Bassassin

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='893337' date='Jul 13 2010, 12:17 AM']oh and there is [url="http://edinburgh.gumtree.com/edinburgh/84/62043084.html"]this precision copy on the edinburgh gumtree[/url] at the moment for £15[/quote] I saw that earlier, almost had a knee jerk reaction to just buy it & ask questions later. Almost. J.

[quote name='FlatEric' post='892718' date='Jul 12 2010, 12:48 PM']Hi. As one of our resident Japanese experts has ventured into T-40 land, I thought I would give this slot a bit of a bump and post up a couple of things I had filed away.[/quote] Only right & proper that I should contribute to the thread, then. It's a T-40, alright: [attachment=54029:t40front.jpg] [attachment=54030:t40head.jpg] Did a swap with Dougie for my 1990 Ibanez SR800LE, plus a few bob his way. I realised I hadn't played the Ibby in probably more than 5 years, and have fancied getting my mitts on a T-40 for a while. The phase switch was broken & the neck pup wasn't working when I got it, although Dougie assure me it all worked before the switch was damaged. Sure enough once I swapped out the switch, everything works the way the manual says it should, and with a bit of fiddling it's dead easy to find a variety of very useable tones. Anyway this is in very good original condition for a 31-year old bass, the only replaced parts being that switch & the output jack. Frets are, I think, original (if not then it's an excellent job) and showing very little wear for the age, neck is good & straight with about 1.5mm relief. It's got a bit of light buckle rash & the usual knocks & scrapes but everything's generally in very good order. It does need a bit of setting up - at the moment it's strung with a selection of strings of varying parentage, and the A & D aren't long enough for a string-through-body bass, hence the tapered parts are in front of the nut, leading to a bit of open-string buzzing. Any recommendations for suitably long strings? I haven't had a string-through only bass since about 1982! Despite that it's very pleasant to play - I really like the wide but shallow neck profile, & the flat board seems to encourage me to be a bit less lazy with my fingering. Matron. It's a hefty bugger, though. I'll have to wait until the band gets together to find out how well my back/shoulder can take it. It occurs to me that oddly, this is the first Merkin bass I've owned, and it's now even more strange that I'm currently using a Peavey MkIII head & 1x15 BW cab - both from the same era as this bass. Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='892207' date='Jul 11 2010, 07:46 PM']Is this Squier really worth £949? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1983-Fender-Squier-JV-Jazz-Bass-Guitar-made-Japan-/260630459896?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3caec935f8"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1983-Fender-Squier-J...=item3caec935f8[/url][/quote] Depends how you define "worth". I don't imagine anyone's going to pay that much (and obviously he doesn't expect it as he's taking offers!) but JV Squiers are collectable & that's what defines what they're worth. Quality-wise they're no better or worse than any other 80s Fujigen-built Fender/Squier. As far as a realistic price is concerned, it's all comparative and JV Jazzes don't turn up enough for me to have much of an idea, but I'd probably guess £600-odd might be ballpark for a decent one. This one does look like it's in fine condition but nearly a grand's pretty demented, considering it's not even an early "big Fender" logo one.

[quote name='munkonthehill' post='890792' date='Jul 9 2010, 08:40 PM']so whats the story behind this,,,,,looks wicked[/quote] This'll be a Guitar Hero / Rock Band peripheral - there's a Lego Rock Band game [i]a la[/i] Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman etc. Jon.

I like that, very sleek & economical styling. You can imagine Wishbasses might be a bit like that if it wasn't for the drugs. Jon.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='890644' date='Jul 9 2010, 05:57 PM']I would say this was a massive bargain. Sadly I don't have £150 about me at the minute, enjoy [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150465304122&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT[/url] 79 Roadster, or so it says.[/quote] Is a bargain, was more so before he came & researched it here! [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93928"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93928[/url] J.

Here it is: [url="http://www.westone.info/cats/83/p9.html"]http://www.westone.info/cats/83/p9.html[/url] I remember reading that the only difference between the II & III, initially at least, was the pup arrangement. Interesting to see these have the round-end J pups common on a lot of 70s JapCraps. J.

[quote name='FlatEric' post='890080' date='Jul 9 2010, 07:22 AM']Jon, one of the lads in a rival band had one - two pick-ups and switches!!!! WOW One evening managed to borrow it for the night, we did a swap. EUCH! No thanks. I think younger people just bought stuff, never set up and changing strings was something you only ever did when they broke! [/quote] I think you're quite right about that - I had no idea about intonation, truss adjustment, saddle height & all the elementary stuff when I was 16 & I think that reflects why so much JapCrap had the poor reputation it did. I've rescued & revived a good few MIJ cheapos from that era & I've not found one with a bad neck/fretjob yet. Different story with the Korean/Taiwanese stuff from the 70s, though! Pretty sure if I had that bass now I could make a good player out of it with no problem - the first thing I'd have to do would be reposition the bridge so the G string didn't hang off the neck above the 12th fret... I probably couldn't do much to stop it sounding like someone slapping an empty wheelie bin with a dead fish, though. J.

Absolutely fascinating stuff. I bought my first-ever bass, a short-scale Grant sort-of-Jazz copy in June '78 - I was 16 & still at school. It was identical to this: [attachment=53794:grantfront.jpg] [attachment=53795:granthead.jpg] It cost me (or rather my Mum) £59 from Unisound/Melbourne Pianos in Chatham High Street. It was absolute, utter borderline-unplayable garbage and I repeatedly tried (and failed) to kill it. I didn't sell it (who'd buy it? Apart from me, now I suppose) and as far as I know it's still in a loft somewhere, unless the owner of the loft has flung it in the tip. Anyway crap or not, I made enough progress on it to be able to approximate most of JJ Burnel's lines from The Stranglers' first 2 albums after 2 or 3 months. Couldn't afford an amp so I bodge-wired a guitar lead into the aux input of my little stereo - which of course destroyed the speakers - but at least I could hear it! Later my dad helped me to build a ported 1x12 cab from plans from some music mag (not sure but it was probably IM&RW) and I ran that off a 2x20 watt Amstrad hi-fi amp, with my bodge-wired lead! Took me a couple of years to get out of the bedroom & join a band, by which time I had a no-brand Les Paul bass copy (secondhand for about £50) which was light-years better than the Grant, and a Selmer Treble & Bass 50w head with 2x12 cab, which was about £25 out of a charity shop. I gigged that, plus my home-made cab a couple of times. Unfortunately all our gear was kept in the drummer's mum's basement, where we practiced, and it was wrecked when a pipe burst & the basement flooded. The Selmer would certainly be worth a few quid these days, and that home-made cab would have incalculable sentimental value to me. Ah, mammaries, eh? Jon.

I think they're pretty decent, although like all Arias made after MIJ production ceased, they don't fetch much - £70 is probably about right. Probably a good first bass for a guitarist! Jon.

I think I'd blame really rubbish listing titles / search term for the first 2 bargains - that and the fact it's clearly just too much trouble to walk to the PO. The Ripper's hilarious - what a piece of junk, it would be an OK fixer - upper for £70, I suppose. The most interesting thing is the bridge - looks like a Schaller 3D Piezo - these go for about £200. Obviously, you'd have to want one first. J.

[quote name='octaedro7' post='888592' date='Jul 7 2010, 03:54 PM']You missed a chance to get the real deal [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=86003&hl=ibanez+musician"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...ibanez+musician[/url][/quote] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?act=Search&CODE=show&searchid=be67cc6f303b853e3da97131d5e6b2bf&search_in=posts&result_type=topics&highlite=ibanez+musician"]Looks like he missed six chances this year![/url] Bog-standard ones ain't exactly rare. J.