Calling Kay experts. Is this?

PaulKing · #1 07-09-2010, 04:55 AM

Hey Molly, Jake ... others.
Is this an 0-100, or M-1 or something?

Tricky to say unless you have the eye. No label ... but those tuners look very Kluson like to me....

ebay

HCF · #2 07-09-2010, 05:06 AM

Kay or not, for £400 you can't really go wrong, can you?

PaulKing · #3 07-09-2010, 05:21 AM

Very true, but I don't need another bass really. I would drive 500 miles round trip to pick up a special bass though.

PaulKing · #4 07-09-2010, 05:30 AM

No KLUSON stamp on the tuners. No pencil number inside. No split post or disc ... no evidence it's a KAY.

Czech. Probably sounds loads better than a KAY

MollyKay · #5 07-09-2010, 07:05 AM

Sorry Paul…the pictures are too small for me to get a good look and eBay is blocked from where I am right now. You have the same problem I have…one more bass won’t hurt. If it is a good solid bass and sounds great you will be pleased. If it is a basket case you have a project.

I read an interview this week with George Gruhn from 2008 in Guitar Magazine where he categorized his customers as this…

Different audience, different players, but most of the people who collect guitars do play. They are not necessarily professional musicians. Most professional musicians don’t make enough money to have a huge guitar collection, and musicians are not really collectors in the sense that they’re not that concerned with the history of the instrument. They want a working utility tool. They’re not overly concerned with how original it is, and they often don’t take very good care of them.

I’d say I have three basic categories of buyers: musicians wanting a utility tool, collectors, and at least from 2002 to the present, a lot of speculators. It’s just like with antique furniture. Some people buy antiques just because they like them and really want a piece of furniture. If they’re buying a rocking chair, they like one that’s comfortable because they’re going to sit on it, and it has to fit the decor of their house. There are other people who are collectors, and they will pay far more money than the people who simply wanted a utility piece of furniture or a utility guitar. They tend to be more sophisticated in their knowledge. They have an agenda and they’re keenly aware of the gaps in their collection.

The real collectors, they’re just like stamp collectors and coin collectors. The ones who really collect look all their life for this particular stamp and when they get it, they don’t want to simply turn right around and sell it right away. That would be no fun. But the speculators don’t want to hold it long. They want to hold it maybe six months to no more than a year, and then flip it. They’d be horrified of the prospect of actually being unable to sell it with a profit within a year. The ones who are really diligently collecting for many, many years are not anxious to sell it. They hate to sell it.

I know what category I fall into.

Steve Swan · #6 07-09-2010, 08:12 AM

Looks like German tuners. I would venture a guess that it's Czech or Romanian. A lot of these ply basses are very heavy and unresponsive. Some can be surprisingly good.

Jake deVilliers · #7 07-09-2010, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulKing

Hey Molly, Jake ... others.
Is this an 0-100, or M-1 or something?

Tricky to say unless you have the eye. No label ... but those tuners look very Kluson like to me....

ebay

That's not a Kay. The body proportions aren't right and when I embiggen the scroll photo the tuners look like Rubners. It could be a very good sounding bass though!

PaulKing · #8 07-09-2010, 09:15 AM

Yeah, thanks guys.
Laid to rest, move along, nothing to see.

I spoke with the seller, maybe quite a nice sounding bass, but not a collector's item

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