One for the "rare" fans..

Bridgehouse

@vale & @HarrySeven - one for you guys to ponder over I reckon...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fenton-Weill-Dualmaster-bass-very-rare-and-very-nice/292530035966?hash=item441c261cfe:g:YlgAAOSwLlJa2M92

octatonic

It certainly isn’t well done.

Funkfingers

Oh, the excitement! 

Bridgehouse

Funkfingers said:

Oh, the excitement! 

I aim to please

JezWynd

Why stop there, she has other delights -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Prometeus-Ahab-fullscale-bass-luthier-made-in-Italy-superb/292470856663?hash=item44189f1bd7:g:RyYAAOSwN5Vam91G

Bridgehouse

JezWynd said:

Why stop there, she has other delights -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Prometeus-Ahab-fullscale-bass-luthier-made-in-Italy-superb/292470856663?hash=item44189f1bd7:g:RyYAAOSwN5Vam91G

Pah. More boring copies of old fender designs...

ICBM

JezWynd said:

Why stop there, she has other delights -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Prometeus-Ahab-fullscale-bass-luthier-made-in-Italy-superb/292470856663?hash=item44189f1bd7:g:RyYAAOSwN5Vam91G

The body looks inspired by the Bender Distortocaster.

HarrySeven

Another dealer masquerading as a private seller.

Regularly overprices stuff (which he's bought from eBay/wherever) by about 50%.

Been at it for years.

Funkfingers

HarrySeven said:

Another dealer, masquerading as a private seller.

Yeah, yeah, but what do you think of the F-W as a bass guitar? 

vale

i love the fentons. very sexy-desirable in my perverse little universe. always one on my lottery win list.
owners say the quality varies dramatically, so unless it's in your hands it's difficult to know what you are getting (ie. letting yourself in for) if you buy online. the early necks in particular known for 'eccentric' tunings.

i listened to an interview with mr weill re the early days that made the FW brand sound like a generic umbrella organisation that hustled a bit everything for everyone on the electrical side (when overnight brands used to nail pickups to anything guitar shaped).
similarly they took in woodwork to add electrics to in the same way. some came from burns and some from manufacturers in central/eastern europe (hohner one i think).
so that would explain why the quality is so up and down, no fixed single manufacturer responsible. but even burns in the early days were hit and miss, so aiming for a 'fenton by burns' no guarantee of a good one.

i think the listing is wrong to date it as early. all the early fentons i've seen had the rounded 'sponge finger' shaped pickups, while the later ones (post 1963) had the square 'jacobs club' ones.

my preference is for the really out-there fentons, the 'geometric flying saucer nervous breakdown' shapes, but that one is still smart looking and tidy for its years.

Harry knows his prices far better than i, but it seems excessive from my memory of the few i have seen actually sell. £400 for a special guitar and £350 for a bass (less demand for bases) seems more realistic.

HarrySeven

Funkfingers said:

HarrySeven said:

Another dealer, masquerading as a private seller.

Yeah, yeah, but what do you think of the F-W as a bass guitar? 

@Funkfingers - it looks like shit, along with every other F-W on the planet. If my experience is anything to go by, it will probably play like it too. And £750 is just taking the piss.

*Sigh* Sorry, @vale! I love quirky, but most of the time, the "frontier spirit" of early UK brands actually does very little for me - truss rod-less necks like fence posts, aesthetics often "challenging", scant regard for any form of ergonomics and a build quality directly related to the amateur luthiers joiners who made them - often better-suited to knocking up a bit of trellis for the garden or some wartime 'utility' furniture. Quite often, they look like someone built it from badly drawn-up plans which were based on a conversation with someone who'd never actually seen an electric guitar.

Funkfingers

HarrySeven said:
the "frontier spirit" of early UK brands actually does very little for me - truss rod-less necks like fence posts, aesthetics often "challenging", scant regard for any form of ergonomics and a build quality directly related to the amateur luthiers joiners who made them - often better-suited to knocking up a bit of trellis for the garden or some wartime 'utility' furniture. Quite often, they look like someone built it from badly drawn-up plans which were based on a conversation with someone who'd never actually seen an electric guitar.

In 1959, American electric guitars were still embargoed as a luxury foreign import. Hence, the travesties of those British wooden objects that, from a distance, resembled electric guitars.

HarrySeven

Funkfingers said:

In 1959, American electric guitars were still embargoed as a luxury foreign import. Hence, the travesties of those British wooden objects that, from a distance, resembled electric guitars.

Indeed. The Prosecution rests M'lud.

TTony

Bridgehouse said:

One for the "rare" fans..

Whenever I see "rare" in the context of an eBay ad, I generally think ...






'it was shit, even when it was new, so didn't sell many, which is why there are so few still around".

Either that or ...

"rare??  better it be well done, or better still - burnt to a crisp".

vale

HarrySeven said:

Funkfingers said:

HarrySeven said:

Another dealer, masquerading as a private seller.

Yeah, yeah, but what do you think of the F-W as a bass guitar? 

@Funkfingers - it looks like shit, along with every other F-W on the planet. If my experience is anything to go by, it will probably play like it too. And £750 is just taking the piss.

*Sigh* Sorry, @vale! I love quirky, but most of the time, the "frontier spirit" of early UK brands actually does very little for me - truss rod-less necks like fence posts, aesthetics often "challenging", scant regard for any form of ergonomics and a build quality directly related to the amateur luthiers joiners who made them - often better-suited to knocking up a bit of trellis for the garden or some wartime 'utility' furniture. Quite often, they look like someone built it from badly drawn-up plans which were based on a conversation with someone who'd never actually seen an electric guitar.

hey Harry, no need to apologise. having read about these for a while now the quality issue is understood and appreciated, hence my mention of the weill interview. your comments re slapdash early days builders spot on.
but bearing in mind what the average grubby post-skiffle juvenile could afford to pay for an instrument at the time, and the fact it was a totally new industry and ideas about construction still being explored (truss rods), that goes to explain why quality luthiers may have not seen a viable market for themselves, and the joiners (who filled that skills vaccuum) may have been groping around for reliable info re construction.

hence they are totally try before you buy. some were ok to begin with, some have been made good after the fact, and then there are the dogs.
i strongly doubt if anyone at any of the electric guitar factories (even fender-gibson) in those days were building instruments to last sixty years plus (1958-2018). six years maybe.

i like the shapes though. am surprised you dislike them so much, but your tastes never fail to surprise me and i don't think anyone on the forum would have you any other way!

since prices are going stupid now, i think best policy re these is to diy a built-to-better-standards clone.

vale

HarrySeven said:

Quite often, they look like someone built it from badly drawn-up plans which were based on a conversation with someone who'd never actually seen an electric guitar.

ps. for the record on this subject, quite literally my two favourite solid body bass guitars of all time ever are the burns sonic shortscale bass. a sex machine.

https://guitar-auctions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/lot0115.jpg

and (this is gonna hurt!) the fenton weill rpg bass. the boss.

http://blackguitars.com/IMAGES/gallery/burns-early-reference/Jet with Weill.jpg

so this whole subject is welcome to my dream bass universe. be very afraid...

vale

TTony said:

Bridgehouse said:

One for the "rare" fans..

Whenever I see "rare" in the context of an eBay ad, I generally think ...

'it was shit, even when it was new, so didn't sell many, which is why there are so few still around".

Either that or ...

"rare??  better it be well done, or better still - burnt to a crisp".

https://78.media.tumblr.com/dedfe621d24023a4bec8e7e64a21a25f/tumblr_mvacdhb2tC1st3srpo1_400.gif
or you're just playing hard to get. yield to your inner bass pervert!

Funkfingers

vale said:
bass pervert!

Calling @Bridgehouse that is sexist.

vale said:
or you're just playing hard to get.

The OP is just teasing. 

Funkfingers said:

Oh, the excitement! 

I suspect that this guy was being sarcastic. < sarcasm emoji >