skej21

Started by doing a 'musical aptitude test' at primary school which decided whether you could do music or not. Got through somehow and got told I had to play woodwind. I ended up asking if I could do double bass (because it was huge and looked cool!). They agreed and I joined the school orchestra with my 1/8 upright. I was made to play scales, bullied into reading music and got top marks for inconveniencing the parents by making them take me and my upright to rehearsals, lessons and concerts. After a couple of years of playing through grades and passing grade 8, my tutor suggested I look at some jazzers. He gave me some CDs that included Mingus, Eddie Gomez, Scott Lafaro and Ray Brown. I soon started asking for more and the inevitable self-titled Jaco Pastorius CD made it into my CD player. I instantly sold my upright and used the money to buy an amp and electric bass. Went back the following week for my lesson and started learning electric bass. Switched school/county orchestras for youth big bands, jazz bands, Cuban ensemble and started playing in a covers band. Went through electric bass grades. The sight reading thing really helped and became much more fun out of the orchestral setting and it got my foot in the door in local theatre pits and since picking up an electric bass, I've never looked back. Went on to music college, uni and then postgrad teaching (secondary music).

The quality is much better than standard Epiphone quality control as the bass is produced by the Epiphone custom shop. We've had a load of these basses through my local shop and I'm always tempted. Awesome bass for the money!

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1408093461' post='2526963'] I don't think I'm allowed to talk about it [/quote] I take it that the deadline that was set has been and gone without the goods arriving with you as promised then? Nod once for 'yes' and twice for 'no' :-P

Pino. His playing on Mama's Gun kills anything I've ever heard sharay reed play. And that's before you take into account his versatility, musicianship, longevity, heritage and extensive credits... Oh, and the fact he doesn't read dots but can quote stuff like Stravinsky in his lines (where I lay my hat). His listening and ability to soak up musical influences are incredible. Pino is a different league to pretty much everyone.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1407752277' post='2523517'] I also have a strict cancellation policy that is clearly outlined when a student joins my 'school'. It is a 24hr policy, which is very fair and I ask the complete lesson rate to be covered as it is very difficult in this part of the world to get someone in that slot within 24 hours. My students accept this and I've never had any problems. On the flipside, I always go above and beyond what is expected of me and thus I hope to ensure that my students get great value for money. [/quote] +1. The only slight difference is that I also have a 3 times in 3 months rule too. If a student cancels within 24hrs more than three times in three months, I can choose to stop lessons with them and give the slot to someone willing. It hasn't happened yet as most of my students are great and reliable :-)

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1407705661' post='2523263'] Limelight is the new black [/quote] It's better than tort being the new black... :-p

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1407604254' post='2522280'] another winner from Mark. He seems to be at the height of his powers. Nice one. [/quote] He is indeed. It's a shame nobody will ever own mine other than me. I'd love to be able to share its excellence with others but I won't be letting it go. They can try it (briefly) but won't be selling it. I was worried at first as I had part-exchanged a bass I really loved but in hindsight, it didn't even come close. Top quality instrument from a top quality company :-)

I have three of these and they are exactly what I wanted. Price is good too and they do the gig bag to go with it :-) http://www.harvest-guitar.com/en/Cow-Antique-The-Classic-oxid.html

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1407528457' post='2521585'] 134 [/quote] Straight after mine!

First of all, what a STUNNING bass :-) congrats. Secondly, I agree that I've picked up a LOT of basses in my time but there's nothing I've played that is as nice as my limelight and it's such a reasonable price! I'm sure you'll end up loving it more as you gig it and play it (I have!). It's nice to see what came directly after mine too (I'm 00133) :-)

As much as I love everything about the jazz bass, the sound of a Precision with flats is the sound in my head and that's something I can never escape from, so it has to be a precision for me. Luckily I've stumbled across the revelation of getting a jazz neck profile on a Precision and now I get the best of both. Playability of a jazz and the tone of a precision. Never looking back.

My Limelight '64 Precision (lightly relic'd) [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/63696245@N07/14784181985/][/url] Few more here - https://flickr.com/photos/63696245@N07/sets/72157646029954291

Yolanda Charles for me... http://youtu.be/BcsM10YBC6A

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1407404240' post='2520099'] Out of all of those (and having owned or at least played three of them), I'd choose the Jack Casady every day and twice on Sundays Gold top for the win though, but the limited edition white one looks pretty damn fine too... [/quote] +1 except id get black not gold. It's too much like the colour of my little niece's nappies rather than the classic Gibson GoldTop gold you'd expect. A bloody insanely cool bass though (and the white one is awesome too!)

I don't often overthink what I'm doing. I make sure my part is secure and then listen to everyone else when we're playing it. That way, it gels better as a whole and I don't spend time thinking about my part so much that I make mistakes. I'm usually listening out for something cool that the drummer is doing that I can tie in with or some nice melodic parts that I can echo in alongside the actual bass part.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1407406323' post='2520116'] It's a shame, as obviously there are a lot of customers of Spitfire (including myself) who are more than happy with their guards. It does seem as if they have dropped the ball on this one. Surely the cost of resolving this issue would be well worth it given the negative effect this thread must be having on Spitfire's future business here and elsewhere? [/quote] Agreed. However, that is only if they value their customers and aren't arrogant enough to believe that their product cannot be flawed, unsuitable or not appropriate for the customer's order. It would appear that's not the case.

Such a shame mate. At least you can take pride in letting everyone else who was tempted/considering a 'guard from these guys know how bad they are. It's funny how the company appeared on this forum to rant and rave about how great they were but are nowhere to be seen now there's been a problem. It just shows how much class they lack...

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1407101405' post='2517410'] Spitfire posted the guard for sale on their Facebook page on Aug 1st. For the same price that I payed, after all they did was whinge about how much they were loosing out. You'd think they would knock my 30% fee off! [/quote] I just spotted it for sale on their site. It's pretty shady to ask for 30% to cover costs etc when they are just selling it for the same price to someone else and covering the costs anyway. If they'd just put it up for sale at the same price and made a new one for you, they would have had a positive review and loads of people thinking they were awesome. Instead they've opted for bad press and for what? It's not like they had anything to lose, except their reputation on a big market-related forum like this!

I find it odd that they did not offer to give you an exchange and remake it to the specs you gave in reference to their own images and website details (as they should have done in the first place). If they are happy to give you a refund minus restocking but are willing to sell it on to someone else, that's unfair as I can't see them discounting for the next buyer. At the end of the day, it sounds like they basically failed to produce what you had paid for and didn't deal with it very well. Hope you get all your cash back and thanks for the review. After discreet had tempted me I was considering getting one but after this, I feel i would probably be as specific as you having a clear vision of what I would like. I think for me, the problem would come with being too exacting to pay such a large amount of money for a product that appears to be left open to far too much artistic license (apparently) and not enough customer input which is a real shame.

I love that Fender send emails marked 'private and confidential' and restrict every dealer from distributing this... Except thomann, who just slam it straight up on the web!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1406830668' post='2515158'] The operation did involve the expenditure of time and money, yes indeed, and there's nothing wrong with your P pickguard anyway - it looks absolutely fine - I'm just being deliberately irritating, as usual... But I felt my Limelight pickguard was a bit 'salami' if you know what I mean - though Mark's relic job on the guard was brilliant in itself. [size=4]Anyway, I can't spend that much on a pickguard and then not like it, can I?? [/size] [/quote] Haha too true! It does look good I'm just quite happy with mine as is :-)

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1406829735' post='2515151'] Don't think it matters much as MMR is no longer supplying basses with decals, so all basses up to that point are... historical. [/quote] Mine doesn't have a decal, just Marks s/n on the rear of the headstock. I'm not worried about it either way. It's my bass now and Mark did everything as he should have. Whether it ends up with one is a totally different matter...