mentalextra

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1386008044' post='2294568'] [media]http://youtu.be/gx4jaqmTVRE[/media] [/quote] Can't wait for the Christmas album!

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1385485573' post='2288833'] 1. Call yourself Simon Cowell and behave in a generally objectionable fashion 2. Hoik trousers up to chin 3. Go through "X-Britain's Got Talent-Factor Come Dancing"-type "talent" show rigmarole to find passably gifted singer 4. ???? 5. PROFIT [/quote] Yeah, thats most peoples idea of the 'pop factory'. But why do artists seem to think that Christmas songs are a career killer. I understand that 'gangsta's' cant sing about Christmas trees and mince pies but would RHCP ever release a Christmas song?

I remember last year mentioning that Christmas hits are a thing of the past, and that popular artists dont seem to write Christmas songs. I'm guessing that 'rappers' and 'Gangsta's' dont celebrate Christmas much . I'm guessing its not as easy as it looks

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1385482743' post='2288773'] That's it. Go on, blame the blacks! You're right though. So many if the old icons on the bass are black. We owe so much to the guys who created the blues and all the variations that grew out of it, including soul, funk and motown. [/quote] ................ and no gang culture references in those days either! I wonder what they'd say about todays black artists

Top guy. Everything as described. Fast postage. Other than using rose petals for packing, It dont get better than this!

Any chance I could have a turn?

PM! sent

What happened to good old Guy, would I have heard him on anything recently?

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1377546613' post='2188756'] Dave, yep, I understand the difference between business and a supposed community and if the transaction had have been on a business type footing then that is the way busniness is. I would say more than a few sales per year makes it a business deal and you need to pay for that privilegde, less than that and you get a reduced or free go.. That is a community to me.... It is a hard thing to quantify, .........Am I worried about £100..??? no, it is the whole manner of these things and the way the thing was done Anyway, I don't sell much but I do see the guys posts and read them 'differently' now [/quote] There is no connection between the "community" and the for sale section. Anyone can sell stuff, you dont need to be a part of the community or even post in it. Therefore the community cannot expect any different from some sellers. If the site owners insist that sellers must contribute and post in the "community" part of the forum then there is some connection, but until then.......

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1377536010' post='2188584'] I dont have a really issue with them buying and selling, but i would expect them to contribute to our community rather than just come her to make a profit. This is the reason ive always thought members should rack up some posts before being allowed to sell things (sorry, i know thats off topic) [/quote] +1

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1377522655' post='2188416'] A similar thing happened to me. The guy said he had already owned a the same bass I was selling, but still asked where it was made. I thought that strange but so what, I got a sale. Checking this guy out it seemed he had a lot of sales on here but no community posts. Months later it was on here for more money being sold by a different member (with. Very low post count IIR), with no indication of its history, not even when I posted a light hearted post in the thread. That was totally ignored. It wasnt even mentioned that it was already secondhand. It had a couple of issues when I sold it, and I was up front about that, I'd also ripped it apart at some point to change pups and electrics etc. The new owner was well aware of its history, they got in touch with me, so it's all good, but to me it's obvious the are some people treating our once safe place as a cheaper, and less legal alternative to eBay etc, with no real beinifit to this community. it was at this point I felt BC was not the place it used to be. I'm careful now to who I sell things to. I am a good hearted person, and will let things go a bit cheaper to help others, but I will always check posting history now, and if I think it's just some one buying and selling they can look elsewhere for a bargain. They are doing nothing wrong of course, I just won't sell to some one I feel is just in it for the money. [/quote] I've come across this sort of thing on other forums (non music related), where traders join just to sell stuff and not to participate in the community aspect. Or, create a faux interest in the subject of the forum to create business opportunities, or generate work for themselves. But that is an unfortunate by product of "the internet". Is that a good or bad thing. If they are selling stuff that is in demand, or offering a valuable specialised service, then its a good thing surely. The problem with musicians is that we feel making money from second hand instruments is somehow morally wrong. Why shouldnt musicians make a profit from instruments. Also, its not so much what you are selling an item for, but what someone is willing to pay for it. Nobody can force you to buy a guitar that is being sold for £500 more than you sold it for last week; the market decides.

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1377183349' post='2184476'] ....... wet 'n dry wrapped around a cocktail stick .......... [/quote] Would love to see you actually do this!

Like any sensible person looking to start a business you only need to watch a TV soap to see how its done! "The Queen Vic" is the perfect example. Never too busy . Never has deliveries. Nobody gets up early. Occasional run to the "cash and carry" for a box of crisps. All this effeciency leaves lots of free time to sit around and argue or help out in various other business ventures! An inspiration to all future landlords! ...... don't get me started on the car dealers!

+1 Yamaha! Excellent and underrated instruments

+1 Richer sounds! As its a bedroom setup are you really sure you want speakers at all. There are some very nice headphones and listening levels late at night are going to be a lot better

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1375857407' post='2166433'] Doesn't help that it costs a fortune to send anything Royal Mail, and now on top of the postage and packaging costs you've got to pay Ebay a percentage on top. I'm selling a pedal there at the moment and have put the carriage on at £8.50 as that's what it cost me to ship a microphone a couple of months ago, so should be the genuine cost of shipping it (not including packaging, which in fairness I'll nick from work and the petrol/parking costs of going to the post office), but later in the year Ebay will make margin on my costs? seems a bit wrong to me. [/quote] Agree with all that. I think Ebay are 'building up' to incorporating ordering postage as part of the checkout process. As you can order couriers or pay for postage online now already, cant be that difficult

Surely its easier to set up your existing bass. it can't be more than a couple of hours work for a 'guitar tech'? The chances of picking up someone else's bass and expecting it to be setup how you like it without some modifications is a tall order I'd love to play the Wal for example, but I certainly wouldnt expect it to be setup how "I" like it. Especially if I was recording with it

[quote name='kemper162' timestamp='1375627609' post='2163585'] Trying to teach myself.... just can't get the hang of stopping the noises I don't want. For example noise when lifting my fingers after fretting and noise from other strings. Probably just down to lack of experience, but any guidance appreciated. Thanks, Duane. [/quote] Dont be too tough on yourself when your learning. Getting a "clean" sound will come after you've been playing a while. Dont try and do it all your head will explode. Try and move up to playing along to music ASAP, and always finish a song once you've started playing, even if you "muffed something"

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1375252463' post='2158756'] My era, this and 80's....love bass spotting on TOTP 2 but have also noted that it seems most bass (no, not all before the pedant trolls pounce.*..) players appear to use pick rather than fingers back in the 70's....still regarding myself as bass virgin what happened to make the step change to mainly seeing finger players from 80's on? was it a recording thing....every bass player was an ex guitarist...ran out of picks? * and by dominant i'm not refering to pick players only playing flat 7ths...or over dominant chords of other flavours! [/quote] Not meaning to hijack this thread but I'd be interested to know what basses Michael Dempsey played when with 'the associates'?

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1375092965' post='2156517'] It depends if a customer has come to try something specific or just wants to browse a large range of instruments. I was in one day when someone quite literally tried every single instrument in the showroom and at least four different amp and cab combinations. This wasn't a problem (and he spent over £4,000 at the end - ironically on the thing he tried first!) but it's hard to allow for someone wanting to try the entire stock. The place I help out at goes through the entire stock about 4 times a year to check on set up - that's basic tuning, truss rod adjustment, intonation, electronics testing etc. There's always random checking as well, especially for movement in the neck - some brands never budge and others move around a bit if there's significant climate change. Between the three of us in the shop we probably play every bass at least once every couple of weeks. Even with this we often find a random instrument will have gone significantly out of tune or the neck has moved an the action is too low/high. Strings sometimes deteriorate with hardly any use whilst others are fine for ages. Because these things aren't uniform it's tough to always have every instrument just perfect all the time Of course, then there's the issue of exactly what constitutes 'perfect' - one person's low action can be another's unplayable buzzy horror. We used to try and set everything as low as it would go but have found a lot of people want to dig in more and prefer higher actions. Then we raised a lot of basses and someone proclaimed (publicly on this very forum) that the particular, very expensive, brand he tried weren't all they were made out to be because the action on the one he tried was too high. He didn't ask us to lower it for him, just tried it briefly and then basically slagged the brand off I guess it's a case of 'some you win, some you lose' [/quote] Dealing with the public is always tough whatever you sell I thought that the instrument manufacturers supplied guitars with a useable standard setup out of the box. If I bought a new Fender from a "box shifter" would it be totally unplayable without a few hours with a guitar tech? How do you see your shop competing with the large "internet box shifters" in the coming years? Most of us pay a high premium using local shops, is it worth it? I'm not trying to antagonise you, its a serious question

[quote name='plumbob' timestamp='1375120807' post='2156960'] The swap over to an off the shelf signature model starts at about 44.56 , give him a plank with one string and I think he'd get a good tune out of it ! [/quote] Possibly, but the fans would probably but a copy of that too . Celebrity endorsements are hardly new How many signature model basses are there now?

[quote name='barkin' timestamp='1375114706' post='2156861'] I built my own signature P-ish bitsa. It's 100% identical to the one I play... [/quote] If you make me a copy, will I sound and look like you?

Sounds like "snake oil"? Wait for the 'medicine man' to come to town again

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1375058905' post='2156311'] In this weather it's near impossible to keep an entire showroom's worth of stock in tune, with perfect action and with great intonation. Believe me, I've tried! [/quote] Thats the downside of a music shop. Bread goes stale, fruit rots, meat goes off. How many customers a day demo instruments? How long does it take to check tuning? Nobody expects every instrument to be perfectly in tune at a moments notice, but preparing for a customer demo is the most important thing you do, surely! The only way small shops are going to compete with the large "box shifters" is on personal service

[quote name='Stan_da_man' timestamp='1375037915' post='2156043'] How are they supposed to improve then if their customers won't say what the problem is and just walk out? [/quote] Although to be fare. he was there to buy a guitar not to be a "mystery shopper"! He solved "his" problem by shopping elsewhere, the shop obviously dont think they have a problem?