CL Austin: JR Beck guitars and basses

mikew0440 · #1 11-22-2008, 08:46 PM

http://austin.craigslist.org/msg/929571468.html

Apparently a local guitar company is going out of business and selling these for cheap. Seems like a great deal, but you tell me????

JonTFunk · #2 11-22-2008, 10:15 PM

He's been trying to get rid of those things for what feels like forever now. I wanna say about a year-ish, and you find them at pawn shops all over the place here. I've never actually used one, but word is that they're manufactured overseas and have subpar playability. I guess they'd be fine if you wanted to end your set like Jimmy Hendrix or something lol.

mikew0440 · #3 11-23-2008, 12:47 AM

thanks for the heads up, im kinda new to this bass thing. As far as quality and playability goes, what would it compare to? I currently have a '95 Mecican Precision, would buying one of these be an upgrade?

M5Yates · #4 11-23-2008, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikew0440

thanks for the heads up, I'm kinda new to this bass thing. As far as quality and playability goes, what would it compare to? I currently have a '95 Mexican Precision, would buying one of these be an upgrade?

They're junk - stay away. That guy's ads rarely last an hour on Craigslist before he get flagged off.

bass_snake · #5 11-23-2008, 08:29 PM

Cool, thanks for letting us know guys. I was gonna e-mail the guy.

Fred

MarkRubin · #6 11-24-2008, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M5Yates

They're junk - stay away.

I beg to differ quite strongly. The 3 basses I've seen from "that guy" on Craigslist in the last week actually quite well made, especially for under $300. I'll bet they have little to no resale value, but the 4 string fretless and 6 string fretted bass I played were well constructed, good fit and finish and the active pickups sounded great. I'll be picking one of his up 6 strings for myself which I plan on gigging with ASAP. The boys at Bass Emporium seemed to concur with that assessment when I querried them about the brand as well.

I guess opinions are worth as much as you pay for them. Maybe you should avoid picking one up so they're be a larger selection for me to choose from.

Sabbathfan82 · #7 10-27-2009, 07:35 PM

Sorry to Necro this thread, but the vendor has an add up again on craigslist, was curious if opinions had changed on this company. I sent him a query seeing if he had any lefties.

allen_m · #8 11-26-2009, 02:54 PM

I picked up a violin bass made by J R Beck a couple of years ago off eBay, virtually identical to an Epiphone (except for the headstock binding) and it only cost me $100.00 new (maybe from the guy mentioned in this thread). Liked it so much I went ahead and bought a hard case from MF to store it in. Good workmanship, fit and finish. So-so electronics. Could be a could buy at a particular price. If they're still out there, try one.

shiboleth · #9 12-27-2010, 01:03 PM

I bought an active four string last Spring and I can't complain. The neck is fairly straight and it holds tune well. Most of the complaints I had at first (buzzing, scraping etc.) turned out to be my poor technique. I would say if you are exploring whether you want to play this would probably be a good investment.

Stinsok · #10 12-27-2010, 01:06 PM

Just curious, any links to pics or info on them?

98dvl · #11 12-27-2010, 01:43 PM

I have never seen played one... but he does pop up on CL all the time.

They're probably Chinese made basses/guitars similar in quality (I'd imagine) to the SX/Agile stuff that's sold through rondomusic.com

macribas · #12 12-28-2010, 12:36 PM

I went to his place when he still had a bunch of stuff. He was not the most friendly sales guy I have seen, but the instruments were decent, some more than others. There were some that were really good deals for the money. They were made in Korea. I picked up a Telecaster that was really cool. I haven't played any of the basses. It looks like he's only got a couple left.