deserve a response.

I think they're out real soon now (pre-orders are being taken). I assume they'll have a USB connection, rather than being a direct re-implementation of the 70s?

That's OK, you can draw your own conclusions; if I see something peddling fake wares as I am browsing, I will call it out. Actually, I started this thread after visiting the for-sale one and also after noticing the revised T&Cs of another site. I think that the outcome may be microsocopic work for the mods (max 1 item per day, quickly despatched) for a significant gain (not providing a patform for the sale of illegal goods) and that would make this a better place to be.

There is no nefarious agenda - a question was asked and a load of people jumped in. The guesstimate is maybe 1% of ads. And the protection for unwitting buyers should be a positive.

In this case, the Fender logo is there, put there by Fender, so no need to do anything (provided it's not being sold as a Fender instrument).

My guess was 1%. It's a problem that can be dealt with.

Again, no different to ebay, Friday Ads, and others.

The pragmatic approach for dealing with it. It's the same in real-life; the police only respond when an issue is raised; they cannot and do not verify every single item on sale throughout the land beforehand. I think that reacting, within the rules, is a genuine real-world, pragmatic approach.

Nashnull

Yes, I see what you are saying and indeed it is indeed up to the site admins/owners to rule. Overt things which are easy to spot should be easy to deal with, like the items I previously listed. ebay's stance seems to be to rely on people reporting things, which would seem a pragmatic approach; I'm not sure if they require multiple reports to react, or what (I think MSE does in reporting spam).