Have to admire the persistence, but these will never sell at these prices. At least there is the “make offer” option but if the seller really believes these are worth £1000+, I think he’s going to be disappointed…
I love Status basses, or Statii as Alan Partridge (and the good people of this forum) would have it. For my money they are the best basses you can buy, full stop, and the people at Status are some of the nicest you could ever hope to deal with.
Most people (including me) prefer the graphite necked examples to the wooden necked variety, but the wooden necked ones are still fantastic instruments – my first Status has a wooden neck and it still plays fantastically. Knocks spots off anything else I’ve ever played as a working bass.
But back to the links…the Eclipse is very fairly priced, the Energy definitely not so. The 6 string Energy was £999 when it came out – I know because I was selling them in a guitar shop at the time. Why this seller thinks it’s now worth 50% more than that is beyond me. The only Statii that increase in value tend to be the very early examples and some of the later full graphite models. Everything else depreciates, although not as badly as some other basses (Warwicks anyone?).
The Eclipse looks like a very good price though – you might be able to get it for £500-550 and at that price it’s a steal for a pro-quality, UK made 5 string.
[Full disclosure: I have no connection whatsoever with either of these sellers. I am very lucky to own 3 Status basses which will never be sold.]
Great short scale basses, Musicmasters. Not worth anywhere near £750 though, with the possible exception of a first year, completely mint example. Certainly not a late 70s version – £450 max, and I’d be looking closer to £400 ideally.
eBay’s been a bit boring of late guitar wise – don’t know if people are hoarding the more interesting stuff for later in the year, or if the holiday season means less people listing guitars?
Something a bit different…I’ve just got hold of Fender: The Golden Age
Anyway, it is a fantastic book; I’ve grown up with things like The Ultimate Guitar book and the range of books by Tony Bacon et al (The Fender book, The Bass book etc) which were all great books – pure guitar porn. But since them, the other guitar books I’ve seen have all been much of a muchness, often with the same photos in them. This new book is different though; it is incredible. There are some guitars in here I have never seen, or even heard of in 20 odd years of being a guitar obsessive. For example, the prototype hollow Telecaster Thinline and bound edge Jaguar had my heart racing a little bit…
The other interesting thing (for me) is that the Martin Kelly who wrote this is none other than the same Martin Kelly who co-founded Heavenly Records and subsequently married Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne. I didn’t think I could be more envious of one man and now I see the guitars that have passed through his hands…
If you have any interest in Fenders, then you will definitely enjoy this book.
Just like buses. Regular readers of this blog will know I have a bit of a thing for old Yamahas but I’ve never seen the SE700 before though – have seen plenty of the lower end of the SE scale but this one is new to me. Given the current unfashionability of locking trems though I think the price is a bit on the high side. £200-£250 would be a fairer price but it is fairly rare. To the right collector, £280 might be a bargain…
The RBX basses are one of the classic mid-eighties RAWK basses and the 800 was close to the top of the range. Really good quality, mid range active bass – well worth checking out. If you can find a RBX1000 though, well, even better.
Finally a SuperFlighter. Very underrated, never really understood why. Certainly on a par with the SG range although not as good looking – top quality construction and great sounds. Again, this is a midrange example but still worth checking out. £250-400 is a reasonable price range too; at some point I predict the SF range will become a bit more collectable than it currently is.
Fender Contemporary Precision Bass
Nice looking, fairly rare Japanese Precision bass but massively overpriced. Try halving the starting price and you’d have a more accurate valuation, and that’s still at the top end. It is in nice condition though but I think £400-450 would be a better start price.
Fender Japan’s Contemporary range came out in the mid 80s (1986 I think) as a response to falling market share for the more traditional models and the rising popularity of Ibanez/Charvel/Yamaha superstrats and the like – it’s hard to imagine now but there really was a time when virtually no one was buying traditional Fenders. I remember in the early 1990s when guitar shops were full of locking trems and pointy heads and bassists were no different – remember the Kahler bass trem?
Anyway, this is a nice bass if you like the look but don’t pay £1000 for it.
Superb basses, shame this one has had the electronics replaced but I think the starting price reflects that. Excellent quality, at the time these through neck Japanese basses were crapping all over most of the US output, the boutique side of things aside.
Brilliant guitar from the very rare Master series – a series that convinced a lot of people about the quality that was possible from Japanese factories although the distinctly non-Fender styling and sound didn’t convince guitar buyers at the time so there’s not many around.
Quite a poor listing though – only one, grainy photo, scant details and punctuation and formatting all over the shop. It’s not just professional traders that should think about presentation and first impressions.
Price is a little on the high side for a starting bid – all the more reason to spend time on the listing I would have thought but there you go. Price wise these tend to go in the £900 – £1200 range – but I can’t tell with this one as there aren’t enough details to judge the condition…
A future classic? Quite possibly.
Great basses, very underrated. A lot of people don’t realise that Fender actually used Stratocaster bodies to make these basses, very slightly modified to take a bass neck, so strictly speaking they should have been called the Stratocaster Bass. It does make a big difference in terms of weight and therefore these are superb gigging basses as well as being ideal for those of a smaller build. We can’t all be Peter Hook.
Made to a very high level of quality in the Matsumoko factory, the P-bass Lyte was made in relatively small numbers in the early days (1988-91 )but production did ramp up towards the end of its life, about 2001 as I recall. Various colours, including Fotoflame finishes but my favourite is the finish that this particular example is finished in namely Vintage Sunbust. £250 is a very good price too, I’ve seen these go for between £200 and £350 recently but would expect these to go north of £400 in a few years time.
Squier Telecaster being sold at twice the new price
as per my previous post, why is this guy wasting his time?!