Beedster

And twice Welcome mate, I assume you don't need the sofa any more?

Depends on how you see the role of mods, on some forums they're there to keep things on topic, here they keep the peace

I agree with the OP. I've found over the last few years that if I want technical information or opinion on bass gear I tend not to see Basschat as my first port of call for this reason. Whilst the community spirit is an upside, the downside is that off-topic banter it can make it very time-intense to find the information that you need. Talkbass is better, but still suffers from the same problems to a degree (although there the problem is more often antagonism between members than community spirit). A lot of threads here also become post after post of action/reaction "I did it and it worked perfectly" followed by "Well I did it and it didn't work at all", which means they run and run without really providing an answer to original question. Difficult one, I guess the mods spend most of their time stopping off topic going bad and policing the marketplace and don't have time to occasionally remind members that the thread is about bass/gear/music and not whatever it has become about. I wonder if some of our more experienced and informed members (and moderators?) spent less time in OT and more time opining on matters bass/gear/music this would be less of a problem

Sorry folks, to me this is simply 58 pages of flipping ugly basses

EBay is nearly always safe as a buyer unless you’re unlucky enough to come up against a scammer who sells you a dud, and when you return it, claims you’ve returned a different item. Happened to me two years ago, took a long time to sort and has made me wary of high value purchases there. If I were going to buy a used bass these days it would be on BC or possibly from a reputable dealer

These days most of the bargains on eBay are those listed as 'local collection only', simply because it reduces the market significantly (prohibitively in some places), and also because most people would prefer the bass to arrive by courier than have to drive to collect. Bummer if the item is in Penzance however!

I completely agree with this, but it relies on the 'if' factor! Yes, if the OP is playing short-scale (and same scale length short scale at that) exclusively then this is a very good idea. I have identical Warmoth fretted and fretless Precision necks and when I play either a lot, the other is generally a lot easier to play also (my intonation is a lot better on my FL Precision neck than it is on my FL Jazz neck, I suspect for this reason also). When I spend a lot of time on either double bass, acoustic guitar or mandolin, my fretless intonation nose-dives.

This could well be a very happy ending

I spent the late 1970's and early 80's playing awful basses, truly awful. At that time I could only dream of playing a Fender. So, when I grew up* and decided to get back into bass albeit with a bit more cash, I went after 70's Fenders, and in doing so I made a lot of mistakes. Given that you learn from your mistakes this could be seen as good! The biggest lesson I learned was this: if you don't trust the seller 100%, do not buy the instrument, at whatever price. This is for two reasons; firstly in my experience a significant number of people selling vintage basses are hiding something, either because they got caught out themselves when buying, or because they're trying to sell the bass for a lot more than they paid for it. If you ask the seller (and yourself) the right questions - where did you get it, how much did you pay, do you have a receipt, has it been modified, are there any playing issues, why are you selling - you'll quickly get an idea as to how much you do trust them. Second, if you buy the bass and there is an issue that requires a full or partial refund (and this could be anything from a courier issue to the bass being not as expected, unplayable or fake), the seller's behaviour before you buy is a very good predictor of what it will be like to deal with afterwards, and whilst an issue with a vintage instrument is bad enough given the money involved, a difficult/unethical/criminal seller can make things 100 times worse. I get that you're in a country where these are pretty hard to come by, but I think you'd still be better off waiting for what you want to come up on this forum, which is 99.9% trustworthy, and importing it? Good luck mate * Matter of opinion

Yep, great advice, there are basses we love to own - often expensive - and basses we love to play - often surprisingly inexpensive. I’ve tried very hard to turn the former into the latter many times, but despite owning some great basses, my two go-to basses, both bitsas, owe me about £250 each.

If you don't use a pic, it ain't a pickguard

I’d buy the rack case if you fancy selling?

£113 total taxes/duties on a $2000 bass is a bit lucky, am I missing something?

Hi guys, especially Dan, thanks for your replies, why I didn’t got straight to John is beyond me. John, I’ll PM you mate. Cheers Chris

Folks I need a switch to select between P and P PUPs. Smaller the better, as space is limited (which is why I'm not opting for a pan pot). I prefer solder free, not because my soldering is bad, but just because! There's loads for guitars but they all seem to be the big Les Paul type, I'd prefer something small and discrete that retains the essential 'Precision-ness' of the instrument! Cheers Chris

Very fair points mate

Easier than violin is not a fair reference really

Short scale FL is significantly harder to play in tune, and I would not defret, especially the maple board, but buy a new neck In case it doesn’t work out.

How many have you bought Andy

I've seen equally rubbish crap from cultures more consistent with our own. In fact, some of the perpetrators even have their own signature instruments and amplification......

This is one of those threads that will come back to haunt people