Painy

Couldn't agree more. Plenty of companies with good products that feel it let's them off having to provide decent service but if you've got a great product backed up by great service too then you deserve success.

Just to update my contribution to this thread. Replacement cable is winging its way to me in the post now that the bank holiday weekend is over. Great customer service again! Thanks @D'Addario UK

This is always the big problem with private functions - especially weddings. Nothing worse than working your way through a hard rock or punk set the whole time under the stern, disapproving glare of the mother of the bride.

Got booked for a private gig - 40th birthday party - but the chap said all his biker mates from his club would be there and we could expect 200+ people to be there. Arrived at the address he gave us for the venue and were a bit confused at first as we couldn't see and pubs, halls, hotels or anything that looked like a venue for a party - just a big council housing estate. He then comes out of his garden gate and calls us into his small back garden where he's just about managed to fit an old army mess tent for us to play in. We got to play for him and his immediate family (literally him, his wife, 2 kids and his elderly parents). Turns out he didn't even own a motorcycle let alone be in a biker club - or apparently have any friends. The low point of the evening (although only one of many) was when he got into a fist fight with one of his neighbours over the noise. The high point was watching his elderly parents slow dancing romantically and not letting the fact that we were playing Paranoid at the time put them off.

Got mine strung with flats at the moment for a bit of contrast with my other basses and it sounds lovely. All 3 of my gigging basses are 5 string passives - the other 2 being a Fender modern player Jazz (which like the Gibson is loaded with a pair of coil-tappable humbuckers) and my main bass which is a Squier VM P5. I love the Squier - it just suits me perfectly despite being one of the cheapest basses I've ever owned - and it is my clear number one overall. I do have to concede though that the Gibson has the better low B.

Yeah, my message is unread at the moment but I'd put it down to the bank holiday weekend. I've now sent the same message to D'Addario UK on facebook so hopefully it'll get through one way or the other.

I've been inspired by this thread to send our friendly local D'Addario representative a message regarding a faulty guitar cable (lifetime guarantee but bought new off eBay so got no receipt). I hope the poor chap isn't inundated after this.

Sad to say there's a lot of truth in some of the comments above. Having just gone through a painful 7 month search for a new singer though I know how hard it is to find a good vocalist (and we were very much too fond a really good one in the end). Plenty of averagely mediocre singers (and with disproportionate egos in most cases too) but good ones are really hard to come by. If she is one of the good ones then I sincerely hope she's given the same chances as anyone else - although I suspect there is still a lot of bigotry out there to be overcome.

My number one is a Squier VM P5. The only bass I've ever owned that cost less to buy new is the Harley Benton that lives under the bed. It is my number one for no reason other than it is by far my favorite bass that I have owned (which includes basses that cost several thousand pounds). Everything about the look, feel and sound is just perfect - for me. I COULD perform my current role on something OTHER THAN a Squier bass. I just wouldn't choose to (as my main bass at any rate - I also use a Gibson EB13 and a Fender Jazz at gigs but only for a few songs each. The Squier gets the nod for about 3/4 of the set). All subjective though innit!

Yeah, I'm kinda wondering what kind of bass player would be in a gigging band without actually having a bass or amp to gig with. I can just imagine Lewis Hamilton turning up for an F1 race and phoning round his driver mates to see if one of them has a car he can borrow.

Well I eventually got around to trying it after getting some LaBella Deep Talkin flats from @krispn . At first it did sound a bit too dark and lacking in clarity for my normal tastes straight into the amp but I normally use this bass through a Lomenzo Hyperdrive on a low gain setting to bring out the mids anyway. Increased the blend on the pedal a touch more than my previous settings and it sounded lovely in the mix at this week's band practice. Very much that flatwound thump and no zing on the top but still plenty of articulation. Lovely feeling strings too so all in all a very successful experiment!

Just had a 5 string set of LaBella flats off Gavin. Loving the strings and a great guy to deal with. Thanks buddy!

I've just worked out my current gear is a shade under £5k. That's a lot less than it's been at points in the past (most expensive bass I've owned would currently cost around £4700 on its own) but I'm as happy as I've ever been with my gear. If I were to work out what I've spent on this stuff over the last 23 years though I think that would be a much scarier figure (and one I probably wouldn't be sharing with my wife either ).

To be fair though I briefly lived in a 1 bed flat in Great Yarmouth and at that point there were petrol station sandwiches with a value that exceeded that of my home .

About 18 years ago we had to total up the value (new prices) of all of the band's equipment (which also included a custom built box-trailer admittedly) and the total value was just over £38k. I dread to think what that would be at current prices.