BassAgent

Yeah that's 100% an Eko. Here's one with the logo on the headstock:

I try to get my fretless on every recording session I do. I have only failed once in almost 20 years😁

Honestly I've never heard of mr Giblin before, but I guess I'll take it as a compliment😄

I try to record my fretless as much as possible so when a Dutch singer/songwriter/author asked me to play bass on a couple of her new tracks I immediately brought my inner Pino to the surface and went berserk. She edited some licks out of the song but still pretty proud of the result. Music is in Dutch. Bass used here is still the only fretless I'll ever need:

Or, even nicer, get yourself a 1210 or 212 But that's also my personal preference for 12" drivers: Other than that: I LOVE the look of that JV. Very classic, reminds me of my old JV. Darn, I miss that bass.

Yeah I know, just joking around. I know a few Italian luthiers and they are absolutely fantastic (Manne, Jacaranda...).

They're Made In Italy. Aaahh yes. Italy. Well known for its world famous electric guitar luthiers like...ehm...

That. Is. Expensive.

That is drop dead gorgeous!

Well, the story is at an end: I drove to his house today to deliver the bass. He paid me everything I put into it and that's that. The weird thing is if something like that would happen to me, I would be overjoyed that I had the bass back that got stolen seven(!) years ago. I'd buy the finder/buyer a good bottle of wine and be super duper excited that I had it back. I would be a tiny bit sad that my old stickers were removed, but I would also be happy that the new owner refreshed the strings, gave it a good setup and some love. But there was none of that. He even seemed a bit offended that I removed his precious stickers and made him pay for the bass. He didn't seem happy at all, to be honest. Such a weird guy. He had told me that he played John Peel sessions with it, the Lowlands festival (60,000 people) and so forth and I was hoping he'd share the story of this bass with me, but it seemed he wanted me out as quick as possible. Left me with a bit of a weird feeling. Did I do the right thing? If I knew he'd react this way, would I have acted the same? Meh. Weird. I thought I'd be happy with the result, but I'm not, actually.

Thanks guys! I am going to offer him to buy the bass from me. I've put quite some money into it (€275) and I think that's a pretty decent way of rewarding me for finding it. Legally, I'm not even obliged to give him the bass back, especially since he never filed a police report. It's legally my property.

So let's bump this topic for a surprise twist to this story. I restored it in the past week so I could put it up for sale, which I did yesterday. Within a few hours, I got a message: "I saw your ad for the G&L and I think I recognise it as the former bass from [Dutch bass player], which was stolen a few years ago. The bass has a huge sentimental value for him (if this is it). Could you please get in touch with him before you sell it?" So I got in touch with the guy and there's no doubt about it: it's his bass. The stickers check out, the damage, the story, everything. It's his. So he's getting it back from me next Wednesday, and I hope the stupid pawn shop will give me my money back, for selling a stolen bass.

There are certainly some similarities, but the headstock is way different...

Wow, cool! Here's a colour photo: I'm currently googling, no results yet.

Good one, forgot about that

The weird thing is they originally advertised it for 220, and I got it for 200 "because it's so damaged".

Lighting could be better, but this is the current collection after the monster deal on the G&L. Pretty decent.

So here's a story for you. I am a music teacher at a secondary school here in Amsterdam. About five minutes walking from the school is a pawn shop, which occasionally sells guitars, mostly cheap knockoffs and old Cimars, Sigmas and the likes. I was checking out the Dutch marketplace website for acoustic guitars and there was a Fender guitar which I wanted to get (nylon strings but a slim neck, perfect for my students). And then I saw it: they were selling a G&L SB-2 for a little over €200. I thought: wow, a Tribute SB-2 for 200? That's a great deal. So I walked to the store and checked out the bass. It wasn't a Tribute. It was a 90's era USA SB-2! The neck was very hollow but not warped and it had some stickers on it. I even got a discount because it's damaged (it has some damage on the finish). This is how I got it: After a good clean, new strings, new pickguard screws and the likes, it now looks like this: I have to wait what the neck will do overnight. Hopefully it'll settle a little bit so it's more playable, but the whole bass works, the pots are silent and that MFD split coil is freakin' loud! Now, there's one more question: how can I date it? I've had the neck off and I can read "Jun 13 xxxxx" but the xxxxx is unreadable for me, I also can't read the date in the neck pocket.

Speaking of cheap: is there an indication of price on the new MarkBasses?

I just noticed: this is not a real photo. Those knobs are photoshopped on there. That. Is Weird. Funny how they strung it with D'Addario by the way. I think I would string my promo bass with unrecognizable strings (so no Fenders or D'Addario's).

Oh and blimey, I just saw the opening post. It's very very pretty in green as well.