W1_Pro

Word...

Maybe the HD thing was not a good analogy. As I said in my original post, I know nothing about motorbikes, so I defer to your obviously superior knowledge. Mea culpa. That notwithstanding, this is still a great rig for a very good price.

£414.70 including buyers proetection fee. Thats a steal for at twice the price rig like this (with a proper foam suspended case for the head as well). Yes of course its too big and too heavy and you'll probably never need to turn it up anywhere past ten o'clock but still, what a machine. It's kind of like a Harley-Davidson. Utterly unnecesary but really quite wonderful. Or I suppose thats how motorbike owners feel about them? Not one myself so theres an element of speculation there...

Blimey. That must be some intense slapping action going on there. I suppose those roller saddles are quite fiddly little things but he must have really been hammering it to make that happen with the strings under tension. I can't shift them, despite my best efforts. Still, it must have been serious for the owner at the time to get what must have been a fairly expensive mod done. Thanks for clarifying!

I'm intrigued when you say that the previous owner had problems with the strings slipping. Where did they slip too? I'm not trying to be snippy, thats a serious question. I've had my Pangborn for a good few years and I don't play it much, although every time I pick it up I wonder why because it is a truly amazing machine. Mine also has the pointy headstock, which makes it a fine looking thing. I read somewhere that a group of the UK builders (Jaydee, Pangborn, Goodfellow etc) in the 70's and 80's were chasing Alembic with multi laminated necks, complex electronics and the shape of the bodies. I've always thought that was quite a good description of what was occuring.

I notice that the rather tasteful US Spector NS2 'relic' has been marked as sold on Bass Directs website. Lovely bass, I played it breifly a couple of months ago but as usual I couldn't bring myself to part with the large sum of money they wanted for it and now the chance has gone. Did someone on here buy it?

Theres one of his for sale on Reverb atm which you might have seen? Looks a bit like one of those Greco GOB basses. You should have held on to that Explorer. I bet that was some machine.... https://reverb.com/uk/item/85795240-pete-back-bass-guitar-in-natural-finish-made-in-england?bk=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJqdGkiOiIxMDIzNTRiMS1hZjVkLTQ0NzItOGM1Yy1lZDc1OGFlZmUwY2EiLCJpYXQiOjE3NjQ0OTEwNzAsInVzZXJfaWQiOiIiLCJzZXNzaW9uX2lkIjoiZDNlNmRiYjItZmY1MS00YWYxLWEzMmMtYWI0N2Y0ZjU2MTNiIiwiY29va2llX2lkIjoiNzg4NzBjNzUtMzM4My00MTJkLTkxNDUtMTUxZWRmMWIyM2RkIiwicHJvZHVjdF9pZCI6Ijg1Nzk1MjQwIiwic291cmNlIjoiTk9ORSJ9.ZR9Zu1vZMXgkQj64ir4v2Afn0El_drxUwwbtJhQTZWs

Lovely that. Looks somewhat redolent of a fretless version of what the chap in ZZ Top used to play.

I have asked the seller a question (about three days ago) and he's not responded...yet.

Yes, absolutely. I had a bit of a ferret around on Reverb and a single JB Hyperflux seems to be priced arounf the £200 mark, so there's your profit on the deal I suppose. If that T bird had frets and the seller could be perseuded into a more realistic price it would be an interesting project for someone- its essentially a great bass- but I appreciate that this is entirely wishful thinking on my part😆

It looks like you are right...Has to be said, that is a pretty niche thing to do. 'I need new pickups for my John Birch bass, therefore I will buy another John Birch bass and take the pickups out of it'...That is quite weird, right?

Quite different machines perhaps? I have a Passion from 198 something and its wonderful, having said that the John Birch, for all its flaws sounds like Concord taking off (in a good way).