Beedster

I’ve owned both, and no it isn’t

Lovely, somewhere between Dusty Hill and Dusty Springfield! Good taste in components also 👍

My lasting memory of my 1516 was our singer's "Dude, your cab broke my car....", that and it going walkabout (geddit) in the back of a courier van only to be located in rural Suffolk 3-months later

....but not as difficult as a 1516

Thanks Steve, I'll take a look 🙏

Yep

"I only told you to blow the bloody doors off...."

Probably a question for Andy @agedhorse but in case anyone else has tried, is it possible to install a Mesa Subway head in a Walkabout combo cab? If so, I think I have a cunning plan

.....and in the curiously predictable way in which this forum operates, I just bough back the neck of the Jazz Bass that I sold Tony, making real on my prophesy.... ......although let's be honest, probably a case of "Me, the thirteenth Duke of Wimborne, with my reputation.....?' When you deal with Tony, you're dealing with a professional at every level, simple as that 👍

Politics are wrong, a bassist needs a drummer to offset the egos/madness of the guitarists and singer I've done it, once, never again 👍

Yep

I have a few basses here, but for the last 6-months my go to bass has been a slab body 51 RI. It's hard to pinpoint the reason, I love the neck for sure, it's a baseball bat in every respect, and my bandmates appear to like it to the point that when I pulled out a late 70's Precision for a rehearsal the singer actually complained about the tone, and he never complains about anything. There is something in that slab body/SC/baseball bat space that really does work, certainly in my experience.

I disagree mate, it adds price, not value

Have to say the one for sale at Tom's looks to be a pretty nice example aesthetically speaking

My exes, original '55 on the left, Fender Custom Shop (ex @AndyTravis) on the right

IIRC one of the members here was forbidden by his BL to use an old bass in a function band simply because it looked tatty 🤔

All fair points, and there's the argument that wealthy collectors inflate the prices of these instruments beyond the reach of musicians which I get. But if these vintage examples were significantly better instruments that those available to contemporary musicians I think the argument would be stronger. The thing is, they really aren't, or at least they really aren't in the same way as a 18th century Italian violin potentially is better than those made today, which is a a function of the materials, aging, and craftsmanship. I had a Squier CV 50s Precision that frankly was about 90% of my old '55. OK, the latter had mojo by the tonne, but the mojo a musician should really care about is in their brain and their fingers. not in the paintwork of their instrument

But why's that a sadness? It's a few pieces of wood and metal put together in a factory, to many people it's just as much a piece of visual art or a historic antique as it is a musical instrument (as I said above, you can get instruments just as good for around 5% of the likely price of this). As Leo would have agreed, there's nothing particularly special about them as instruments, it's not a Strad