ead

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1333136954' post='1598059'] anyway, we've gone way off topic.... tell us about the ACG you're going to get made... [/quote] I got as far as it's going to be a bass with 4 strings. Quite good progress for an evening's work I feel Oh and there may be a complete absence of frets.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1333136002' post='1598036'] (i even think we are saying more or less the same thing there!) [/quote] Oh good

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1333134655' post='1598017'] Thats why I find it more interesting how Shuker, or ACG or Osprey market themselves. I'm not sure shop based would be the best way for a lot of brands (with the exception of specialised shops) [/quote] I think exclusivity is a big deal here. Balancing marketing spend in whatever form that takes, and its hoped for impact on sales vs. the available capacity to keep lead times realistic for customers so they feel they are getting something special and personalised and are therefore happy to wait for it.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1333131171' post='1597955'] of course it is going to be related! You write a business plan- for a small maker you work out what it costs to build, how much your time is worth and a margin of profit. Add the tax ontop and viola! Bigger companies are going to look at a price point - say £1000 and then design a product that can sell at that price point, covers costs (including marketing) but allows healthy profits for the company and the retailers who sell on. [/quote] With respect I would suggest that as the market is dominated in volume terms and also sales terms by the big players that build to a selling price and that therefore, by and large, it's the SP that dominates the relationship in the market. Similarly for small shops I'm sure if Overwater et al tried selling their basses at Ritter prices (why are they soooo expensive) volumes would take a hit. I think you're correct in that the luthier will try to work out the break even point for his/her wares and then test the price elasticity of the market bearing in mind that once a price point is established it's quite hard to put prices up significantly. Anyway it's a very interesting subject is economics, and excellent for debating!

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1333099602' post='1597260'] I guess like a lot of business people, there are a lot of factors in play, but the main ones in my opinion here are "how much the item actually costs to make" and "how much you can get away with charging". [/quote] On the whole, and with the exception of "cost plus" contracts, I think that the selling price must be relatively unrelated to the cost of manufacture. The SP is much more closely related to the balance of power between buyer and seller hence premium products command premium prices (I know this balance works in the supply side too, but when you're looking at volume selling compared to low volume independents it's not hard to see where the focus will be). In the case of basses I think that the higher labour charge that small independent luthiers will factor in will be offset by relatively low overheads, whilst a large factory churning out instruments will have to cover high overheads but have low unit labour costs. There will be some difference in raw material costs of course, but I suspect that this is not massive. I'm now wondering what the gross margins look like on a £200 Fender-alike, a £1k Fender USA and a £2k+ high end Fender alike. I suspect the MIA Fenders will have the best GM as a percentage. Does anybody know - come on you whistle blowers!? All imho of course!!!

After much soul searching I've been in touch with Alan at ACG to begin to plan for having a custom bass built. Very excited about the whole thing and now saving up for the deposit - not to mention the balance! Spec wise not really got much further than 4 strings and probably fretless. After that will I need to get some advice and ideas (please feel free to chip in - I've been looking at some of Alan's basses on the site for inspiration). The downside is that in order to pay for it I'm going to have to sell pretty much all of my basses , so if you see anything you like please make me a decent offer! This is a necessary step as, patient and lovely as Mrs ead is, I'm still scared to death of unveiling the whole plan at this early stage.

OK thanks for that. May need to investigate further in a couple of weeks time!

I've seen this tascam unit which looks about right, anybody used one of these: [url="http://www.soundsliveshop.com/p/Tascam_DP-004_Digital_4-Track_Recorder/TASC-DP004"]http://www.soundsliveshop.com/p/Tascam_DP-004_Digital_4-Track_Recorder/TASC-DP004[/url]

Thanks for that will put that on the short short-list that I'm compiling.

Just sold Mr H some Schallers, ultra quick payment and plenty of PMs. Highly recommended to y'all.

In reality this would be unlikely. I can see the unit being parked in a corner during band rehearsals to capture ideas that might otherwise be forgotten and for me at home to use for practice (e.g. record stuff on a fretted bass and play along to on my fretless for intonation purposes) or to record my noodlings and such. Inbuilt microphone therefore a bonus! Could ask my son to record a few drum patterns for me to play along to as well I guess.

Hi team I looking for a small and hopefully realtively inexpensive digital recording device for a bit of home noodling and maybe capturing band rehearsals. Spec doesn't have to be massive, maybe the opportunity to record 3 or 4 separate tracks and output as an MP3 file (or similar). A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I used to have a Pandora's Box - did the job, menus very fiddly (I prefer knobs) though. Probably used 5% of what it could do but put off by the complexity of actually using it although I imagine that user interfaces have moved on a bit now. There seems to be a pile of stuff out there and I'm stuggling to really comprehend the capabilties of the various products against one another. I strongly suspect I will only use a fraction of that capability in any case, so for me ease of use and a degree of idiot-proofness (is that a word?) would score highly! I'd really welcome some pointers to good things, and also the don't go there type products too. Budget wise maybe upto £150? But I don't yet know if that's realistic. Thanks in advance.

Fantastic groove there. Note to self - practice more...

Have you tried Thomastik JFs, they're not smooth in the same way Picatos are (although I quite like that and have them on a couple of basses).

Just acquired a MIJ Jazz F/L from Grahame. Really easy to deal with, came superbly packaged in a hard case and even included the original Fender P/ups that had been replaced by Wizzards on the bass. All my PMs answered quickly and everything was exactly as described. A genuine top banana. Thanks very much, I would highly commend him to all BCers and would even vote for him in an election as I'm sure he'd try and keep his promises

I put an e-mail request to Strings Direct today to ask to be notified when more D'Addario singles were in stock only to get a reply saying that they were being discontinued. Don't know if anybody else has heard this. Was offered a set of Roto flats in the same gauges (45-68-80-110) for £30 delivered (inc VAT ).

Since I can't get hold of the "right" gauges in the D'Addario Chrome flats I'm going to try a set of Thomastik JF344 that get a bit closer to balanced tension at 43-56-70-100 to see if my fingers find it easier to deal with - if only the A had been 75...

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1332767866' post='1592755'] [url="http://stringbusters.com"]Stringbusters[/url], 19.90 (ex VAT) [/quote] Thanks for that, just noticed your price is ex VAT mine was inc VAT (P&P was foc) so the same really

Just found Ken Smith Balanced string sets on String Busters [url="http://www.stringbusters.com/Ko-Bespoke/productlist.asp?cat=1/BASS+STRINGS/BASS+STRINGS+KEN+SMITH"]http://www.stringbusters.com/Ko-Bespoke/productlist.asp?cat=1/BASS+STRINGS/BASS+STRINGS+KEN+SMITH[/url]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1332510012' post='1589367'] I've concocted a set from singles I've found available in the UK, just d'addario's 45-60-80-110 which is roughly tension balanced looking at the chart and under £20 for the set. [/quote] May I ask where you sourced them? The cheapest I've managed to find for the same strings came to £24.20 + P&P (stringsdirect website).