Aidan63

Alain sold me a nice set of D'Addario ETB92 tape wound strings, quickly dispatched, tracked 1st class, all good. Thank you

Probably because unless you have a true bypass bass the existing pots and tone controls already colour the output - does a Sadowsky pedal make your Fenderesque Jazz bass really sound like a Sadowsky ? just thinking, I've never tried the Sadowsky pedal, but I have the Alien one and whilst it's a useful boost it is a bit too subtle and doesn't do anything to my ear that the zoom B3 couldn't do and the B3 can do so much more

Massive Attack, Manchester Apollo 2003, just ridiculously loud, I reckon they had something like 20-30kW of PA turned up full, it would have been about right at 1/3 to half volume, I thought it was my ears but I checked out the amp racks and everything was clipping, realised it was the sound engineer who was deaf and went outside, even outside it was too loud, the sort of thing that brought in curfews and dB meters; in the 80's we'd have done that gig with 3-5kW and everyone would have had a great time and would have been able to hear afterwards.

Value Added Tax 😲 where is the added value on used things between private individuals ? VAT is just a tax on anything by a fancy name to differentiate it from tax on earnings/profits It could have been included in any trade deal but it was not in the interest of both parties to have some sort of mutual exemption for used goods being shipped between the UK and Europe, far easier to just treat all goods as goods and gratefully accept the extra revenue to help pay the extra costs in managing the new system, and it mirrors the state of play with such goods trading with the rest of the world; being part of the single market had some advantages, unfortunately some people didn't feel they were worth having

Musima, made in East Germany, perhaps, are the tuners held on with 2 screws each ? solid woood body with veneer finish front and back and a hole in the back behind the bridge with a white plastic plug in it ?

The serial number belongs to an American Jazz Bass 2003-3008, 2007 year as previously stated, weirdly the Fender 'register your instrument' only identifies the model but doesn't have the colour of it in the database, I don't know when the Fender data became more comprehensive, but a Squier I have registered from 2006 did have the colour information correct

check the string heights of all the strings (plenty of bass set up videos on YouTube), if the D string is lower than the rest then adjust the bridge saddle to raise the string height till it is the same height above the 17th fret (or 12th fret, just be consistent) as the other strings

Can you contact EBMM support direct with a photo of that and ask them for their advice and copy Thomann in on the email I'd hope that EBMM would reply pretty promptly and be helpful

what about a glove like Scott wears on his fretting hand ? I don't know what gloves they are though

"Steve Cook started as a touring bass player when printed maps were the only way to get there. His extensive studio and touring credits run the gamut from rock to jazz to country. Also a busy producer and WWII aviation junkie, he welcomes you to reach out via Twitter @shinybass." from Premier Guitar website, maybe invite him to post up about it, or share alink to the video explaining exactly what he has done to it

Fender have announced price increases too I believe; as stated there is a worldwide demand outstripping supply issue with components and instruments which are feeding through the system, hence prices rise. Post pandemic there will likely be a glut of used instruments on the market and as the industry ramps back into full production it will be interesting to see the pricing, but as we know from experience prices rarely go down, and some manufacturers (Maybe EBMM - how many basses do they actually make a year a few 1000 possibly) will just restrict product and keep prices high if they are selling what they can make at a profit, especially if they have highly visible brand ambassadors/endorsees able to create demand for that product. MusicMan aren't trying to compete with Fender or Yamaha, just maintain a brand with high perceived value that sits well with the primary string business and adds to the whole business's worth I think. Hopefully there will be some great new music and a more diverse and vibrant and dynamic live music scene too, post pandemic, fingers crossed

it was for stock, so not that urgent, thanks, if UPS had just said 'we've got problems, expect a three to four week delay' from the outset I'd have been chilled, it was the constant changing of expected delivery date, delaying it by 24hours, then going dark for a week, all the time promising to do something to expedite it (which is after all what I'd paid for) whilst the tracking showed the box being scanned multiple times but no actual progress that was annoying

the same Aidan yes

MY shipment was with UPS , sent from California on the 4th and arrived in UK on the evening of the 6th, spent a week sat at Stansted, occasionally being scanned but not moving, then more than 2 weeks at UPS London Hub also being scanned but not seemingly progressing, before finally making it's way to Deeside depot, and delivered at the first opportunity by the final delivery team. Normally I can order from my supplier on Monday and have it in my hand, tax paid 5 days later, 3 days if I pay extra for the super quick service with UPS. Unfortunately in this case it was very much delayed. This is gearbox parts for my business so not 4 foot long boxes of bass. Your experience with USPS was a lot better which is great

Ernie Ball are a really small company in the scheme of things, 2018 Revenue $25.5million, and that includes the strings By comparison D'Addario revenue 2020 $167million Taylor revenue 2019 $180million Fender revenue 2020 £480million Yamaha Corporation revenue 202 $3.75billion Musicman have always managed the brand so as to have a perceived value somewhat out of proportion with the number of instruments they make, whilst the licensed brands OLP, SUB and now the far East Sterling range have helped many players to have the look without the cost, they can't make more instruments of a decent quality in the USA than current restricted level, and if they have to move the far east made stuff up in price to fill the void and balance the books they will, especially now they can see that other brands have done that ( with Korean, Indonesian or Chinese made) and made it work that is very likely the future; as long as they can pay the lawyers to stop anyone making real copies they are quids (or should that be dollars) in

The Laser ball end extra long set 2220 is very good, I've used one day in day out working on gearboxes and they are still good after more than 10 years, very hard wearing, and the plastic holder is still good too, just the right grade of plastic, hasn't worn much, hasn't split, still functions really well I bought a second set for my musical instruments as the workshop ones are always oily/greasy despite being wiped down before being put away The extra length is always useful I find, other than for storage, makes them easier to find if dropped though

There's a invite to submit views Tell MPs about your views on changes to work and travel rules for UK touring professionals and artists in the EU by completing this short survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/MJY6SU/ Please respond by Wednesday 3 February

I finally received my package from America yesterday, that arrived in the UK through Stansted on the 6th; seems that UPS are very slowly getting their shizzle together. What bugs me is the broken promises and lack of transparency, wishing me and my family well and other meaningless platitudes and apologies whilst seemingly doing b a to actually deliver the package They have changed the way they work a good bit since last October and none of it seems to be for the better, hopefully it will settle down, they'll catch up with the backlog and the next time I order from America it will be delivered in 5 days with the duty sorted without me getting stressed like it always used to be The drivers are still doing a great job given what they are dumped on with

A lot of you will know because you signed the e-petition on the Gov.uk website and have had the email today but for those who haven't the matter will be discussed shortly On Monday 8 February the Petitions Committee will hold a virtual e-petition session to discuss arrangements for UK musicians in the EU. So maybe time to get your views into your MP for presentation to the session. It looks like the government will continue to blame the EU for the situation that has arisen as per the initial response to the e-petition, so I'm not expecting any great change but worth trying to raise the importance of the matter to your MP, there is clearly enough support amongst the population for a solution as the petition gained enough signatures to be debated very very quickly, most e-petitions get nowhere. I was going to add this to the original thread but it has been locked.

my bad, I thought it would still be higher than that, I didn't actually check what it is but it is the world's 4th largest country by population and it does have a population growth rate of 1.3% which is moderately high so they maybe won't have the same demographic change in the short to medium term that other countries have gone through

Acoustic and semi-acoustic instruments require much more hand labour in assembly than solid body ones hence most of them are made in China where labour costs are generally lower than in Indonesia. South Korea is now suffering from a shortage of labour amidst a falling birth rate in much the same way as Japan did. Indonesia being prominently Muslim will probably not see such a change in the birth rate and needs to find work for its people so will probably continue to be a dominant force in instrument manufacture for a good while to come. It would be great if a proper documentary maker could get access to all the far East plants and really show the processes and the conditions that the staff work and live under, and that the materials are produced and stored under and do some real analysis of the true cost to the environment and cost and benefit to the people making the instruments of this industry. I realise of course that is never going to happen. If you want a new instrument buy something built in the UK, otherwise there's plenty enough used instruments in circulation to satisfy us, especially if we all restricted ourselves to 1 or just 2 each 😲😃

Same distributor as Elrick, Bass Direct sell Elrick so they can probably get these, and may do, but competes with Xotic and few other brands at that price point which they already sell, but how many Jazz-a-likes or Precision-a-likes can you sell

saw this earlier, nothing to do with me.. 62 RI Bass