Dood

Ah yes, on the subject of my ole IT career, we used to receive deliveries that had a despatch note on the outside. The amount of kit that "got lost" was astounding. Right up until the point that the despatch note was updated and the contents couldn't be read through the plastic flap.

Yes and he, like my local driver, Luciano I think his name is, should be commended. He won't be though as he's actually just doing the job he's employed to do - Taking care of parcels. Hell, I used to work in IT and would think nothing of bringing a coffee out to my customer whilst I helped them out with their fault or project. I don't believe it was ever noted on my appraisals though. It's now seemingly so expected that service will be crap that anyone 'doing their job properly' is seen as 'going the extra mile'. - Maybe since 'going the extra mile' is too much effort for some, who don't care about anything other than getting paid, it's no surprise we are left with situations like those above. Pat on the back to friendly driver. We need more like you.

I will add that the local driver here can be excluded as he’s a nice chap. Sadly he is in a tiny minority at UPS.

Ahhh yes, that reminds me... “Why didn’t your driver deliver?” “He couldn’t find the address” YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!, gahhhhhhhhh! Obviously too stupid to use Sat Nav, or even a mobile ‘phone. Or.... dare I say it.... THE POWER OF SPEECH and ask someone!

I think it’s all getting out of hand and I agree with you La Bam, Ambient. Why are we having to pay extra because a courier can’t be trusted to do one simple job? It has always irked me, but now it really is boiling my fosters. Baggage handlers and Couriers are in a special group all of their own. Neither will be dealing with anything valuable of mine in future. Whilst on the subject of shipping instruments, there have been countless examples of pieces of gear that I planned to review that either arrived damaged or got back to their ‘owners’ damaged due to those muppets who don’t care. I’ve seen more than one speaker cabinet arrive in triple layer packaging with several inches of foam supports, only to have the box in one hand and a whole tweeter in the other. Bass necks that look like bananas and amplifiers that have had their ‘internal organs’ ruptured. And an apology from any single one? Nah.

After seeing the graphic pictures here on BC and hearing how UPS managed to destroy yet another valuable instrument my heart sank. Not just because Andy Travis’ dreams that were unfolding on his NBD thread were crushed.. a bit like what UPS did to said instrument, but because at the same time UPS were handling the shipment of something valuable for me too. Even feeling huge sympathy for a fellow bassist and BC family member, you still don’t think that it will happen to you. Well, unless the parcel you are expecting doesn’t turn up on the promised day. And so, the story begins... Back to Wednesday last week, time was getting a little late, so I thought I’d drop a call to my local UPS depot. “The parcel wasn’t scanned in. That means it wasn’t ready for collection. It wasn’t picked up.” Odd, considering how good the shop I was in contact with had been. I’ll give them a bell. The parcel was definitely collected. Much head scratching ensued. Thursday, lots of telephone calls and emails back and forth to the shop trying to get through to UPS customer services, who didn’t really seem that bothered. We did manage to get a request raised to investigate a lost parcel though... eventually. Maybe they see this happening so often, it’s not really deemed as important anymore? Well the good news via the shop is that the driver on the route that day remembers the collection and should have scanned the item on to his van. As I now understand it from UPS “customer services”, parcels should have also been scanned off the vehicles in to the depot. Which appears to have not happened on both occasions. It’s all a bit... well, odd. “So what of a parcel that hasn’t been scanned going through the UPS system” you ask? UPS don’t know. Over to those helpful tikes at UPS for an answer to that one.. Where do packages that “haven’t” been scanned end up? Are they stopped in their tracks by some sort of clever sorting process? I asked. You wouldn’t want anything dangerous accidentally going through right? You could hear the look of confusion over the ‘phone line. In fact, if you took the word of the chap I spoke to, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the staff who work at UPS lived in Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. Magic spells making things seemingly disappear? .. well, the possibilities are endless. Friday I think came and went.. Monday, and Tuesday and communication is made, but to be honest it all still felt a bit like, “we’re telling you we are looking in to it, but no one is.” - because how long does it actually take to search a local depot? Surely a large box without a shipping label isn’t that difficult to miss? It wouldn’t have been allowed to leave a depot unmarked surely? UPS don’t have a solid answer for those questions either. Today, this morning we had a message saying a parcel that possibly matches the description has been found. Yet as I type this late in to the evening, have they possibly managed to look at the parcel? Or are they possibly still doing flip all? I wonder where they found it too? I’d love to have an answer to that question. I would love to know. If it’s even the right parcel! So here we are. UPS don’t know their derrière from their elbow and are fast demonstrating a level of incompetence that is practically unmatched in all the years I’ve been sending kit using any courier. (Save for the last time they messed up) The shop have had problems before with them and are moving to a new courier too.

Dear UPS. Read and learn! So pleased to read that this one arrived safely!

So, the output of the new preamp connects to the FX return on the Evo. Don't forget to turn up the master volume on the amp as well as the preamp! Don't forget to unmute too!

Yes, take it to a professional Luthier! A mate of mine has repaired many-a-break and some have been completely invisible. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly

Very favourably. Sadowsky are obviously a massive and well known US brand. I've enjoyed trying out a few of their models. To put it in to perspective regarding Shuker though. I've been very lucky to of course review some pretty amazing instruments out there and I can put my hand on my heart and say that the quality of finish on Shukers have been better than some of the 'best of the best'. I'm not going to name names, but I've been disappointed with set up issues, poor fret dressings, questionable electronics, necks that shift constantly and in one case a a neck that I couldn't decide how it could be fighting me so much. It just would not play ball.

I hope it is a simple fix too! It's going to be something like a weird battery or loose connection!

Shuker all day long.. month... year(s)!

Also a good suggestion!

If these pickups are ones that aren't already potted (most modern ones are as mentioned above) then I would expect any custom pickup manufacturer could pot them for you either in wax or epoxy. Whether or not a particular company offer that as a service, I don't know. I'm guessing you'll have a few helpful replies from our fellow BCers

I've no idea what is in this instrument, so I began with the most likely cause (outside of having a piezo bridge element installed). Other possibilities is that you have a loose or dry joint in the electronics that is being vibrated and on occasion can cause noise. The weirdest example I have ever seen of this happening was... and I sh*t you not... BATTERIES! For some reason, ever single one of a pack of a certain brand of batteries in one bass would cause a thumping sound through the amplifier if you hit the instrument firmly. It was only when I tried a fresh set of batteries from another brand the problem went away! Maybe it was a poor batch of batteries where the contents were loose? Who knows!!

If the windings inside the pickups have become loose, then the pickup can act a bit like a microphone. It picks up vibrations outside that of it's normal operation of sensing string movement. So, banging on the instrument body will be picked up and can be heard through your amp.

Maybe the pickups are a bit and have gone microphonic.

I'll have a think - my list isn't far off either!

I often chuckle at people measuring DC resistance as some sort of gauge of output "power". I'm sure there used to be an eBay seller who took pictures of their meter readings to go with the auction post.

Selectron are the UK distributor. I should give them a call in the first instance. http://www.selectron-uk.co.uk/#contact +44 (0) 1795 419460

When I have used power amplifiers in the past I have tried to go for trustworthy brands that are known for producing decent hardware. Powersoft and QSC are great as an example. D Class is obviously light but there's some 'lead-sleds' which can be picked up really cheap that some PA companies still really love for their ability "in the lows". Connection depends on the amplifier, but most will have a switch marked Parallel/Stereo. Switch to Stereo and connect your preamp to channel A and a cabinet to output A and you will have a nice single cabinet set up. Abiding by the lowest impedance allowable on the output will give you a certain amount of flexibility with connecting more cabinets to that socket. E.g, two 8 Ohm cabinets on output A will give you a minimum load of 4 Ohms Switch to Parallel and (usually) input A will feed the same signal to both amplifier A and amplifier B. This is handy if you want to run more cabinets (to a minimum load specified by the manufacturer, usually 4 ohms) - so you could run in this case two 8 ohm cabinets on output A and another two on the output B. Usually both channel's volume controls will still work the separate outputs. Switch to Stereo and plug in a preamp like the Line 6 Helix and you can run full stereo sounds using a cabinet plugged in to each output and the Left and Right Helix outputs plugged in to Channels A and B respectively. Finally, you may have an amplifier that can run BRIDGED. This essentially uses the power of both channels to make one big amplifier. You'll need to read the instructions, but usually Channel A input will be where you connect your preamplifier and sometimes there will be an additional output socket marked 'bridge'. There will probably be a switch that puts the amp in to that mode too. Treat it as one mono amplifier and don't connect to any other outputs. You will also probably find that if each channel has a minimum load of 4 ohms allowable, the bridge mode will be double with a minimum permissible load of 8 Ohms.

The local driver to me here is a lovely bloke. I see him around here quite a lot and we chat, but right now I am having huge problems with UPS at the other end of the service. They are demonstrating gaping holes in their process, having completely lost a huge box and ineptitude in dealing with how to locate it. I am massively concerned that it doesn't suddenly arrive out of the blue looking like a box of kindling.

Ah, yes... ummm I definitely won’t be trying to take advantage of the opportunity to get my grubby mits on one!

I’ve done the right thing and have emailed Darkglass to see if I can review this little beast for you all

Oh! Thank you so much! Very kind of you to say