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FDC484950

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Everything posted by FDC484950

  1. Ooh and Steve Ferrone. His drumming on Chaka Khan’s What ‘Cha Gonna Do For Me is just sublime.
  2. @GisserD is that a plasma burst US Elite Jazz 5? What’s the B string like on it (sorry to hijack sales thread)
  3. Nope, I have exactly the same bass and I think the mint guard is yuck! Fortunately the seller has just about every option you could want. I vote for tort - still waiting for mine to turn up from WD music or I would have enquired about it! They’re fantastic basses - I tried an American Std version of this a few years ago and the B string sounded completely different to the rest of the strings. The Pro V I own now is completely different, B is tight and blends perfectly. Neck is also a dream to play, probably my favourite in terms of profile. And it is only 8.5lbs to boot! GLWTS
  4. Jeff Porcaro, Vinnie Colauita, Will Calhoun, Clyde Stubblefield, Steve Gadd... the list goes on and on
  5. I’ve never owned a Rick but that really is fantastic.
  6. 5 and 11 are my favourites - so many musicians overplay and don’t know how to phrase and therefore how and when to leave space, which often goes hand in hand with barely listening to the other musicians (well, maybe the drummer if you play bass ). Listening well is one of the hardest skills to learn. I was never that great at it (worrying about getting my part to work) but it occasionally all came together, and those times were magical.
  7. Do you mean triplet exercise? Triads are three note chords and you’re demonstrating 4-note arpeggios.
  8. That’s a bit rude. I don’t see anyone in this thread particularly pining the loss of Macaris. I take it you’re not pining the loss of your local shops, then? In fact it’s a surprise Macaris lasted that long given many of the music shops/live music venues in the wider area are long gone. If it’s OK with you, I’ll allow myself a drop of nostalgia about Turnkey (just up the road) as I bought a lot of recording equipment from the, right up until they closed after the Sound Control débacle. Truth is that bricks and mortar retail at scale is largely doomed, and whilst “experience” shops might be the future, the extra investment/running costs to sustain such a business will likely see them go bust even more rapidly when the next recession hits - particularly as such units are usually rented and rental in any town or city centre has up to now been exorbitant, no matter who’s financing it.
  9. Well @drTStingray once the Sterling turns up I’ll be sure to compare and contrast with the stingray special 5 I briefly owned before Christmas. I sold a Sterling 5 HH with the same electronics, body wood etc as the new Sterling, so the only difference will be the roasted maple neck. Given that it’s probably that a large part of a MM bass sound is in the electronics I should hopefully be able to hear whether the roasted maple neck and board sounds markedly different. For me, the Special sounded too hi-fi and smooth, and I struggled to get that aggressive Stingray tone. I guess its because I loved older Stingrays back when the had ceramic pickups wired in series. One things for sure, the roasted maple neck and board looked and felt superb
  10. ...as it will be in many city centres and high streets. Greedy landlords and developers (I hate to say it but most of these in the UK are backed by private Russian, Chinese and Indian money) excessive business rates and gentrification, coupled with the online retail book and COVID have done for high st shopping. Where I grew up, most town centre shops have closed down and been replaced with housing. What’s the point having a flat in the centre of town when there’s no longer any special reason to be there?
  11. I recently had a Stingray special with roasted maple neck and board (I returned it as it wasn’t my cup of tea, but have a Sterling 5HH with the same neck incoming), and the impression I got was that the sound was quite different to a regular maple neck and board. Compared to other music man basses I’ve played and owned, it’s a bit darker and warmer than a maple board, but still with that slightly bright and open tone I always hear with maple boards. But then again maybe it’s all in the head and they all sound the same. I’ve not seen it other brands, but on a MM it looks just great with the stainless steel frets and chrome hardware.
  12. I would imagine the the circuit, pickups and most of the hardware (most of which is Hipshot rebadged) come direct from Sadowsky. Reading and watching interviews with Roger I’m pretty sure the woods are all sourced in Germany as Warwick alreadY has access to some of the most amazing woods on the planet. I bought one of those first Metros - a ‘59 burst MV5. It was superb, light in weight, perfect fretwork and finish, flexible preamp and tight B string with a properly tight super jazz tone. I’ve recently bought an RV5 MetroExpress (again Japanese) and it’s every bit as good. I agree with you 100% on Roger winding down operations. They’re dropping various bits of the business - understandable as Roger has been in business a very long time, so like Pedulla he’s probably looking forward to a well-earned retirement.
  13. You’re not wrong about pricing up used basses. IIRC The Gallery isn't much different in that respect. Having sold 3 basses on commission at BD, people seem fine to pay the higher prices. If I had a bass to sell on commission in future I’d probably take/send it there rather than advertise here as I’m almost guaranteed to get a significantly better price, even after commission. All 3 sold within a month too. I probably got lucky. I have had one “discussion” with them but it was over the amount of time something took to come from the US - I then contacted the company direct in the US and they explained why, which given COVID was around was understandable, and not really BD’s fault. To the OP: I didn’t know you’ve phoned them. I was tempted to say follow it up with an email (sorry, couldn’t resist!) but there’s nothing much to say, is there? Maybe give them another ring, but if you don’t hear back they’ve lost your business. In the grand scheme of things we can all beach and moan about poor service but music instrument retail is high risk (it’s very likely a large business loan paid for all that stock you can see), low turnover and very small profits, which is why there are so few businesses around. I was in the industry for a while in the 90s and you wouldn’t believe how small fry it is in terms of money compared to almost any other kind of retail. Being the music business it also attracts a lot of “interesting” people! IME for most if not all music shops I’ve done business with until relatively recently, customer service and making money really didn’t seem to be priorities, precisely because there is so little profit to be made. Having said that, I really do welcome the quality of service from more professional businesses like GuitarGuitar and Thomann. I’ve bought 2 basses from each in the last few months, and had minor issues that were quickly and efficiently fixed, and a feeling that they actually cared about getting things sorted. However it’s very unlikely I will ever visit either business, so it looks like online is the future. I ride motorcycles and I see a parallel with many bike dealers - there’s a lot more money to be made but nowhere near as much as cars (both volume and profit margin). The staff in almost every dealer I’ve been to/communicated with are arrogant, rude, don’t respond to emails, are impossible to reach on the phone and take the gypsy's kiss when offering part exchanges. I managed to build a decent relationship with one dealer, who now always give me discounts on everything I buy there (accessories, service, gloves etc) without asking and don’t lie to me or overstate problems which aren’t when servicing. However, even then, when I was visiting regularly they would drop the ball for probably 1 in 3 transactions. It’s incredibly frustrating given the money I’ve forked out there over the years, and I still go back there, because when I go to competing dealers I get an even worse level of service. It puts discussion here about BassDirect into perspective...
  14. It’s solved by getting a piano/keyboard. I couldn’t hear and distinguish more complex chords fully until I got a piano and starting playing with triads and inversions, then moving on to more complex chords. Once you’ve heard a Dm9 to G13 (only one note changes, and that’s just C to B) in its main inversions you start to hear each chord cluster almost as a single sound. Only by playing a basic chord and then adding each extension one at a time, and then two, three etc do you get to commit those sounds to memory. The more complex the chord sounds, the more extensions it’s likely to contain. Then there are the basic piano player’s chord rules - e.g. any kind of extended chord will be very unlikely to contain a 5th, or a 7alt chord rarely contains all the extensions in the altered scale (b9/#9/#11/b13). I’m a rubbish piano player but even being able to bang out some chord changes and familiarity with chords and voicings makes all the difference. When I had the time and energy to do transcriptions I always included chords because to me it helped explain the line in context, and expanded my knowledge of harmony.
  15. I agree. No problem sending an email either before or after a phone call. The only point I’m trying (and clearly failing) to make is that if you ring someone and they answer the phone, you get an answer there and then - it’s kind of hard to ignore it! If the business doesn’t answer the phone either then there’s not much else you can do. I also agree that if there are any issues (rather than just an enquiry) a written record makes it clear exactly what was discussed. I’ve had problems with other shops (mostly non music-related) and the written documentation removes any ambiguity. Not that it helps the people who haven’t had a response, but in all my dealings with BD they’ve only failed to answer once, and that was a vague enquiry about some strings I didn’t really want anyway, so no loss to me. The other situation where a phone call helps is making an offer on something - you can do it on email but over the phone (or even better, in person) you tend to get better results
  16. Kung hey fat choi! Happy and healthy year ahead for everyone
  17. Which they do for the vast majority of customers if the replies are anything to go by. A few people haven’t had a reply. I’m not one of them. Once again, who said anything about them not wanting to reply? Human beings sometimes make mistakes. The whole thread would have been solved by the OP picking up the phone. FFS how hard does this stuff need to be?
  18. They also advertise a phone number. The point is if you want an update and you want it now, pick up the phone. Not every business is sitting at a computer, waiting for your enquiry. Who said anything about them not wanting to reply to email? Far more likely they overlooked it.
  19. Haha I’d never thought of that, yes you could have a bar of 4/4 with a triple dot minim and a single quaver. It’d definitely throw you the first time you see it on a chart though
  20. Sure, I was thinking more in terms of any possible void losing of the warranty, given it’s a brand new bass, if you get a local tech to fit it, easy though the soldering might be. I wouldn’t imagine any local luthiers will be open as it’s lockdown and they’re not one of the essential businesses (although I think you could argue the case!). I’d be very tempted to have S&T do it. I’ll definitely be asking Thomann to check mine out properly before despatch. There’s no way that’s come unstuck due to movement in transit...
  21. So basically a light-hearted thread about what probably wasn’t music’s finest hour has degenerated into the usual “I like something you don’t so let’s pretend that we’ll agree to disagree whilst passively-aggressively sniping about your taste in music”. 😕
  22. Who’s going to fit it? Haven’t checked so not sure whether they’re plug and play or soldering is required. Presumably even if you’re competent with a soldering iron you’d want some warranty?
  23. A single piece neck, again seasoned properly without knots or deficiencies and tested for the right moisture content should remain stable for a very long time. Many manufacturers use a single piece neck* without any issues. The original purpose of lamination was to reduce or preclude dead spots - because each laminate has a different resonant frequency, summing them would hopefully cancel out any noticeable dead spot (e.g the common 7th fret area on some older Fenders). The only other obvious use case for lamination (other than purely visual appeal) is a very wide neck with thin depth. A single piece of maple might be a bit more prone to movement a the headstock end. * I’m leaving fingerboards out of the equation to make life simpler.
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