Kev

I know, I agree, just countering previous arguments that it is

The Bongo seems to have had the biggest rise, and its made of Basswood and maple. Basswood is a cheap wood, and Maple is surely largely abundant.

Wow. So no ambiguity this time, the Bongo stealth 6HH has gone up by over £1k in 12 months. I swear they were made from basswood, too...

I'm interested too, as check this out: https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Music-Man-Bongo-6-HH-Bass-Stealth-Black/270H £2,506, not reduced etc. This bass was built in 2020 according to serial, so if that new price is accurate, this bass has gone up by £1,000 this year. Surely not?!!!

It's odd that most of the other German stores have already implemented a DDP service and as such are selling for a total price, when they're the size that they are. Good to see that should be changing in a few weeks.

Here we go...

Certainly none of their core range of instruments, the gotoh type is exclusively used. Warwick did at a time make budget Jazz bass copies, although I thought this was long enough ago to refer to West Germany on the key, rather than just Germany. Interesting one! EDIT Of course John beat me to it 😂

Apologies, I thought you were talking about the mirroring VAT rule.

This is true, provided that the seller collects the VAT. If they don’t, you will pay at import instead. Particularly relevant when it comes to non-VAT registered private sales, to which the £135 threshold is effectively meaningless.

That's interesting. You place an order in 2021 from Thomann totalling £700 ex Vat and you've received, without a bill? I mean it does happen, I've purchased things from the US before and got away with it, but I didn't think it would be happening in Europe now as everything is being heavily checked? Must say, my previous experience with UPS was that they don't wait for customs fees to be paid before delivering (unlike Royal Mail) but it seems Graham did get his bill first. Who knows, its a bit of a mess I think!

My two orders from Germany took approx two weeks so sounds about right. Although most of the hold up on mine was actually in Germany, if the tracking is to be believed. Both were delivered within 48 hours of hitting Stanford.

Yup, changed to coincide with the Ex VAT prices above that price point. So, technically, Thomann is never free delivery any more, as instead of delivery you'll be paying handling charges.

I’m never any good at filming myself, but I’ll try to stick up videos on my IG channel at some point, if I can stand it! 😅 I prefer just to take pretty pictures 😉

The Multiband compressor is actually fixed right now in the clean sidechain, but they’ve hinted at that being changed somewhere down the line. It’s the Nolly signature aspect, ie he’s designed it as he would set a bass in the studio. The pedal otherwise has a FET compressor at the start of its internal chain, which the compression amount and ratios can be controlled by the knobs/rotary footswitches. The manual is worth a read, it’s difficult to explain the signal chain without the pictures! But pretty much all aspects of it are pretty different from what Darkglass have released before. The number of presets is a limitation, as I already have ideas for way more than 3 but then again I personally don’t and won’t use a midi controller, so I’d be relying on the foot switches anyway. But right now I’m actually really interested in how flexible the firmware actually is. It’s been hinted that the launch version just skims the surface of what it can do in the future, so who knows what may be possible. 127 or whatever the number is midi presets may well be on the cards, particularly as the LEDS can be manipulated to show the number, as the tuner function shows.

I have to say, I've never looked at the PSA before, but checking it out on the website, it seems to bear very little resemblance? No recording interface, no compressor or multiband compressor circuit, no IR loader? Does it even have a headphone out, or any kind of aux in, bluetooth or otherwise? It just seems to be an updated programmable drive pedal with additional midi control (a feature I forgot to mention about the ADAM, albeit by TRS)? And its only £100 or so less? Sorry if I'm missing something!! I'm really unfamiliar with the current Tech 21 range.

Almost all your points are, again, applicable to all other builders like EBBM, and yet price rises haven't been seen anything like it elsewhere. They also don't address the huge rise in the UK and not so huge rise anywhere else (yet), which should have nothing to do with Brexit. You clearly fall comfortably into the "defend" category of players I mentioned earlier and that's fair enough, I have similar loyalties to a couple of brands, but the points being raised are very valid, and they are going to hurt EBBM's sales unless they provide an explanation. Standard Musicman Stingray basses are not £3k instruments, they just aren't, at the spec they are a built to. You can get a custom bass for that money.

Well, mine arrived at the end of last week. Been some significant delays in the UK distributor getting stock but I think they'll come through shortly as new batches are leaving the factory. In short, its fantastic. It easily has the nicest clean section of any preamp they have made, lots of magic going on under the hood in the clean sidechain. The distortion engines start at a pretty high gain really and go up to a really fuzz/synthy distortion when mode 5 is cranked, but Darkglass are bringing in a firmware update to allow for lower gain in the very near future to improve the range and allow lower gain. There is quite an array of sounds you can get from each engine, and happy to say that there is a LOT more than Nolly tones you get in it, and a huge part of the tone you hear in the demo is indeed the Dingwall character shining blindingly through. It's very sensitive to what goes in, and my Warwick/Alpher sound nothing like the Nolly demos through it. The compressor feels very similar to the FET mode in the Hyper Luminal, which in turn feels similar to the Cali76 compressor style, works really well. It's £469, so a good £70+ more than the previous Ultra pedals, but when you consider that you get:- Compressor pedal with adjustable ratios etc Five distortion engines, which cover a lot more ground than any previous Darkglass circuit Three presets, with audition mode/stage mode Five IRs on board and switchable A tuner (which actually works really well, suprisingly) A fully functional multichannel audio interface over USB-C Bluetooth connectivity to send music in and allows control over aspects of the pedal, including IRs. Headphone Amp ...well, it covers the ground of at least three other pedals in the Darkglass range alone, and I can't name another single box solution like this that does so much. It's an outstanding unit. Huge Shock - Kev likes a Darkglass pedal. But honestly, even if you forget about the distortion side of the pedal for a second, its such a capable unit.

Yeah, sorry that's what I mean by lower grade, and wood with less attractive grain is almost always cheaper to buy, and therefore use.

Which is usually a sign of a lower grade of wood. To catch up, we are at heavier, lower quality woods being used than the last runs, and they're being sold for around £800 or more more?