Damonjames

A couple of weeks ago I was quite dejected about the lack of quality bass gear available to try in music shops. Someone suggested I get in touch with Drew at the Manchester Bass Lounge, which I had never heard of before. I will warn you now, if you have cash, and quite possibly even if you don't there is a VERY high chance you will walk out with something!!!! He has an amazing range of quality gear, and Drew is very helpful, and patient. I was quite overwhelmed with the choice, I thought I knew what I wanted but it certainly helped to have a try of some great basses and get a feel for them. Anyone who is in the market for a new bass, drop him a line, or check out his website manchesterbasslounge.com he is a top bloke offering a great service! Thanks Drew!

I will have a try of the ashtray on my jazz which is fitted with a gotoh 201, probably same problem though!

Hey mate, pics are sent! Sorry only had the bridge ashtray as it was on my jazz bass

Hey mate just tried it, and it does go over the badass but it hangs over the end of the bass slightly. It actually looks pretty cool! Can't insert pics here if you send me your email ill send a couple through to you. Could even sell you the ashtray if you like!

Dave is a sound guy, and a great teacher, sorry I havnt been back to you yet mate this year has been crazy busy!

I have a bridge cover, ill try it on my dirnt but I would guess its a no start

Something out of left field here, what about a mim fender jazz? Could easily Get a nice one for under £300, and put some better pickups in and you are away! Your original post said best all rounder, and IMHO a jazz is it. you won't get it to sound like a ray, but it's hard to get a ray to sound like anything other than a ray (ducking for cover) as they have a distinct sound, not that that's a bad thing! Just my 2 cents

Found a souls mate? Sounds to me like you found a douche bag about 8 months ago. Every now and then clowns like your guitarist pop up, there are however a lot of cool cats out there. My advise would be either sack the guitarist or find another band, life is too short! My old neighbour is a concert trained pianist and joined a blues band on keyboard. He is a very good player, and like most concert musicians learns/performs the songs by site reading. He got into and argument with the bass player as this guy was adamant he was playing a bum note. Now I should mention that the bass player is blind, so he was a little naive to get Into an argument about what sounds "right" with a blind person, but so it raged for about 20 mins, and ten about another 20 later on that rehearsal. As it happens, there was a misprint in the sheet music 😳, fact is a little diplomacy goes a LONG way in a group environment! Sounds like you already have one foot out the door, just carry on walking!! Good luck

Don't worry about it fretbuzz, no one notices the bass anyway, YOU will be fine! The guitarist may look a little silly though...

Hi Chris, I did think about that, but a bit concerned it wil be too aggressive? Trying to go for a rob deleo from stone temple pilots feel. I have dimarzio dp123's in my jazz which I love, and they sound pretty growly so maybe you are right

I have been trying to sell my Fender Mike Dirnt Signature bass for a while now, and there have been some incidents along the way so it seems like I am bound to this one by greater forces. I initially bought this because I loved the look, and bought it sight unseen, but have struggled to get along with the "thick" neck profile. So I am going to do the unthinkable and customise a fender signature bass! I am going to have the neck thinned right down to a "thin c" profile, and since I was going to sell it to buy a p/j I figured I'd put a neck jazz pickup in for good measure. I'm thinking of the seymour Duncan spb-2/sjb-2 combo. I havnt seen a 50's plank body p/j with a tele neck before so i guess this will now be MY signature bass! Will post some pics and feedback when it's all done! Off to the chop shop!!!

Cheers mate, some people have suggested we have "sold out", believe me I would amazed if we sold out any thing!

Yeah I did atleast TRY and do a search before I posted, but most of what I found was to do with importing bigger ticket items like complete basses, not just components. Thanks for the help though!

All right cranky pants 😉 I HAVE read it now, I read the calculator page and got bored, tax law isn't a passion of mine. But thanks for the nudge, I should have read it before posting. Thanks for the info guys, when all is said and done, think ill just get it from Thomann, it will be less hassle and probably get here faster.

It's a shame when this happens. I felt sorry for Jason newstead from metallica, his farmhouse side project was called echo brain, and he got sued by a band call echo drain... I guess he was an easy target with deep pockets but come on surely they could both perform under their respective names without any copyright infringement or confusion. I already have my band name picked out, and can't find a reference anywhere so be on the lookout for "shadow hoax" there it's documented!

Just note sure about buying stuff from within EU

Thanks for the link it worked fine. This may sound stupid but is buying through Tomann online subject to the same duty/vat?

Anyone know off hand what import duty rate is?

Has anyone bought small items off eBay in the USA and had them shipped? I've only recently moved from Australia and the import laws are very different so just wondering what to and what not to do. Looking at getting a set of pickups. Cheers

I forgot to post back on this, I ordered some acs er20's for the whole band off the overwhelming positive feedback. The other two guy in the band are happy, but for me they fit like any other earplug I've tried, if I move my mouth/face they work their way loose, not good as I do backing vox. Wish I'd tried the noizezz ones now but oh we'll, they cut the noise down really well though and can hear the mix just fine so +1 for effectiveness but -1 on the fit