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Made In Britain


chris_b

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Is there anyone on Basschat, who, by design or accident, only plays gear made in the UK?

I exclusively use Barefaced cabs and OBBM cables. I owned a Wal for about 10 years and but for the weight I'd very interested in an Overwater Jazz. There have been several occasions when I've been close to buying an ACG and Shuker bass, but I don't seem to be able to get very excited about British amps. Since I started I've also played German basses and amps and of course always US gear, but I don't recall ever recall having 100% British gear. I don't think I've ever played with any other musician who only used British gear, either.

With the B-word flip up just about to happen I was wondering who is supporting British companies in their bass playing endeavours. Who can come up with a convincing case to make me reconsider my current amp choice of Aguilar and Thunderfunk?

I think we should be be looking to increase our support for all British companies in the future. Looks like they're going to need us.

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I have vague and distant memories of the last I'm Backing Britain campaign.

My feeling has always been to buy what's best for the job. If that turns out to be a British start-up in need of early customers (think ... ooh ... Barefaced back in its early days) then I'm very happy to put my money where my heart is.

If it turns out to be an EU or US product, then that's what I'll buy. If there are two more-or-less matching products to choose from, and one happens to be British, then that's a no-brainer but I'm not going to make a fetish out of it.

 

 

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Well as you know Chris I build my own fretless basses. This started off because we were in a wave of not very good Fenders at the time and the bass I’d bought from Europe wasn’t doing it for me on stage, so I was dared to build my own, (for which guitar builder and author Melvyn Hiscox and I laugh about to this day). A recent festival I played had Ashdown which blew on the first song. An Orange combo certainly didn’t do it for me either on another gig. So MarkBass is a happy sound for me since the first batch arrived in the country. Maybe it’s back to HiWatt,  though for some of us, lugging those big heavy amps and cabs is a bit too much these days!

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Although I do own American and Japanese basses,these days I pretty much always use British gear .wal/status/barefaced but like you Chris b I can’t think of/haven’t tried a decent lightweight amp built in this country so still use my tecamp puma 900 which I have to say is a fantastic bit of kit..if a decent British built non valve head came on the market I definitely get one! 

Aren’t barefaced developing an amp?? 

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I just need to switch amp. My regular gear is a Barefaced Midget T, Obbm cables and my custom bass made by @Andyjr1515. All let down by an admittedly very effective Markbass LmIII.

@Happy Jack, the I'm backing Britain campaign had a theme tune minor hit sung by Bruce Forsyth. If you can't recall it - it sounded pretty much how you'd imagine. 😝

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I play a Shuker bass (which has a Nordstrand pickup) and Purple Chili cabs (which have Chinese Celestion drivers). Did try a Bassics amp but it didn't do it for me, and in my opinion, looks completely ridiculous 😕. I use OBBM cables, but again, non British parts, and my guitar amp is an old Award Session.

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2 hours ago, mybass said:

Well as you know Chris I build my own fretless basses. This started off because we were in a wave of not very good Fenders at the time and the bass I’d bought from Europe wasn’t doing it for me on stage, so I was dared to build my own, (for which guitar builder and author Melvyn Hiscox and I laugh about to this day). A recent festival I played had Ashdown which blew on the first song. An Orange combo certainly didn’t do it for me either on another gig. So MarkBass is a happy sound for me since the first batch arrived in the country. Maybe it’s back to HiWatt,  though for some of us, lugging those big heavy amps and cabs is a bit too much these days!

My gigging rig used to be two DR103s and two SE412 cabs. Quite how I found the energy to even lift a bass after lugging all that around I have no idea. Total bloody madness. 

It sounded monstrous (in a 60s style) but I much prefer my Aguilar/AER and Markbass stuff. Not that I’m gigging anymore really...

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Oh, and as for buying British I don’t think Brexit will change my purchasing habits. It’s more important for me to support local retailers than manufacturers (many of whom sell stuff made in a China anyway).

That said I’d love to try an ACG.

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I'm not sure if 100% british is possible at all any more, but if you're a luthier or pedal maker, or in any way involved in the production of music gear, it would be really good to get an idea from you of what it would cost if everything in your product - literally everything down to the last screw - was produced in England. I'm guessing British steel is prohibitively expensive, we're making insignificant amounts of it compared to most of the world. The biggest manufacturers of steel are China, followed by the EU, followed by India, so after the russian trollbots get our country back, components which previously came from the EU are likely to come from places like China and India, and quality will be a thing of the past unless you're willing to pay custom shop prices for everything. Whilst wages will drop, chinese products are likely to go up in price, but not in quality (we all know QC does not exist in China). I think within a few years we'll look back at today's Fender Custom Shop prices as a relative bargain.

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Looking at the bright side, this means that those of us will silly amounts of gear can now justify all those purchases as investments.

One day, all gear in the UK will be characterised by whether or not it was pre-Brexit.

:|

 

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I've got a right mixed bag at the moment. Hartke amp, Epifani cab and Fender basses so America for those items. I then have an Ashdown valve amp, cab and back up amp head so good old British. I then have two Kala Uku basses so American for them. I love my main rig but if I do replace it then I'll probably go Ashdown.

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At one point a couple of years back I could’ve claimed to be full on GB i.e. Trace amps, Barefaced cab and a Wal Custom.

Still using Trace and the BF cab but the Wal has long since gone and I’m now on more of an oriental odyssey currently favouring several early eighties MIJ basses.

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Guest oZZma

I have too specific ideas to be bond to Italian companies for the sake of being Italians. I'm Italian but for example I never owned anything from Markbass although it's an "established" brand. Not the sound I'm after, sorry.

 

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