Velarian

Interesting. So, double the money then. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Scarborough bass turns up there as well in a few weeks.

I did toy with the idea of going along to take a look at it. It would still have been a two hour drive though. I was thinking that in a worse-case scenario, if the neck was goosed and it needed a truss rod replacement, if it could be brought for well under £10k it would still be worth it. In the end, I decided GAS was getting the better of me and avoided the temptation. Just as well really as I’d also spotted this almost new Trace Elliot Elf and 110 cab which went for just £220 + fees, around half the price of new. 😅 https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/david-duggleby-scarborough/catalogue-id-srda10703/lot-ab75f8e3-2251-4e01-8997-b08b00f7bba7

The fees in the sale room are lower at 26.4% so anyone bidding at the venue would have paid around £9,860. A bit of an advantage against online bidders.

I’m not usually a fan of red but that colour really pops. Looks great. 😎

You could be right which is why I’m dithering on the edge of succumbing to GAS. I absolutely don’t need any more gear but when faced with a bargain it’s hard to resist. I’m hoping that dithering a little longer solves the problem.

I’m still in. It’s 15 months since I last bought anything but I’ve seen something I would like so there is a small possibility that I might not make it to the end of the year 😳

Another gem from the BBC archive.

I also wondered about the truss rod/neck. The truss rod adjustment nut looks a bit worn, particularly given that it’s supposed to have been stored for 54 years, so all the action was in the first 7 years of its life. Was the reason it was put away all those years ago because there was a problem with the neck? Also, I see the strings are not tensioned so does that suggest a neck issue or is that just because it’s been in storage? It would be a punt without seeing it in the flesh.

That’s a nice original bass with some mojo. It needs a good clean but what restoration would be appropriate for an instrument like that? Should things like the rusty chrome covers be touched or just left alone?

Just checked the site on my iPad (Safari/iOS) and all of the consents were un-ticked (apart from the greyed out ones). I wonder if some tweaking of the defaults has been carried out during the course of the day? All of this speculation is all well and good but how do we know that our explicit settings are actually being honoured? It could all be a placebo to make us think we’re in control. Call me cynical but any trust I might have had has completely evaporated. ☹️

Interesting. The fact that they can’t manage to present a consistent experience across different browsers/platforms suggests a degree of incompetence but I think obfuscation is still a likely aim.

I believe that the +/- is to simply reveal or hide the description of purpose for processing and it doesn’t affect the consent status of the tick box. I wonder if the initial state of the tick boxes is different depending on what device/browser is being used. I’m using Safari on iOS and all the tick boxes were pre-selected. It was a right royal pain to manually deselect them all.

I did this and noticed that some of the “consent” boxes were pre-selected and greyed out so it’s impossible to withdraw your consent. Irrespective of the unfortunate UK position regarding GDPR, there are many users still within the jurisdiction of that regulation. The last time I had anything to do with that in my work, I’m pretty sure that consent has to be explicitly given and it’s not appropriate to pre-select the option, let alone deprive the user from deselecting it. As a supporting member it’s not entirely clear if I’m immune to any of this nonsense but regardless, the crass and apparently unlawful way this business partner operates gives me great concern.

Just visited the site this morning and was presented with a new cookie consent box. I selected “manage settings” with the intention of not consenting to any advertising data sharing and instead of a simple “Do not consent” option, there is a huge list of third parties where you have to manually deselect the option. It’s practically impossible to go through all of this and I noticed that some of the “consent” boxes were pres-selected but greyed out so you can’t opt out. This is not good and I’ll have to review my participation with the site in light of this.

This is a good argument for buying one as there are two possibilities: - 1. You love it and it’s everything you’d hoped for and are happy to keep it for the rest of your days. 2. It’s not the dream instrument you thought it might be but it’s an investment that you can hang on to and won’t be sentimental about when it comes to selling. At least you will have scratched the itch. 😉

It’s 42mm at the nut and 57mm at the 12th fret, which is the same as my 2008 P bass. However, it’s a couple of mil deeper than the newer one. I’ve no idea whether it’s a B neck or something else. However, It doesn’t feel particularly chunky and not hugely different compared to the newer one in practice.

Likewise, I’ve no idea how these feel. I’ve never played anything older than my ‘77 P Bass but I’m intrigued by older vintage models, especially pre-CBS. The idea of owning one is appealing. It may be just a vanity thing and knowing my luck I’d end up not liking it. Having said that, getting a good deal on something like this would mean moving it on again wouldn’t be too difficult.

I’d looked at this auction beforehand and whilst I didn’t see anything I would bid on, this 57 P Bass caught my eye. I went back just now to check what happened and the hammer price was £8.5k. With buyers premium and VAT that’s just shy of £10,750. Not too bad on face of it and part of me now regret not having a pop at it. https://www.guitar-auctions.co.uk/sale/198/21/1957-Fender-Precision-Bass-guitar-made-in-USA

Ah yes, a process I was also very familiar with. I remember going into a pharmacy and asking for a litre of isopropyl alcohol. I was questioned about what I was going to use it for. I explained is was for a 8-track, 1/4” Revox and a few cassette decks and they must have believed me because they let me have it in the end.

That reminds me that I used to keep my Aiwa Walkman in an empty ice cream tub. It had enough space for around half a dozen tapes as well. It would have been a couple of years or so earlier, probably 1982, that I took this on holiday to the south of France and it was quite handy on the beach. The main tape on the go at that time was Men at Work - Business As Usual, which had a bouncy holiday vibe. Great music to run along the beach to early in the morning. Happy Days 😎

If I’m not mistaken, I think the C120s were made from thinner tape so they could fit more on the spool, which is why they frequently got chewed up.

1985 was very much a transition period for me. Having spent the late 70s listening to the Clash, The Stranglers, Stiff little fingers and the like, by 85 I was listening to stuff like:- Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen Pat Metheny Group - Travels, First Circle Andreas Vollenweider - Caverna Magica, White Winds I remember having a couple of cool cassettes (Teac I think) which had faux aluminium spools, that looked like a reel to reel set up.

BB2000 ?

Two live albums I come back to time after time are by my favourite band, The Pat Metheny Group: Travels (1983) The Road to You (1993) It’s hard to say they trounce their studio albums as all of their output is superb. However the live versions of some of the tracks are what I regard as being the definitive versions. ‘Are you Going With Me” on Travels being an obvious one. I’ve heard several recordings of this and seen them play it live a good few times and none beat this particular live version. A few other tracks are the same, although the studio version of San Lorenzo has the edge on the Travels version I think. It’s amazing how they were able to articulate their complex studio sound in a live environment, with the performance on the day adding the icing on the cake.

I’ve been watching this topic with interest and, as a supporting member, the only annoyance for me was the pointless “Got it” pop up with its lacking functionality. However, before the trial was suspended, I logged out to see what the fuss was all about and was shocked to see the plethora of poorly placed adverts. Logging back in again restored the calm, clear look and feel that I appreciate about the site. What it confirmed for me was just one benefit of being a supporting member which, at a cost of around 5p per day, to me is a small price to pay for such a fantastic resource. Surely the answer to keep the site running as painlessly as possible is for more users to become supporting members?