KevP

I know it's been a while since this thread, but I'm interested in whether others have had customer service problems with Andertons.

Until now, my experience has been positive. However, I'm now embroiled in a three-way tussle with Andertons and Fender over an Ultimate Precision bass which is considerably less than a year old - even more considerably when this saga started.

Long story short, my tech discovered a bow in the neck which he said would result in future problems on the bass. I took it back to Andertons who, after two weeks agreed. There then followed a protracted exchange between Andertons and Fender, which took another week or two. Fender asked for photos, then asked for the bass back. More time passed. Then Fender came back and agreed there was a problem and that they would have to order a new neck from the US, which could take at least two more months.

TBH, I've bought various products from Andertons over the last couple of years. The Ultimate Precision bass is their most expensive non-custom bass. If Fender won't just step up and agree to a refund or replacement, I frankly expect Andertons to. They are supposed to have a special; relationship with Fender and not to take responsibility on behalf of the customer and refund or replace and then sort out with Fender, is pretty unacceptable.

On 07/02/2019 at 18:50, PatrickJ said:

I'd love an update on if the so called captain (Mr Lee Anderton) responded to you and was able to resolve things for you?

That would be helpful to the minority like myself who have had a number of issues with company and have not had success with customer services in resolving issues.

On 16/07/2022 at 23:58, Derek Lavington said:

Apologies for being somewhat late to the party, but I played an SB1000 back in the day, not coz of Cliff Burton or even John Taylor but simply coz the thing was so much superior to anything else. Through loads of agency gigging and studio work, no one ever complained or questioned why I played an SB1000 rather than a Precision/Jazz. Fair to say the SB1000 was far more hard wearing, versatile, faster playing, better sounding, and a damn sight cheaper than the alternatives. 

 

So after some 30 years after my aspiring musical career inevitably foundered on the rock that is family, career, and responsibility, I found myself at a time of life where I had both the time and money to indulge in literally whatever bass I wanted. While my first thoughts were towards a second hand SB1000, i was intrigued by reports that Aria had rereleased the model. However, try as I might, no UK distributor had the model or was able to order it. Even US distributors indicated that they had no stock and no foreseeable hope of getting any. In the end, contacting Aria distributors across the world, even Japan, either resulted in disappointment or concerns over the provenance of what was being offered. Online searches pretty much suggest the rereleased SB1000's were a limited run and got snapped up literally as soon as they hit the ground. 

 

In the end, I ended up getting a Specter NS Dimension which, while being an incredible bass, is about as far from a an SB1000 as you can possibly get. Then Karma struck in the way she so often does in the form of a dealer in Denmark (nope, not Bass Buddha) with a (very) limited stock of SB1000's. Not believing a word of it, I asked the chap to confirm and he remained  entirely admanant he had the 'real thing' and not some second hand monstrosity or, worse still, a 1GB-50 (to be fair it's not a bad bass, but certainly not an SB1000).  

 

Bear in mind that this kind of unicorn doesn't come cheap, even more so when you live in a country that has stupidly and pointlessly left the European Union in such a way as to incur exorbitant import duties on said already expensive bass. However, buying a real brand new SB1000 isn't something to be undertaken on a limited budget or any kind of common sense. Anyhow, my Danish friend was as good as his word and is someone I would go out on a limb to recommend.

 

So how does a brand new SB1000 compare to current basses? Well the neck is still a thing to behold, being thinner and faster than younger peepz and Fender afficionados will be used to. The fretboard together with the neck-thru construction still impresses with its incredible sustain and, yes, it's still as ridiculously heavy and back breaking as ever it was. This isn't a bass for the feint hearted. Whereas today you might just get an oak top, the wings on an SB1000 are pure un-adulturated oak. While not a believer in tone wood, I would really love to think the extra density contributes to something more than aching shoulders and lower back problems. I guess the upside is that it looks impressive as it feels.

 

The same thing goes for the monolithic bridge, industrial strength tuners, and brass nut. Everything is geared to scare the s**t out of you in order to totally max the sustain. And there's no  delicacy in the design of the single massive pick up, or the controls that go with it, which were likely conceived in a first world war trench with a view to beating an unsuspecting enemy to a pulp. In every respect, the instrument looks and feels like it was built to last at least another 30 years while still reminding you of everything cool about John Taylor playing 'Rio' back in 1982.

 

Clearly it's a personal opinion, but this is one of those instruments worth selling your kids, wife and whole damn family for. It looks, feels, sounds, entirely different from a modern bass, but not in the same way as your grandfather's crappy precision, ridiculously overpriced Ricks, or weird shaped neck-diving Gibbos. To be fair, the SB1000 is best played sitting down (unless you want to make frequent and repeated visits to a chiropractor). However, it is still arguably the pinnacle of Japanese bass design in terms of its sheer playability and sound. Alas, the cost and difficulty of getting hold of one of these unicorns makes it very much a cult instrument which I suspect will appeal only to those who find impossible missions impossible to resist.  

I managed to acquire a second-hand one of these (SB-1000) in the last few weeks. It's from 1982 and, although the case looks it, the bass itself is in quite ridiculously amazing condition. You'd be hard pressed to find a display model of anything currently available in any guitar shop in better condition than this 40-year-old beauty. 

One thing though, which I wouldn't mind any thoughts on. The red LED flashes continuously. I've read on TalkBass that this is normal, but videos I've watched clearly show a solid red light with no flashing. Can anyone throw any light(!) on this?

Would be interested to hear any comments on this.

Just bought a Spector Legend Neck-through here on Basschat with Aguilar DCB pickups and Aguilar OBP-2 Preamp. Lovely condition.

Only thing is there are a couple of issues. 

1. I've looked at a lot of videos of Spectors with the 2-volume knobs plus Bass boost/cut and Treble boost/cut control knobs. The weird thing is that, on the videos, the bass boost/cut knob is the one further back, closest to the bridge (the left most knob of the diamond of knobs) as you look at the guitar face on. But on the one I have the bass boost/cut knob is the one further to the right (at the bottom of the diamond), and it's the treble knob that's closer to the bridge. Has anyone experienced this?

2. Plugging it into my Trace Elliot Elf 10" combo, I get massive interference coming through the amp, unless I turn all the eq controls on the amp to zero and have the gain almost at zero as well. But then there is hardly any volume. Any thoughts?

Yeah, I know a lot of people love the necks on these, but I just can’t get on with it. 
 

Jubilee price drop to £1450. 

**FINAL PRICE DROP TO £1300 COLLECTED**

For sale is an Ibanez Prestige SR5000-OL, made in Japan, 4-string bass. 

Bought from Andertons in Guildford in May 2022 for almost £2,000, it's a beautiful bass in pristine condition. It was bought on a bit of a whim and I'm not really getting on with the slim Ibanez neck. 

I have had some La Bella flatwounds fitted, but apart from that it's pretty much untouched since I got it at the beginning of May. 

It's a real stunner, with amazing versatility, thanks to the Bartolini custom pickups and the 3-band eq. 

Comes with the hard case, of course, with all the case candy as well. 

COLLECTION ONLY FROM WINCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE (the value of this bass makes it prohibitive to courier it at a reasonable rate). 

More photos attached.

Here are the full specifications: 


Body 

Body Wood: Wenge Top / Wenge Back / African Mahogany Body 
Body Shape: SR 
Neck 

Neck Type: 5pc Wenge/Walnut w/KTS™ TITANIUM Rods 
Neck Shape: Atlas-4 HP 
Scale Length: 864mm/34" 
Fretboard: Wenge / Mother of Pearl & Abalone Oval Lnlay 
Radius: 305mm 
Frets: Medium 
Number of Frets: 24 
String Spacing: 19mm 
Nut: Graph Tech® BLACK TUSQ XL® 
Electronics 

Neck Pickup: Bartolini® Custom (Passive) 
Bridge Pickup: Bartolini® Custom (Passive) 
Controls: Ibanez Custom Electronics 3-Band EQ w/ EQ Bypass Switch (Passive Tone Control on Treble Pot) & 3-Way Mid Frequency Switch 
Hardware 

Bridge: MR5S Bridge 
Hardware Colour: Gold 
Miscellaneous 

String Gauge: .045/.065/.085/.105 
Factory Tuning: 1G,2D,3A,4E 
Case: Hardshell Case

Is this 2nd generation?