uk_lefty

So for the second time in what could be a week, could be a year, who knows at the moment... I've sold a bass. Wahey! I've used an intermediary to book a courier service. Then it's all gone wrong... Before Christmas. I used Eurosender to get my bass and send it from St Albans to Bristol, they chose DPD for the job. A month, a lot of frustrated phone calls later, many changed arrangements, the bass arrived with the end customer looking like a cattle drive had ran over it. The receiver already had his refund and I had to pay to get it posted back to me. This week I've used Interparcel to collect a bass and get it to Glasgow. They use Tuffnells. Well, I sorted it before 9am Monday with collection booked for Tuesday. I'm still looking at the box now. Here's the rub. The intermediaries do nothing. Nothing except take your money. They don't inform you of an issue, such as "cannot collect today, sorry" unless you contract them after 6pm which is the latest a collection will be. They don't escalate issues. They can't or won't upgrade the service because I've lost 2 days already from waiting because the collection company "ran out of time" (2 days running, are you f'ing serious?!), and they never refund. They won't refund because "there is no money back guarantee". I've been told this even when I've not asked for a refund, I've asked for them to hurry the fudge up! "It's not guaranteed for the date" well, thus is where it all falls apart for me I'm afraid. I pay for a collection to be made on Tuesday almost 24hrs in advance. If it can't be done, fine, don't take my money and give me the option to do something else. But you can't take my money, refer to terms and conditions that are basically "best endeavours", and refuse to refund if the service entirely fails (Eurosender and DPD) or cannot be performed within 48hrs of when it was expected. Working in supply chain and with business to business contracts I find it amazing that they take this stance. The service is not guaranteed for any particular time, nor guaranteed to actually work. Yet my payment is guaranteed in advance with absolutely no recourse whatsoever, and no obligation on the intermediary or their sub contracted service provider to actually do anything?! I'm setting up a new business. Lefty's guitar couriers. You need to send a guitar? Fifty quid paid in advance, please. I'll collect it tomorrow and deliver next day. Only, there's no guarantee. I might not collect tomorrow, or this week, or this month, we will see. I might collect it and not deliver it. Anyhow its the third party courier I'm arranging, don't get angry with me. If you ask for a service update I might tell you "sorry, couldn't do it today. Maybe tomorrow?" but I'll make no promises, no guarantees and you'll be f'ing well grateful OK?! There's no guarantees, no upgrades, no refunds, no advanced notice of any change to my side of the bargain. If you have a problem speak to the courier I've arranged. They won't speak to you because you didn't make the booking. I might speak to them on your behalf, I might not, you don't know, you're excluded from that part of things. You read the terms and conditions, you know the deal. Pretty easy this lark. And somehow legal. Should I write to my local MP? (Actually he'd probably invest for a 50% stake)

If you prefer passive then the V5 is the way to go. Cheaper, no batteries required, less stuff can go wrong! I used to loathe active EQ until I had my V7 and then I used to bypass my amp EQ and purely use the V7. Each to his or her own!

I am tempted by the V5s roasted neck and price point, but to me the pre is the big selling point of the Sire.

Awesome colour! I adore my Stingray, it's like a bass embodiment of a big slobbery playful dog.

Oasis need to do a Christmas single, then they will all listen.

Most of us do on medium gigs, all if sound man can be bothered/ drummer arrives in good time.

So, here's the idea. Having a little wedge shaped bass combo to use for monitoring on medium sized gigs. Why? For large gigs it's not an issue, we are fully PA'd up and equipped with individual monitors. However, for medium sized gigs I think it could be helpful to have some monitoring. I am usually crammed in close to the singer who has his monitor which is mostly vocal. The drummer has a monitor speaker giving him a bit of everything, I quite like that idea. I have recently bought a Helix Stomp so I think I could run two outputs, one to my amp and another to my monitor amp... Maybe? Why a bass combo? So I can use it at home for practice and also on gigs. No other reason. I recognise that if this even will work it won't give me the lead guitarist, stood far away and slightly in front and I can't see or hear him properly. Alternately, if I got one of the monitor speakers like my drummer has (his looks like a Behringer combo amp) would I just use that as a bass combo for home practice? Is this a rubbish idea?

If he was right handed I think he would be far more appreciated as a bassist.

This all went quiet again because my 18 month old is rebelling against the concept of sleep and real work has ramped up. Also, I've been agonising over the neck. I kept an eye out for any Fender spec necks since the telebass misadventure and ended up buying a used 2018exican P bass neck. It's not quite the visual excitement I wanted, dots, plain maple headstock, and I can't have the logo made that I wanted but I guess that's saved me a tenner. Tried to screw it in and... The screws are too big! They're making the neck creak a bit. Otherwise the fit seems good. I might need new neck screws or to persevere when I can be bothered to fetch the better screw driver. At least this way I have a good quality neck, with a nut the correct way up, and I can just screw it in... Oh but wait... Those lovely folks at Fender decided to put weird tuners on the Mexican necks that rake ever so slightly different screw holes. Need to get the drill out to fit my Wilkinson tuners. The drill needs to be out anyways to get the pickup screws in and to make a hole for my series/ parallel switch. Fair do's, maybe a Thursday or Friday job. Also, still need to stain and/ or finish the body. But then we are good to go. Once all fitted and up and running I'd be tempted to have it defretted.....

Need to keep an eye out for that!

The "courier" either isn't a real courier or there's some jiggery pokery at that end and then the "buyer" claims item not received to PayPal who immediately claw back the money. Leaving the seller without their property or the proceeds of the sale. I'll never accept someone sending their own courier unless its someone I know. By someone I know I include people I've never met but they're on BC a lot and have a good feedback thread. I bought a bass on here by trust, bank transfer to the sellers account and I arranged the courier, but he is on BC a lot and had good feedback here so I knew I could trust that the address was his and there would be a well packed bass waiting for my courier.

My latest Gumtree adventure... He blocked my number before the last message got sent. Obvious scam.

I think it kind of is around and about but in pedals and not onboard the instrument. My 10plus year old boss bass pedal had effects to make a rosewood board sound like maple, passive sound like active, single coils sound like humbuckers... The effects processing is out there, am sure someone could make a Helix patch that makes a precision sound like a Stingray. I just don't think the instrument needs it onboard because of this. With a guitar I think it "translates" easier, visually and practically, to have the acoustic body emulating an electric rather than a bass. However I would be happy if they made one, it could be a collectors item!

Guitarguitar offered me £200 trade in for a bass I just sold privately on Reverb for £350. I could have negotiated up or held out for more, or even sold for more if I was prepared to ship overseas. Being left handed its harder to find your target market quickly, I like Reverb but always try BC first because you can trust the other members.

This is my approach. I think vintage basses are a real minefield. Even having bought one to fix up its been a frustrating experience. Instead I "invested" in a bass that I will gig and in time may have maintained its value. Am thinking the same with some of the latest Fenders with their nice colours, perhaps they will be worth something later but I wouldn't be shy about gigging them now or letting my kids have a go on them.

There's a lefty Charvel on ebay that looks awesome. I'm assembling a PJ and have considered an 80s rock neck, so I can't justify it, otherwise I'd be throwing in offers!

Just the other day I put up a question about recording and videoing. Had a personal message with "give us a call if you like" and a mobile number. This is a member I have purchased from once and we interact on some threads but that is a level of kindness and helpfulness beyond the norm.

Great! I was firmly in the "do not want" camp bit they do a PJ with a J body so....

Has to be the first option. I'm making/ assembling a Fender style bass with a black neck, if the supplier send me the right one eventually... What colour is your Fender decal? White, gold or cream? It stands out nicely there.

Your guess is as good as mine. I can point them to plenty of video of me playing rock and soul with a band and an audience, even more audio.

So... A band wants me to do a video audition. Everything I have on video is not in their style, I need to show I can play metal. They don't want a pro recording per se but I cant do their suggestion of recording on my phone me jamming along to something, I've just been told off by the wife for the noise made! I can record bass direct to my laptop easily, but I need to merge that with video and a backing track. What's the easiest way? I've got a 4 channel mixer so I could get all audio recorded in to the PC I think, its just adding the video...