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NBD - what the hell did I just buy?


BreadBin

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4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

People pay that sort of money for them? 😮

Dunno about that but the link shows that one person is asking that much money for one.

I'd be surprised if anyone would be daft enough to part with £260 for it, but then again in 2016 I thought only the terminally daft would cast a vote for an orange reality show conman.

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11 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Dunno about that but the link shows that one person is asking that much money for one.

I'd be surprised if anyone would be daft enough to part with £260 for it

I wouldn't be surprised - people (normally younger) pay a fortune for something they consider classic because they weren't born in an age where stuff that bad was normal, so it unusual, and also rare as most people used theirs to dig the garden or support a wobbly cupboard, or like me, just a nice fire.

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I had a Kay precision copy in the mid ‘70s. it weighed a ton but after I changed the bridge and upgraded it with a cheap jazz bass copy neck it wasn’t too bad. 

Scroll forward to the mid’90s and I traded it for some lessons from a guitar teacher who was also a brilliant luthier. He de-fretted it, stripped off the varnish, 71227FF3-DE7E-4D42-AC1B-DDF7B2E70D38.jpeg.637f8ec6cbe2218ce0a9589a4c563c7d.jpegadded a decent pickup and drilled some big holes in it to reduce the weight. It became a really nice bass. It started life looking like this one.

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@BreadBin, strangely yours has a zero fret but mine doesn't. You wouldn't have thought they'd have made any changes to the (poor) design. A zero fret would mean a different length fretboard.

I've just looked at the dreamers on the local fb marketplace, all now reduced drastically from their dreamy opening price. 

Acoustic guitar, £139 down to £39. 

Acoustic guitar, £49 down to £15. 

P bass, £250 down to £180. 

Les Paul vague-alike, £250 down to £125 now down to £95. 

The P bass looks quite nice, but it still needs to come down another £130.

Edit, I've just noticed the P on Facebook has a six screw neck fixing. That's quite fancy for an old Kay isn't it? 

Edited by Maude
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Guest WilliamV
4 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

...but then again in 2016 I thought only the terminally daft would cast a vote for an orange reality show conman.

Someone has always got to bring their liberal hate political view into something that has not a f***ing thing to do with them as far as politics are concerned and resort to childish name calling.

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3 hours ago, Maude said:

@BreadBin, strangely yours has a zero fret but mine doesn't. You wouldn't have thought they'd have made any changes to the (poor) design. A zero fret would mean a different length fretboard.

Different length? On a Kay? Hardly, it wouldn't change the intonation that much, it would still be close enough :D

 

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9 hours ago, WilliamV said:

Someone has always got to bring their liberal hate political view into something that has not a f***ing thing to do with them as far as politics are concerned and resort to childish name calling.

I always find it hilarious that some of our "American Friends" think that Liberal means some radical, far left, neo-communist revolutionary dedicated to bringing down the good old capitalist establishment, whereas in the UK in stands for wishy-washy, dull, ineffectual middle of the roadism...

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On 05/03/2021 at 00:31, WilliamV said:

Not actually as you called it "tat". Also not nice to call peoples' guitars "tat". Near as bad as negatively criticising someone over which motorcycle brand they choose to ride.

https://reverb.com/uk/item/2095365-kay-shortscale-tulip-bass-early-seventies-sunburst

Excuse me - is this the right room for an overreaction? :lol:

However rose-tinted your recollection of these instruments may be, they were low-quality, cheaply (often badly) made, and aimed solely at undiscerning beginners. Back when I started, this sort of thing was all I could afford, and having more recently been in the business of buying, restoring & selling elderly Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese etc instruments - many of which have been decidedly low-end - I know very well of what I speak! They might be interesting, but quality musical instruments they are not.

I had no intention of causing offence - but then it would never have occured to me that calling a cheap, poorly finished plywood budget guitar 'tat' would cause offence to anyone.

It's really not like calling someone's Harley Davidson a clown bike. I'd never do that.

Spoiler

:P ;)

 

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3 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

However rose-tinted your recollection of these instruments may be, they were low-quality, cheaply (often badly) made, and aimed solely at undiscerning beginners. Back when I started, this sort of thing was all I could afford,

Basically as a youngster in the UK if you wanted a guitar or bass, you bought a kay. It was all there was, it was all you could afford, back when there was a lot less disposable income around.

Noone bought a kay because they wanted a kay, that was the choice. It was tat in every sense of the word, but many people learned to play on tat and it brings back great memories. I had a Kay strat, weighed as much as a small planet. I loved it, I modded it I learned everything on it. However, my love of it was a love of a guitar. Come the early 80s we started getting truly good instruments, such as the westones, and things got (and stayed different). There is a reason there aren't many kays around, they weren't worth keeping.

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I am devasted reading these comments. 

I bought my Kay and spent many hours lovingly caressing her back to a pristine playable condition. She had gone through nearly 50 years of being chopped and changed around, but most importantly, being played. Then she came to me where she was given a new look and new lease of life in readiment for the next 50 years of her journey. To hear that she is considered "tat" is, erm, well, bang on the money actually. 😄

 

It started out life as cheap tat and will end its life as cheap tat, but that's what I like about it. 

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On 05/03/2021 at 15:39, Woodinblack said:

People pay that sort of money for them? 😮

No. 

I find Reverb is a good tool for judging the value of cheaper basses. You just halve the asking price to find its actual value. 

The Kay on there has broken that rule by only having a value of a quarter of the advertised price, if you're lucky. 

Edited by Maude
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5 minutes ago, Maude said:

I find Reverb is a good tool for judging the value of cheaper basses. You just halve the asking price to find its actual value.

I do like reverbs chart of what things sold by, it is pretty handy.

6 minutes ago, Maude said:

It started out life as cheap tat and will end its life as cheap tat, but that's what I like about it. 

Which is great as you know what it is but it doesn't get in the way of the enjoyment of things. I have a whole load of what is basically electronic tat that I haven't got rid of. I know what it is and enjoy it for what it is.

I loved my kay. Would I have another one, hell no!

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Guest WilliamV
8 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Excuse me - is this the right room for an overreaction? :lol:

... blah, blah, blah ...

It's really not like calling someone's Harley Davidson a clown bike. I'd never do that.

  Reveal hidden contents

:P ;)

Really?

Harley-Davidson a clown bike? What do you ride? My guess is either nothing or one of those chainsaws on wheels.

You DO need to get over yourself.

 

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9 hours ago, WilliamV said:

Really?

Harley-Davidson a clown bike? What do you ride? My guess is either nothing or one of those chainsaws on wheels.

You DO need to get over yourself.

If you go back read carefully, you'll find I said I'd never do any such thing. Go on - have a try. :)

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20 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Let’s all just be friends, yeah?!

Lockdown is getting to all of us, so we’ll chalk it up to that and be nicer henceforth 😎

I'm being proper nice, me. But I can't be held responsible for other people's absence of a sense of humour, or appreciation of irony & my clumsy, elephantine attempts at sarcasm.

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