FDC484950

It’s a curious strategy with something that although interesting and reasonably rare, is a niche instrument (6 string with awful upper fret access, very tight spacing, and almost definitely north of 5Kg). Wal have a certain cachet that they got very soon after Pete the fish hung up his tools, and their unique electronics and celebrity users (Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee, JMJ etc) helped fuel the mystique. This seller may have some rich desperate clown hit buy but it’s more likely to sink a fair bit below £2K before it shifts.

Speaking as someone who hardly ever puts pen to paper for anything it may be worth highlighting that if you do want to use software, Musescore is totally free and better than many paid for packages (I’ve had Coda and Sibelius and I’m perfectly happy with Musescore for my needs). The massive plus point is that you can hear what you’ve written, including chord symbols, and can download and use other peoples’ scores.

The one on Reverb? I get the impression that many sellers on there are in dreamland about what their bass is worth. It was a steal but I picked up a Dingwall AB2 6 that started up there at £3,500. I paid just under £1800 for it in the end! Burners, especially a 6, are a bit tricky to price. They’re not the boutique US elite quality, but I’ve heard great things about playability. Still wouldn’t pay a penny more than £1500 for it

That seems to work very nicely. I don’t generally like turquoise but with the NS shape and all black hardware it looks great.

It is a great idea! The only other bass I’ve seen it on was my Music Man Big Al. Shame more makers don’t do it but I guess it’s cheaper and easier to anchor the pots on the plate than into the cavity?

Not necessarily. I’ve had foreign EMS purchases turn up in the UK and go through Parcelforce ending up with a completely different tracking number. They don’t seem to be set up well to handle imports - DHL and UPS both emailed me about customs charges before the item was in the UK so once it did turn up it was delivered next working day.

Taking reviews as just one aspect of the magazine, a monthly printed or even online article with someone describing what a bass/amp/effects pedal is like with a couple of pics vs a detailed YouTube vid is a no-brainer, as is just about everything print media related. Bass Player was quite interesting initially, way back in the 90s but as music has increasingly been made with machines rather than instruments, and a career in music playing bass has largely disappeared and been replaced with hobbyist interests (not a criticism, just a fact of life), by even the late 90s/early 00s I’d given up buying it, let alone subscribing. I have in the last couple of years stopped my only remaining print subscription (for a magazine in another area of interest) because better 4G/5G/WiFi and the improvement of content online beats the printed mag hands down. Plus all that paper going in the recycling bin after a couple of months because much of the content is read once and bin was rather a waste!

Given there are basically no US Fenders for sale in the UK (well the odd ex demo and one or two left over, probably dogs no-one bought), Fender UK has pretty much nothin available and even Thomann are quoting several months, then they won’t be servicing that demand for a while to come. Maybe they are prioritising the US as Ernie Ball did for a time (some stock seems to be coming through recently after a long drought)?

What he does is incredible. The amount of hours and persistence to practice, practice, practice is amazing. His execution of some very tricky stuff is flawless. Most of what he plays has a musical point rather than just showing off technical ability. Those criticising need to understand that being a gigging music, or being in a band, is an older and rapidly disappearing option for a viable music career. YouTube and other media gives people the opportunity to do things and make many that would never have been an option via the traditional band or even session musician route. Personally, his videos impress me but nothing more, and I don’t subscribe to his channel or watch many because I find him irritating and the result not musical enough for me, but then I’m one of those old farts who did all of that. Would I rather be doing what he is doing than my day job for my income? If I could live on it - hell yes!

Totally. If Thomann can flog Harley Benton basses for £150 with no substantial issues there’s no excuse anymore. Problem is some of these issues crop up on much more expensive instruments as well. Not wishing to bash Fender as I have played some corkers, but I’ve sat in a shop with 10 new Fenders and 2 were excellent, 5 OK and the other 3 needed a full setup, overhaul, fret and nut dressing or even binning. If you can put 3 or 4 credit cards into a neck pocket gap what else did they screw up!

To be fair the G&L L-2500 Tribute I bought and shortly afterward returned was nicely finished but like a lot of budget instruments (Sire included) when you looked a bit closer you could see it was built to a price - poor finishing in the nooks and crannies, sharp fret edges, slightly uneven fretting, nut not cut evenly or deepen enough, some electronics gremlins (MFD pickups are very hot so can exacerbate any EM interference or shielding deficiencies) and it weighed an absolute ton - 5.4Kg I think. The Fullerton Deluxe version I tried was definitely much better made and finished, although the shielding wasn’t much cop. I’ve seen one or two other Tributes in a shop and they were similar. Perfectly workmanlike and no problem to gig with I expect but not good enough for me. I think the only brand I can honestly state has consistently excellent at any price is Yamaha

I had a look at the Player and Player Plus series when I was in GuitarGuitar last week and they were basically identical quality-wise. Paint finish, joinery, pickups, hardware, weight, feel, sound. Given they’re now about the same price the US equivalents were 10 years ago, it sounds about right.

It’s also worth mentioning that very inexpensive basses are now generally speaking way better quality than 20-30 years ago. I remember trying a Chinese squier back in the late 90s and it was firewood, as were many sub-£200 basses back then.

What’s the Cary Grant quote? “They say money talks. All it’s ever said to me is goodbye”

One might say that moaning is the purpose of this forum Not sure you can compare cost of a bar of chocolate over 57 years with cost of a big ticket bass over 14. However you are right that they’re certainly isolated in doing so - many bass brands have gone up by a similar amount in that time. Scarcity of good instrument grade lumber that’s light enough not to result in a boat anchor bass is one of the biggest issues. Whatever the cause, it’s likely Fender is laying off people not because they don’t make a profit out of these instruments, but they’re simply not selling enough (and probably wouldn’t even if they were £1500 retail instead of £2K). It’s notable how few shops in the UK have any non-custom shop US Fenders in stock, so it suggest supply chain problems are still very much an issue.

Just for clarity (instruments only as other items may have slightly different duty rates): Cost of goods plus shipping in source currency, converted to Sterling at the HMRC prevailing monthly exchange rate (which is usually conservative and therefore unfavourable) - then add import duty as 3.7% of the Sterling figure above - then add VAT at 20% - then add any courier handling fee for collecting said charges (to my knowledge every courier does this) So yes, you are paying duty on the goods and the shipping and VAT on the goods, shipping and duty! Of course the above applies whether the bass is new or used and the VAT threshold is so low you’ll always be paying it. I’ve imported from the US and outside the EU many times where items aren’t available here, but because of Sterling exchange rate it’s now very unattractive. Shipping charges have also rocketed - typically I was paying around $100 from the US for a bass in hard case, but now it’s more like $300. The same applies to the EU now, except for places like Thomann where you’re paying a to-the-door Sterling price. Other retailers will deduct local VAT on new goods but their schemes don’t appear to be identical to the UK - for example in Germany they use a calculator that seems to deduct about 14% off the price, even though German VAT is currently 19%. So the long and the short of it after all that waffle is what @BigRedX said - it’s basically not worth it.

I’d go with the prevailing opinion that there may just be enough Fenders in the world for anyone who wants to own one. There’s tons for sale here, on Reverb and eBay. £2k for a US standard bass when they were £800ish in 2008 is probably inevitable from a production standpoint (California is hardly the cheapest place to build instruments, or to live). G&L seem to be able to knock out similar instruments are similar prices, albeit at a much lower volume. Ernie Ball went down the boutique route for US made instruments and probably generate the bulk of their instrument revenue now from the Sterling line.