bumnote

Im not convinced Fender are a good long term investment at all with the possible exception of the 50s and maybe 60s production. Im talking about 25 or 50 years Long term values depend on supply and demand, so if you look at any long term investment, cars, paintings, furniture, stradivarius violins, numbers made were small, except perhaps for cars, which rot away unless preserved. Fender in particular have produced millions and millions of guitars and basses over the years, and while a proportion will have been destroyed, a lot will have survived. At the moment, many of the older instruments are owned by people who were kids in the 50s and 60s, as part of their pension fund, to play, or just to remind them of old times. Many of us old codgers have multiple old instruments, I dont, but I know loads of people of my age who have ten or twenty old guitars, but at some time or another, when we get too old to enjoy them, or we pass on, we or our dependents are going to want to cash those in. To maintain the demand, unless non players start collecting, there neeed to be enough new people learning instruments to make up for old guitars coming back in the market plus any new production. I know this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but if you want to buy a guitar, buy it to play, not to stick on a wall. Rant over

[quote name='molan' post='932775' date='Aug 22 2010, 02:12 PM']A 370 / 301 combination was up for sale on EBay a while ago and, I'm afraid to say, it didn't fetch a great deal - £56 for the pair! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acoustic-Control-Corp-371-Bass-amp-370-301-/260609285601?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3cad861de1#ht_500wt_1108"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acoustic-Control-Cor...1#ht_500wt_1108[/url] It does say they were a bit ratty but full functional. I have to admit that if I'd noticed them at the time I would definitely have paid more than £56 for them. . .[/quote] Me too but I think this item was actually withdrawn from sale or otherwise ended early, i was watching this and there was certainly something funny about it. In 1975 odd I wanted one but couldnt affords it, nowadays a SH one is more affordable but I couldnt lift or transport one.

Shared ownership always seems to cause aggravation We are three piece where the guitarist does 75% of the singing. I own the subs, tops and poles Ron owns the mixer, echo and one power amp [its biamped] anf the drummer the other one and the crossover. If one leaves he takes his own stuff with him or offers to sell it to the band

have you tried these with a bass?

if you buy a used ray and decide you dont like itor want to change it in a year or so you should be able to sell it for near enough what you paid for it. If you buy a stirling you will sell it for perhaps 2/3rds of what you pay for it. Country of origin is not a guarantee of quality, and most of the stuff from the cort factory is pretty good. The stirling is probably built to a price point and there may be some compromises but whether or not they make any appreciable difference depends on the player.

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' post='926242' date='Aug 16 2010, 10:47 AM']Hi folks - apologies for a slight hi-jack here but I figure you guys will know the answer to this - I have a 10 year old Fender Precision in Olympic White that has just had a bad reaction to a gig bag. It was in the case for a few days after a gig. Took it out the other day and there's some noticeable brown staining on the arm rest/belly cut. It seems to be less darker than it was now that it's been out of the case for a few days. I'll get some pictures up if that helps. So my question is - can this discolouration by buffed out, can anything be done with it? Again, sorry for the derail - and fair play with the blueburst finish, I've been following this for a while now.[/quote] i have no specialist knoweledge but you could try t cut perhaps

[quote name='Colledge' post='926424' date='Aug 16 2010, 01:41 PM']if i remember rightly, emg's are active pickups with a built in circuit, (boost signal of very few windings) so can be used with stock electronics, again, someone correct me.[/quote] EMGs come as a complete unit all you need to do is add the battery I think you MAY have to extend the cavity on some basses

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='925886' date='Aug 15 2010, 09:43 PM']Thanks - I've gone down a similar route actually and bought one of those little plastic 'greenhouse' type things for growing tomatoes in! The reason I asked was because I'd coloured a headstock, carefully put the logo decal on, then the first sodding clearcoat was full of dust and weird tiny little black hairs that look like wool fibres. Maddening! Especially since I sanded those out only to find they'd slightly sunk into the colour coat (though they weren't there when I sanded the colour flat), and going through those messed up the colour. 3 days and two spray attempts later I'm nearly back to the point where I can clearcoat again. Sigh! Keep thinking I'll post a build diary of my own but I want to actually finish the damn thing before I do. This build diary has reassured me I'm on the right track though![/quote] The other thing I got if you didnt use them was tag rags from Halfords which are sticky pads you wipe over which removes surface dust before you spray. Then if you start off with a dust free, you have only got the drying time to attaract dust. Sods law of course is that you will. There were many times with mine when it nearly went out the window in temper. Good luck

Rest in peace and condolences to friends and family. A salutory lesson we have one life only, so best enjoy it, and it is apparent Si did

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='924020' date='Aug 13 2010, 03:23 PM']Ah thanks, Dumb question, but did you have a good way of avoiding/dealing with dust in the clearcoats? Without a proper workshop to do this in I'm having trouble despite trying to keep the spray area tidy and clear.[/quote] when i did mine in the garage, i hung a bit of plastic the sort you can get in b & q as a dustsheet as a false ceiling, that helped quite a lot. I also had 3 sides of a square draped down tp prevent overspray, and i think that will have reduced floating dust a bit. If you wet and dry down the colour before clear coat, and make sure the surface is good you can polish out a lot of marks in the clear coat.

This is one of those how much will the market pay jobbies, ie how much will the venue be prepared to pay/or can afford to pay for you. On milleneum night we got £2000 [less commission] for a three piece, but I know bands and DJs who asked for so much they didnt work. When we added a girl singer, and playing in the WMC we didnt really get any more money, because the venues had a budget they were not prepared to compromise, and to make up the difference we would have had to charge 1/3 more, people wouldnt pay it, so we lost out money wise. In the end we went back to being a three piece. I remember one venue, new entertainments comittee, eh up lad, we pay £60 a man, its that or nothing. We said, how much would 3 plumbers charge called out at 6pm on a Saturday who got home at one. He was lost for words. What you have to do is work out how much you will bring to the venue, do you have a loyal fan base who will come and pack the place out, or will the place be packed out anyway. You are in a better position to negotiate if you are in the former position, than if you are playing to a bunch of drunks who only want old lang syne and dont care if there are 3 or thirty of you The best thing I have found is go and talk to the promoter in a reasonable manner, and say I know things are tight, but there are 7 of us, its going to be a long night, we are all profesionals or whatever, and I would really appreciate it if we could work to £X per man. If you can go to that or meet me half way it would be great, if not, I will do it [assuming you have a band] for the original fee. One of the things in a negotiation is not to let the other party think hes been screwed, if you want a long term relationship. Do you want another couple of hundred, and let the bloke think hes been seen off and not book you again, or do you compromise a bit, and get the bloke to be your friend and book you again next year

Yes your pics are far worse than my bass. However if you take the Jo as being a premium instrument, and EBMM are usually pretty classy instruments, there is still an visual misalignment and one would expect them to be bang on. What I dont know is how representitive these are or yours are. As I said in my post, its not just a question of a pickup offset that needs the router position moved slightly, it needs something more fundemental. Maybe that why pickups have twin or large polepieces. I do know I will be inspecting every jazz bass next time im in a music shop.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='922554' date='Aug 12 2010, 11:51 AM']Well the new Jazz has arrived and the pups are still not lined up. But this time there is a large gap around most of the bridge pup. A good few mm at the top and it looks like the pup needs moving up. Im not sure what to do now. Im inclined to keep it as i really need to use it. It plays well and sounds great, as did the other one but im really hacked off at the quality of these Fenders now. Back to Lakland for the next bass.[/quote] See pictures of a 20th anniversary ray, and my US Jo osborne. In both the pickups are misaligned, as are a number of my p basses. I never noticed it before, and I think you will find its pretty common. In fact even if you offset the pickups on the joe, it would transfer the problem to a different string, not eradicate it. To put it right would require the pickups to be moved fore or aft as well as to one side or a revised bridge assy.

that looks great like the blue going into the white

having decided on 2 single twelves in the week im now back on a 2x12 mode curses looks great

very nice

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='910773' date='Jul 30 2010, 10:27 PM']Considering how recent the introduction of the Fender Bass had been, Jet Harris's solo in Nivram is pretty decent. In fact a lot of Jet's playing would have been extremely innovative at that time. Maybe worth going back to those early Shadows tracks & having a listen. G.[/quote] I occasionally play with a shadows band and most of Jets playing considering we are talking about 1960 to 62 is pretty awesome. They are still fun to play, and are a long way from simple lines. Nivram is still played nearly 50 years later so its stood the test of time. I probably wouldnt be playing if it wasnt for him, in the same way as guitarists from all walks genrally acknowledge Hank Marvin as an influence. Jet Harris guested in our local pub last Wednesday with another Shadows band.

Always take 2 We generally play three sets, play one in one set and the other in the second, and then whatever I feel like after that. I do have my favourites, but I try to use them all over the weeks. The guitarist I play with bought a ltd edition expensive les paul last year as an investment, but last week he said whats the point of having it under the bed, theres no fun in that, so he brings that out to play.

[quote name='molan' post='917269' date='Aug 6 2010, 06:22 PM']Sounds like you've hit on an excellent money-making scheme here. I'm surprised more people aren't doing this if there's an easy £400 profit to make on every sale. . .[/quote] By the time you sell a cab for £500 and take of the VAT its just over £400 Speakers wont be quite as expensive as you quote because you will get OEM prices A sheet of ply is going to cost you £50, to which you must add glue, screws, sockets, handles, corners, speakers, a unit to build them in, telephone, rent, rates. electricity you have to market them. Its hard work selling stuff direct because people want to see and try them. If you live in Portsmouth and the stuff is made in liverpool, how do you try them out or do you beleive word of mouth. If you sell through a shop, the shop is going to want to make a profit. How many will you sell a year, Sorry, making cabs is not a short cut to making a million.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='913002' date='Aug 2 2010, 05:17 PM']Im not sure if all Jazz basses are but certainly the ones ive had have had a slightly shorter neck pup. I can understand and accept a slight bit of offset between the strings and pole pieces, its to be expected, but the pups should still be in the right place to start with to keep this down to a minimum.[/quote] On all of the basses above, moving the pickup wouldnt solve the problem On the jo for example [and having got a vernier out the pickups are are different lengths] if you ofset either pickup, you just move the problem to a different string. On the stingray you would have to either change the bridge or move the pickup further towards the bridge AND off set it,

[quote name='chris_b' post='912422' date='Aug 2 2010, 01:42 AM']So every Lakland you've tried has had faults that required the bass to be returned! That is unlucky!![/quote] I have had 5 lakies and they have been pretty much flawless Skyline Jo Osbourne was overweight Skyline 44-02 perfect Skyline 55-02 Perfect Jerry Scheff small paint flaw if you look hard enough US Jo Osbourne, absolutely perfect although the pickup alignment is a bit off but I dont know what the spec is. Are the front and rear jazz pickups made to different sizes? ( I know they are wound differently) if they dont, there must be a small difference because of the angle of the strings.

I think this is an issue to some extent on a lot of basses. Ive just had a quick look at mine and without going overboard, most of mine exhibit strings off centre to some degree, im talking about say 1-2mm 50s reissue mex precision A string off gap 60s reissue japanese precision D and A strings off gap 50s classic vibe chinese almost perfect!!! 64 precision A string off gap musicman sterling, none are perfect but e and g strings well off center US Jo osbourne E and A string off gap MusicMam 20th Century ray only the A string is centered. Once you look at them it becomes very visible, it would be interesting to ask someone like Pete Academy about the basses in the shop.

[quote name='OldGit' post='912534' date='Aug 2 2010, 09:50 AM'] (Edited to correct my assumption that Harry also played Homer in the Simpsons, seems that Homer is voiced by Carole Kaye.)[/quote] Was she playing the piano part as well?

[quote name='gilmour' post='912624' date='Aug 2 2010, 11:15 AM']I'm not sure atm, I have some carpet left over from other builds, but carpeting these bad boys will be tricky, however the carpet does hide a lot of sins in the wood work I also have some fake alligator skin (bit like marshall cabs) that I could use,or I've even been toying with pimping them out and doing them in cream faux leather However all these options leave them open to kitten attack! My kitten is six months old and likes nothing better than scratching bass equipment. Because of the cat situation I may go with paint - but I'm gonna see how good my wood looks first.[/quote] I rather fancy cream tolex with the oxblood grill as used on the fender amps in the early 60s. My initial amp desire was either a fender tromolux or a fender bassman which were finished like that, [and that was before Marshall started.] Trouble is I think there will be a lot of work to cover them and make them look good although I have done it before. I once covered a marshall 100w and 4x12 in white and that looked really sharp