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Hi everyone, I'm posting this story because it reinforces what a close-nit community that we musicians, and in particular, bass players are. Some of you might have noticed recently I advertised on basschat a lovely Paul Everson Caiman bass for sale. I acquired the bass through a trade about a year ago with a guy who advertised it on Facebook. We met in a service station. I swapped a very nice 4 string Shuker bass for the Everson, had a nice chat with the fella who bought it and returned home. Whilst we were talking the lad confessed to me that he had found the Everson Bass in one of those second hand chain stores that have 'cash' in the title. He knew next to nothing about basses but had liked the look of it and bought it. He then tracked down Paul Everson on Facebook to get some info about the bass. I loved the bass. It appeared to have been treated quite badly. The electrics were shot and it was covered in a weird thick dust. I had it cleaned, sorted and set up and quickly picked up another Everson that appeared on Facebook. That was around a year ago. I recently decided to sell the caiman. Id always had a little niggle in the back of my head about 'Cash _________' and wondered if I'd been a little naieve in my trust. So to put my mind at ease I contacted Paul (Everson) who told me he had sold the bass through the great British bass lounge. I then contacted Drew who was running the lounge and asked them both if any Everson basses had been reported stolen. They both did some digging and came back with a resounding no. Drew had a record of a sale to a lad called 'Justin' who lived near Bradford (I'm in Macclesfield). So back to present day. After advertising said bass on Facebook and BC I received a message from a lad called Justin who explained to me that this was his bass and that he'd had it stolen in early 2016. I immediately phoned him and we discussed at length what to do. Now the dilemma. Justin hadn't been insured and had lost the bass along with a whole heap of equipment. He had been scouring the Facebook sites to try and recover the bass for the last 2 years. I had essentially swapped a 900 quid Shuker with it. The lad who had bought the bass oringally had moved the Shuker on. We were all victims of crime and it was a difficult puzzle to unravel. Justin had contacted Yorkshire police for advice and they had said it was a civil matter. Anyway the final result is that we met the following week and Justin got his bass back. It was a great end to a saga and needless to say Justin was chuffed! Just a big shout out to Paul Everson and Drew for caring enough about this story to help me with my clumsy detective work and a big shout out to Matthew who contacted me on behalf of (current) BBL. The photo below is of Justin (on the left) recieving his beloved bass back! Moral of the story. Cash ___________ are a store I like even less now and Bass players are awesome folk. Andy

Problem fixed! The new driver arrived today. It's now fitted and all is sounding pretty good. Lee chucked in some Ashdown freebies too. I can sit in the freezing North with my Ashdown hat on, drinking a hot cup of tea from my Ashdown cup and rest it upon my Ashdown coasters! All in all, I'm very pleased with the outcome. A big thanks to eude and Lee for sorting it.

So - this happened yesterday, these were the sellers pics but you get the idea! Most folks on here know how good these are and I've wanted one for a while now. Judging by the serial it appears to be a 2013 build, and the fit and finish really are fantastic. Showed up locally on the Facebook marketplace and I was quick! Should put the GAS for a Pino signature to rest (for a while anyway!). I plan to put some TI Flats on it, give it a setup and that's about it really, possibly some flat top knobs but it's great as it is. May consider upgrading the loom to a Kiogon job in the future. Doesn't seem to need it but, you know....

So I bought a Mark Bass set up comprising a head and two cabs. Then, a while later, GAS got the better of me and I couldn't say no to a couple of Barefaced cabs. As Patrick O' Brian would say I was with child to try them out and promptly did so on the evening of the day upon which I'd wrested possession of them from @Happy Jack in the car park at Newbury services. They gave an incredibly detailed account of the instruments I put through them, but I did spend much of the rehearsal fiddling with the controls of the Little Mark Tube to achieve a sound I liked. No problem I thought, new gear takes time to learn. Every set up has its foibles. Last night I gazed along the mountain of amps and cabs I've accumulated over the years, and in a fit of quite astonishing laziness decided I could only be arsed to take the smallest of the BF cabs and a couple of cables and one bass. Once the folly of not taking any amplification had fully dawned on me I trotted back into the house and on nothing more than a whim I grabbed my ageing Behringer BX4500H. This cheap and cheerful head has been with me for yonks usually coming along for the ride as a back up where it has served me honourably. In fact on more than one occasion it has stepped bravely to the fore when far more illustriously named amplifiers have croaked in mid gig. Imagine my utter astonishment when the diminutive Barefaced Midget in combination with this ugly ducking of the bass amp world proceeded to produce the most astoundingly beautiful bass sound with which I have ever been associated. My singer looked up wide eyed from her seat to comment how the bottom end of the sound had passed through her chest in such a way as to make her draw breath, the clarity and smoothness of the upper frequencies had my aged yet nimble fingers dancing up the fretboard and the mid tones boxed their way cleverly through the other instruments there present as they seamlessly and fluently held together the whole in a way I'd not previously experienced. And loud. Boy oh boy. The master pot was barely off the floor and yet I filled the room with a sonic feast both voluble and delicious. The tone knobs were set to neutral, just the shape control engaged and the bass boost button depressed. I was playing a Stingray, the infamously zingy, tingy, teeth on a metal fork quality of which I have tamed by the application of some flatwound strings. It was truly bass heaven. I look froward to trying other combinations of amp and cab before flooding our for sale section with unwanted goodies but honestly I shall be extremely surprised were any of them to match up to what I heard last night. Just goes to show, don't write off a 'cheap' brand from a position of prejudice, and don't assume amp 'A' will be amazing with cabs 'B' or 'C' without trying them first.

I played on one of these years ago and quite liked it, back when it was £400. Mooching round Thomman the other day for something else I noticed they had some at £154! I thought maybe it was one of those pricing things, like when I got my two TC RS112 speakers for less than £200, so I bought one, and had to wait for a month, but sure enough, today it turned up - A 4 valve fender 2 x 10 12W amp with reverb: Three controls, volume, tone, reverb, on a guitar it sounds great, and it sounds good on a bass too in the house, so it is my new 'playing around the house' amp that I can also play the guitar through. The style is a bit marmite, but the sound is really good. Added to that, I had the original intention of modding it, although at the moment it seems to sound pretty good without it.

Had a mare. Saturday was my birthday, and after several double rum and cokes I found myself in the local boozer listening to a covers band blasting Cocaine by Clapton. Inspired by the guitarists neat playing of what turned out to be the Clapton Custom Shop strat, I ordered a strat copy from Alan George on Facebook - the highest spec one he had. He gave me a tidy discount too due to my drunken ramblings and it being my birthday. So now I have a bank statement that's not very pretty (more due to buying booze than anything else) and a guitar that historically I can't get good sounds from. What I may do, seeing as I enjoyed the Clapton strat, is put in the noiseless pickups and midboost TBX stuff, see if I can coax any good noises that way.

I now look upon Squiers with the zeal of the converted. Lovely looking bass!

If you use your common sense and choose your separates in the cold light of day you can't really go wrong. It's like you have just happened upon that discovery for yourself with outstanding results. I am happy for you. I used to think that you'd get the best sound out of a Hi Fi system by buying all of the kit from the same brand. Sony had planted the notion in me when I was young. Their glossy marketing was attractive. I went to a Sony outlet. A pushy sales rep tried to sign me up for a three year finance agreement for a separates system with a patented method for linking the units! When I did the ready reckoning on his figures I found that I would've paid half again on top of the all inclusive purchase price. I had a quiet word with myself and politely told the sales rep that I would let him know. I didn't. After that, I decided that I'd build a fully capable system from separates. Most of it was second hand. The only matching I did was to see if outputs and inputs were roughly the same between connected units of equipment. No two units were from the same brand. I always built my own speaker cabs back then using new drivers and crossovers, from Oxford Street electronics shops in home built enclosures. Between that and modifying near suitable units I always had a sound system that was the envy of my house mates because I got it for beer money. In some minor respects Sony had the edge but that wasn't noticed by my peers. They had signed up with the Sony rep you see. I rarely buy new. I am just the same with my rigs. Sure, I briefly envy the new kit on the block with its matching enclosures and it's advanced features and its popular image but I am a tightwad as dictated by genes from both parents and it doesn't make my sound, such as it is, suffer one little bit. If I was earning from my playing I am sure that I'd have another quiet little word with myself though.

You don't happen to also be a member of Nigerian royalty, by any chance?

There is something to be said about what Jack has written. In fact, so much so, that I plan to research and promote a service looking into management companies and the work they do. If you are interested and keen to get on in the music industry please send £100 to [email protected]

Picked up one of these last week and absolutely love it. It's incredible.

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No - just rise above it. People are people, some have manners, some don't, some have communication skills, some don't. Most of us love saying 'Yes' but hate saying 'No'. If we can avoid saying 'No' by walking away quietly, then that's what many will do. There's no point taking it seriously, even less in taking it personally. Just move on.

Put your experience in his feedback thread. At least then others will know what to expect, and will possibly feel less aggrieved if they receive similar treatment.

The last post I held down was IT Manager in an aluminium foundry, for thirteen years. All of the workshop areas required the wearing of safety shoes, of a specific model with metatarsal protection, and safety glasses. Several areas required ear protection, due to the noise levels to be found there, either permanent or punctual, as measured by competent authorities. No-one was allowed into any of these areas without these equipments, anyone flouting these rules would be escorted away; repeats would be a disciplinary matter, up to and including dismissal. These were not simply 'house rules', they are part and parcel of the French H & S regulations, and apply everywhere in France. I'd be very surprised if there were not similar measures in place in UK workplaces. I see no reason to exempt artists from these precautions.

I agree. I think it is a sign of the times, courtesy has a low priority with some people in this rush-rush world.

Or it could have been a bizarre ironing accident.

Vintage white custom plate. Ohhh. Made by Jack's custom instruments in Manchester.

As promised. Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to get it right! I think it sounds killer and doing these demos always teaches me something new about gear I own! T

I forgot how nice these looked, especially the Matt Freeman model.

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Sorry I missed that! He did get the name right when he relisted it though: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/electric-guitar-Ernie-ball-/202272055658 Now no longer available. Perhaps he used it for firewood during the recent cold spell...

I dont think he is. There may be a small but significant clue in his forum name. Its hard to spot though ...

It's almost like he's done it deliberately?

Gigged my new (to me) Barefaced Midget and compact last night with my (also new to me) Orange Terror head and got a hell of a lot of compliments. Both guitarists and our drummer commented on how good they sounded. They impressed me most when I was loading in and out tbh!

Nah, i meant i could start another thread, that seems to be the norm on here :-) I need to find a band worthy of my compressor lol.

yes agreed, I play along with the guitar but I actually start it by myself (I copied the late bass player from the band as I had listened to him play it millions of times)

I too like the stock settings. It seems to me that most of the Tone prints are based on slapping, which i dont do. I know they are not only for the authors style, but even so. i find the TC Electronic tone prints to work better for me. I cant honestly say if i find it as transparent as the Cali, i suppose its not, but as i use one or tweo other effects which all colour my tone i dont worry about this side. I I really need to get in to the tone editor at seem point, but for now i just trun it on and leave it at whatever its set at from before. In fact last night i hadnt noticed i was turning it on and off by mistake when i was using one of my large feet to turn my Aftershock on and off. The two are so close i was hitting both by mistake. No one said anything, and even i didnt notice until i looked down and saw the light was off......but thats for another thread lol.

I'm sorry to say that its happened plenty of times to me on here. Its a small slice of life outside in the big world You will find a lack of courtesy in every corner. BC isnt immune. Its just on a smaller scale. Some people are just plain rude / ignorant / lacking in social skills

I suspect some people feel that exchanges of messages are somehow a bit different from dealing with people face to face - a bit removed maybe - and they might often be more polite if they met "real" people in real life. A bit like the old "on the internet nobody knows you're actually a dog". I try and behave to the opposite of this completely - when you deal face to face with people there's usually little opportunity for confusion when you have language, body language, facial expression etc., but there's plenty of opportunity for that when it's just written words. On top of that, I think it's very easy to get a bad reputation in no time at all in a forum environment where things can escalate really quickly.

A fair point, but my current role is ironing laundry, and the Squier performs surprisingly well as an ironing board, provided you don't mind your clothes smelling faintly of melted nitro afterwards...

How did you pay? PayPal you should have some recourse. Everything I've bought from Bumtree I've collected it. I treat it like a local advertiser.

Yep, that's what I thought Michael but I guess I just wanted air my annoyance about these sites and to say how this would never/rarely happen on BC.

Etiquette demands that one turns one's back, signalling one's utter contempt by refusing to watch.

Similar remarks have been made of 'modern times' and 'the youf of today' since records began; John Aubrey relates such sentiments in his writings at the time of Elisabeth I (1626-1697...). It seems to be one of the signs of advancing years, like needing reading glasses and emitting little groans when rising from armchairs.

I dont understand the question.

Unfortunately not everyone responds in the way you would wish to respond. I've noticed a family member who conducts her life on her mobile phone is much less likely to respond to an email but apparently she is big on whatsapp, whatever that is! I once spent a week bombarding a seller on here with messages about what he was selling and that I wanted to buy it: he did not have his mobile enabled for PM's so had PX'd it before he finally saw my message. It's frustrating, and some would say rude but as the poster above, most of my dealings have been fine on here too.

Stew, this is only because I'd run in that Midget so well for you ...

Thanks all for your thoughts on this. I'm going with the glass half full view on it. I love it, plays like a dream and looks awesome. And I've got the cover note from Fender if I decide to sell in the future.

Cor blimey. What a shame - they used to be superb. Sorry to hear of your troubles - perhaps it's worth us announcing this to everyone incase anyone else gets caught.

...and it goes up to 11

This is sick! Liked and subscribed! 🙌

Added a few pedals (Luxe, Green Russian and a RAT clone), removed one (Ditto), also did some changes to the order. Made a secondary board and reinstated a few old pedals. I just couldn't get to grips with the one switch control of the TC ditto. Do I need to stamp it once, twice, hold? This makes me think while recording... and there goes another attempt at making a decent loop down the drain. That's why I bought a extra switching pedal for my Boss looper, blablas can cope better with more switches. Also placed my old Harley Benton compressor in front of the looper, this gives me the illusion of having just a little bit more control over the quality of the sound I want to loop. The two boards in one picture.