geoham

Just now, ProfJames said:

Is the whole purpose of the staycation to build a finished bass that you can take home?

Yes, with a definite focus on the experience rather than the finished bass. 

12 hours ago, yorks5stringer said:

I did the week long 1-2-1 Course with Jon many years ago and stayed in local accomodation. As I lived around 60 minutes away I went down on Monday am, stayed overnight then went home Tuesday evening. Repeated this the next week so again only 1 more overnight and then went down on a Saturday to finish off but he was busier on the Saturday so was left a bit more to my own devices.

As been said earlier, it does help if you know and have some confidence with routers and bandsaws and are very patient when hand sanding too.

This is my 5 Stringer with Seymour Duncan soapbars and the Steve Bailey fretless loom and pots.

It's worth mentioning ( as I'm sure I have done before) you don't get a Shuker graphic on the headstock but he's happy to take your design and print it off.

That's an awesome looking bass, love the finish.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have no experience of routers or bandsaws.... sure it'll be fun learning!

15 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

It's possible to negotiate good rates for both credit and debit card sales just by some shopping around... AmEx is always expensive though!

I'm always amazed when I hear of businesses paying 2-3% for visa/mastercard transactions - just means they've stuck with an old and over-priced merchant-services provider... (Saying that, there's some to avoid due to both high fees and horrific contracts)

Amex is certainly a bit of an enigma. (Apologies for the slight tangent...)

My understanding is that they can charge higher fees as they avoid regulation of interchange fees due to them acting as both the issuer and aquirer.

I use one of their cashback cards, and am due around £160 in cashback in the next few weeks, earned over the course of a year.  I've paid no fees or interest for this. So presumably this is all passed on to retailers via higher fees - which I guess is the reason why plenty of businesses don't accept it. This even goes for some larger businesses like Game and TK Maxx. 

They've run a 'Shop Small' promotion a few times, where if you spend £10 at a small business, you get £5 back. I originally thought the small business would be eating this cost - but after chatting to a friend who runs a business, they just pay their usual fees. I found it quite surprising - it seems like a genuine attempt to support smaller businesses. (Although the cynic in me would suggust they are trying to increase their penetration in the small business market)

Anyway.. back on topic now. It seems this is a reputatble business, and I hope the OP enjoys his new purchase!

33 minutes ago, ProfJames said:

@geoham        graphite neck headless........stunning

Certainly is! Beautiful.

1 hour ago, ProfJames said:

Mine is the pride of my small herd...........................

Wow, that's different!

I know nothing about the company, but as others have alluded to - I suspect the reason is that the reason is that card fees for a small business can be  expensive.

However, I'd personally be reluctant to pay for anything of value via bank transfer and always prefer a credit card due to the added protections it offers. Bless American Express for refunding about £700 worth of cancelled flights that Ryanair said they'd could only do once COVID was over!

15 hours ago, TheGreek said:

I like the idea of this...No COVID restrictions??

I'm planning ahead, in the hope that the COVID restrictions will be relaxed enough to allow this - and for bars, restaurants etc to be open. Otherwise, we'll wait until this is the case.

13 hours ago, deanovw said:

I have been on the week long Shuker building course and I highly recommend it.

Here is a link to some pics of what I made.

Jon is a lovely chap and very patient. I would say a fair bit of confidence with hand tools etc would be of benefit. Although not essential it would help with time, as it quickly disappears. There is a lot of hand sanding!! Also being clear in what you want helps so you can just get on with things.

Go for it I'd say. I have gigged the bass I made extensively for years and still love it.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

 

That looks a great bass indeed, an unusual pickup combination but I bet it's versatile.

Appreciate the advice too.

13 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

I'd love to do that if I was going to spend £1000 on a bass. A P would be fine by me, and would love the learning. Bass  and mini-holiday in one!

However, I'd prefer to go solo (rather than take anyone from home) and either go for a drink with the other builders or hang out on my own.

Ordinarily I'd agree, but my guitarist friend is very keen to attend too - and we normally go a few weekends away each year with our better halves, which has obviously been impossible lately. Hopefully the situation improves by summer and we can at least get away in the UK this year, I reckon it'll be towards the end of the year before I even consider a foreign break.

13 hours ago, 4000 said:

I plan to go on one at some point, but I don’t want a P or a J. Can’t you build something else?

There is a more expensive 1 on 1 course (about £1700) where you build whatever you like. 

Hi guys,

Has anyone ever gone on one of Shuker's guitar/bass building courses? Considering booking it along with a friend as a bit of a staycation once restrictions allow... Plan so far is to book some nice local accomodation and bring the families along too. It'll give us something more constructive to do during the day than continually pour booze down our necks!

Anyway, to the matter at hand... if you've done the course, how was it? What about the end result? I'm looking at the three person, £1000 to build a P or J course. 

I realise I could buy a quality P bass for £1000, but I quite like the idea of building my own, and learning some skills along the way. I've got zero woodworking skills, but I do understand the electronics side of things pretty well, and I can set up a bass too.

35 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Is DV247 a "foreign" retailer though? If it is importing the goods from its German warehouse first that's it's call and it can deal with the paperwork internally.

Very much the model that we are hoping Thomann will adopt in the near future.

Assuming the entity purchased from was "MUSIC STORE PROFESSIONAL UK / DV247 LIMITED", then this is a UK company, presumably fully registered for UK VAT. 

I would argue that this transaction does not involve an import by a UK based purchaser, despite the fact it may have been shipped from Germany. The importer is the UK DV247 entity, and probaly involves an intercompany sale by their German parent entity. 

A UK based company can't sell something to a person in the UK without charging UK VAT. There' is no way that this should have been stopped at customs, nor should UPS have charged you anything.

There may be an argument that the goods should have first come to DV247's UK site, rather than being shipped to you directly - I don't know how that works these days. (

There's also the scenario that if you've purchased from Music Store in Germany rather than the UK subsidary, then UPS have done things properly. Although in this case, the retailler should not have charged VAT.

My advice - check the order confirmation and query the VAT charge with DV247. Then you may need to deal with UPS... 

George

37 minutes ago, Clarky said:

Just for clarification, if I sell my (say) Alembic for £2k to someone in Belgium, am I right in assuming the buyer will now have to pay an extra £400ish (~20%) in import duty at his/her end ... ie, exactly same principle as if I were to sell to someone in US (though maybe exact import duty rates vary)? 

As I understand it, they'd have to pay the VAT in their country and probably a UPS type handling fee - but no import duty.

2 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

I got a pedal from DV247 and didn't get charged and VAT was a separate line on my invoice and in the cart. Maybe mine snuck through or there's some sort of threshold before customs look at it?

VAT looks to have been applied to the neck though?

Certainly does appear that it's vat-inclusive. Foreign retailers shouldn't be charging UK VAT for invoices exceeding £135. It's probably worth clarifying with the retailer, though I suspect it may be a system issue due to rushing through the new changes.

41 minutes ago, Bassy said:

Hi, I bought a Fender fretless neck from DV247, £193, shipped from Germany, delivered by UPS. I was charged an extra £51 by UPS before they would deliver. So it seems that the UK import charges are now the same for USA or Europe or the world. Not sure what happened to all those brexit trade deals?? 

So about 20% VAT, plus a £12 handling fee by the sounds of things.

Previously, you'd have just paid the 20% VAT directly to DV247. But not the extra £12 from UPS.

1 hour ago, Oopsdabassist said:

Never knew he played with Gary Moore.  Excellent!

I have a Gary Moore, Live at Montreux DVD. Jonathan Noyce is the bassist on the main show, but if I recall correctly there are some bonus tracks of another year's show with Guy Pratt on bass. I think!

19 hours ago, Roger2611 said:

 

Beat me to it!

40 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

Seems to be some shenanigans with Gibson and Mesa Boogie too 🤷🏻‍♂️

Last time Gibson were in the news, was because they were bankrupt. Surprising they've turned things around enough to be in the acquisitions market.

Certainly a departure from designing Pink Floyd album covers, what would Roger Waters say?

I know it's an entirely different company, though I'm astounded they've chosen to them themselves like this - it's not like Hipgnosis isn't already a well known name in the music business.

29 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Are you sure about that? It's not as straightforward as that

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-vat-treatment-of-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-from-1-january-2021/changes-to-vat-treatment-of-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-from-1-january-2021

I'm absolutely not sure of anything... an interesting read.

The points about VAT being charged at the point of sale for goods under £135 is massive and should prevent delays and handling fees on these. However, based on my quick read of this, I think what I described will still be applicable for goods exceeding £135. 

It'll be interesting to see how the likes of Thomann deal with this, since the £135 is per consignment - so a £120 bass shipped alone would require them to charge UK VAT, but add on a £20 of strings to the same order and VAT will instead be charged upon import.

I think I'll be buying locally to avoid problems, and I suspect this may be their intention.

George

You'll notice now that Thomann are selling items without UK VAT. VAT of course is still payable.

What will happen is that it'll be held at customs, your courier will likely pay the VAT, along with import duty (around 3% I believe), then deliver your parcel. They'll bill you for VAT, duty and most likley a handling charge for their service.

Realistically, the VAT will remain the same, but the import duty and courier handling charge are new. A £500 bass would probably be £25 more expensive in total. (Approx £15 duty at 3%, plus a guessed £10 handling fee)

George

I'm terrible at practicing. Back in the days when gigs were a thing, I'd learn whatever new songs we were going to try in the set. More often than not, we'd agree a few new songs at the weekend, give them a bash at rehearsal on Wednesday and gig those that worked out on the Saturday. 

Practice would start by listening to the songs on Spotify which travelling to work, then I'd spend some time learning the bass part as closely as possible before rehearsing with the band.

I studied music as secondary school, and learned a reasonable amount of theory back then. But I can't remember the last time  I worked on scales, arpeggios or anything. 

I honestly feel that gigging regularly (25-30 times per year) has done much more for my ability than any specific theory, scales or technique exercises ever did.

In saying that, I've often toyed with getting a tutor or signing up for a Scott Device course or something similar. I've no doubt plateaued, but  I tell myself that my playing's good enough to get me through three hour sets a couple of times a month without stress, so what more do I need? Perhaps if I find myself financially stable enough to quit the day job my perspective will change.

George

Does this count? Very good...

I've favoured Jazz Basses all my life, and I opted for a narrow necked Ibanez. I was convinced it was ideal for me, but after a while I realised the string spacing was too tight for me and I moved it on.

These days, I have a Lakland 5501. The width of the neck and 35 inch scale make it seem like a bit of a monster, but the string spacing is just so much better for me.

Obviously it's difficult to try things out these days, but without trying a five string it's hard to say what will work for you. In my case it took me months of living with one. Perhaps take a punt a used one, and at least you won't suffer too much if you need to move it on.

Pretty poor by the BBC, though their statement is interesting "Had they performed they would of course have been paid for their appearance.”

I performed on the now defunct STV Glasgow with my old originals band around five years ago. No suggestion of any payment, though they provided some tea and biscuits while we hung around...  Before going on air, we had sign a waiver which basically said that STV have full ownership of the recording and can do what they like with it until the end of time. We didn't really mind - we were going on the telly!

They put out a Twitter link to one of the two songs. We asked them to do the same for the other, or just give us copies of the recordings - and were told no. They are a commercial operation, and not in the business of giving away their content!

Many of the better local bands played went on the show - STV will have built up a nice wee catalogue. I wonder if any of the bands went on to commercial success?