FDC484950

I have some brand new and unopened DR Hi-Beam 45-105 (I think 3 sets, will confirm). Lovely stainless steel strings on a round core so flexible, with a tight but not too bright tone. £24 including mainland U.K. postage. 

Final price drop to £450

I recently bought this nice, 2009 Warwick Corvette $$ 4- string as part of my plan to buy as many Warwicks as possible, sorry, to get a good selection of basses! However, I also recently bought a Streamer LX Jazzman 5 which covers many of the same sounds, so this is up for sale.

It’s in good condition with some marks highlighted in the photos. Neck is a nice, slim, jazz bass profile with a 38.5mm nut and 16.5mm slacking at the bridge. Speaking of which, I fitted a new Warwick bridge, because the original had lost some plating and three of the saddle Allen bolts were stripped. Electronics, jack socket and pickups are noise free and fine. Newish DR Hi-Beam 45-105 and set up for a medium action. No user kit but I have the manual and the info sheet.

No case, so this will need to be collection only from Surrey, it I can schlep it to a central London main train station in an old battered gig bag.

Apparently they’re £15 online so £12 posted.

Black Warwick strap locks for sale. Brand new in packaging - bought for a used bass that already had some in the user kit. These are the older style that you pull up to disengage. Price includes postage to mainland U.K.!

As per post 3 in this thread: https://forum.bass-arena.com/threads/recessed-strap-lock.13520/

This isn’t restricted to replying to PM’s on Basschat! It’s everywhere and has been as long as I can remember. Some people just can’t be bothered to reply to stuff, get/keep in touch or update you if you have bought something. I had a recent purchase via here which I bought through eBay to get some seller protection as the bass was outside the U.K. Seller was reasonably communicative right up until I paid, then nothing. I had to chase and chase just to get a tracking number (God help you if you want to track via La Poste/Colis - parcel was delivered and tracking still said it was in France!), no response to any messages, I left feedback having got the bass and still nothing. Now some people have very busy lives but it takes 30 seconds to send a message. I won’t be doing it again. And what’s with not leaving feedback on the Bay? Never used to be an issue but about 50% if the items I sell and leave feedback for never get reciprocated. 

Ever known a friend/colleague who isn’t very good at keeping in touch and also turns up late every time you arrange to meet? Seems to go hand in hand...

I’d be interested to know how many of the people who chose Pro actually make their entire living out of playing bass, as opposed to being involved in music or the music/entertainment business.

10 hours ago, goblin said:

New Warwicks don't depreciate much.

 

Fixed!

Interesting. My PrintMusic licence is now long dead since my journey back to playing as it is now Windows only. I recently discovered MuseScore - for freeware it’s actually quite good and offers more options than PrintMusic ever did (not surprising as it was basically a cut down Finale). The interface is a bit clunky but is quite versatile in terms of notation.

I now have three nice Warwicks. Total cost to buy was just over £2,500. Current retail price on the Warwick site? €14,280!!

Now that’s how you take photos for an ad!

Lovely looking Warwick, best of luck with the sale...

If you don’t name the dealer the post has no reason for existence. You felt the need to post your complaint - why bother without the shop in question? Even better - you’ve mailed them, so wait for a response and if still not satisfied then that may have been a more sensible time to kick off a thread. If you get an explanation you’re happy with them this thread was a waste of time!

I’m not a fan on the preamp on most of the Ibanez basses I’ve tried. I owned an SR5006E and the 3V eq just didn’t do anything. With that low a voltage the circuit has no headroom. It sounds like th GVB is at the other extreme with too much cut and boost. I tried an SR3006E many years ago and the parametric mid together with a decent amount of bass and treble tone shaping was a lot more useful.

1 minute ago, fleabag said:

Thats a bit odd.

If i was the seller of the bass you won, it would be ME who insisted on insured delivery,  because if it turned up as a box of matchwood, its the seller who loses out financially with Ebay. The seller also has the unenviable task of trying to get their compensation from the courier

As a buyer, all you have to do is hit the resolution button

Sorry, my poor explanation. He wanted collect only and advertised it as such, but after a bit of persuasion offered to courier and asked which courier I would prefer. Hence my fruitless search.  In the end I coughed up for a train, went halfway across the country and made a day of it.

I think there’s been a related thread about this recently - can’t remember where exactly. I recently won a bass on eBay and was all ready to have it shipped, but wanted full insurance. I tried all the name couriers I could Google and the best I came up with was UPS - max £1,000 and it must be in a hard case. Parcelforce doesn’t offer enhanced compensation for instruments, TNT, DPD, FedEx and DHL don’t advertise significant insurance and volumetric dimensions of a bass case are too large for something like Special Delivery. If anyone has any other couriers who do I’d be interested -on the lookout for a Warwick Infinity, which is fairly rare, so may need it shipped if I find one!

They seriously need to give everyone trying out gear headphones. Some extremely noisy people with questionable talent. The show advertised quiet times for 45 minutes per hour - no chance! I was a touch surprised at how few stands there were, and had a brief stab at trying a bass (a nice ACG, not tried his filter preamp before), but could hardly hear it through headphones because of the racket. Oh and the noisy idiot right on the Eich stand hammering the hell out of a Fender all the way through the Gary Willis clinic in the room next door could do with learning when to shut the hell up!

7 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Vat is not payable on private sales of second-hand goods, but is due for any commission charged by a commerce for such sales.

OK. I assume most retailers will use a margin scheme so it’s only 16.67% of the commission rather than the 20% on the full purchase price of new sales - or £50 on the aforementioned £300 commission for a £2000 bass. Take outshop rent, rates, bills, insurance and staffing, plus interest on any business loans and the remainder won’t lead to bass shop owners retiring to a million-pound house in Barbados  

5 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

VAT, if applicable, would be calculated on the commission, not on the full sales price.

I don’t believe VAT is payable on second hand goods. 

Maybe a stupid question, but do the original MEC pickups slot back in? The DiMarzio humbucker looks bigger than the original (it may be a trick of the photograph).

25 minutes ago, Horrorhiker said:

My perspective comes from working as a care worker to supplement my rock star income. We all get paid nearly minimum wage, but any cutting of slack, undercutting or cutting corners can basically result in the company closing, everyone getting in the news, me going to prison and people I'm caring for getting abused. Because of this, the 'cut them slack as they don't earn much' argument doesn't hold much water for me, and I can't really sympathise much with a similarly paid shop worker unless they have daily contact with other peoples bodily fluids...

Saying that, it is true that a lot of people don't have manners and respect, but if I was an employer I'd try make sure I kept the ones that do. My local shop is quite good actually and their staff turnover is very low for a music shop I suspect. This is from smart employing I'd assume.   

I think you're right by saying its a balancing act, pleasing people though. There are definitely some people that expect a bit of 'arris kissing. Some of it is having the skill of gauging that when you meet someone, which is easier said than done. I must say, I feel very uncomfortable when being given the smarm, and have said before 'please talk to me like a normal human or I'll have to go'. 

I'm not sure about average service keeping a company going. Certainly online, the ones that go beyond the basics certainly seem to do better. With guitar shops, in anything other than big cities, there is only one. I suspect if there were two or three, just average service would quickly start to not cut the mustard. 

 

That’s not quite what I’m saying. The care industry, like many others, is low paid, but the responsibility is for the well-being of people, especially vulnerable people and/or those who can’t look after themselves. This is a labour of love, and whilst very important and noble, isn’t quite the same as working in a music shop. There’s not really much commitment in the music industry and a music shop doesn’t have pay, rewarding work or a supportive working environment - basically it’s not a career but a stopgap for most. I’ve worked in music shops, and whilst I cannot compare it to working with vulnerable people (although I would challenge you to find a role now, paying what I earned in my first music shop job - well below £10Kpa for a full time role including working every Saturday, 45 hours per week!), it was pretty soul-destroying. The sheer amount of timewasters and chancers, none of whom were ever going to buy anything substantial, wears you down over time. It’s also not that much of a surprise that the industry attracts a lot of people with some quite significant personality problems! I had people to whom I had been very pleasant, accommodating and understanding shout at me down the phone, a number of attempted thefts from the shop and a significant number of people with a sizeable chip in their shoulder - hence my comment about flouncing out in disgust when shop staff don’t fall at your knees! Of course, we should not tolerate poor staff or service in any environment - but customers can be hell, too. 

Im also a biker, and if you think service is poor in a music shop, try your average motorbike dealer...

20 minutes ago, Horrorhiker said:

I have to disagree there. If people accept bad service it legitimises it. It's then more and more acceptable for other poor practices to creep in, such as hanging onto deposits, repairs being late etc etc. I agree that wages are too low, but you shouldn't have to put a price on good manners and consideration..I let people have mine for free. 

YOU do, but people in general don’t nowadays do they? Good manners aren’t all that common. I agree that we shouldn’t accept poor service, but then some of the examples on this thread are of people expecting, almost demanding good service just because they’re spending money. And that service should be, not too pushy, but don’t ignore me too much either. I must confess to rarely, if ever, experiencing such personally-tailored service. Well-trained, motivated and well-chosen sales staff can make a retail business more successful, but average service in most industries doesn’t stop the money coming in - until you’re undercut by online retailers and you go bust because there’s nothing to differentiate you - see Malplin, Toys R Us, Comet, Woolworth etc etc. It’s a vicious circle.

Musical instrument profit margins aren’t exactly massive. How much does  a normal music shop “sales” assistant get paid? Probably nowhere near enough to attract anyone with decent sales skills (or even basic people skills). Thus most people working in shops are either part time musicians doing it for a bit of spare cash or older, unsuccessful musicians trying to stay in the industry. The market has shrunk massively from when I started playing, so think of it as a slightly odd, “specialist” market populated by weirdos (that’s us!), cut the sales people some slack, and if you want something and you like it, buy it instead of cutting off your nose to spite your face because you didn’t get “service”. I’ve definitely noticed that the quality of service across the board is much worse than it used to be - lifted only occasionally by someone who actually cares about what they’re doing. But then, that’s a different debate for a different thread.

I’ve never played a cheap 6-string bass that was any good. The peculiarities of the design (range, width of the neck, pull on the truss rod, ergonomics) tend to mean that a purpose-built bass is more successful, as opposed to a 4 on which the builder slaps a wider neck. This usually means that they’re more expensive - certainly the nicest ones I’ve played (Dingwall, Elrick, Fodera, Ken Smith, MTD, etc) are very pricey. If you can afford it, great, but as your only bass, are you using the high C enough to warrant reaching over it to play EVERY note on all the other strings? I’ve adopted Simandl technique on the right hand as the width of a 6-string neck rules out one finger per fret unless you have very long fingers or you like getting hand issues! I also find the first joint of my little finger tends to lock uncomfortably when reaching for notes in the low B.

On the other hand, a five string is much closer to a 4 in that the top 4 strings are the same; get one with 4-string spacing and, other than damping that pesky low B, the experience isn’t too different. However, thinking of it as a 4 with a few lower notes is the wrong way to go - use all the notes you can in that low B and take advantage of the increased range, or else it’ll just start to feel awkward.

All of which leads us to a 4, on which probably 95% of all music involving electric bass has been played. If you never go below a low E or play chords/very high parts a 4 is the best option - you can pick a good bass up cheaply, there’s loads more choice, it will probably be lighter, easier to play and may mean you spend more time in the performance than on your technical ability or what you can play with all the other strings - whether the music needs it or not!

Can you play the part slowly, perfectly with no mistakes at all? If you’re gradually speeding up, at what tempo does it start to fall apart? Is it the  whole part or just one or two sections? If a cover it might be helpful to know which song as people on here may suggest different fingerings or tips etc.

I have found that when I can’t play something because of speed it’s usually one (or more) of these reasons:

1) I don’t yet know the part well enough so am stumbling over the notes  don’t ignore this as this is often the case!

2) The part contains a particular picking hand challenge that my technique isn’t yet good enough to mask - for example crossing from E-A-D-G strings with one note on each quickly is quite tricky to do cleanly.

3) The part has awkward fretting hand bits, making it hard for me to fret the notes cleanly and co-ordinate fretting/picking hand

4) The part is faster than my current technical ability can cope with. It’s normally the co-ordination between the hands that goes first. Remember any part can be sped up to the point where it is unplayable! 

Options 1-3 can be worked on in isolation and probably overcome in a few practice sessions; option 4 will take a more sustained period of practice to overcome, perhaps even a slight change of technique. As others have said, break it down into its constituent parts and you may find it’s one or two bits that are causing the problem.

Hope this helps!

On 31/01/2018 at 19:41, TheGreek said:

How much are they from Warwick?

This was a genuine question - I had no idea how much they cost. When I checked I was surprised.

Though I've made no secret of my dislike of the Warwick organisation, and as a result that has my tainted my view of the gear, not everything I write is filled with contempt. The original post for the TRC was an attempt to give somebody looking for that part to pick one up at the same reasonable price I had. 

I stand by what I've said. I accept that if I put my head above the parapet I risk being shot down. If this makes me an easy target for anybody wanting to fight Warwick's corner on their behalf then so be it. I won't be curtailing what I think.

By all means have an opinion, but perhaps reserve it for a thread other than the Warwick one in the gear porn section? As you’ve got your Streamer up for sale, a cynic might think you only posted to draw attention to it elsewhere...

Playing with a lighter touch isn’t about whether you dig in or not; it’s about the dynamics available to you. Gary Willis’ instructional VHS is/was on YouTube and he explains it succinctly in about 5 minutes near the beginning. By turning up and playing lighter, you get a more even, fatter tone, and most importantly, you can lift the volume by digging in a touch. If you play hard and dig in, where do you go if the band lifts their dynamics? Of course it’s not for everyone - but if it sounds interesting, it’s worth a try. I surprised myself how much less energy I needed to play a note - which makes me feel more relaxed, in control, smoother and more fluid.