fretmeister

I tried one at my local PMT. I've been looking for a grab & go combo. Sounded nice - but it was really heavy compared to other modern combos, so it's not on my list anymore.

I love the idea! Just needs to be done right.

Stolen. A 1980s Aria Pro PJ in blue. I have fond memories of it.

Full refund plus interest on the money from date of payment. Nothing else. Even if he builds you a Fodera level instrument you will never be happy with it. You will always associate this drama with it. It will sour the entire experience when it should be a happy one. And you could never be confident about any aftercare you might need.

Still foreign to all but 1 country then.

Aren’t all Spectors foreign made?

I'm now doubting my memory. I have an alto and haven't played tenor for about 30 years! I'll have to check. The EWI looks so cool - I might have to put one on my GAS list. Both me and my daughter could use it. I'm trying to write tunes that are more 70s RnB and funk and they usually have lots of horns but when I use a VST and a mouse I just cannot get the feel right. Something like this might be better due to the breath control element that is so important.

The saxes are. The clarinet is weird. Unlike a Sax it doesn't have an octave key like a sax has, the register key jumps it an octave and a fifth - it's a 12th jump! I play sax, my daughter plays clarinet and the register key is damn confusing. Can't just hit it and get the next octave.

How does that work when the electronics and stuff won't be from the same country?

And if any money has gone to him personally, directly from the OP, such as paid into a personal account then it might be that the corporate veil doesn't protect him anyway.

I think that is only seeing one side of it. It may be that the only way to be able to offer the instrument at that price at all is by making it in Indonesia, and if it was built even in China it might have been £1500 Quite often profit levels on instruments are not as high a percentage as we might think they are.

I paid more than that for an Indonesian Ibanez Blue Floral Jem Steve Vai guitar about 5 years ago. It was an exceptionally good instrument.

Sterling has a smaller body that is a slightly different shape, and has a jazz dimension neck. It also usually has a more aggressive ceramic based pickup.

Anything over 7.5 lb / 3.4kg is too heavy for me now, and my 2 main basses are 6.5lb / 2.9kg and 5.7 lb / 2.58 kg. 3 hour gigs are easy now!

I have flats on most of my basses, but I like different ones on each. I have 2 Precision type shorties, one with La Bella DTF and the other with Dunlops. They have the same pickups and loom and sound very different. The DTF are a super deep thumpy sound that I really love. The Dunlops don’t go quite as deep but have a much nicer feel under the fingers. My Ibby Mezzo basses have Dunlops. The 5 string has stock pickups, the 4 has EMG PJ-X set and a 2 band EQ. My Sandberg TT4 jazz with EMG J set and a 3 band has Ernie Ball Group iv flats. I’ve tried all the others on this bass and keep coming back to the EB set. They are very bright when new and take an age to dull down unless I do the hand cream thing. They also feel very nice under the fingers and are really versatile. Nice and deep when played gently, nice bit of clank when digging in.

Interesting! I might have to try some.

Passive, but with a scratchplate and a tone control. I’m interested!

42mm nut width is uncomfortable for me.

I'm not surprised. Genzler / GR / EBS etc all have £1000 small combos, some of those are pushing £1200 Even the new Mark Bass MB58 Pure 121 500W is over £1000

Excellent. Another thing to try - Fiverr. There are loads of people learning their trades on there as well as pros. If you shoot a demo you might find you can get someone on Fiverr to edit it into a punchy 5 minute version for a fee of £20. Complete with graphics and god knows what else. While they do that, you are already filming the next one.

That is absolutely beautiful. That pickup combination - with that placement - would be my perfect bass.

I'm on a monster amount of Gabapentin and it certainly helps, but the arm pain still goes from mental, to pins & needles and back again in a heartbeat. I'm having physio as well - but it's been about 6 weeks now and I'm really bored with it!

I'd love to see him live. Unfortunately at the moment I have an impinged nerve in my neck and despite the best meds on offer it is killing me.