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There's a lot of hate for eBay here, I have to say I've very rarely had any problems with selling via eBay and usually always get a good price for what I sell. There are a few basic rules to follow to maximize your end sale price and minimize the fees you pay. If it's helpful to anyone, below are the rules I always follow when selling on eBay: 1: eBay offer a maximum £1 selling fee at least once a month, often twice a month. If you can wait, then only sell when these offers come up and you will only pay £1 to eBay (PayPal will still take circa 3.5% but I can live with this). 2: Always set up your auction to end on Sunday between 6pm and 8pm-ish. This is when the maximum amount of people are likely to be in a position to bid. If your item ends at 2am on a Tuesday, no one will be placing that last minute bid! 3: Always start your auction at £1 with no reserve. Placing a reserve may safeguard your item selling for pennies, but it also puts a lot of people off from taking a 'punt' bid. Also, listing your item with a high start bid has the same effect. People love to think they can get a deal and if they bid when the price is low, then there in for the full auction and often bid again. 4: Accurate title that includes as many words that describe your item that can be picked up when punters search on eBay. No brainer really. 5: Description. So many times I've seen auctions with a 2 sentence description. Go into detail and sell your item to the punters! A good 3 or 4 paragraphs to tell them all about it. 6: Pictures. eBay allows for 12 pictures for 'free', use them all. 12 photos from different angles, front, back, side, etc. The more pictures, then better the end sale price. 7: Postage. Always offer postage!!! Anything can be couriered these days and you can get boxes in abundance from your local supermarket, just ask! You can also buy a 100m roll of decent bubble wrap on eBay for about £20, which will wrap up around 6-8 guitars and give them ample protection when boxed with a little care. If you dont offer postage you are effectively losing 90% of potential buyers. A little effort to pack your item to then be able to offer postage goes a long way! For me the above rules work a treat, I've sold hundreds of things on eBay and always got around the price I was looking for. I would however say that if you are selling something really niche like a custom 6 string bass that you want at least £2000 for, then the better option might be selling it on consignment at The Gallery or Bass Direct, but they will take 20%. Russ.

Don't. Just don't ever mention the C word to @Al Krow. It always ends in tears. 😃

Just got home from a splendid evening with my Bowie tribute band. The venue was a pub with a dedicated concert room at the side, with house PA and sound man. Just before we went on there were about 6 non-band people in the room, but once we took to the stage the place filled to capacity. We played 2 hours 20 minutes straight through, no breaks, and the time just flew by. For once I was standing well forward of my rig (Demeter into Super Twin), and both basses (AVRI Precision and Dingwall PZ5) sounded glorious. Mrs Axe commented afterwards that the bass came through loud and clear. Happy moments like this make life good!

I put a pair of Sandberg Black Label PJ Pickups in my Warmoth project. There was a problem with the phase since there was a mistake in the instructions manual which resulted in 21 EUR extra charged by my luthier. I informed Sandberg about this and Holger sent me a set of strings and a leather strap as a "sorry". Awesome customer service.

This...initial cost £120. Bits and bobs (pickguard and Yamaha Attitude Bridge) £50 ish. Has seen off more expensive BB’s (1024x/1100s/614) and holds it’s own against any Fender I’ve played (a lot). Lives it’s life beside two basses which would cost £10,000 to order today...and I think these were £399 when in the shops.

We did the BlondiPop gi:g in our hometown last night. 8-11 Cool local place that does a good job with local music. Very nice local " well to do" crowd. Mix of youngsters and oldsters. I didn't think we were as " on" as we were at the previous 3 gigs. I thought we were kind of sloppy. I certainly made my share of mistakes. Blue

After reading these replies, I think you should change your question to, 'What sounds bad through a barefaced two ten?' . It'll save you a lot of time.

Really good turnout (surprisingly) as I thought it would be empty. Had the Ampeg on 2(!) as its just too much overkill for pubs TBH, shame, but its never had a chance to really open up. I may have to move it on soon as everything goes FOH these days ;(

I’m actually more worried about being scammed as a seller.

Update. I am sooo happy with this bass. I've dropped the action VERY slightly and played with the intonation. I also spent some time with a flexible sanding block on as I felt the fret ends were just a tad rough, certainly not as nice feeling as my Squier Jaguar, but this is partly because the Jag has rolled edges (not known back in 62). The fingerboard has sucked up three doses of Dunlop lemon oil but seems happy now. Mercifully I haven't needed to touch the truss rod. The bridge pickup sounds really good and through my TE combo it's my main choice with tone right up. The neck pickup with tone rolled back is great for songs where i want a cod-upright sound. It's great being able to have tone pre-set to suit each pickup. I've started delving into mixing eth pickups now, to me it sounds best with one pickup right up and a bit of the other mixed in, rather than both on full. I haven't yet found a 'bad' sound, and its great to plug it into the Trace and get real, rich sounds. It slaps well (as you would hope) but most of the time I'm playing it conventional fingerstyle. It deals with chords nice and clearly. It's very slightly neck heavy, which is only an issue when playing above fret 12 and it starts to rotate slightly. The reverse tuners are quite 'quick' but I've had no problems with accurate tuning. It holds tune in the case very well. I also like the factory fit nickel strings - normally I'm a stainless string fan. I have attacked some of the relicing with the back of a scissors blade, there were multiple small marks that all looked very similar, they are now not much bigger but look more varied and natural. the same is true of the dents, but less obvious (and harder to do anything about). I'm surprised how much I like the colour. Jack has a (bright new) shell pink Fender Strat with a single humbucker which makes an interesting contrast. It already feels like an 'old friend' and certainly flatters my playing. I sometimes wander off mid-song because I'm just staring at the lovely aged finish on the back of that lovely slim neck... I commend this bass to non-Flea fans who want a reliced jazz. Having said that I think I'll take the performer to the next rehearsal, as now I've got a good solid mental image to compare it to.

I've been trying to sell a SX P bass on here for a while but had no luck. Had it listed on Gumtree too without one sniff. I hadn't considered the Facebook market place until I read this thread. Listed it there on Friday night and a nice bloke was happily driving off with it this morning! So glad to avoid the boxing up and courier faff as I've done waaay too much of that. I do feel safer buying and selling on here though, but thanks for the FB tip!

Jam session today ...only a small combo but it rocked

Nope my fault - I derailed it 😧 Look forward to your posts, thank you 👍😊

Hi I've just gone through your exact dilemma... I've been using an AE212 for all my gigs (from theatre shows, covers band, panto, sessions and even in orchestral settings) for years and it's been absolutely superb. But 12mths ago due to the weight of it I decided to go modular using single 12s. After trying loads of manufacturers and talking with Alex Claber I chose Barefaced, going with their Big Baby 2 and a Super Midget (both 12", 8ohm 600w - although they can handle a LOT more!) My Berg weighs in at 29kg but the Barefaced stuff is a ridiculous 10kg!! Yes, I believe the AE212 has a bit more bottom but both Barefaced cabs can be EQ'd to compensate (although they are MUCH better for double bass than the AE). They are totally transparent and clear, additional to the "bass thump" I now can hear every detail of every note (I've had to brush up on my chops too as now I can't get away with poor technique - they're that clear!) Obviously linked together they are immensely louder than the Berg. Longevity due to the lightweight construction is unknown to me but I always pamper my gear so I'm not worried about that. Although there's reports of of them falling down a flight of stairs with no damage (they're so light they bounce! - the Berg certainly wouldn't 😂😂) It's was a sad day to say farewell to my trusty and excellent AE212 but I'm so happy with my choice to go modular. Hope my experiences of changing cabs helps. (I'm not involved with Barefaced and I expect most high end 12" cabs will suffice but there is life after Bergantino! Just my opinion) Although the new NXT does look interesting..... 😁 Have fun choosing.

Just used mine at rehearsal and wound the mids up full with the selector in the middle position. Sounded bloody fab. Next trip out for it will be Giants of Rock next Saturday.

I picked up a Yamaha rbx170 a little while ago for peanuts as a backup, put in a fender CS 62 pickup, new electrics, and my strings of choice and it's blinding. I've owned 100+ basses over the years, and the neck is phenomenal, second best I've ever played, plays like butter, sound's awesome, and only weighs 7 lbs. 👍

I would love to use BC exclusively but I find selling here requires much patience. Of late I've sold a number of basses on ebay when the £1 seliing fee offers are around so only paying for PayPal. I've closed my FB account so no longer an option but it never really worked for me. I always advertise basses on ebay at a higher price than on here and depite this pretty much sell them all on ebay. I do try and do personal meet ups even it it means a bit of travelling so I can be assured of safe arrival and buyer satisfaction. So far so good tbh although I'll prbably get bitten at some point. I always look to buy on here though and BC is also great for trades.

Nobody is compelled to use the BC marketplace, eBay, Gumtree or even the classified pages of the local rag (if it still exists). If you have something to sell, it's up to you to find the best channel through which to move it on. You may well have to accept less than you consider it worth in order to do so. That's just good old market forces at work (the same market forces that work to your advantage when you buy something for a bargain price, remember). If you don't like it, that's just life, I'm afraid. If you're buying, caveat emptor is as valid a motto as it ever was.

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Very nice! I see that we share a similar taste in basses AND wood flooring 😁

Sure thing!

I’m possibly wrong, I certainly haven’t seen in figures backing this up, it’s just my personal experience. I think a lot of people are wise to the pitfalls of buying online, plus they are protected to a large degree, both by PayPal and their banks. I think nowadays it’s the seller who’s more at risk, I think scammers have turned their attention to them. This is particularly the case on Gumtree, at least from my experience. That’s one of the benefits of selling on here, you do kind of know people, or at least know of them. You can see their posts and feedback etc.

I recently bought a brand new Spector Euro LX (Poplar Burl): Its my first ever Spector and I'm so impressed with it. Possibly the most beautiful bass I've ever owned (from a very long list). So much so it makes my ACG and Vigier look plain! I personally love 'that EMG sound' but, as others have said, the Tonepump is 'hot' on stock settings. I've just made the adjustment described elsewhere to turn it down (a nice feature). I was surprised at the reductionist control-cavity; very clean, precise and empty lol. To my ears, this bass sounds similar to the old Steinberger XL. Fat, burpy, well-rounded low-end. All in all: A beautifully designed and built instrument. Flawless in fact. Looks sublime, plays like a dream, well-balanced, relatively lightweight and sounds incredible. What else is there?

The B word that cannot be pronounced will soon take care of that...

So now it's ready. Gold speed domes fitted. Put 40-95 strings on it. Great tone I can tell!

I also like Basschat. There are people I've bought and sold from on here without a thought as I know they are regulars and well thought of. And that's without checking feedback. I have also successfully used a retailer on a commission basis (for guitars), where you can argue that they have a wider audience and the higher price they can command largely offsets the commission.

Bits of kit that are plenty big enough to contain a proper transformer with an IEC socket, but instead come with a flimsy plastic power supply with the thinnest cable possible, that is guaranteed to last at least a whole 10 minutes on a stage 20 different power supplies, each with different voltage, AC/DC, polarity, so that none are interchangeable - but all with the exactly the same style of connector

Just got home from a splendid gig too. Not normally that busy but absolutely heaving by the end. A short one for us at just over 2 hours. I finally get to use my basschat cab now I have got a cover for it and it is magnificent. Strangely I have to turn down a bit, I assumed I would have to turn up, as it is 1 8r 1x12 and I normally play into 2 8r 1x12, but seems really loud. Very clear though. Great night.

..in your experience

It seems a lot of those commenting above who aren't particularly happy with the Marketplace may be trade or semi-trade sellers. A number refer to multiple items not moving. Given that most of us who are members on here are players/enthusiasts who only buy and sell occasionally, it is hardly surprising that those with a lot of stuff for sale are not going to get dozens of takers. I have bought and sold two or three things on here over the years and everything has been fine. I suspect that most are in the same position as me. If you are a dealer or have a shop/room full of kit for sale, perhaps you'd be better off advertising on eBay, FB or in a more commercial arena.

2 hours on and I've agreed a trade with another forum member for my Jazz bass - Basschat wins

Shame these things happen anywhere but i've had the opposite on BC where @muydeemer travelled up by train from London to pick up a bass at Glasgow. I drove into Glasgow about 50miles for me but unfortunately he was held up due to flooding at that time which was on the news. He contacted me several times with updates and fortunately i was able to wait in Glasgow, get a late lunch /early dinner with my wife until he arrived. Guy was brilliant, liked the bass handed over the cash with absolutely no issues. He jumped back on the train that was just about to leave and all done in 10mins. I've had some great deals with both BC and FB to be honest but generally i find BC deals go a bit smoother. No idea why but maybe its because most of us are all doing the same thing when it comes to GAS and we just like being treated the same way we would treat others. We are a lovely bunch of people on BC. Dave

We don't try and compete with the likes of FB and eBay but we like to think our strength is our community and safety which was only enhanced with the fee which saw any chancers take a hike. It's nice to know that most people try us first as a way of supporting the site also, even if they have eventual success elsewhere.

Just before assembly, we used to put drawing pins in the felt of the hammers in our school piano. The music teacher would play 4 bars at the start of the hymn sounding like she was in a honky tonk bar.

"They're Grrrreat" (Allegedly)

My goal was a super-portable rig that would last a long time at small gigs. It's not rock/metal, so huge volume was not a priority. The likes of Epifani, Bergantino, Vanderkley etc were outside my budget, but I still wanted the grooves to be what they deserve to be. I ended up with a Barefaced One10 and a Taurus Qube 300, all of which fits into a cajon bag along with all the cables I need. I am very, very happy with it. I can use public transport to get to gigs, and have a few beers after. (It's zero tolerance for alcohol in the Highway Code where I live.) I have considered many alternatives, my budget ever-expanding. There's a list of rejects at the bottom of this writeup for those as anal as myself. I have properly trialled the GK MB200 and Warwick LWA 500 heads with the One10 cab, neither of which did it for me. I'm writing this up because I feel Taurus needs your attention. Taurus needs your attention. For context: my only bass is a Yamaha BB passive P/J with Thomastik jazz flats on, and I like the Sly Stone to Me'shell Ndegeocello kinda approach to sound. Middle of the road, no fancy sheet, but it should sound like an old tree with gnarly roots. Be the meat in the mix rather than "cut through the mix", y'know. So, to the point: Yamaha BB passive P/J + ... 1) GK MB200 I so, sooo wanted to like it. Great size, ridiculously light, QUIET, fair price, beautiful build, headphone socket, the knobs and switches are sexual... but I couldn't get a natural tone out of it. During my research, I kept hearing about The GK Sound. For others like me who didn't know what that meant: the bass in Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name is that. It's iconic; you hear it once, then you die knowing that tone well. But, at least with my bass, my fingers, my cab, and my sets of headphones, that's it. No matter how I EQd the living soul out of that thing, it felt like it didn't want to amplify MY bass, but to enforce that one tone. I don't get it; it has 2-band mids, and a contour toggle. The math doesn't add up on paper, but in practice I didn't want any of those tones with me on stage. Bottom line: try before you buy. If your bass tone is less scooped than my P/J, you might be lucky, and have this wonderful amp do what you wanna hear. 2) Warwick LWA 500 This is the opposite of the GK. It doesn't want to interfere with your tone, so much so that the EQ targets frequencies which are mostly outside your bass' notes. I think it was designed for active basses, where you shape your tone on the built-in preamp. The LWA is equipped to EQ the room characteristics out of your stage sound; that is, extreme highs, and boomyness. And there's the built-in (optional) compressor, which indeed messes a bit with the volume, but not to an annoying extent. It's good enough if you like compressors. Overall the amp is like a "final touch" for your active bass on stage. My impression of the overall design was not so good. The knobs are small and difficult to read, compared to the GK. The feet are small and hard plastic, very slippery. I took it apart and I was not impressed by the airflow design. It did sound exactly like my bass at the jack though. But I want my amp EQ to have more shaping options in the bass' tonal range. 3) Taurus Qube 300 (winner) There's no headphone output, it's heavier and pricier than the MB200 or the LWA 500, and there's a noisy fan cooling it (not noticeable while playing). It's all because this was built for the stage, to amplify what you already have going, with a leeetle added salt, pepper and thick. The EQ options are very well designed. You've got toggles for quick fixes, and pots for setting up the basics during soundcheck. It can shape your core tone, but not by killing your bass' character. All the EQ combinations are usable sounds, because they are all the tones of your bass, shaped for different rooms and/or co-musicians. I've heard people compare Taurus to Ampeg as a "rock" brand. Don't get sidetracked by the genrealogy. It's a thick sound, it's what I expect from a small bass amp. On stage I vary styles by moving along the strings and/or pickups, not by tweaking my amp. I got compliments on the tone from all sorts, including an old Epifani/Warwick dealer. My bass is a stock BB414 with good strings (and minimal DIY saddle dressing). Go figure. If you have a passive bass, give a Taurus a go. Their combos are also killer, if a tad bright for my taste. The deserved praises of the One10 cab have been sung by others, I won't repeat them here. It's all true. (If I had cash to spare, I'd buy another one and use it as a coffee table until I need to run a loud gig with my own rig.) APPENDIX - Rejected alternatives Combos: Fender Rumble series (silver cloth grille): * 100: magically amazing value, super lightweight, great sound, but not loud enough for even small outdoor gigs. * 200: 15 inch speaker doesn't work well at low volumes (with everyone else in the band going acoustic). * 500: bulkier than what I wanted, why lug around two drivers and a big box when one good speaker should suffice. GK MB combos (110, 112): see below for GK sound. Eden ECs: * EC10: good sound, but heavy for the volume it can do. Fender Rumble 100 is better for the price. * EC15: heavy! Ibanez Promethean: didn't get a chance to try one out, but low-cost Ibanez electronics never impressed me, so I was OK with missing out. TC Electronic: pricey for the (to my ears) a bit sterile sound. YMMV. The rest were either heavy or very meh (Peavey, Ashdown, Ampeg). Blackstars came out later. Traynors were impossible to get where I live. Heads: Trace Elliot ELF: I don't trust anything that heats up so much. Eich/Puma, I couldn't get my hands on, and too pricey to buy without trying. Most others were too heavy or expensive. I hope this is of use to someone! Daniel PS: I do have sound recordings, but I have overdone it and my playing is bottom shelf shite, so I'll never get around to sharing it.

Fair enough. But then, and this is clearly only my opinion, but if I stand in front of the pedals then, being a righty, the lead from my bass is on my right hand side, if it were to then go into the left hand side of the pedal it has to cross my playing space from right to left at some point. So pedals right to left makes more sense to me to keep the cable run logical and tidy.

Feeling Good? I've done it based on Muse's version which works well as a three piece....

With a band i used to dep for, the (very good) drummer used to set up at the gig (always weddings) and play like he had never played before. Very badly and out of time. He used to do this to wind the venue or wedding planners up. I saw a lot of horror on their faces over the years, My current band's drummer does the same.....only its not a wind up 😞

I always fancied trying a Hughes and Kettner QT600