many thanks for your replies; one of the guys over on basschat forum...
I'm banned on there. I think I said too many nasty things about the owner's BMW? If you get bored look up the company name that Basschat is registered in. Go to Companies House and look at their annual turnover. Next time you list a bass for sale on there and get tire-kicking non responses for months on end, ask yourself where that subscription money is going, as I doubt it is all swallowed up in hosting costs. The notion that you're listing basses for sale in a rarefied climate of fellow bass fanatics is a myth, sadly.
Basschat is like Talkbass in that it is very Fender-centric.
Actually, that is maybe a bit unfair. The Basschat model is to buy a B-stock Harley Benton P Bass from Thomann for £89 shipped. You then have to instantly compare it favourably to your mate's CS Fender (
plays just as good once I fettled it up). Then you cut the headstock with a hacksaw to look a bit more like a Fender outline, and add a bootleg Fender decal from Ebay (but its fine, mate, because I'm never selling this bass as its perfect). Sand the body up to 180 grit (probably should have gone a bit higher,
but it looks okay from five feet away). Then respray the body some '60s Fender colour using rattle cans. Don't bother spending too long polishing the body either (
looks okay from five feet away). Add a tort pickguard that doesn't fit properly, one of those Kigion wiring harnesses (because nobody else on Basschat seems to know how a soldering iron works), then play through a 100 watt Trace combo from 1992 or one of those MarkBass amps the size of a small shoe box. Get bored with it and list it on Basschat's marketplace for £400 the next week (
plays as good as any real Fender), but only once you've taken a sizable chunk out the finish on the front by hitting the bass off of something.
I never get Basschat's totally relaxed attitude towards counterfeit Fenders and totally uptight attitude to real Rickenbackers.
I also imagine its totally full of old English blokes called Bazza and Dazza complaining about how Covid-19 lockdown has cancelled their once-per-month cover band gig down at the Dog and Duck, playing to five people for £20 and four drinks vouchers (and I get Dazza's voucher as he can't drink any more). Death of the live music industry! I'm warning you now!