Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Grants are pants!


gjones
 Share

Recommended Posts

I used to have one of these back in the day. It was the cheapest bass in the shop (Grants in Edinburgh) and I bought it for £75 back in 1980.

It had cheap pickups and cheap tuners and a cheap plywood body.

Just because it's old doesn't mean it's vintage, it just means it's old.

If somebody actually buys it for £399.99, they'll be very disappointed. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got a link? Wondered if it was my first bass - a Grant shortscale, also cheapest bass in the shop (Unisound, Chatham High Street, 1978) which was £59 and an utterly functionless piece of unplayable junk!

In fairness Grants imported a pretty big range at several different price points & they weren't all rubbish. There's a Grant FB group who would argue that none of them were - but they never played mine! :lol:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't get sellers who "invent" these so called law suits to make potential buyers think this makes the bass collectable. The other one is "rare" - sometimes this just means that the item is such a POS that they couldn't sell them. :facepalm:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My fist guitar was a Grant copy of a Les Paul Special - a complete pile of poo. The pickups were screwed to the flat top of the body. At home I discovered that it was impossible to tune, as the bridge was not far enough back. I took it back to the shop and managed to swap it for a Cimar Strat copy, which was much better.

A couple of years later, I saw Prefab Sprout in a pub in Durham. They were not famous at the time. Paddy McAloon was playing the same Grant guitar, which fed back microphonically every time he turned it up for a solo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TheGreek said:

I don't get sellers who "invent" these so called law suits to make potential buyers think this makes the bass collectable. The other one is "rare" - sometimes this just means that the item is such a POS that they couldn't sell them. :facepalm:

Rare lawsuit vintage pile of poo for sale!

3194455_61937c27ac_z.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, gjones said:

That's the one! I forgot to add the link....duh.

These look quite decent compared to mine!

grantsmall.jpg.38a6469266199b0595623251bcb7e6ac.jpg

Note - that's not my actual bass - mine died a deservingly horrible death many years ago.

The two on Ebay at the moment are the same thing as the Columbus Js that regularly turn up. I've had a couple of Columbuses & they're half-decent after a proper setup. The idea of asking more than £150 for something like these is bloody ridiculous though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be fair, if Westfield came back into popularity in 30 years time, I'd probably buy another for sentimental reasons because that's what I started on and stick it next to my best up original. It's probably no different with these but slapping "MIJ" on the sale to pass it off as a quality made item and selling it for more than it's worth is just bad business. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Satellite you say? Crikey my first bass was a short scale Satellite which was absolute junk.

Even as a beginner, it was clearly barely playable and developed a bad neck twist/warp within six months of me owning it. I remember it had a very thin, plywood body too. 

Hopefully in landfill by now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thing is if you sue someone for the lawsuit bass not being a lawsuit bass would that make it a lawsuit bass?

 

To be fair, some of the MIJ guitars/basses from that era varied from very good to better than the originals (especially Tokai).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Tho not by me, aged 12, unfortunately.

It was the only thing I could afford at the time - a whole £60...

 

More than I paid for this Kay, which is probably even more basic... (apols for reposting this pic!)

Also see https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kay-K2-T-Vintage-Guitar/264225371338?hash=item3d850f34ca:g:58sAAOSwAEFcWWCi:rk:10:pf:0

" I have seen that these guitars sell for £250-£300. No silly offers please "

Another one is listed at £57 which is probably greatly over-valued! And everyone thinks they are 60s when they were late 70s (and barely more than entry-level toy guitars).

K-2T.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Thing is if you sue someone for the lawsuit bass not being a lawsuit bass would that make it a lawsuit bass?

 

To be fair, some of the MIJ guitars/basses from that era varied from very good to better than the originals (especially Tokai).

 

I think that the ones which bettered the original were very few.

People often quote Tokai as a sort of blanket case, but actually they did a range, so it's dangerous to extrapolate the assertion that some were better than the original to all were.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, prowla said:

I think that the ones which bettered the original were very few.

People often quote Tokai as a sort of blanket case, but actually they did a range, so it's dangerous to extrapolate the assertion that some were better than the original to all were.

Oh I did say some, but my beautifully finished 'made in Japan' (genuine) Fender Performer probably came out of the Tokai factory in 1987 along with many other 'real' Fenders...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Oh I did say some, but my beautifully finished 'made in Japan' (genuine) Fender Performer probably came out of the Tokai factory in 1987 along with many other 'real' Fenders...

So that'll be as good as a Fender then!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahh..... Jimmy Grant's shop in Tollcross. He did have some good kit there. Indeed, I bought my first expensive bass from that shop, an Odyssey B100WS, just like the attached.  Bought it on tick  - £600!! I flogged it in '86 when the mortgage rate started to rocket and if anyone knows of its whereabouts, I'd love to buy it back. I spotted it, briefly, in 1999, and it had seen a bit of abuse but I began to hanker after it. So, bass sleuths, get your gumshoes on......

Grant EBO copies were ten a penny in those days. Back then, just prior to buying the Odyssey, I played a fireglow Ibby 2388B-DX with a Bill Lawrence rail-bucker where the single coil mud-bucker copy would have been. It was in getting work done on it when I answered an ad for a bassist. I told them mine was in for repair. 'Oh, don't worry', said the geezer on the other end, 'We have a bass here you can use!' Off I went, galloping like a Spring lamb, wondering what delight awaited me. My heart sank when I saw it was a Grant EBO. It sank even further when I began to play it. Effing useless POS.

The shop went tits-up sometime in the early '80s. I heard later that Jimmy had busted the place (and his suppliers/creditors) and ran off to Spain with the coin.

 

PS: does anyone from that neck of the woods remember Side Street Music, just over the road from Jimmy's?

P1010490.JPG.jpg

Edited by NikNik
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...