pineweasel

Seems to be a lot more activity on the Shergold Facebook group these days

Same thing. They changed the name a while back, before the body shape changed.

I wasn't a big fan of the heavier stuff, but I remember being impressed by this on the Friday Rock Show. Sadly they never went anywhere.

There's also the original Fender Musicmaster bass, which had a 6 pole guitar pickup.

Hopefully EBMM will recommend a suitable adhesive for you to fix it yourself. Annoying but at least you won't have to return it in that case.

You could just unscrew the pickup and take a look?

I think I've improved. I play almost every day, having switched to a 5-string and enrolled in an SBL course. Have also done some demos and videos with my bandmates, and learnt a few songs I'd always wanted to play but never had the time to study before.

I wouldn't buy one but I think they look quite good. Something's going on though, Fender are doing lime green and orange basses, EBMM have crazy new colours...

I've found this with a few long scale length sets I've tried, e.g Dunlop, TI. I think they are made a bit longer to accommodate through body fitment.

Like it says, it’s a Hohner copy.

It’s Tim Lefevbre on Hanging On, isn’t it?

That’s odd, I’ve just been able to do a Cali VM5. I know the configurator has just has a refresh but it’s all working for me.

I like their website. Straightforward, easy to navigate, with good photography of the instruments and decent info including weight. Some of the other pages are a bit skimpy with information cut and pasted from manufacturers, sometimes out of date, but that’s not really a problem if it’s an item you have researched. I’ve bought accessories from them with good service and rapid delivery. On the one occasion when something went wrong it was rectified as speedily as possible.

Covid 19 is placing restrictions on EBMM's factory staff levels, and those of their suppliers too, hence the current lower output.

There's another well known company mass producing guitars and basses in southern California, using the same materials and techniques, and subject to the same Covid related issues, and their prices haven't skyrocketed.

I've had no problems stringing Chromes, Dunlops and TIs through body. Not tried Cobalts though.

Piano

Here’s mine with the strings at 18.5mm centre to centre. I’ve not tried it, but it looks as if you could probably get away with 19mm, although the strings would be pretty close to the edge of the board.

This is also the reason there's no natural finish offered, and why almost all the new colours are opaque.

Either will work, so it depends on convenience and which you prefer the sound of. Using your amp DI will give you the characteristic tone of the amp and let you use its controls for EQ, distortion, etc, assuming the DI output is post preamp.

Worth noting this is not true of the latest Double Four, it’s AC only

The original Olympic White was a bright white, but it yellowed with age. So you'll see all sorts of whites advertised as Olympic, depending on whether they are going for an aged look. Here's the Olympic White CIJ Fender I used to own.

Digging around a bit, it appears that the import duty for guitars has actually gone down from the EU rate of 3.2% to the new UK rate of 2%. So Brexit is no excuse at all. See example 2 here https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/personal-tax/brace-for-brexit-3-import-duty-and-commodity-codes

The Strandbergs look good but they’re expensive https://strandbergguitars.com/eu/the-boden-bass/

At least you have the option. I want to buy a lefty Stingray Special but they're only available from the US at vast expense.