Annoying Twit

Any chance someone will list a 1977 Ibanez Artist in good condition and I'll get it for £150?

Amazed that it's still there. Maybe not a good time for selling. Given that everyone here has had a chance to buy it if they want, I've posted it over on the Westone forum.

Strings are on now. The tuners aren't geared, and it is freakishly hard to tune. Just a tiny turn on the tuners and the pitch goes from too low to too high. The action is high, both at the nut and the bridge, and the intonation is not good, sharp on the 12th fret. Since this is an experiment, I'll have a go at filing the nut and filing down the bridge. I'll see if I get anything playable out of it. However, geared tuners might be a must-have.

Harley Benton "1975" Jazz Bass. http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbb1975_na.htm

I've just stuck the bridge on after careful measurement and pencilling in the location. I left 3mm for intonation. I'll put strings on in the morning, tune it up, and see what it sounds like. It's definitely looking like a ukulele now, not just a box of bits.

Phil Manzanera/801 - Listen Now Nina Hagen - Smack Jack [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIDnN34ZZaE[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Fy7NhD_co[/media]

That is a bargain. Still available too.

Well, I've always wanted to build something. I've had a Thomann own brand ukulele kit sitting around at home for years. Today I finally got around to glueing it together. I've stuck the neck on, stuck the fingerboard on, attached the nut, and the tuning machines. Tomorrow once the currently glueing bits are thoroughly dry, I'm going to attach the bridge. I'm not doing much in the way of finishing it, I'm just going to give it some coats of danish oil or something like that. The back of the neck isn't smooth, but I think it's a bit small to sand smooth/fill the grain etc. if I finish this, I might consider doing a solid body bass build in the future.

I read some reports of people buying fake instruments, including some of those posted by 'Chinese Guitar Sceptic'. I can't really see the advantage of buying the fakes, when cheap but well made guitars seem every bit as good.

Can't wait to see this all finished.

Kay bass neck and Squier Affinity start body. No mention of the word 'intonation' in the listing, I notice. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Squier-Fender-Strat-Body-Loaded-Kay-K-20B-Bass-Neck-Bridge-Bass-Guitar-Project-/161538775156?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item259c761874

That's unusual. I wonder if the basses actually have a different number of frets, or whether it's just a typo on one of the descriptions. My decorative bass is a fretless, so I can't check myself.

Looking at the Daisy Rock site, it appears that this bass has been discontinued. Their guitars and basses mostly seem to be only available in spangly finishes now. Which IMHO is a rather odd business decision. Isn't Daisy Rock a sub-brand of Cort? EDIT: They used to be part of Schecter, but have been independent for over ten years now. [url="http://www.daisyrock.com/products/electric-guitars-basses/rock-candy-bass/rock-candy-bass"]http://www.daisyrock...rock-candy-bass[/url]

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1419612850' post='2641287'] Pretty guitar. If it's consistent with its era, all that fancy marquetry should be real inlays & not the transfers you see on contemporary cheapo Classicals. Can't really go far wrong for £25. Don't know anything much about DIA, not a UK brand as far as I can tell, always assumed they were a random EU importer brand. I've seen Matsumoku Rick copies, not sure about LPs, some are definitely not Mat. J. [/quote] The 'Matsumoku' connection came from a forum post elsewhere where someone described having a Dia LP where the neck plate said 'Steel adjustable neck'. There was clearly some confusion however as they introduced it as a 'set neck' guitar then later on in the same post it became a bolt on. As always, I could be repeating misinformation. The only photos I saw had a very generic 'Made in Japan' neck plate. I haven't found anyone criticising the quality of Dia guitars yet, comments generally say that they are among the better copies from their age. I did find one claim that Dia might be short for the Aria Diamond sub-brand, but I consider that very far from proven and IMHO not that likely. In this thread [url="http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256327"]http://www.acousticg...ad.php?t=256327[/url] an acoustic guitar owner is claiming that an early 70s Dia acoustic in their possess was made in the Matsumoku factory. While the history of Matsumoku says that they made acoustics early on, I thought that they were already specialising in electrics by the 70s. I suppose that I *could* buy it. It's a moderate walking distance from where I am now. But TBH I just don't have quite enough motivation to actually do anything. I already have a battered classical guitar that cost me about £20, and would want to be moving even further onwards and upwards if I bought another.

I must admit that I didn't quite follow all of the OP. But, I see that you got one good bass, and I hope you have the other two sorted (e.g. correct length G string) soon.

Not a bass warning! Vaguely tempted by this, and will probably want a quality classical guitar at some point. But at £25 I can't help feeling that if it really is good quality, it'd be more expensive. Historically interesting though, and if I didn't have a Yamaha C40 I might go for this. [url="http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/dia-classical-guitar/1094196735"]http://www.gumtree.c...itar/1094196735[/url] I don't know much about the Dia brand. It seems that some of their 70s Les Paul copies were bolt-on neck guitars made at the Matsumoku factory.

[quote name='TJAS92' timestamp='1419554279' post='2640943'] I know it's incredible its one of the best basses I've ever played!! [/quote] You own both MIA and MIJ Jazz basses....

Not an expert, but when I did a big Fender/Squier comparison at a local store, I thought that the MIA basses I tried played head and shoulders above the Mexicans, and the Mexicans were pretty much the same as the Classic Vibe and Vintage Modified Squiers. Another Mexican bass I tried again didn't feel that wonderful to me. It could be a placebo effect, but I've always found MIA and MIJ Fenders to feel really nice, and everything else ... not so much.

With the number of Warwicks around, they must be selling a whole lot of them.

A lot of audiophiles 'aren't keen' on the science, as it rather inconveniently disproves what they believe to be true.

For some reason, I feel absolutely no temptation to buy this bass at all. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bass-guitar-fender-style-made-in-Japan-great-guitar-bargain-/111556122385?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item19f9435711

What's up with the sound hole? It looks as if someone decided to drill it out, but stopped part-way through.

Happy NBD. Could you please tell us a little bit more about what it sounds like?

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1419242323' post='2637828'] What are the string options for these? Never owned an acoustic before and I have flats on all my electrics - anything similar available? Or is it limited to nylon/bronze rounds for the tension. [/quote] I have Fender flat wound strings on mine. I'm very happy with the result. A small amount of volume and character has been lost compared to the phosphor bronze strings when the bass is played acoustically. IMHO they sound great plugged in, and the lack of string noise (as I'm surely you're familiar with) is a big plus. They were inexpensive, bought from Thomann at the same time as the bass. Sorry to hear about you missing out on the bass, Ugly Dog. A bit disappointing that their website doesn't handle stock control properly. Since it was Thomann's mistake, I'm also disappointed that they didn't just ship out one of the regular jazz basses to you instead.