RhysP

I Could happily live without either.

I've just got the one bass these days, don't even have an amp.

I've bought stuff from US music shops before & never had any problem. What you might want to think about (apart from the VAT & import charges which will add about 25% to the cost of what you are buying & shipping costs) is that the item you buy will most probably not be covered by any warranty outside of the USA so if anything goes wrong with it you're stuffed.

There was a thread about this recently that you might find useful: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/290786-guitars-for-children/

That is the first relic job I've ever seen that I've liked.

[quote name='paul h' timestamp='1473759531' post='3132776'] ...the guys in the band are like brothers to me to this day. [/quote] The guys in my old band are like brothers to me too. I hate my brother & haven't spoken to him in years.

Strip the finish off the neck & oil the bare wood. Job done.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1473591497' post='3131392'] Why do you have to "get it"? I don't get why people get fizzy knickers about Fenders, but I don't let it hold me back. [/quote] This. Plenty of other basses out there, why spend time worrying about the ones you don't get?

That's a beauty Ped!

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1473315190' post='3128910'] Europe in November... [/quote] I hear it's lovely at that time of year.

[quote name='lemmywinks' timestamp='1473334618' post='3129185'] I'm pretty sure that limit used to be around £20 a few years ago? [/quote] That's privatisation for you.

[quote name='lemmywinks' timestamp='1473333809' post='3129167'] The allowance for VAT is £34 and for Customs Duty it's £135, not sure you should have paid anything at all: [url="https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty"]https://www.gov.uk/g...ad/tax-and-duty[/url] [/quote] From Royal Mail's website: [font=arial, sans-serif][size=4]"Any parcel assessed as being liable for Customs charges will also incur a [/size][/font][b]Royal Mail handling fee[/b][font=arial, sans-serif][size=4] of £[/size][/font][b]8[/b][font=arial, sans-serif][size=4]. Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £15 are liable to import VAT. Gifts between private individuals over the value of £34 are also liable for VAT".[/size][/font]

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1473332317' post='3129137'] The guy at the collection desk probably deals with this sort of customer frustration every day [/quote] [quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1473332949' post='3129152'] The guy's attitude was very much off, but he was probably having a worse day than the OP. [/quote] I worked for Royal mail for ten years. I did some time in the parcel collection office & the unrelenting sh*t you have to take from the public is truly horrendous, and it's nearly always for something that was the customers own responsibility to find out.

There's nothing to complain about as far as the charges are concerned, the £8.00 standard handling charge on top of any import charges has been in place for a while. It sounds like you were lucky with the other package, they do get through unnoticed sometimes.

[quote name='redbandit599' timestamp='1473160353' post='3127461'] Any good for metal? (Sorry - someone had to...) [/quote] Yes. Scrap metal.

Website links seem to be working this morning.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1473214007' post='3128055'] You know where most guys that are limited to only music they enjoy. In their bedroom and rightly so. Blue [/quote] Or out gigging & playing only music they enjoy, like I did for many years.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1473166984' post='3127573'] TBH I don't know any "licks" I haven't written myself. I might possibly be able to half recall a handful of the songs played during my brief stint in a covers band a few years ago, but I spend all my playing time working on songs in originals bands, so that's what I know and can play. [/quote] I'm the same. Apart from the first few years when I was first learning I've never really learned any "Famous" bass parts - I never saw the point of wasting time learning something that I'd never ever have to play. A lot of these "essential" bass lines are from songs I can't stand anyway (Rhythm Stick, Town Called Malice, pretty much all Soul & Motown stuff). I always found it far more enjoyable to just play stuff I enjoyed rather than what was thought of as essential.

That's pretty cool.

I went the other way. Started out playing bass & played nothing else for many years. Got into guitar after I stopped gigging as I find that bass is a pretty boring instrument to play on it's own.