Shameless cashing in/Nikki Sixx

[Dan Dare]

If people are daft enough to buy all that tripe (artist endorsed instruments that are mass produced in a factory, used strings, soiled bedlinen, etc), they deserve to be fleeced.

[uk_lefty]

Saw Nikki Sixx doing this on the last Sixx AM tour. The big draw was that he wraps a unique pattern of tape around each bass... Nonsense. Then again, at his age he must be just trying to fill the bank account as much as possible before the career ends. While I do think its tacky and I wouldn't do it, even if right handed and with enough cash to spare and a want for a bass used by a high profile player, someone obviously does buy this stuff. I think Dave Ellefson does it too. If nobody ever bought this stuff it wouldn't be offered for sale! 

It's not the same as a charity auction for a high profile player's much loved instrument used over a period of years on famous albums and tours. That is where I can really see the cash being stumped up and everyone feeling differently about it. But a bass you can buy for a few hundred quid used on just one song in an end of career cash-in tour? Not the same thing. 

[NancyJohnson]

7 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

If people are daft enough to buy all that tripe (artist endorsed instruments that are mass produced in a factory, used strings, soiled bedlinen, etc), they deserve to be fleeced.

We seem to live in a time where putting a well known person's name on something is a thing.  A Geddy Lee signature model will not make you play like Mr Lee, nor will a bass owned by <insert name here> do the same.

And before anyone says anything, yes I'm perfectly aware that I own a Lull Jeff Ament bass, but I really have little desire of being in Pearl Jam.

[BigRedX]

22 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

We seem to live in a time where putting a well known person's name on something is a thing.  A Geddy Lee signature model will not make you play like Mr Lee, nor will a bass owned by <insert name here> do the same.

And before anyone says anything, yes I'm perfectly aware that I own a Lull Jeff Ament bass, but I really have little desire of being in Pearl Jam.

Exactly. There are some nice looking signature basses available, but all that means is the person putting their name to the bass had the same ideas about what they wanted from an instrument as I do.

[MacDaddy]

4 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Exactly. There are some nice looking signature basses available, but all that means is the person putting their name to the bass had the same ideas about what they wanted from an instrument as I do.

...then a mass produced version is made for sale, while the artist plays a custom made instrument made by an independent luthier, but with the name of the endorsing company on the headstock.

 

[BassTractor]

11 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

If people are daft enough to buy all that tripe (artist endorsed instruments that are mass produced in a factory, used strings, soiled bedlinen, etc), they deserve to be fleeced.

True in Caveatemptoria and in Vulturistan.
In the normal world however, people have largely varying backgrounds and levels of resourcefulness and psychological health.
Making every customer 100% responsible for experienced manipulation is at best a flawed stance.

Edited March 2, 2020 by BassTractor

[skankdelvar]

1 hour ago, BassTractor said:

Making every customer 100% responsible for experienced manipulation is at best a flawed stance.

I understand and - in a very personal sense - I value the entirely laudable sentiment which underpins your position.  It has nevertheless always been my unbending principle to embrace the philosophy expounded by the late Mr WC Fields:

"Never give a sucker an even break".

[BassTractor]

8 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

"Never give a sucker an even break".

I must've been ruined by my experience with working for child protection services. We had examples of parents needing a several weeks long practical course in taking the bus (raise your arm, wait until door is open, present your ticket...), or parents who didn't dare come out of the house during a solar eclipse, as obvs the Sun crept in between the Moon and the Earth, and would burn them to their untimely death...

The spectre is wide, and between my examples and resourceful adults, there's a vast landscape in which people like Simmons and Sixx seem to thrive.

[skankdelvar]

34 minutes ago, BassTractor said:

between my examples and resourceful adults, there's a vast landscape in which people like Simmons and Sixx seem to thrive.

And me. Don't forget me.

Every night on the Springsteen 1999-2000 tour I unloaded between 40 - 50 tiny glass vials each purportedly containing a dab of Mr Nils Lofgren's ejaculate to excited fans happy to pay me $100 a time for an engaging souvenir / conversation piece.

Allowing for expenses, bribes, etc., I was clearing around $3,500 a night which might not sound a lot but netted me nearly half a million dollars over the tour, a handsome sum which grub-staked my first proper weapons deal.

[BassTractor]

8 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

And me. Don't forget me.

Every night on the Springsteen 1999-2000 tour I unloaded between 40 - 50 tiny glass vials each purportedly containing a dab of Mr Nils Lofgren's ejaculate to excited fans happy to pay me $100 a time for an engaging souvenir / conversation piece.

Allowing for expenses, bribes, etc., I was clearing around $3,500 a night which might not sound a lot but netted me nearly half a million dollars over the tour, a handsome sum which grub-staked my first proper weapons deal.

Ah!
You won me over. Had I known the amounts involved are that large, I'd never have let the virtue-signalling treehuggers' type parameter of ethical thinking allow to obfuscate the vast body of the subject matter at hand (and I don't mean Mr Lofgren's produce here). 

😃 

 

[skankdelvar]

10 minutes ago, BassTractor said:

treehuggers

No one ever got rich by being a tree-hugger. Any rich tree-huggers you encounter will have been rich long before they ever started hugging trees.

I was explaining this to young Greta the other day. 'There's no money in what you're doing, my little chickadee' I said. 'You need to start out by selling semi-autos to LA gang-bangers and work up to warhead deals with Kazhakstani middle-men. Then you can buy your own ocean-going yacht rather than have to borrow one from salivating libertines like Prince Pierre of Monaco'.

Did I detect a momentary flicker of interest in that tiny, grave face? Perhaps she was just thinking about saving the planet from mankind but I'd swear I could see the wheels turning.