Beedster

I doubt he will, he and the buyer are both, perhaps with reason on both sides, invested in their side of the argument now. If I was the buyer, I'd accept that fact, get the issues resolved locally and move on. If I were the builder, I'd be kicking myself for the reputational losses perhaps recognising that the sheer drawn out nature of this process leaves him in a lose/lose situation; if he refunds it says he was wrong and shouldn't have made such an intransigent stand for so long, if he doesn't refund he remains the bad guy for leaving such an unhappy £2000 buyer. This feels like a Talkbass thread to be honest, there seem to have been a number of luthiers who have fallen into this trap; too much success too quickly comes back and kicks you. He's a person, probably a decent person with a family and people who depend on him for their livelihoods, and there's no doubt he's a talented builder. I hope he comes out of this OK whatever the rights and wrongs of this situation, and despite what I said in my previous post about his inability to realise what's important in business. There's no doubt he brought some colourful instruments to the party and, irrespective of his apparent low social skills (hardly a crime and hardly unusual in craftsmen) and occasional mess-ups, he clearly made a lot of buyers very happy.

I have a Beat Buddy and a Roland Drum Combo. Frankly, had this tech been around in the 50's, drumming as we know it would never have evolved

Yep, that Ulas Engin thread was comedy gold. I've said in in another thread here, beware of social influencers and niche or new products. No disrespect to WoT, I'm sure he was genuinely pleased/impressed with his instruments, but there's of course always the possibility that the builder, knowing that WoT's a key influencer here, took special care with his orders, care that he clearly hasn't always taken with others (in a previous life I was a pro sportsman. I was given a lot of gear and technical support for free. I reciprocated by giving the people/companies in question very good PR among my friends. All too often my friends' experience of the same people/companies was nothing like the quality I received).

Thanks for that tourdefran

Having seen the prices you quote HH, he certainly isn't by a long shot. If I forget one rather annoying transaction with them, I really like Warmoth, I've got three basses, two Warmoth bodies, three Warmoth necks. They can be picked up dirt cheap on eBay because for whatever reason, they're out of fashion in the UK (without doubt THE best neck I've ever played let alone owned cost me £110 on eBay). But even if buying new, and as long as you know what you're doing with Warmoth's ordering system, and even given import duties etc, you can build a Fender Custom Shop standard bass for not much more than MIM money. Resale value is stinky poo as above, and you have to live with that, but wow, you get a good instrument. I remember thinking a while back that one reason for Warmoth's apparent decline in the UK was the new breed of 'Design your own custom Fender' builder in Europe. Perhaps things will shift back again?

I like Precision necks because, most of the time, they stop me doing too much, the mechanical constraints imposed by a 44mm wide and deep neck are actually helpful when I'm gigging and most of the time when I'm recording, and stick La Bella Deep Talkin's flats in the mix and those constraints are multiplied significantly! I like Jazz necks for a few things, and on occasion it's lovely to pick up a Jazz and feel that speed and ease. But I'm a better band member when the Precision neck slows me down a bit.

So do you want an unlined board with fret markers between the notes as is the case with fretted boards, I'm a bit unclear? Either way, I use a combination of black marker pen and chalk or Typpex when I find a neck whose markings disagree with my preferences

Buying an instrument is an emotional experience, we try to make it logical to justify the expense and various other aspects, but at it's core, like music itself, it's about feelings. A good businessperson understands this and aims to make their customer feel good at every stage of the process. The old model of "I'm an artisan/craftsman/genius, you get what I say you get" is either long gone or the preserve of people building £500k violins. Having read this and other threads about this guy, it sounds like he has let his ego and/or laziness get ahead of his customer service, and in doing so has broken the emotional bond with many of his customers, past, present and future. Unless he makes amends quickly his business will struggle to recover. He might be cheap, but these days so are a lot of very good quality basses.

Yep, the world is changing quickly at the moment, and there are a lot of good people getting caught out by it

Sounds like a tendency towards poor nail health plus poor nutrition, most people's nails will survive poor nutrition

On the subject of band members forgetting things, I'd almost completely forgotten what must be the best example ever, our singer forgetting to tell us about a gig he'd booked? A drummer can't forget their drums, a guitarist cant forget their pics etc if they don't even know there's a gig can they

Funny how the 'pro' scene is so full of amateurs, I've been in too many bands in which the various ex-pro/ex-session/ex-big name band members were by far the least professional; guitarists who'd strop if asked to turn down, singers who couldn't remember lyrics, drummers who despite knowing the band can't set up until they've set up, would arrive 5 minutes before sound check etc. The amateurs always seem to be a whole lot more professional. I went to a wedding earlier this year, and the singer of the 'pro' ceilidh band was trying to get us all to dance the way she wanted us to dance, fair enough given the music, but it wasn't that sort of crowd and she just ended up being rude to everyone because we all wanted to dance the way we wanted to dance. There's a few threads here about the demise of live music, when I look at the way some prats in 'pro' bands go about it, I'm frankly not surprised.

Re nutrition, given the complex and very wide ranging roles of protein in the body, if you were so deficient that your nails were weak you’d have a whole lot of more serious problems to deal with, despite what the internet might say. Like bones, hair, teeth etc, density varies from person to person, so if you’re at the low end, you probably need more help than extra protein.

Yep, that's the start of the collection right there. I justify multiple basses via the same logic (Precision with flats, one with rounds, an FL with flats, an FL with rounds, might need a Jazz, make that four........ What about a Stingray.....?). Be careful mate, you are about to set foot on a very slippery slope

Great news by the way, social media is increasingly making it harder for people to steal and sell on. Nice to see an upside to social media also

Start a collection

Must admit I'm tempted to use Superglue, I grow my right hand nails to play acoustic and they then break the moment I start playing bass again. I wonder if there's any risks (although given Superglue was apparently developed for surgical purposes I'm guessing not, or at least low)?

I used to use paint on nail strengthener from high street pharmacy. Does the job just fine

Yes, love mine

All four non-singers in my band carried an SM58 on account of our singist’s perpetual failure to bring a mic to gigs

I’ll say it again, why’s it always the drummist? Or the......

Our drummist turned up to a recording session without any sticks. The manager thought it a good idea to go out into the woods and find a solution. I will never forget the moment she stood there, holding up two drumstick length twigs, saying ‘will these do’? To his credit, drummist gave it a go. Four hours later we started the recording having found a local percussionist happy to lend us his sticks. Why’s it always the drummist? Or the singer? Or the guitarist?