Markbass 121P Deal of the Week!

[Marc S]

[quote name='machinehead' timestamp='1410215145' post='2547305']
If anyone thinks that eastern manufacturers are any less capable of producing high quality products than western manufacturers then they are most definately wrong......

I've worked in manufacturing plants in Korea, Japan and China and been frankly dismayed at how good they are.

So don't automatically dismiss a product just because it's manufactured in somewhere other than the UK or US.

And don't automatically assume that UK and US made means better quality. It might, or it might not.

Frank.

Frank.
[/quote]

In my post, I wasn't suggesting that eastern manufacturers produced anything of "less quality"
SOME eastern manufacturers do produce lower quality and even shoddy items, and there are plenty of examples of this

It's just that sometimes, there can be issues when manufacturing is shifted to another plant -wherever that plant may be situated
This can sometimes manifest itself with initial problems and quality issues,
that are then (hopefully) ironed out

I've long been an admirer of just how good Squier basses are,
especially the last few years of production at the Indonesian factory
I've recently acquired a Squier CV P bass -made in China
and it's stunning - whereas a few years back, I played a china made P bass which was awful

I kid you not, my new P bass is absolutely amazing, I love the feel and playability of it
and it sounds great too!

I was also a fan of some Japan built basses, many years back,
when some other people used the awful term "Jap Cr@p"
OK, some of it was - but some of it was rather good, and even brilliant!
e.g. some of the JV Squier series,
and an earlier "Shaftesbury" Ric bass I wish I'd never got rid of....

Marc

[JTUK]

I like amps that can be worked on which means they tend to be hand-wired.
And that takes a premium. I don't think many makers would bother to ship that type
of work out as they can make it work over here and the U.S.
I don't want to get into fridge/washer machine teritory with an amp which basically means they are so cheap
you throw them away and buy new. If I like an amp, it isn't that easy to change models if you can't get it repaired
so I don't want an amp which is all circuit boards and I don't want generic ones where the same supplier
supplies a lot of makers with those boards.

Having said that, a well made amp should last 20 plus years with out any attention at all if looked after.
Seeing how many players seem to talk about taking a back-up amp to a gig, there seems to be a lack of
confidence in some marques...??

[Marc S]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1410255088' post='2547479']
...Seeing how many players seem to talk about taking a back-up amp to a gig, there seems to be a lack of
confidence in some marques...??
[/quote]

I don't think it's so much a lack of confidence in the amps
It's simply an insurance policy

I've played a couple of gigs with a keyboardist, who ended up needing my spare!
Also, a situation can change
I also played one gig where the PA was playing up,
so I went ahead without using the PA, and because I had a spare
the keyboardist in that band (different guy) also used my spare

OK, I know it might seem like I'm carrying spares for keyboard players
but I do like the thought of having something "just in case"
and you can fit a small spare head into your kit easily
There are some good 2nd hand options out there

I'd never do a gig without a spare bass - yet I rarely break a string at a gig.....

Edited September 9, 2014 by Marc S

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited February 22, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[molan]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1410090273' post='2545962']

Thomann play with MB prices all the time. I keep a weekly watch on their prices across a number of key products and it's really interesting, from a retailer perspective, to watch their 'dynamic' pricing policy.

[/quote]

Spotted an example of this yesterday - Thomann put up their Aguilar prices by a huge amount after a summer of heavy discounting. The TH500 head had dropped right down to £475 last week and it rose to £630 yesterday!

Same kind of price rise across the TH350 and SL112 cabs as well.

They are now more expensive than many UK stockists on these.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with MarkBass. It's a very different brand and a lot more stockists than Aguilar so they may try to hold these lower prices to force the market. . .

[JTUK]

Wow, £150-ish price increase just after I got one...
That makes me feel better.

I've used Thomann and you can't ignore them totally, but I always like to buy more local.