Beedster

I’m shedding a skin or two at present, so suspect my two 70’s Fenders will be on their way soon. They’re both beautiful, unique, outstanding instruments, but…..

There's a few on this forum that started low and are getting lower?

Over-inflated market meets under-inflated economy I've been grappling (yes I'm that sad) with the instrumental/emotional dichotomy of late, in part driven by being forced to use a £300 bitsa Precision that I quite literally had to put together the same day at a rehearsal last week and finding it not unequal to my '73, in part due to playing a full Status Graphite instrument and getting a taste for what a bass really can be in terms of engineering and technology (and that's not Fender by a long shot), and in part trying to be a decent Dad and not tie up shit loads of money in stuff that doesn't really matter. And once again I can't help feeling we're all antique collectors

Prices are coming down, I'd call that optimistic

Sadly this is going to have to go back to the seller, I mentioned some issues with the circuit above, and it's transpired they're slightly more substantial than I initially thought, plus it seems that - according to Rob at Status - the circuit in question is likely not the original (which might explain why it doesn't work). Sadly the seller has adopted a "f*** off, you bought it" approach to negotiations and is not prepared to meet me half way on the cost of fixing the problem, so I have no real choice 😡

I agree, most are easy to spot, but that's true of all deception really. But given in nearly areas of art, engineering, tech, where there are a small number of fakes that even experts struggle to find the flaws that determine it's not the real deal, there must be at least a couple of 'bad Nash/bad Limelight' type luthiers out there?

I often wonder how many of the basses out there are fake, despite the owners believing that they’re 100% genuine. Copying, as well as relicing/aging are now so easy to do, and the impulsivity and emotionality of many buyers of vintage instruments means that we often accept very limited evidence when buying a ‘dream’ instrument ?

You can bet there’s a lot more out there than those Gibsons

None of it was your fault or your responsibility mate. Frankly he’s an idiot, not so much for messing it up in the first place which can happen, but for not having made good since, which might have allowed me (and BC) to see it as a random deviation from normal service as opposed to a warning sign of how deep down he views his customers and his professional responsibilities 😕

Well I hope a BC member saw it, jumped, finds it's the real deal, and gets an early Xmas present 👍

Live and studio, two different worlds 👍 Defo FL or FL-alike in the studio, very un-Clayton either way

The Troubles on Songs of Innocence sounds very fretless to me?

......and if it is genuine, I imagine it will resurface at a significantly higher price in the near future 👍

That's the truth 👍

Well, they did, as per the two in the Geddy Lee book 👍 But yes, it's a mystery bass, I'd didn;t take too close a look at it just assumed it was modified to a greater or lesser degree 👍

Either I'm going mad or they revised the listing, but when I first saw it I'm sure it was listed at 1980. It being 1970, mint, and apparently rare, means it's probably not the latter and has been modified/refinished. Either that or a buyer got very lucky 👍

Ha ha, no not on your setlist But just in case.....

I hope whoever paid £5K did their homework, my gut instinct when I saw the price tag was 'I'd need a lot of provenance before paying that'. Might be a one-off in early FCS model, might be one of a very short factory run, but in either of those cases I'd expect a price tag significantly uphill of £5k, after all plenty of mint condition but otherwise standard instrument from that era get quite close to that figure as it is.

Love to 👍 I have further good news, I just heard some fretless (surprised me as well), that's gotta be another two basses?

That makes sense, thanks. Rattle & Hum feels very American at times also 👍

Inspired by this thread, I'm listening to U2 today, and have to say what a damn fine listen it is, especially if you're a fan of solid power bass playing. It might just be the random playing order, but I'd never noticed before just how Americana they sounded mid-late 80s? Great gig though @police squad, I'm going to try to get to the Kent leg 👍