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https://tinyurl.com/MickMasonScam To help those sharing

Thanks for that, it does mean a lot. It’s been a pretty awful time, the support from everyone on here, the Admin guys and chatting with @prowla helped loads, that’s why we are a strong community that sticks together. It was never about the money, I don’t ‘need’ it but it’s the principle of it all, it’s something I was brought up to believe in, what’s right and wrong! Im not gonna say too much for obvious reasons but a huge thanks to everyone on here ( nice to actually chat with @ped for about 40 mins today) and people on FB who reached out and backed up everything I’d already found out and who are/will be going through the same thing. I would imagine that this is going to run for some time and I’m sure there will be a resolution. Anyone has any questions feel free to PM me, let’s keep this clear for people who are in the same boat. I’m happy to help if I can. Please let it be known I don’t condone any physical harm or threats towards him, his friends or his family, that’s not what we are all about, we are all better than that. Please remember this is thread available to one and all on the inter webs 🤘 Happy Xmas all

Ignore the ugly mug above the mug and look at the mug below the ugly mug above the mug ! ! ! The lower mug was an Xmas present from our guitarist - a man of impeccable taste and unarguable musical appreciation.

Merry Christmas to all the folks here who have been so helpful and supportive - people have got their money back as a result of this pressure. To the watching fraudster(s) - not you!

This is my guitar and bass board

More legal threats at 8:30 this morning - Xmas day! He must be rattled. BC office is close until late Jan.

I've not read all the thread coz there's loads, but my band was contacted last year by Mick about a possible gig. One of our band, who has been in the biz a while said " Mick Mason? No way, unless he pays up front." Make of that what you will. **just realized I've quoted the wrong post. Ah well, you get the gist Im sure.

Read through the sticky post; follow the legal proceedings (Action Fraud, local Police), post (or add comments to existing posts) on FB. He will contact you and threaten you with legal action, try and bully you, etc. Don't rise to it and respond in kind; just stick to your guns.

Yes - in precisely the same way a '62 US Precision is still just a £120 Fender.

Teach them songs that they like.

From me to me... Anderton's had knocked a fair bit off. Enablers!!.... 😁

Merry Christmas Folks! Great thread. 👍😊 Thought I'd add a few of my favourite singers/singing for you... Can't believe this man hasn't been mentioned yet... No words, just pure emotion and some of the most beautiful chords ever IMHO... And some gorgeous harmonies to finish with... Have a fab Xmas day!

Unfortunately I am also a victim of this fraudster. Bought the sansamp pedal from him and never arrived. I have been promised refunds but they have not happened. I have lost £110, but I will be doing everything to get it back. Just google his name and you will see that he currently has a suspended sentence for fraud. If we all report this to the police, we may not get our money back, but he will likely serve a few years at her majesty’s pleasure.

I found Jason Lear on fb, except it's a picture of Michael mason who owns whatnowebsites. The account was created 4 days ago, https://www.facebook.com/jason.lear.1485. Jason Lear https://www.facebook.com/MichaelWebMason Staffordshire So I take it Mick mason has created the Jason Lear account and used Michael's Picture? The other strange thing is this https://mytenerifereport.com/website-scam-by-michael-mason-in-tenerife/ And whatnowebsite location is 36 miles away from his caravan site. I am not saying they are linked but it's a bit weird. Ps I normally post on the Fretboard!

more lockdown idiocy

Just a reminder... in your language and content be the Ladies and Gentlemen that form the backbone of Basschat and the wonderful bass playing community. Please do not give the mods any extra work in order to let this thread run. Yea and verily we are blessed with the might and truth of the low end register The machine heads turn slow, yet they grind fine.

Having got enough basses, this was next. A really nice surprise from me.

From Mrs.H. She always plays an absolute blinder with Christmas pressies.

Rhythm stick ?

Sadly no video, but we were queuing at Universal, in Orlando, and about a dozen black teenage school girls, joined the queue behind us. They were very loud, happy and boisterous, then they started singing. Wow, I've never heard such great voices. The hairs on my arms stood up. They were like a hip hop gospel choir. I could have stood there all day listening to those girls.

The band is predominantly centred around around the Mod and Ska revival of the late 70s early 80s and Northern Soul, whilst also playing some original Mod stuff, The Who, Small Faces, Spencer Davis Group, Kinks, etc. So while you are correct about the basses of that era, the late 70s was all about the Rick, albeit the 4001 or 4003. Ok,ok I'm completely wrong, but the 4005 is going nowhere so pack it in! 😄

Weekend World

An oldie but a superb voice

Just received this...........

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.

Show some love for the criminally underrated (unless you know, then you know) FTB. Please like and share his vid if you appreciate it. The big guitar starts just after 9 minutes. I was lucky enough to have lessons with Fred almost 15 years ago. I remember walking into my first lesson with anticipation after reading a byline article many years before in Bassist about this underrated bass player that had a cassette demo of him playing Pachabels canon in multiple parts with harmonics. Needless to say this man could do that and much more. Enjoy

A name that is larger than the amp itself. Santa (in the shape of Mrs Zero) brought it today. SD card adaptor to give a sense of scale. It's not much larger than the 18V power supply. Haven't got a cab in the house at the moment but have had a little play through headphones. Sounds pretty good. I shall bring the Barefaced BB2 in from the garage at some point and have a little play through that. The intention is to use it in the rehearsal studio - we use headphones but run a bit of quiet monitoring of everything too.

Oops!...I Did It Again - Britney Spears

New Order - Confusion 😁

I'd ask him what songs he likes, then figure out what's do-able from them. I don't think there's much that sparks interest more than jamming along to something you love in the early days. (Unless he says he loves Victor Wooten, in which case teach him Mustang Sally)

Let him choose them.

I love LSD!!! oh wait you mean the music...

She is amazing isn't she? Had the privilege of being in the audience for that same song a couple of years back. More raw and visceral than on her appearance on Jools.

And there's Dusty of course. A national treasure Great bass line on this

Tina Dico and she was on top form during this performance with Zero 7

Well, boyo is a very happy bunny, already got me to buy some more sticks (he's paid for them thankfully!). And set up in the Conservatory not in his room.

To be really authentic, you’d need to play what your typical mid-‘60’s mod bassist would have been playing, which would have been.......let me think.........um.......a Hofner (or Vox / Watkins etc) Ric semis would have more been the preserve of affluent emerging West coast psychedelia bands in the US, and you don’t want to be associated with that malarkey........ Seriously; what a star your son is for getting involved with this. Can’t wait to see the beastie fully restored.

I note your other half has tied the door shut to make sure Sultan doesn’t arrive again

I kept one years ago when I was playing in a free-form jazz-metal band. Strange things happened frequently and I'm glad I documented much of it. Those gigs, where we did not have any actual songs to play when we went onstage, were far more interesting than later years when I was in bands who wrote songs and rehearsed and such. For example:

Good sleuthing!

I suppose everyone needs a hobby. Perhaps it is worth noting at this juncture that "Jason Lear" might be aggravating any offences that might have been committed. Should any of this get to court, that might bode ill for a defendant. This is becoming very serious indeed. It is well past time to stop playing games with people online, or by any other means, if the purpose of doing so could in any way be construed as intimidation of potential witnesses. Also, I recall from my days as a snot-nosed legal lackey in Britain that judges and magistrates really dislike people who hurl around nonsense threats about libel, especially when those threats appear to be designed to conceal culpable behaviour. Still, tant pis.

Yes, I dealt with him; did he mention Graeme/Graham too? He kept asking me to take down my threads and even suggested I should apologise to Mick. He also said that he had seen the proof of posting which then meant that I was in the wrong, but that I couldn’t see it. He also suggested I unblock Mick. He also “communicated from Mick” that I had 1 hour to take down the threads, which I said was not possible and I had only posted the truth. He tripped himself up at the end when he said that the liable case could cost me a lot, £3000, and I said No problem, to which he responded I’ve got more than £100 too. (I’ve??? - oops!). In the conversation I repeatedly said I would only post truth and so I posted an update saying I’d received my refund and mentioning the proof of postage but noting that it was not proof of delivery. However, when I found we had the same tracking number, I removed that. I blocked him too. I posted some of the transcripts here. He seemed to think that giving me my £100 back was closure, but I said it had gone past being about the money when the insults, bullying, threats, and smears happened.

Serious question, had any one else on here been contacted by an account called “Jason Lear” claiming to know Mick/ask for details on anyone who contacted you about him?? If so, Jason Lear isn’t real. It’s Mick Mason... he’ll ask you for details on people who’ve contacted you about Mason (I refused to give the names of the genuine people who contacted me) then claims that “Mick doesn’t need to steal, he’s a HUGE promoter, I’m shocked”. He kept asking over and over if I got my money back then blocked me when I wouldn’t give him any details of others.

Not wishing to turn it onto a political thread(!), but it seems the EU plan to enact it anyway and then vote on the matter retrospectively. All Barnier wanted was for us to be able to get our Harley Benton fix. The whole fishing thing was a distraction to get Harley Benton in under the radar.

Just use a pick. 😉

There is a seller who is advertising bass gear for sale (eg. SansAmp pedals on Facebook) and failing to deliver them. They look to get you to pay by bank transfer or PayPal Gift/Friends & Family. (TIP: learn from other people's mistakes and don't agree to pay by an unsecured method!) After receiving payment the seller will promise to send the item, possibly via their daughter. You won't receive the item and after a time to allow it to come through, you'll get back to the seller to ask them about it and (after a few more days delay) they'll respond that the postal service messed up and returned it to them. (NOTE: At this point they have confirmed that they have both your item and your money.) They may give you tracking information; read it carefully and check that it shows a failed delivery attempt to you. (NOTE: We have people who have been given the SAME tracking ID as proof of the "failed delivery".) They may offer to re-send it. If you agree to that, start again from the beginning. (TIP: Learn from other people's mistakes and don't agree to that!) So, you request a refund. They get back to you and ask for your bank details or PayPal, which you give them and they promise to refund you after work. You check next day and there's no refund, so you ask for an update; if you gave them bank details, they may ask for PayPal. Repeat this several times until you begin to wonder if something is not quite right. You then start to do some online checks and the penny drops that you're not the first person who has gone through this. Oh dear, you're being scammed... Your searches may have even turned up a caravan fraud conviction. If you message the seller that you know about this, they may come back and say they took the rap for a dying friend. Whether or not this is true is irrelevant; the point to note is that their claim to make you trust them is that they lied in a court of law and they prevented the actual scammer from being brought to justice. (LINK: https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/single-mum-pensioners-ingoldmells-caravan-3743529) You then message the seller with a more strident request for your money back and an escalation occurs; they will try and take control of the process and tell you to either "do one", or start saying "do you know who I am?". From this point on, be very careful to plainly, calmly, and politely insist that you want your money back; do not respond in kind to their escalation. If you have chosen to post messages in fora or Facebook groups. You may find that the seller will demand you take them down before they will refund you and may escalate matters further, posting abuse and insults, telling you they will get you removed from Facebook groups who their friends run, threatening to sue you, saying they want to come to your house and sorting it out face-to face. (TIP: Make sure that what you post is true and could not be interpreted as threats or lies, so be sure that they are factually correct statements; there is no point in posting speculation about possible outcomes, the evolutionary maturity of the seller, and suchlike.) Do not respond in kind, but keep insisting they refund you. (TIP: If they do try and intimidate or threaten you, for example saying they want to come to your house and sort it out face-to-face, do not agree, but instead call your local Police and tell them - they may say call 999 if they do turn up.) You've now got to the point where you realise that they are not intending to refund you and would prefer you to just meekly go away. Raise a case with Action Fraud (https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/) detailing the transaction and payment (they have several such cases already logged) and contact your bank's fraud department (if bank transfer). Inform the seller. They may respond with a derisory comment and more threats, etc. They may even try to dig up some dirt, or make false accusations against you to try and frighten you, and will again say they're going to sue you; they have tried this tactic on many of their victims. (TIP: If you found the caravan fraud article, you will see that they are a convicted fraudster and used similar techniques in fobbing off their victims then.) It will at this point likely be a month or more after you initially paid for the item which you haven't received. You may be contacted by an intermediary or proxy who will offer to help get it sorted. They will also try and get you to remove your posts, reiterate how bad it would be for you if the seller decided to sue you, and so-on. Humour this person, as they may help get your money returned. But do not agree to any conditions regarding taking any of your posts down; the rightful refund of your money is not conditional. If the refund is still not forthcoming, the next step is to register a case with Money Claim Online (https://www.gov.uk/make-money-claim); there is a £25 fee associated with this, but it will be added to the seller's debt, and you can also add daily interest on the amount (from the date of payment). It may be the case that they agree to refund before that; if so, it will feel like a small victory, but the reality is that you have got back to the position you were in before the start of the whole sorry process. If they do not refund you at this point, then they are facing the fraud action you have raised, for which there will be plenty of corroborating evidence, and a CCJ (County Court Judgment) and further debt resulting from the Money Claim Online proceedings. Once you do get your money back, consider leaving your posts up to help warn others. (NOTE: You have not entered into any "gentleman's" agreement with the fraudster and are not held by any code they think they have imposed on you.) (TIP: If you need advice, feel free to ask, either in the thread itself, which is publicly viewable, or by messaging members) Relevant links: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ https://www.gov.uk/make-money-claim https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/single-mum-pensioners-ingoldmells-caravan-3743529 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mick-mason-344b21104/?originalSubdomain=uk https://www.facebook.com/everythingchangesshow/ https://twitter.com/FunktionJ https://www.funktionjunction.com/ https://www.facebook.com/thecarpentersexperience/

Just found this today: