Chownybass

Yes. Fair point.

Anyway. Chown SWB Pro, Retrovibe EVO Davie504 & Retrovibe Volante basses being delivered to us on Tuesday. We have some stock going out to Bass Direct, Gear4Music, Andertons and one to PMT. Nearly everybody waiting for an SWB Pro will be getting theirs shortly. If you just HAD to have one and didn't want to wait, snap one up from one of the above retailers.

Nah. It was a rant about that time Gibson tried to sue me.

More coffee needed.

This comment was intended for a completely different post elsewhere. The one on Gibson. In a bit of a senior moment I seem to have pasted it here. What a D*ckhead I am.

Perhaps if they spent less money on unfounded legal challenges to small guitar companies they'd have some cash in the bank. ;-) *ahem* *ahem*

Link https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/05/01/gibson-guitar-chapter-11-bankruptcy/567821002/ We've clashed with Gibson's Lawyers in the past - so half of me thinks this is comeuppance - and half of me thinks this isn't great at all.

VAT and Import Duty paid. Waiting for customs clearance. Preliminary delivery date to my office is Monday. "Setups and Sending Out" follow that.

Howdoo! Lined / Unlined / Fret board Markers / Clean fretboard / Side dots lined up with frets / Side dots lined up between frets. Everybody prefers some DIFFERENT combination of those. The way we manage fretless is... We make fretted basses, and then order a bunch of fretless necks. As the basses are bolt-on, this means if somebody orders a fretless bass - we just have to take it into the workshop and switch the neck. We opted to make clean board, no fretlines, side dots lined up *on* the fret. Because this seemed to be the most requested option. We can't make a half dozen variations of this, because for the factory guys it means constantly changing the jig on the machines and is not practical for economy of scale. It's a constant negotiation with our factory guys on the sizes of runs we make (typically we need at least 6 of each colour, and to make at least 24 of any particular bass. This is less of a problem now than when we started however as we typically order about 50 - 75 basses at a time now) You can order any of our SWB basses (Swb Pro or SWB-1 active or passive) with a fretless neck on. It's worth noting that the fretless necks are one piece (so if you put one on an SWB Pro you are losing the 5 piece maple and walnut neck). It's also worth mentioning that the fretless necks do not have a colour matched headstock (for obvious reasons) Hope that all makes sense. That said. Fretless SWB is awesome. You should all buy one. Just ask @Happy Jack ;-)

Haha. It takes about 3 days to unload btw. And then a day or two to get to me. Then I can start dispatching basses. I'm pleased that in lieu of you *actually* having your bass already, I can provide such entertainment tracking it.

Ah crap! Sorry man. Too many balls in the air. EMG BTC Control is what we use. Replaces one of the pots and there is space in the body cavity for it. You can get them pretty reasonably online (Thomann etc)

It's Chown. Not Chowny. And Stephen. Not Steve. ;-) That aside - don't count on a reliable source of the long scale Semi-Acoustic cases. We got them from the factory in China, and we've moved production for the 2018 stuff to India. So I find myself in a position of being unable to supply cases for my own guitars. Awkward.

Sorry we couldn't attend. We'll endeavour to be at the next one. On the plus side - our new office and video studio in Bristol is nearly finished, so if you're desperate to try our basses you now have somewhere in the South West to come and do it. Looking forward to seeing all the photos.

We finally made it for Sunday. Apologies to all for missing the first day! Was great meeting everybody, really appreciate the time of everybody who popped by the booth to try out our stuff. Overwhelmingly positive feedback reminds us why we do this. @Happy Jack I hope you like your fretless. @NickD I hope you like your Pitchcraft pedal. Spread the word! We've booked again for next year.

We are going to be there Sunday! Provided no more snow drops

Sadly we are no going to make it. Our stock is still snowed in. Absolutely gutted to miss it. Me have a bunch of stock we were going to sell as show specials - and we will make it available at the show prices through here and on Facebook. Sorry all.

We are set to exhibit but as things stand right now there is no chance of us making it up to set up today. We will see what the morning looks like. I’m not gonna hold my breath - Bristol is a bit treacherous

Sorry all. Rubbish personal stuff has meant I need to cut back on the time I'm away from home. Will hopefully catch you in 2019.

Howzit! I'm originally from Fish Hoek. ;-)

For a company like ours - the import into the UK isn't the problem. That import fee split across a big shipment of instruments is negligible - although it adds lead time and headache. It's the sale of basses that knocks rosewood on the head. About 30-40% of our instruments head out of the country. With an individual re-export fee of £50 and the time to apply for a license for each bass - simply makes it commercial unviable. Ergo... no rosewood in the range.

Some thoughts on this: There's more to it than sound. For a fretboard wood to work it helps to have certain qualities. * It needs to have a pocket grain and not a linear grain - dense enough that it can hold frets. * It needs to be hard. * It needs to polish smooth (if it's not going to be laquered) * ideally be naturally oily. This means that you end up with about 3 practical fretboard woods. * Rosewood * Ebony * Maple So maple is of course blonde - and looks dirty when heavily used. Ebony is expensive. So rosewood was always a practical choice. Yes - there are a fair number of other woods that you can use. But the cost of transporting them to where the factories are (generally in the east) is high and of course it's not very environmentally friendly. We are looking at Laurel and Bhilwara (both of which grow locally in India where we manufacture our instruments) Indian Rosewood is sustainably managed - so this new CITES change has been particularly hard on their industry. I believe work is afoot to exclude Indian Rosewood from inclusion in Appendix II