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Hi Maude et al, Very sorry to read this. Here is the honest and unabridged story of the B Social from start to finish, you may want a hot beverage and a biscuit before you start, you definitely will by the end... So after an evening with our Japanese importer in early 2013 it became apparent that due to the increasing number of players living in small apartments (Japan especially) traditional bass amps for the home were simply too bulky and often too loud for their desired application. However despite players attempting to get around this by using very small bass combos or going down the iPad into headphones route there was still a desire for a premium amp for the home that would not look out of place whilst providing high quality performance. So with these thoughts in mind we set out to design what would become the B Social. We knew from the start it should be more than just a bass amp and that it should also be a premium stereo Bluetooth streaming music player so that it can also take up that role for people where space is limited. Also from the beginning we felt it was important to have two inputs for song writing sessions/jams and perhaps most importantly so the B Social could used by music teachers, both can plug in etc, play music/backing track via Bluetooth etc, encouraging players to write and record easily together(Hence Be Social) We then expanded on this by having the built in audio interface for direct recording, again we thought it would be great for jammers and teachers/students as the interface will split the audio from the separate inputs so resulting in two separate recorded tracks. Then we had the thought to make the set up as ‘clean’ as possible it would be great if the unit had an integral wireless system to remove the need an instrument cable. I don’t think this had been done on any guitar/bass amp before? Boss have just done it 3 years later on their new Katana Air... Lastly the addition of our AppTek input meant certain Amp Sims and FX could be used expanding the overall possibilities. So now we knew what we wanted and then there was just the challenge to get all that into a small stylish box with perfect performance and no noises interference etc. Music streaming needed to be of high quality whilst retaining the instrument reproduction/performance we would expect etc etc. Whilst it may not seem it from the outside this was a huge and ambitious project for a company our size bearing in mind we have one full time engineer and another part time(Roland/Boss alas we are not) but we wanted to make the best product that we could and move things forward for today’s generation of ‘Pro’ home players. We also added two 4ohm speaker outs so the B Social can be linked to and drive two 4 ohm cabs if really big bass/volume was ever required. A B Social driving 2 x 810s is much fun indeed. It was by no means an easy challenge but move forward to mid 2014 and after months of coffee fuelled late nights, weird noises and copious swearing we had a final prototype that did everything we wanted beautifully(in fact it still does as it’s on my desk playing music as I write this). So far so good... Of course once you have a prototype you have to cost it and then mass produce it consistently to the standards we have set for ourselves over the past 21 years. The cost we knew would be higher than was ideal purely to the amount of tech in it and the fact the only speakers that we were happy with were the Italian made SICA Dual Concentrics of which are alas not cheap. Because of the tech/home consumer aspects of the B Social we felt it would be best to not build it in our factory but a factory more used to manufacturing this type of product. (I will come back to this) The final costs however did come in quite higher than what we had originally aimed for and if using our normal margin/mark up would mean the B Social would have to retail at roughly £800... Way too high it goes without saying. We weren’t however prepared to cheapen the product after all the work so instead decided that we would cut our own margin on the product by around half of what we would expect to make on a regular product which meant with distributor and store margins factored in we could get the price down to what we felt was a more realistic and achievable £599. So fast forward to January 2015 NAMM show, we launch the B Social and the reaction is fantastic, everyone trying it loved it and we were happy, price was never scoffed at by anyone who tried it. However despite not a single person in the UK having seen let alone tried one at this point this happened: Now we will always take these kind of threads with a pinch of salt but also naturally we do listen to the feedback taking on board what we can etc. So this did hit a nerve more than perhaps it does normally with people suggesting we should be selling the unit for less than what it costs us to make...The costs meant we were not making a great deal per unit and yet despite this we were being chastised for how much the unit was. A PJB Double Four is around £400 with no Bluetooth, no wireless transmitter/receiver, no recording interface, no secondary input, no IOS app connectivity etc, no independent EQ for the music being streamed etc etc. So it truly amazed us the toxic reaction to the price point. Regardless we move forward and thankfully sales and feedback were very good. For many of our artists it’s the perfect on the road companion and a large number of our artists have bought and use the B Social nightly in the dressing room on the road. some have even had flight cases made for their B Socials which is always nice to see. Fast forward a couple of years and lots of B Socials have been sold and all is well. We did however start to notice that whilst the vast majority of units were built as spec and all good we were finding the odd one where there were issues, mainly small things but a number of units were actually not shipped out because of this. Easy to do with our stock in the UK as we spot check every shipment but more tricky on direct shipments from the factory to distributors overseas as it is up to them to do the same as us and spot check shipments. Whilst I am sure the majority do this there are also some I would think do not... Because of these issues and after much arguing with the factory we began to lose faith that every unit was being built properly and to spec. (Remember this is/was not our normal factory) Because of this we have sadly now been halted production and it is highly unlikely we will use that particular factory ever again. The majority of units out there should be and will be great (hence the guys saying theirs are fine) but majority is not good enough. The two units from here that were sold on Ebay before Christmas were both B stock sold at a highly reduced rate as they had been loaned to a school previously but all was assumed to be ok with them, of course as laid out clearly here they weren’t and those items have been refunded and will now not be resold at any price. Hope this helps to clarify the situation somewhat. Time for a beer.

This. And this. I'd be willing to send an El Cheapo instrument by post/courier, but not anything decent. Collection only is a way of weeding out chancers and time wasters, too. If someone can't be bothered to collect a quality instrument, they aren't that interested.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to recall in another thread we were being a bit bashed by you and when I apologised and asked for details it all went quiet? Again if we dropped the ball with you apologies but I need at least some info on what happened as we are never evasive or indifferent. If this was done via email and you still have copies would you be so kind to resend to [email protected] so that I can fully investigate what happened and come back to you with some proper answers. Also in these days there are so many ways to contact companies(some would say too many) please remember that we are always at the end of the phone, happy to talk and that is often the best way for a time dependent response...

Absolutely, the core of the amp is obviously ABM, there’s a reason that the ABM range has been in production continuously for 21 years since day one. Saying that the differences are more than just skin deep. Actually the first point is that each Head Of Doom is built here in England by one of two people. One being the guy who actually designed the amp Dave Green and the other his wife Joanne who between them have around 60 years of amplifier design/building experience. This is the same for all our valve heads as well. The standard ABM 600 is made in our China factory so for starters it was always going to be more money than an ABM 600. Externally the steel housing and front panel costs a lot more than the wood ABM chassis and wood sleeve amazingly. Then internal differences are increased voltage running the valve pre amp(the Doom...) increased output transformer and the part which adds a good chunk of the added cost is the three isolated slave outputs, these each have their own small transformer for true isolation. So add to the cost an extra three transformers, all of which are handwired by one guy 10 miles down the road, this also includes the output transformer as well.... Then don’t forget the extra VU meter! ;-) Hope that helps.

If you ever need any help with the V4 just give us a shout

Noel on how he got involved with the JHE (from our interview in 2000). "I saw this ad in Melody maker that Eric Burdon was forming the New Animals. He’d sung with my band from Folkestone called the Loving Kind about six months before. We’d played in a club in London and he’d come up and sung a couple of tunes, and said 'You lot are good'. Basically in September ‘66 I thought I’d audition for Eric in case he might remember me. Did he? No, and that was my bit of good luck! "I played a couple of tunes on guitar and that was when Chas Chandler wandered over to me. He was like a star to me, I was only 20 years old. He said 'Can you play bass?' I said 'No, but I’ll try it.' I was handed a bass, and played three songs with this American gentleman, a drummer, myself and a keyboard player. Three songs with no vocal at all. Then the American gentleman said 'Can I have a word with you?' "There was a nice little pub next door to the place and he discovered he liked best bitter. He talked about music, I asked him about the American scene, had he ever seen Sam Cooke, that sort of stuff, Booker T, and he was asking me about the English scene which at that point was the Small Faces, the Move, the Kinks. Then he said to me 'Do you want to join my band.?' And that was Mr James Hendrix."

I suspect we all sympathise with where you're coming from Big Red; but if it's the case that Ashdown now have (generally) fantastic and responsive customer service and from what you are saying it is a big improvement on what you experienced 7 or 8 years ago then that is something to be applauded and cheered, right?

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Sounds about right to me.

I'm lucky with my neighbours. Technically we are detached, but due to various extensions built over the years there's about 1 inch between. A few years ago Neighbour 1 was having trouble with his teenage daughter. He was embarrassed about the music noise. She had her window open and was blasting Cypress Hill out. I said I reckon I could stop it with 1 conversation with her. I saw her later. Told her I approved of her music. She was surprised I had heard of Cypress Hill (!) I told her they were one of my favourites. And then I started to rap Insane in the Membrane at full volume in the street. With dance moves. 10 seconds later she was running away from the greying middle aged man rapping outside her house. Job done.

Dunno if anybody's said this yet, but an ambiguous chord is still a chord. You can pick two notes completely at random, and if you play them together you have a chord. Giving it a name is a separate issue.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand she's finished! Currently out of the country but I can't wait to get back and pick her up from Alpher HQ!

And yet another one kills Rock n Roll.

Another anecdote among the many already on here: I recently sold a Shuker to a BC member. He drove over from the Nottingham area (a round trip of a good 80 miles I would think), came in and tried out the bass; we had a very pleasant chat about nothing in particular; he handed me the cash (actually counted it out in front of me); picked up the bass and off he went. A very amenable encounter all round. This is just a personal thing I know, but for me meeting the people I'm trading with is half the fun.

I am not a prolific buyer second hand but I have collected the three basses I have bought from here. One a 200 mile round trip to Sussex, another was a 400 mile round trip to South Wales and the third a 1000 mile round trip to Scotland. Admittedly the latter was tied in to a trip up North anyway. I much prefer to collect in person as it allow me to inspect the goods in front of them but also hand them the cash / bank transfer there and then. Deal done and no thoughts after the event as to what could go wrong. The first two people did a deal with me on petrol costs so it was cheaper than a courier for them and did not increase my costs too much. I also like meeting other people, especially bass players so the trip becomes an adventure. I have also delivered an amp to London to ensure both sides were happy with deal. Yes time is a factor but I am prepared to prioritise my time to make it work. I also enjoy driving my cars.

And there was me thinking a dyad was some kind of mythical creature, like a faun.

You too buddy

No worries matey. x

I refuse to respond to any enquiries about items I'm selling. If people are really interested in buying they'll make the effort to find me.

And there's your answer - way too many scammers around these days. If I'm selling a high-value bass or amp or anything else, I will always prefer the buyer to visit in person, try it out to check that it actually works and does what he wants, and then pay in cash so that he can't fraudulently recall his money later. Sad, but true.

3 is the minimum.

Sad how Noel ended up, but...........even knowing how it would end, I doubt he would have traded his life for any of ours. He was there and he was great.

It can be worth contacting the seller directly and asking. Some really will be collection only, but some will agree to a meet, or to source boxes/bubble-wrap for a good offer and confirmed sale. I`ve secured postage deals on collection only eBay items with direct contact before.

This is also worth keeping an eye on... https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/MTD-Kingston-Z-5-String-Bass-Cherry-Red-Finish-Gig-Bag/112739572310?hash=item1a3fcd5a56:g:WVYAAOSweLBaUg2c

+1 me too,Hartke didn't give a damn when my new Kilo died,they didn't ever return any of my emails. I got my CTM100 second hand from here & when i phoned Ashdown (twice) for a little advice they couldn't have been more pleasant/helpful to me so they get a big thumbs up from me.

Great playing!!

Thanks for filling in the history it’s appreciated. Sound Control went into administration in April 2008, remember it well as we lost an incredible amount of money because of it. But also good guys like you weren’t given the proper back up you deserve and in many cases much worse. We heard many tales of customers who had paid for expensive special order items who simply lost their money and all hope of what they ordered the moment the shutters went down. Sad all round. Apologies for how it all played out, it must have played on your mind greatly to be this passionate a decade on. If you still had the Superfly I would be offering to take a look at it but hey that ship has sailed as you say. I think now we hug(briefly and with manly back slap of course)and move on?

I bought a second hand mk500 head and had a minor issue, Mark Gooday sent me a message and offered a free service. Turns out I could solve it myself - just a dusty pot. But still. I’d say they’ve shifted enough gear to have the one or two problems as described...nothing without a good explanation...i know much bigger companies with much worse service/support records, and more “boutique” brands with hilariously bad service in comparison. I’ve used their gear for a long time, and haven’t had anything other than a good time. I suppose there are 1000’s of their punters having a trouble free time who aren’t compelled to write about it.

I’ve got a Squier Matt Freeman which is pretty similar to the cv p bass 70s. Everything fine about it. Tried switching pickups but preferred the stock pickups. Had to change the jack socket after a couple of years to Switchcraft jack. Put a set of flats on. Rather good.

You really must, it's a masterpiece of comedy.

I've seen stills of him using the Thunderbird (#4), a sunburst Thunderbirdm a Rick, a NR Epiphone.

Wow - the filter didn't like the word ' hands '

Just for clarity, next time I play Walk On The Wild Side in the Dog & Duck (sliding double stops all the way through) and a punter congratulates me on my "chords", you'd like me to tell him that they're not "chords", they're "dyads"? And when he says, "WTF is a dyad?", the correct answer is, "It's two notes played simultaneously to create an interval, but not enough notes to warrant being called a chord". And when he says "Are you taking the fosters?", the correct answer is, "No, this how bass players think about their music". Bwahahahahaha!!!

Actually, you could just write tacet bars, because what you end up with when a Guitarist is confronted with notation, is exactely that - Loads of tacet bars. Sorry, casual stereotyping.....

I hate driving so if I can get a courier to collect it for me, then that's my preferred method. When you look at the cost of time/petrol it makes sense to use them. This has only ever gone wrong twice for me and one was a Wal!! I recently bought a Japanese Ray on eBay where the seller insisted on a collection only. Fortunately BC has a wealth of users all over the country so I enlisted the help of one AndyTravis who lives locally to the seller. Andy collected the bass, played it to make sure it was OK (well you would, wouldn't you) and arranged and couriered to me. Worth every penny of the Handshake I sent him. I admire all you fellas who travel up and down the country to buy/sell gear - I can't do it.

I'm sorry if I touched a nerve. I didn't want to cause offence just highlight a single word you used. As far as I am aware marriage is not a job, they are not the employer and you are not the employee. You are the king and you wife is the queen, and your children are the prince and princesses of your castle. I love my wife and kids to pieces, respect them and only want the best for them. I want them to grow and realise their full potential, to become who they were truly meant to be (my eldest child, 26, is transgender) and I am fully supportive of that decision too. Be who you are, not who others expect you to be.

is that supposed to mean something - or we still in the 60's and I should beat her until she does???? We can't all be knuckle dragging alpha males eh??? FFS!

Personally I wouldn't (and never have) practice without headphones - for one, the wife wouldn't put up with it and secondly I'd hate for the neighbours to be doing the very same thing - can't imagine anythgn worse than a booming bass drone coming through the walls. In fact, during an on-going 'feud' with our adjoining neighbours about noise levels ( and his fecking DIY at 8:30am on a Saturday morning) they've been playing a radio at pretty loud levels, and after speaking to Environmental Health about it they say that if you can hear it enough to make out what song it is then it's too loud - you're entitled to sit in your own house and not be forced to listen to something you don't want to! It also seems that recently Councils are really cracking down on anti-social noise levels so I'd think carefully about how you preceed with this and how very quickly and easily she can escalate this! Decent set of headphones is the answer.

surely somebody wants to snap this up?? seems like a great price to me!! id bite his hand off if i weren't already over stocked on gear https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MTD-Kingston-KZ5-Bass-Guitar/322993238561?hash=item4b33e5b221:g:fcYAAOSwogpaVyPc

Why do you need to? I don't like thirds much (especially the major 3rd) which on the guitar always sounds slightly dissonant to me so I'll either leave it out all together or replace it with a 9th which I find far more interesting and musically pleasing. And to answer the OP as soon as you play more than one note at the same time it's a chord IMO.

Goodness. However that is exactly the kind of bass I'd really want to hand over in person even if it meant meeting half way.

I'll pile on to say 'wow', very nice bass you got. I like the color. Yup looks to be made after '89. The only control that doesnt have a pull up feature is the mixer pot. If one of your tone pots isnt pulling, then its stuck, which certainly can happen. I freed one of mine up by removing the knob up top and dribbling a tiny bit of Deoxit on a toothpick and carefully channeling a couple of drips down the shaft, reinstall the knob and work it in. As for the eq controls, my normal playing style is leaving the knobs down 99% of the time, just filter off high end a couple of notches. I only pull up when I want something pretty extreme...my Mesa amps are very bright as-is, so very rarely do I go looking for more trebly.

... but it can be rendered inoperative; I select 'Repeat' (an icon at lower left...). I'd rather have the current track repeat than have a random whatever spoiling the mood. Sod, 'em, I say; sod 'em all.

Anyway, just to cheer everyone up here's the Ace of Spades album cover with some kittens on it.

Yesterday was the first time I had the chance to let the 4 Stroke run loose. To cut a long story short: it’s awesome. Lots of lovely mids, controlled lows, way better in the band mix than my former Streamliner 900, and with a lot of heft to the tone. Especially paired with my SolidGoldFX Beta, the tone was to die for.

I love the look of all three 😀👍

Lucky you. I never liked playing with headphones. Even when I'm playing quietly, I use my amp. But yes, you do have to mind the levels and remember just how much bass can travel through walls. However, to prevent someone from playing amplified at home (keeping levels reasonable) during the day is just not on either. Some people expect absolute silence from their neighbours, and sometimes the same people are the ones who think nothing of playing their home cinemas with sub-bass and yelling in the house at 3am when they come home after a few drinks... It's tricky. When a neighbour has unreasonable expectations and demands, at some point you have to say 'enough' and live your life too... but you're taking a gamble as to what happens next, so it's important that you remain 'reasonable' even if others aren't, so that if the time comes, you cannot be found to be at fault.

It's a metaphor for our overcrowded planet: there isn't much room left...