Chris2112

Absolutely. I never liked Chappers in the Andertons videos because he seemed to think he was the star and had a unique talent of making everything he played sound awful. That he was so thoroughly exposed by the people he was trying to goon-rush was a relief. I still watch and enjoy KDH's videos now.

FWIW Tony played his Vintage P Bass signature live on tour with Big Country. So he obviously liked it enough, I always thought they looked like a good option if that's your kind of bass.

Chapman have always lacked credibility and have been mocked for their 'sigs for friends' of owner Rob Chapman. Given he way Chapman was seemed to vanish from Andertons following the KDH exposé (the one about bullying, not the one about Chapman's production problems), I'm surprised that he's even trying to keep Chapman Guitars chugging along.

I haven't seen that video in years, it certainly brings back memories of when a comparison to a Wishbass was an outright insult 🤣🤣

It's an interesting looking bass but I'm not a fan of that 'elastic bands on a butter tub' tone. I've heard better sounding Ritters, with roundwound strings.

The tobacco sunburst on these looks great. It's not a body shape that appeals to me but more the more Spectors, the better as far as I'm concerned.

Very cool!

Talkbass has always been clear that it's not a place for free speech, it's a fairly tightly controlled corporate environment meant to make money without causing upset. I've been permabanned there before (hasn't everyone?). My mistake was to differ in opinion to one of the mods (name rhymed with 'Burner'). I may have won the argument but I lost the battle because he banned me and sent a gloating message about how he could do that. I expect he was suffering some sort of inadequacy and enjoyed having some power online. I rejoined a week or two later and have enjoyed the last fourteen or so years without another issue.

He used to be part of a Facebook group that I was part of and I remember his contributions there. I just checked the membership list; he's left the group and apparently Facebook. Nice guy, I hope we can get some good news soon, but being realistic I know things don't always work out like that.

None of the layouts to move the control to the face look very good to me. I hope you can solve this dilemma without too much issue. A Legacy is a very special bass indeed.

He actually did have a Warwick Thumb around the 'Buffalo Skinners' era, although he didn't seem to use it that much.

Imagine if Tony Butler had used a Spector to record the classic Big Country hits. It would certainly sound amazing.

I always used to like seeing six string basses live. It always made me think 'this guy can probably play' and I looked forward to seeing them used. Boutique basses made me think the same thing too. On the flip side, plenty of times I'd see a Precision on stage and assume the playing/music wouldn't be up to much.

Ring the shop and get it taken off sale. They'll hold it until the police go and seize it and it can then be returned to you. I used to be on very good terms with the Cash Converters on my old beat. There were never any issues seizing stolen goods but they wouldn't return anything reported as stolen without my permission (I guess that was company policy). If it was bulky stuff I could arrange for the owner to collect it from them despite it technically being seized. They were always good with the CCTV of the dodgy gear being traded in, they could pull up their invoice and find the footage from the time on their record, and they'd always give a statement to ID the 'seller'. Despite their poor reputation they helped me to get thousands of pounds worth of nicked gear back to the rightful owners.

In fairness to Janek, he may be trying to make money through YouTube but his latest video, about a few items of gear that would be very useful to every bassist, is genuinely worth a watch and very interesting. If he is going to make more quality content, great! I've subscribed and I hope he can do well off his efforts.

It's a fair comment and it didn't start with Janek and Matt either. There is a trend in the bass world which has grown over the last few years with some builders where any Tom, Richard or Harry ordering a custom bass seems able to put their name on it and call it their signature bass. It's a little bit cringe to me, like they're buying the dream of being a big name without actually being so. I feel like there must be a distinction somewhere between genuine signature models and some guy just getting his name on it because he paid big bucks for it. Fodera were ahead of the game on this. They gave signature models to friends and local players. Remember the Lincoln Goines signature? He is a good player but I would never have heard of him were it not for his name being on the Fodera website. Again, I'm not saying that you have to be Geddy Lee before you get a signature bass but it has to have some authenticity, as in an actual demand for it.

Here's hoping you get the refund and can put this whole episode behind you. It seems with shipping you really do deal with the luck of the draw. I was on a bass-related Facebook group the other day seeing that a guy in California had taken delivery of a bass sent from the UK. This bass was an Explorer shape, making it even more likely to sustain damage due to it's slabby body, flat edged and pointed extremities. The instrument was sent in a measley sheet of bubble wrap and a weird assortment of small boxes which had been cut and taped to form a bizarre outer layer (which looked to have absolutely no rigidity at all). It was without a doubt one of the worst packing jobs I'd ever seen. Amazingly, the bass made it the whole way unscathed. It looked to me like it would have been in bits before it even left the UK. You can only cross your fingers and hope when a bass is being sent by post but bit of effort with some proper packaging does go a long way.

Yes, Pino has sold a number of basses through the Gallery and they too have sold for some high prices. The only remarkable one being a Status Series II fretless with a single pickup. John did say they'd also sold Pino's #2 Stingray fretless, which he had kept as a backup since the 80's. But yes, I found the prices quite crazy for those guys, but they evidently sold for a number the owners were happy with. For £15,000 I'd want a bass that could make me sound like Jeff Berlin, Alain Caron and Yoshihiro Naruse all at once 😂😂😂

That was John Edwards' personal bass, though.

Disappointing to hear of Matt Garrison going on like that. It is unusual that round about the time he was being critical of Janek was around the same sort of time as he pretty much disappeared from the bass scene. Before that he had seemed pretty busy and got some decent parts, and everyone was talking about the 'Matt Garrison' right hand technique. Perhaps he had some sort of an episode then, he's only 52 now so it effectively seems like he jacked in aged 40.

This sounds like a right shitshow. I'm surprised you haven't been put off the bass just by the grief it's caused so far.

Yes, we went over that going to the train station. Utterly bizarre.

It's not a bad deal but the Spoiler is a 'lower end' Alembic and like most Alembics, can be surprisingly heavy. Some people just don't get on with Alembics and their unique ergonomics. You do occasionally find the lower end Alembics changing hands for a lot less than the usual asking prices as they aren't in short supply. Worth giving it a shot though, I like them.

Yes, it's full of shite these days. Nothing newsworthy for years now. Having just returned to the area after a trip to Hemel Hempstead and and London last week, I still regard Newcastle as a bit of a dump but still a decent place, about as good as it gets the in the UK. I was glad to be back.