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Well , anyone else tried one yet ? Telecaster body and pickups with a lovely shortscale neck. ive not had it long enough (nor am I good enough )to define the sound. BUT I love the look and the sounds I can get out of it with the supplied Rotosound strings. It sits nice and is a real looker to me .

After China's wages priced themselves out the market , Thomann has moved production to Vietnam for most of their guitars. Wages in Vietnam may be low compared to other countries but poverty levels are half those found in China,India and the Philippines . It's labour laws are pretty good. All employees must have a contract, after 2 fixed term contracts (no longer than 3 years) contracts automatically become indefinite. This applies to seasonal workers too. Minimum 22 days paid leave, 26 for manual workers. 1 day added for every 5 years service. 30 days paid sick leave every year, rate is 75% of wage. Certain illnesses have 180 days sick leave, after 180 days the rate drops to between 45 and 65%. Females get 6 months maternity leave at full pay. Males are entitled to 5 days for natural birth, 7 for caesarean ,10 days for twins. Paid leave is also awarded for surrogate mothers and for adoption. Paid leave for sick children is 20 days. Bereavement is paid for 5 days. This is paid out by the Ministry for Health. By law working hours cannot exceed 48 hours per week. Laws prohibit discrimination and sexual harassment. Employers must provide a safe working environment with training and safety checks, Workers must get regular health checks. Hope this clears up some fears. The question shouldn't be "how can these cost so little ?", it should be "How come X charges so much ?".

I just recieved this and very happy! The Smith is getting its true voice come through. So happy with the purchase!

I’ve sourced everything for my builds on here and eBay; if you’re not in a hurry and keep a project on the back burner, then eventually something you want will turn up cheap. That said, often the specific parts I need are only available in (eg) the US, and not cheap. As I’ve said, I don’t think I’ve lost money on mine over the years, but best to build just for yourself and avoid thinking about resale value. One I forgot about (and still own) just to show bitsas don’t have to be Fenderesque - this was acquired as a nice bitsa P/J Fenderbird from a local BC-er, and gradually morphed into a “Mike Lull-type” custom Thunderbird with every component except body replaced: Warmoth one-piece mahogany body with book-matched cocobolo top. MIK Epiphone T’bird neck 1980’s Gibson logo Schaller M4S tuners (as on Victory bass) Dual Thunderbucker ‘66 pickups imported from US (cost probably over twice everything else put together, but fabulous pickups.....) Solid brass ‘60’s type bridge & tailpiece (also from US)

I took delivery of one of the new Mini Mako basses from Alpher on Thursday. Got it out the case and, being totally honest, I wasn't 100% sure about the tone. However, I adjusted the setup and spent some time playing around with it through my Ampeg PF-50T and now I love it. Totally different to what I was expecting but it's a really solid punchy tone and compliments the basses I already have. Obviously the build quality is excellent. The neck feels great and the edges have been expertly rolled with no sharp bits. It balances perfectly on a strap and the cutaway makes it easy to play right up to the end of the neck. I think the most innovative thing they've done is replaced the usual strap pins with bolts that screw into a thread set into the body. Along with some rubber washers (provided) these are perfect straplocks. The tough part will be not ordering another one! Branded Hiscox case is en route also.

ok here is some beach bum boogie for you , and I am a bit gutted I didn't think of that for the segue at the start I think I have covered most bases with the lyrics and layout on the photo and am reasonably happy with the result , even managed to collar Mrs Lurks for some input, I was intending to ask the lady across the road but I mentioned doing a bit of recording back in March .......... they are moving house on Friday , I don't think there is a connection now for a listen through to all your offerings

The bass arrived safely, I booked through Eurosender using the forum discount code, £12.50 from North Yorkshire to Cornwall using DPD and it took two days, you can grumble at that. First inspection, Hiscox case in good condition, that has to be a third of the price taken care of. It's got Schaller tuners which once removed felt very light indeed. I'd like the standard ones which are square pearloid ones but the only ones I can find are two for £35 each and a further one for £45 on ebay. The neck is original and also very light and in good condition really but could do with a refret, I should add I played it before stripping and it played really nicely and sounded good. I really like the fret markers which are cream/brown/cream pearl. The brown part is possibly a clear resin that has yellowed with age as I think you can see the rosewood grain below it. The bridge and tailpiece are original and will polish up hopefully. The bridge appears to have a brass top and the tailpiece is possibly aluminium. I'll know more when I work on it. I had no idea what the pickup was going be other than a Musicman style hunbucker, turns out it's a Kent Armstrong HBMN-1 and sounds nice, but ultimately completely wrong for what I want so will either go in my parts drawer or get sold. The electrics? Who knows? But they're going as it should have two volumes and two tones, and possibly a pair of pickup on/off switches depending on model. The scratchplate is homemade and will be going as well, as obviously it won't fit the pickups I'll be fitting. Now onto the body. This was going to be the interesting part as it would hopefully tell me what model, and age, the bass was. There's some history on the Hofner 182/185 here if anyone's interested. http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/hofner2/artb.html Off came the scratchplate and up went the confusion level. Apart from the MM route I was expec a neck pickup route as the 185 had a neck and bridge pickup at both extremes of the body, but it had a central pickup route that had been filled. Also the neck pocket had been shortened with a little infill. The outline of the body looks to be identical to all the pictures of 185's (not the very early ones that were pre offset and had the classic Hofner control plate) and is relatively thin, as I believe the Hofners were, but the pickup and neck route don't make sense. 🤔 If it is a different body I don't mind as it's nice and light and the neck fits perfectly. I also checked the scale length was correct as if the pocket had been filled and the bridge fitted to a different body then I might have problems later on, but no, it's bang on 30". Oh yeah, did I mention it was short scale. It strangely doesn't feel or look it though. I'll see what appears when I start sanding the body and headstock.

If anyone's wondering just what sort of old tosh you can produce in just over 2 hours, check this! It would be the perfect 3 minute pop song, if it was actually 3 minutes, a lot more poppy and a whole lot better... It may become a new song for the band though!

Bargain saving at GAK:

GAK.CO.UK smashing the left handed Black Friday bargains out of the park...

Hi guys! As promised here is the review of the new Harley Benton MB-4 in satin black. In the video you will find the review in Italian (unfortunately I do not speak English well) and from the minute 11:12 the sound test. From next week instead (like as usual) I will publish a series of ad hoc bass covers played with this bass so I invite you to subscribe to the channel to not miss the next updates ... enjoy! https://youtu.be/pIbHBJ5Woa4I

In my 10+ years on this forum, I’ve seen countless members remark that if only they were younger and had a better back, they’d be running X or Y rig. I therefore feel it is my civic duty as a 28 year old with a functioning spine, to own such a rig. Sadly it’s consigned to a storage unit at the moment because COVID. I present you a ‘97 USA made SVT-II Pro, complete with a battered USA made SVT-810E. Yes, it truly is what dreams are made of.

Hi mate, great question. First thing, are the routs on a body standard Fender size, especially the neck pocket and PUPs, I've found a few that weren't Second, price, it's tempting to pay £300 for a lovely neck but the bass is eventually going to cost more than a complete bass you could buy new. Unless it's really special, I try to stay under £150 each for both bodies and neck (my black relic body broke this rule, as did 'The Russian' and the Musikraft neck) Third, always buy used, many of the new parts that sell below £100 on eBay are simply not very good, for example a body I bought a while back had a pocket that put it about 5 degrees out of line with the neck. NEVER get into an auction with a seller of bespoke items, there's a guy at present on ebay who has a photo of a nicely reliced body on the item page, but this is not the item you'll get, he's going to make that once the auction closes. And let's face it, the quality of the body you get is going to be a function of your winning bid, the guy is not going to spend weeks perfecting your body and relic finish if the winning bid was £90! Re parts, Warmoth and Allparts make consistently great parts, Mighty Mite slightly less so. Fender and Squier parts are generally good. I would stay clear of nay body or neck that has been deliberately reliced, some of the stuff that people do to wood is shocking, but can look OK in the photos on eBay Fourth do not but from the US, the part will cost you at least twice as much by the time it gets to your door I'm sure others will add much more

So starting a thread calling them f**king c**ts for deleting the book recommendations would be frowned upon then. 🤔😄

And you'll get another, here, if you continue with this poor use of language..! ...

I haven't listened to radio 4 for a while (news got too depressing and had to stop listening), but although there are a lot more examples of this on BBC1 television channels, Radio 4 is far from immune. I listened when they had a 'climate debate' between a number of climate scientists talking about man made global warming and the well known climate scientist Nigel Lawson, who was saying there was no evidence of it. Yes, that Nigel Lawson (ex thatcher CoE and Prominant brexiter who then failed to get his french citizenship after we left). Both sides were given equal weigh so they were 'Balanced'. I hope if you say you have never heard anything like that, you have only just started listening and it has got better, but it was certainly not uncommon back a few years ago. - edit Oh yes, here is a bit on that: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/09/bbc-radio-4-broke-impartiality-rules-in-nigel-lawson-climate-change-interview and I note that they had been done for that previously, but there are other examples of this sort of behaviour. As I said, radio 4 is about the best. BBC1 news is about the worst,

Hi all, Whilst browsing eBay I came across a bass I recognised but had been toyed with at some point in the past. The neck markers are what grabbed me. A closer look and the body, bridge, tailpiece and neck looked to be original, with the tuners and scratchplate, pickup and electrics being 'modified'. The seller had it listed as a 'Jamie' bass and wanted £280 including the Hiscox case. Now all original ones seem to go for around the £600-£700 mark, this'll never be worth good money due to the missing parts, and vintage replacements are rare and expensive. I had to decide, do I take a chance unseen? Then I saw this picture of one with a replacement scratchplate and headstock plate, from what I can tell they had a plate covering the headstock, as well as the quirky textured vinyl covered body, anyway my mind was made. I could do a sympathetic restoration with similar, but not necessarily genuine, parts. This is the picture that swung it, I offered £200 and he agreed. 🙂 This thread will be a bit of a project journal (and detective work) as it's not enough to go in the builds section I feel. Next post : Bass arrival and stripping.

Just discovered these on Youtube, I apologise if they have been previously posted, and I know that isolated tracks are nothing new, but these are a little bit different with just voices and bass, and they make for interesting listening. There's quite a variety on there, and as well as the stellar bass playing, they also highlight just how effortlessly soulful and musical some of the singers are/were. Love these two (15) (BASS+VOICE) James Jamerson with Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't No Mountain High Enough - YouTube (15) (BASS+VOICE) BEST DUET EVER - JAMES JAMERSON & MARVIN GAYE - WHAT'S GOING ON - YouTube

Indeed. Too early for me; I got sucked in a few years later, and organised, for three consecutive years, the Hofner 'French Bash' (2012,13,14...). Folks came from the UK, Blegiup, France (of course...) and even a fellow from the US of A..! Here's a few pics of the First French Bash. Happy Daze... That's just some of the guitars brought; I still have a 'special' Verithin long-term lent to me by my Blegian friend..!

I’m not even left handed and I’m tempted.

Sorry a bit late, first I've owned, but I've tried a v3 and a v7 before. I don't think you can go wrong with any, but I prefer passive basses, so went v5.

If you did want to give them another listen then I’d always recommend How Soon is Now as a starting/returning point. Marr’s swampy/Bo Diddley riff/playing is top drawer, and the rhythm section tight as. I also think it’s one of the more listenable vocally for non Morrissey fans...

For years i would gig without rehearsals, as we were gigging every weekend, so anything i brought was taken from home to gigs and played. At home most always sounded great. I kept getting disappointed at how the pedals sounded at gigs though, but never really had the opportunity to get them right (no sound check’s etc). It was only when the new line up started to rehearse more then gig that I’d have a proper opportunity to play with effects (and rigs). I found that what worked at home (or mostly at work where I could set a small rig up at the weekends) wasn't ideal for band use. Sometimes it was just the settings, but a few times it was perfect until i played with the band, then I just couldn't get them to work. Things like phasers/chorus/Filter etc sound great in isolation, but ive found them to need quite a bit of tweaking to sound right with a loud band and at volume. They just seem to get lost sometimes. Maybe its just me though. I can never play loud at home. These days, while i appreciate others giving reviews of what soemthing cant do, i reserve judgment on how well it works for me until ive used it with the band (unless it’s just for home use). YouTube etc is good for the technical reviews and overviews, but ive never found something coming out of a pair of hifi speakers will match what comes out of my rig anyway.

A transparent guard would be nice

Midiman Syncman Plus (for use with Tascam DP32SD) Straplocks Lots of leads Guitar strap Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 MihaDo mini bass HX Stomp Lots of components to make a Raspberry Pi Fluidsynth box (works, needs putting in box), a HX Stomp switchbox (early stages), a Bluetooth page turner (works, needs putting in box), and a signal generator (works, needs putting in box). Might get back to my Zoom patch up/down switcher (early stages) and MIDI pedalboard (early stages) too. Plus my bike data logger (early stages) and shark with frickin' laser beam on its head (works, needs putting in shark).

I'm 6'4" and +20 stone and I got into an original GT! The door did not close and my derrière cheeks were perched atop the bucket seat rather than in it, but I class that as 'in'!

Likewise Greg, and I genuinely believe that some of the best instruments I've owned came out of this. My current main bass below is a case in point, it's tall all intents a worn Tony Franklin, but wow, what a lovely bass to play, lovely pair of PUPs by Jason Lollar, circuit by Kiogon, body by Fender, neck by Warmoth at significantly around 25% what the Tony Franklin would cost new Think I'm going to be posting a lot of pictures in this thread

Baby Shark

It Must Be Magic Teena Marie Check the wicked bassline

Yep all true, I have learnt what sounds ‘wrong’ isolated to sound ‘right’ in context

My only tip is p to take your time and check ebay daily. Eventually the item you want at a good price will appear, provided you're persistent and paitient. My PB neck is a blinder, wonderfully finished, well fretted, lovely flattish '51 feel to it, but cost only £35 plus postage from Ireland. Took about 5 weeks of daily searches to find it.

The live record is great. Mind, as much as I like Guy, Jazz basses should never allowed near Pink Floyd songs 😄

Three I built. The walnut jazz is my biggest regret. I did loads to get the parts and build it and was so pleased with it, but sold it in a credit card panic if I remember rightly.