CL Goes Right: I Sell Bass, Mama Get New Used Ax, Errybody Hoppy

This is the S101 Standard Chinese Precision Bass clone I’ve been trying to flog on Craigslist for months.

Now this hurts my delicate little ego because I’m quite the CL flipper and it shouldn’t take that long.

I’m also an ex-pro camera drummer at McCurry’s Camera and Macy’s electronics at Sunrise Mall. Remember Malls?

I don’t know why I feel compelled to flip these axes, it ain’t the money, and I’ve got storage up the wazoo. Which can be painful. Something about things hanging around the place and me not using it.

Basses want to be played. Some kid or old person would have a better life and finest kind therapy playing this beautiful, bright (like a piano!), heavy (like a piano!) ass beast (9 lbs? 4.5 kg?), never had the heart to weigh it.

And I’d get paid to guiltlessly splurge on the next instrument.

Here’s the cavity I fully lined with anti-RF copper tape.

So I had it priced at $75, or trade for silver, 420, .22. But no fish even nibbled for ever so long. And it was a fair price for a nice sounding, low hum, Chinese P-bass clone.

Especially considering all the work I did on it, the new roundwound D’Addario strings, new strap, FREE guitar stand and cable, copper humbucker tape application.

Cross posted the ad to Barter but still no joy.

This is the sauce for getting rid of lots of interference humming.

I was thinking of it as the black and white elephant bass. But on CL it only takes one customer with BGAS (Bass Guitar Aquisition Syndrome) and coin in pocket to make the sale.

Pretty skimpy use of Faraday type tape from the Chinese factory.

Heavily tatted [one was 1848! Kewl] young dad came by with angelic towhead boy and girl in tow to buy my bass for mama for mother’s day.

Here I’ve beefed up with copper tape but didn’t cover the whole bottom of the pick guard.

I played some minor pentatonic blues turnarounds on it, thought how I had liked it and how much work I’d put into the thing, even if little cash, skoch of seller’s remorse.

Goodbye friend for many sessions, me trying to quiet those The Byrds ringing and zinging roundwound strings with my poor arthritic, peripheral neuropathy, carpal tunnel, stigmata, trigger finger, Reynaud’s syndrome fingering and muting. I wish I was kidding. But ain’t it the life?

No apparent RF shielding from the factory. A standard Asian P-bass clone built using standard CNC machines used here and everywhere to build a bass with better tolerances than a Fender.

Serious weight on one shoulder while staring left and down. Chronic tendinitis at left elbow, more PT added to PT for fake ‘Terminator’ right chrome steel/plastic hip joint- thanks Kaiser and SEIU.

But this is what we sign up for playing bass. They are mostly all heavy, awkward, hard on hands, shoulders, back: not to mention amps. [And gels]. Get lessons on posture while playing for fewer repetitive stress injuries

And ‘the obstacle is the way’. Sometimes it is really important not to get the things you want. That forces you to another, more fruitful path. But don’t try to play through the pain.

Get a good Physical Therapist to get you started but YOU do the routines, daily usually. Like yoga minus the spirituality, though getting into the flow helps PT sessions.

Like how the required breathing and counting make weight lifting less onerous.

Dad tried on the mighty S101 Standard 4-string, electric bass guitar and so did both musical kid angels. Twanging loudly. A real joyful noise. And you could dance to it. What a great dad.

He offered $50 and I countered with $60 and Eureka, California, the deal was done. Cash on the virtual barrelhead, as is the Craigslist tradition.

Wish I had masked up and got in my hazemat suit before I sprayed this Plutonium fluoride potentiometer cleaner. Cough. It might have helped the scratchy tone pot. But not much.

Pots and pickups are always weak on these cheap instruments but easy to swap out due to blessed St Leo’s use of modular construction.
Leo Fender didn’t play music. The Jazz and P-bass were not even his best basses. He invented the electric bass guitar in late 1951, the year of my birth, so I am older than my instrument. Can’t say that if you play piano
Leo wanted the bass player to come out from his doghouse and join the band down front, dancing, singing and swaying. A bass that can move.
The drummer is still in back.

I identify as an empath and nothing makes me happier than making people happy. That’s one reason I’m so annoying.

Turns out the spousal unit loved it, and dad texted me later that it was the best $60 he ever spent. And I believe him. The magic of music and the music of magic- see Doug Henning.

So errybody hoppy and tapping they feet now, the musical towheads. And I got paid. Which is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

Unless noted, all text, images, audio or video by todgermanica.com.

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