ZakSnaporazzz

So here's the story : I purchased a AVALON U5 preamplifer/DI at Musicstore about a decade ago for ca. 500 €, and in February 2025 it broke down. I sent them an e-mail so they replied to please send in the unit for repair. They took several weeks to reply with a cost estimate of an outrageous 426 €, because "they had no technical information from the OEM and so they had to replace a significant amount of components to make sure the repair job is durable" !! Of course I refused and asked them to send me the unit back, but then they claimed 85€ for the cost of estimation & shipment back unrepaired. I had no other choice than to pay to get my unit back, which took another several weeks for them to do !! Upon receiving the unit, I brought it to a professional workshop nearby and they quickly found the problem's root cause : 1 burned resistor and 2 faulty capacitors. Parts cost : less than 3€ !! Labour : less than 1 hour. This professional workshop recommended me to replace all 24 capacitors in order to make the repair job durable. Parts cost : ca. 45 € Labour : less than 2 hours. So, in the end it cost me LESS THAN 1/4th of Musicstore's claimed repair cost ! When I wrote to Musicstore to claim refund of at least the 85€ for their totally exaggerated cost estimate, at first they ignored my e-mails. Upon my insisting, they arrogantly replied that they did what was necessary and won't accept any blackmail. This is absolutely outrageous : Musicstore keeping some equipment in hostage for totally unjustified repair costs & cost estimate fees. BEWARE OF THOSE DISHONEST MUSICSTORE PROFESSIONAL AFTERSALES SCAMMERS !

Hello you beasty bass beasts ;o) I just got me a very nice 79 Sabre bass, but there is one thing I do not understand with the out-of-phase switch : if it is true all it does is putting the 2 pickups out of phase, as described, then why the hell does the tone change when flicking this switch with either the bridge or the neck pickup soloed ? Sure enough, and as many claim here and there in the forums, the out-of-phase is not very usable with both pickups selected because of the overly thin sound - but ! - with either the front or the rear pickup soloed, the so-called out-of-phase switch actually does something quite nice to the tone, making it sound a bit like a fretless / upright bass. So I am wondering what that switch really does ...unfortunately there does not seem to be much information around about this topic. And also, does anyone know whether the Sabre pickups are wired in series (like the Sterling) or parallel (like the Stingray) ? Cheers !