Guys,
There's an Australian custom bass builder (
http://www.maillouxbasses.com) who has been making some beautiful basses, and Phil happens to be the admin for ozbassforum.com , the only dedicated bass forum for Australians.
I saw one of Phil's custom jazz basses recently, and the first thing I thought of was how nice a Fenderbird would look if Phil was interested in making one. Then the thought of a forum limited edition hand made Fenderbird got into my head, especially since the proposed Gibson Custom Show non-reverse might be too expensive for many people.
Phil estimates he could build a limited run of non-reverse bodied Fenderbirds for around US$2000 plus shipping (US$150). I suggested I'd start a thread here, and if there is interest, Phil will join the forum and participate in the discussion to flesh out details like colours, pickups (eg. Darkstar, anyone?), bridge etc. This could be an opportunity for a top quality bass to fill the void between the quality of the Bach basses and the proposed Gibson limited run.
Here's one of Phil's Jazz basses. The body and neck is made from scratch, not a parts bass .....
Do you guys think that a forum-only Fenderbird limited edition around this pricepoint has potential?