OldGit

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='37684' date='Jul 27 2007, 09:54 AM']after month's of building and week's and week's of waiting... and absolutely no grammar lessons whatsoever.[/quote] looks like attenshun to detale is a feeture of his base buildin to

[quote name='dood' post='37669' date='Jul 27 2007, 09:31 AM']I have just been watching the vid and had to manually close my jaw! Wow! thats a AAA grade pile of..ermm.. pine he's got there!![/quote] Knotty Pine's a "tone wood" isn't it?

But this sums it up pretty well

Yup this is the subject of several Youtube videos. Here's the build diary one [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9W8Cv4T2g"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9W8Cv4T2g[/url]

Excelent thread! For funny Fender stlye decals Faker, parts-o-caster etc that occasionally come up on ebay: [email protected] Source of valves, NOS etc in Bristol [url="http://www.electrofix.co.uk/"]http://www.electrofix.co.uk/[/url] (terrible website!)

+ several from me too. Great bloke, great service and it keep the old chap happy Why go elsewhere?

[quote name='Rich' post='37256' date='Jul 26 2007, 11:45 AM']Yet remarkably, the packing guidelines they keep referring to are actually the Parcelfarce ones, right? Or have they changed tack[/quote] Actually they [i]have[/i] changed tack ... The initial rejection said they recommend [b]a guitar case or similar inside another box, with padding.[/b] I pointed out that this advice was no where to be found and they did conceed that yes, that was true. but then said that in that case I should have followed the packing advice for [b]"Electric equipment". [/b]When I pointed out that they didn't have any specific advice for that either it became [b]"Electronic equipment"[/b] that I should have followed. The examples in the packing leaflet I have are "mobile phones, laptops". So, despite the lack of specific advice on packing guitars I should have known that they woudl consider it to be in that category ... A yard of swampash and maple with a few magnets and wires - the same category as a hifi sysetm, a laptop or a DVD recorder? I guess they also expect women to carry [url="http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/obb76/"]Rawlplugs in their handbags[/url] It's world class wriggling .. Anyway I have Allan Leighton's (the ultimate boss of the Royal Mail) phone number - a nice Customer Services low level operative gave it to me - so I'm just marshalling my thoughts and girding my loins. Then I'll call him. he should be aware of what his directors are doing to customer confidence and fairness.

[quote name='Rich' post='37256' date='Jul 26 2007, 11:45 AM']Yet remarkably, the packing guidelines they keep referring to are actually the Parcelfarce ones, right? Or have they changed tack to a slightly different slopy-shouldered teeth-sucking ooh-not-my-problem-mate approach? What a shower of complete fornicating masturbators. [/quote] Well to be absolutely precise, the delivery is entirely Post Office, no Parcel Force involvement at all. So Sorry Parcel Force for bringing you into this. [b]However, if you are shipping a bass via Porcal Farce you need to be aware that the insurance limit is £150[/b] for all muical instruments and they do actually have published advice for packing guitars there on their website. (search for guitar from the royal mail home page) The confusion was because initially the rejection quoted that advice almost, but not quite, word for word. Ie the Post office implied that I should have followed the "Royal Mail" guidelines on packing a guitar. These are on the Percal Farce website and nothing to do with the Post Office. PO and PF are, of course, under the umberella of "Royal Mail" Actually the approach of the Customer Service director was "I'm not changing my mind and treating you as a special case as that would contradict the OFT Post guidelines on how to treat customers fairly" ie if the change their mind for me they'd have to do it for everyone - including those who send guitars in bin liners ... yeah right. The concept of "you have actually made an error here and therefore it's OK to change your mind to put it right" was not something he was interested in. Anyway .. Sorry for carping but it just feels so unfair.

I'd certainly advise against a Stereo setup at the 400 watts level. For that size of venue (up to about 175 people) You just need Mono. As for panning the instrumens to reflect where people are on stage -..., I really don't understand the point ... The only person likely to hear the benefit of that is someone in precisely the right place in the centre of the hall ... Nah, don't worry about stereo FOH 'til you get up to the bigger places and much bigger kit. Of course a two amp ("stereo") powered mixer can be very useful - one amp powering the front of house, the second amp powering the monitors, all in mono and all with passive speakers. Incidentally we use a mixture of powered monitors (with eq) and passive monitors to give us the maximum control over the tone of each wedge as we have different requirements (ie different bits of the aural frequency left working in our old ears ) and different feedback challenges with the acoustic and electric instruments. The passives run from one side of our two amp mixer and the powered minotors daisychain from a line out send from the monitor side. It's relatively easy to run power to the monitor wedges.

[quote name='The Funk' post='37202' date='Jul 26 2007, 10:14 AM']Well, they've given you his number. Try it. If you get his voicemail or secretary, get an appointment to speak to him (either on the phone or in person). I think he'd have no problems in principle contradicting anyone below him. That doesn't mean he won't agree with the Customer Service Director. But if the only guidance anyone at Parcelforce has been able to give you is that you should pack it exactly as you have done, then there's a flaw in their guidance - making it their fault. Also, if you received some guidance about packing it before you posted it, and that was the same guidance, ie. bubble wrap + mark 'fragile', then you complied with their guidance - even if they're now saying that the guidance they gave you is wrong. Again, that would be their fault.[/quote] Oh its NOT Parcelforce! they get very upset of I get that bit wrong. It's the [b]Post Office[/b] - totally different outfit.

[quote name='The Funk' post='37171' date='Jul 26 2007, 09:30 AM']Don't go to court yet. Contact Allan Leighton and explain the situation to him as calmly as possible. Did you get any packaging instructions from their employees before you posted it? I can't remember what you said about that earlier. If you did, you should definitely make that one of the first things you say.[/quote] Do you think he will speak to me (I think he's a bit busy right now with a national strike looming) and if he did do you think he'd contradict his Customer Service Director?

[quote name='MB1' post='37131' date='Jul 26 2007, 05:01 AM']MB1. Stop worrying about it, f**k it off, Worry about your bass playing, and let the f**k**g singer worry about the P.A.!!!!!!!!![/quote] If we did that we'd all be up the creek Hands up if your singer/front person knows much about sound

[quote name='Bald Eagle' post='37085' date='Jul 26 2007, 12:01 AM']F'em, i'd keep quiet now and send a consignment of house bricks or such fully insured to a bogus address and claim off the bastards big style [/quote] Thanks I'll add that to muy collection of possible actions

Brilliant advice from Pete there .. A few other observations We run a little setup like you are talking about and we have managed two quantum leaps in quality during it's life time. One was when we bought a pair of Electrovoice SX300 speaker cabs for the front of house to replace our crap/cheap ones. (forget the bass bins, you'll not need them at this level) and the second was when we switched to a Yamaha powered mixer from a Laney. I don't know what model it is a normal "marshall head-like" upright thing but it has two amps built in - one for Front of house and one for monitors so that bit is easy too. Then all you need is a pair of wedges and you can hear yourself sing as well .. Do get monitors of some sort as playing without them is a) not necessary and really hard work. Singing without monitors will just mean your act will be not nearly as good as it could be. Another thing we do is have a mic on just the bass drum. The rest of the kit is perfectly audible but adding a little kick to the FoH mix helps with the beat for the dancers. We also have a tiddly bit of bass from my XLR out and line outs from the other two backline amps in the mix (add 4 vocals, a sax, harmonical, acoustic guitar, guest players etc, all plugged into teh mixer and you can see what Pete means about a 12 channel mixer getting full very fast) As Pete says that way we can have the on stage stuff quiet(ish), have some in the monitors if needed and maintain a much higher quality of sound overall for the audience. As with all things the more you can spend on quality kit the better your sound will be. This is very true for vocals and especially monitoring. Good cables (try OBBM on here) and good mics will pay for themselves several hundred times over. (better sound = more bookings = more money) If you don't know what mics to get start with Shure SM58's or SM58b ("beta") as an absolute minimum. There are mic experts on here so just ask.

[quote name='Bald Eagle' post='37016' date='Jul 25 2007, 09:23 PM']Wow this is a fast moving thread! all I have to say is, 2. Was it a bolt on neck? 4. Expanding foam, like builders use works a treat. 5. Trying to get anything out of them may be futile they cover their arses big style these outfits.[/quote] If those questions are for me about the orginal bass 2. Was it a bolt on neck? No it's a set neck. I may frame it once I've won my compensation. 4. Expanding foam, like builders use works a treat. yes ... I can think of a few places I'd like to stick the nozzel right now ... 5. Trying to get anything out of them may be futile they cover their arses big style these outfits. They sure do. I've never met a Director level person who was so unresponsive to a valid customer complaint whilst hiding behind "the OFT regulations on fair play for customers"

[quote name='obbm' post='36989' date='Jul 25 2007, 07:25 PM']OK so I've just sold a bass and need to send it to the North-west. What is the best way? BTW it needs to be insured for over £1000.[/quote] Drive it yourself ... seriously .. or use a flight case.

[quote name='Hamster' post='36896' date='Jul 25 2007, 03:02 PM']Steve - What I meant was that the 'This Way Up' sticker was correctly applied to the top of the package, but the delivery man put the box upside down in the hall so the sticker was 'on the bottom' I've had a good conversation with the sender and have some good photos of the amp before he packaged it, all of them show the amp to be in a good and not smashed to bits condition. Hamster[/quote] Good luck mate

Well I don't know if you are as tired of this farce as I am, however, if you are reading this you may be interested to know where things have got to. I've reached the Director of Customer Services at the Post Office in my quest for common sence and fair treatment (in my opinion). Their stance remains the same: I didn't wrap it correctly. Had I wrapped it correctly they would have paid out. Their definition of "correctly" varies a bit between their letters but nowhere in any literature or on the website do they state the "official" guidance for packaging Electric or acoustic guitars or basses. So what should a person do? Well ask the Post Office for guidance, of course. I asked 6 PO counters people and the PO telephone help desk for guidance on wrapping a bass guitar for posting via Special Delivery Next Day. They all said the same thing: Wrap it well in bubblewrap and mark it fragile. That's what I did.. PO Customer Services still maintain that I should have put it in a box. In fact had I put it in a cardboard box they would have paid out without any trouble. They say. Can anyone tell me if I'm being unreasonable here? If 7 employees of the company tell me that wrapping it in bubblewrap is OK, is that the guidance I should have followed or some unpublished guidance seemingly made up by the customer service department, and not specifically published anywhere? So ... Do I contact Allan Leighton, top man at the Post Office, directly (they gave me his office number ) or do I just progress to the small claims track in the county courts? Has anyone ever won in this situation? Has anyone any experience of the small claims track? OG

[quote name='Mr Bassman' post='36206' date='Jul 23 2007, 11:54 PM']Maybe it's because they drive on the wrong side?[/quote] Ha ha yeah or maybe the cartoonists look in the mirror when drawing a new concept - s'weird ..

[quote name='PHiLCORE' post='33812' date='Jul 18 2007, 07:29 PM']what price range you looking at???? Ive jsut got back itno playing bass again i played for about 3 years and then stopped and have picked it back up now im 20, Ive jsut bought the Squier Jazz Mintage Modified £250, Id recomend it to anyone. [/quote] Russ has one of these for sale in the for sale bit They are £206 new - cheapest I've found - and rated highly by everyone, just about. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2081"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2081[/url] It's a Fender Jazz Bass style, of course, which may not suit you... (incidentally, this has caused some confusion before with beginners, "Jazz Bass" is the model not the style of music it plays ) and I've got a lovely acoustic bass for sale but I'd not recommend starting on one

Excellent .. Good ol' contemporary Louis Jordan tune too ROFL at the dog teeth change over I wonder why they are all playing left handed though

[quote name='stewblack' post='32381' date='Jul 16 2007, 09:59 AM']Just bought a case from Si in a shady motorway services type meet up and he is a wonderful chap, quite prepared to go out of his way to meet me and give up valuable time to help me out. Top bloke, cheers mate![/quote] Gosh Stew, making me blush, already Thanks for detaining your family for so long in the rain I hope the gig was a nicer experience. OG