Chownybass

Will try and attend. It's dangerously close to my daughters birthday though.

Wild horses couldn't keep us away!

The Food of My People! (Die kos van my volk!)

*** THREAD HIJACK! We've still got a couple of show stock items (Purple Chowny CHB-1, Black CHB-2, Red CHB-2, White SWB-1 passive, Retrovibe Volante, SWB Pro Matt/Walnut with tiny chip on headstock, White Retrovibe Vantage) available at show prices (as long as you don't mind buying a bass that was pawed by many strangers). DM for prices if you're interested. **END OF THREAD HIJACK

I'm going to review the Bass Guitar Show attendees instead and give you some perspective from what the show was like as an exhibitor. WHAT a LOVELY bunch of people you all are. For those who took the time and effort to come out to see us, thank you very much. Very much enjoyed meeting everybody. Everybody was positive, polite and game for trying out our stuff. I was really nice to see the familiar faces and old friends. And make some new ones. @romeo2 it was good to see you again. Glad you like the new stuff. I'll try and politely address some of the negativity around the show, and where criticism is rightly and wrongly being directed. I'll agree the show is noisy. But we are talking about a product(s) that make noise. It's LITERALLY what they do. I agree that the quiet periods were not enforced very well, and that the sound police were a bit toothless. I will be raising this very strongly with the show organisers. The management of space wasn't great either, and if there were performances in the booth it backed up into the aisles making it difficult to get to all the stands. I am also raising this with the show organisers. To mitigate the noise, we had closed headphones for those that couldn't hear. If you want a diverse array of stuff gathered in one place. Where you are welcomed and encouraged to put your hands on them and try them out. Where you can talk directly to the product makers - and not just sales staff, who are quite happy for you to buy anything. Where there is a community of like minded individuals and where you can actively support small and local builders and makers - it is the place to go. It is NOT cheap exhibiting. For a smaller company like ours - it's probably just shy of a few thousand pounds. Plus hotels, travel, facilities etc. We do NOT make our money back at the show. Yes - it's a marketing expense. But also it's also for you guys. The venue is certainly nicer. From a sound point of view, the open space makes it less oppressive. It's nice and light. And it's certainly more photogenic. From a selfish logistics perspective it is a bastard to get to in a van. For those complaining of no bargains - we were offering 15%-20% off instruments on the day. As well as organising discounts for show attendees who want to buy afterwards. Rather than having a moan, if you ACTUALLY attended the show, and you feel there is anything we - as exhibitors - can do to improve things for you. Let me know. Other than that I know Sylvia is feeding stuff back to the show organisers. It was EXHAUSTING - but a lot of fun. If the show organisers can assure me they'll do more to tackle the things that annoy me, I'll certainly be back next year. Look forward to seeing you guys at the Birmingham Guitar Show and Manchester Bass Show in Feb and March.

Tony Butler will be joining us on Sunday 22nd at the Chowny stand at the UK Guitar Show at 11:00 for a meet and greet if you're a Big Country or Tony Butler fan. Then at 13:15-14:00 he will be doing a talk in the Tone Zone where he will talk about his new signature bass among other subjects (interviewed by Joel McIver from Bass Guitar Magazine) Please come and say Hi.

It's ALL headphones ALL the time at Casa Chowny at the show. (I lie... we'll have Markbass Combos with headphones, so you can make noise if you want to). But you can also use headphones. Best of both worlds.

HELPER NEEDED. I need an extra pair of hands on my stand in case I need to go pee or eat or suchlike. I can get you in the show (and you're free to wander around and go watch the artists) as long as you check in with me periodically. Ideally if you can hang around till the end of Sunday and watch my stuff while I go get the van that'd be good too. I'll buy you lunch and get you entry for both days. DM/PM me if you feel like doing it. *** I LOVE BASSCHAT! I have a helper. Best community site EVER! Thanks

For what it's worth we'll be there too. I think Bass Direct intend to be there too (don't quote me on that).

I'm booked to do this show. It'll be very well attended. Also they've got their review channel up and running "Bass Guitar Review" http://bassguitarreview.co.uk/ their first review is linked below. They'll be doing one of my basses next week (Retrovibe Vantage Tony Butler Signature) *SHAMELESS PLUG* It can only be a good thing this show. We tend to see the same faces year on year and the bass guitar show in London. So to get to another major bass only show in another part of the country is exciting. Look forward to seeing you at both events!

Just spotted this. To add a little context - although it's not an excuse as such - you caught me on an exceedingly bad year, with my wife going through chemotherapy and me trying to run the company single handed I just could not keep on top of admin, especially when it fell outside the usual workflow. Yours is not the only case of this, I just didn't cope with keeping on top of this stuff. We are also REALLY struggling with backorders/stock so it'd be very difficult to switch it out without having anything physically in our hands to switch it out for. Our rep is rightfully taking a bit of a hit for this, with some orders having had to wait as long as from August 2018 ... Left handed bassists! Grrr 😉 Hopefully we'll see you back for a bass in the future, although if not - I'd totally understand.

I've given them a nudge today to say that there are "no announced artist rumblings", which as an exhibitor doesn't thrill me either. Response was : "We will be beginning artist announcements at the end of this week, hopefully the names we will be getting will sway any negative comments the other way."

*puff of smoke. You summoned me master?

Maybe playable. Maybe not. You have no right to recourse if it isn't. I'm quite philosophical about the copies of my stuff floating around. I know my basses are better. I know they're copies of the old chinese versions of my basses, although the factory I used to use swears they are nothing to do with it. I can't stop it - so I don't get excited about it. I also know since we moved production our basses are SO much better than the ones we were getting out of China - even before they started knocking them out with cheaper parts etc. Also Aliexpress is just a marketplace. Like Ebay. They don't actually make anything. They just facilitate the sale.

If that’s what you want to call it. My point was that anything on aliexpress is not ours

They are built by us. All the basses we make are our own designs. We use production facilities in India. We do not sell anything on Aliexpress. Although I believe there are some fakes of our stuff around now. We sell on our own website, and via some retailers in the UK (Bass Direct, Bass Gallery, Andertons and Gear4Music) We at Chowny make the Vantage basses but that’s as close as you’ll get to a 4005 with us. David @ Retrovibe does make small numbers of these in China from time to time. But not through us. Hope that all makes sense.

It was pretty tame for the most part. They sent me an invoice, so stuff must be happening! I'll have a moan at them about the marketing. They really should be ramping it up already.

Making samples as we speak

Another great bash. Rather enjoyed myself. Thanks and kudos for all the hard work organising and making food! See you all next year

I gotta say - you're the first person to complain about the frets. Proof that I can never please everybody. They're medium jumbo frets (which are pretty common across most basses) - what do you prefer?

I thought you sold it. One of the first 12 made. A piece of Chowny history.

Happy to switch it round for you if you want. I have a few SWBs in tobacco burst.

I've also got some clearance left handed Vantage basses. Wasn't gonna bring them - but if there are any lefty players attending that are interested let me know. - Stephen

They're 2018 Chinese Made ones that I've messed with the tailpieces etc etc on.