edstraker123

Living in Liverpool I am quite fortunate in that there are 3 decent enough music shops in the city centre within spitting distance of each other so I suppose the environment is quite competitive, however of late I having been stocking up on bass related items and I've been quite amazed on the amount of discount you can get if you just ask. In the past I wouldn't have even considered it however having chanced my luck once and been given a hefty discount, I now try it with every item I buy. I was recently in the market for a new amp and spotted the Ampeg B100R on Dolphin's website for £465 a little bit dearer than on a few other websites. I phoned the shop to see what the instore price would be and they told me £469 which I didn't think was too bad. Having been in and tried it, I simply asked how much they could do it for and I got it for £429 without any haggling, which was cheaper than anywhere else I'd seen it even on the web. I'd had a discount on effects pedals in Dolphin the week before and Curly music also knocked £20 off the total cost of 2 Digitech pedals. I appreciate that in most cases the discount only brings the price within the cost of buying the goods on the web, however in doing this, the shops do make you feel like they value your custom, you can see the item before purchase and you do get immediate gratification which you don't get waiting for the delivery from Parcelfarce. This was in complete contrast to the experience I'd had buying a tweeter box for my Micromark from Bass Centre over the web. The item looked like it was in stock on the website but it wasn't, I was told it would be in in a few days - it actually took 3 weeks, the staff told me they would check on the progress of the item and ring me back - only once did this happen out of about 10 calls and they charged me £10 postage when the actual cost was £2.66 (needless to say I won't be buying from them again) Just wondering what other basschatters experiences are of obtaining discounts and web v. music shop purchases. PS. The Ampeg has died (R.I.P.) so will see what kind of customer support Dolphin offer !

Jon, If you change your mind and look at 4 strings check out the Hamer sunburst. I've just bought one for £250 new and the set up was amazing, it's so easy to play and sounds pretty decent. It's like a Les Paul Junior shape and an absolute steal at the price. I've got a custom Shuker and Overwater but this is so comfortable I'm playing it more than these (which is crazy !). It must be a bit of a bind not having much local choice but as Machines said I'm sure they will let you play the basses and if they won't I certainly wouldn't buy from them. Good luck with the hunt.

Hi Jon welcome, Don't know where you are based but I've got one on Ebay for sale at £100 currently. It's immaculate apart from a tiny scratch on the side of the neck. Cost me £275 in Dawsons. Check it out if you are interested.Got flatwounds on it and it plays really nice.

Hoping so - they are normally pretty good. Just hope they can get me another one.

I'll give it a whirl. As it wasn't up to the job I consigned it to the bedroom and bought a new ampeg B100-R which was excellent but has died after 3 days ! Definitely cursed !

After last weeks nightmare with the Micromark I decided to consign it to the bedroom for practice only and get myself a decent amp for the living room which I can run all my effects through etc. After lots of deliberation I bought an Ampeg B100-R . I bought it in Dolphin's guitar shop in Liverpool -they give me a great deal £429 (cheaper than anywhere I could find on the web), it looks absolutely stunning and having got it home I was well impressed with the sound. After playing it for a couple of hours today it just fizzled out and is now completely dead. I tried different power lead in case it was the fuse but to no avail. Has anyone had any similar experiences with these Ampegs ? I though I'd read something about problems with the B200-R . My Amp curse continues - can anybody recommend a replacement about 100W (£500 to spend) should the worst come to the worst.

Might sell it and cut my losses !]

Kev, your proposed order worked out a treat - sweet !

It is exclusively for bedroom practice. Space is extremely tight and I thought it would be the perfect solution.I hear what you are saying about a 6" speaker but fell for the hype and somehow believed it was endowed with magical powers and would behave like a larger one !

Just bought a Markbass Micromark - just before the price hike (they seem to have gone up about £90 in the last few weeks) and was just wondering what other users experiences were of them. I bought it based on reviews (like a fool !) and for the price was extremely disappointed. I expected to pay a premium for the small size and it sounds ok but you only have to look at it and you overdrive it ! If it cost £150 it would be worth considering, but in some places it's now £390 + £50 for a tweeter box. I'm getting a better sound out of a Samson Resolv 65A active monitor which I got for nothing ! A valuable lesson learned !

Excellent comms and service - trouble free transaction. Would definitely deal with again.

Cheers Kev I appreciate the response and point taken on the search function. I think the problem stems from members trying to get advice in relation to their specific collection of pedals (as I was) rather than general principles to apply - symptom of being a newbie I'm afraid. Looking forward to trying out your proposed combination. [quote name='BassManKev' post='204870' date='May 23 2008, 11:36 AM']how many of these threads are there! go for this, but next time please use the search function, as there must be a dozen of these threads by now... EHX octave multiplexer Wah EHX bass micro synth qtron Pickle Pie fuzz EHX black finger compressor Boss Bass chorus EHX stereo electric mistress Line6 DL4 delay modeller Boss Bass EQ but were you put the EQ is totally dependant on what you use it for thats how id have it anyways[/quote]

The pedals I have are : Wah Pickle Pie fuzz Boss Bass EQ Boss Bass chorus EHX black finger compressor EHX octave multiplexer EHX stereo electric mistress Line6 DL4 delay modeller EHX bass micro synth qtron how would users link these in the chain ? I appreciate there will need to be a bit of experimentation to see what sounds best but there must be some general principles which could be applied.

Hi Robert, I'm in exactly the same boat as you, just switched from a pod xt live, have got a set of pedals together and would like to know the basics of the effects chain.Hopefully somebody will point us in the right direction.