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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1421666608' post='2663682'] Are the MM five strings still made in the US? The fours are now MIM aren't they? (after being made in Japan for several years...). An interesting decision from a pricing and marketing point of view. [/quote] That's correct. The 5s are US and the 4s are Mexican.

Hello chaps, I thought I would check this out to make sure we've got the price right. As far as I can see the UK street seems to be just over £2200 depending on where you look, so £1899 is a pretty significant saving. I've had a look at the bass and it's in really great shape. It's had the plastic removed from the guard, but other than that it's completely clean. M

Hello! I just did a demo on the Classic Player Rascal. Safe to say it's bloody lovely. Loads of variety and incredibly good looking. http://youtu.be/3Zp1XMDbVgo

Hi Chris, We generally only get people in when they are offered to us by sponsoring manufacturers. I'll do some digging and find out what he plays!

Hello all. I thought this might be of interest to some of you. We've got Nathan East coming in to our Brighton store on 16th September to give a clinic and talk about his TC Electronic and Yamaha gear. Details can be found here: http://www.gak.co.uk/en/nathan-east-clinic And the poster should appear here if I can remember how to work the BC forum:

Some more excellent Ergs content here: http://youtu.be/0RTxZRa67XY He is just silly good.

I'm pretty sure there's a fair few here that will argue that this isn't punk, but I'll always say that Joey Erg from the Ergs is the best "punk" bassist at the moment. Melodic and perfect for the songs. It's like McCartney at 100 times the pace. http://youtu.be/6uNYqkd3BN0

[quote name='Cotswoldbassguitars' timestamp='1406215906' post='2509423'] When a 'trans Orangish' colour was mentioned I thought of a Fender colour number '22' which was Sunset Orange Transparent that was used for only a few years around 2003 / 2004 on USA Ash bodied basses. I have only ever seen the colour on one bass, a Precision that I had few a short while.............stunning looking bass as hopefully the attached shows! [/quote] I have this exact bass. Mine is a 2003 and easily the best bass I have ever played. I've said it before, but it's genuinely the only thing (the gf excluded) I would try and save in a fire. As for the Paramore bassist, up until recently he played Fender American Deluxe Jazz basses with the bottom horn sanded down quite considerably. On the latest tour, he's been playing Gibson Grabber basses exclusively.

Hi guys. Mark from GAK here. Thanks for the (mostly) great feedback. @damonjames - Drop me an email at [email protected] with your order number. I'll have a look at what's been going on and see why you've had poor communication from us. As for the issue of delivery to Scotland, I've been aware if this for a while and have been pushing to get this standardised with the rest of mainland UK. As of today (thanks to the power of Basschat) [b]we're now offering free delivery to Scotland on any purchase over £99![/b] Good work everyone. If you've got any more feedback that you think might be useful either leave it here, DM me or email me directly at the address above.

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' timestamp='1399640053' post='2446172'] ANy idea on UK availability and price? I think I'm in love [/quote] I think we're about to order one here at GAK. They're going to be £1799 and should be with us late July/early August.

It's certainly a confusing price point if you're looking for a Fender bass. Personally, I think the quality of the Standard Series was vastly improved in 2011. These are now a gig worthy bass that will last you for as long as you're still playing bass. There are obvious upgrades (pickups, bridge) you can make if you want, but I don't think they are necessary additions - http://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-standard-precision-bass-2011-candy-apple-red-maple/53128 My other tip would be to check out the Squier Matt Freeman Precision. Yes, it says Squier on the headstock and people have probably tried to (wrongly) warn you off Squier instruments, but this is easily one of the best sub-£500 basses. It's TOUGH and excels at punk tones, but you can dial the tone back for Motown thumpy-ness too - http://www.gak.co.uk/en/squier-matt-freeman-precision-bass-vintage-white/49447

Hello all! Thanks for the kind words about GAK in this thread. As I'm sure I've said before on BC, we really value the feedback from specialist forums like this one. I'm always keen to hear about the experiences you've had in-store, over the phone, and on our site. As the OP noted, it's really tough to be a music instrument retailer in 2014 so hearing what we are doing right, and where we can improve, is very useful indeed!

[quote name='rogerstodge' timestamp='1394395524' post='2391007'] hi Mark, how you getting on hunting down my left hand Gibson sg special bass? Paul [/quote] Hi Paul. I've just checked with Gibson. At the moment they are not making ANY left handed guitars or basses. They still have some 2013 EB basses left handed in stock, but not any SGs. Unfortunately, I can't see this changing for a while...

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1394187018' post='2388814'] Mark, When I go to the GAK website the site offers "free postage over £99". However, put in an address in Scotland and you get told "you need to spend £299 for free shipping to Scotland" and instead offers you postage at £13.39... This crazy policy cost you a sale last week. I've never encountered a company that treats Scotland differently to the rest of the UK. Is there a reason for it? [/quote] Hi. I'm looking in to this for you now. I don't actually deal with sales so I'm not sure why this is. I'll get back to you with an answer ASAP. As far as I was aware delivery to mainland UK is free over £99 so this may be a bug on the site. I'll try and get back to you today on this one. [quote name='skej21' timestamp='1394190455' post='2388892'] All my dealings with GAK have been great but on a couple of occasions I (like uncle psychosis) have chosen not to buy from GAK as a result of the online content. It's a shame that the guys who do the YouTube videos never do a decent product demonstration. It's either 4 mins of talking and 20 secs of a bass line (always fingerstyle!) or just playing that doesn't really show off the instrument. They were the first ones to have a video demo of the Nate Mendel up online and (I clearly bought it eventually) I just couldn't get the info I needed from the video to put my faith in purchasing it from them online. The demonstration didn't even feature pick playing which Nate is known for! [/quote] Thanks for the feedback on this. I'm sorry that some of our demo videos aren't to your taste. As it stands, we just have one guy who does our bass demo videos and he is predominantly a fingerstyle player and demos basses as such. As we do more video, we'll definitely look to expand how many guys you see demoing the gear so you get a wider variety of playing and opinion. I might even get stuck in to some demos, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not... In all seriousness, we've only been doing video demos for the last year or so and any feedback is appreciated. If you ever need more info than you're getting from the video content feel free to drop me a PM or an email at [email protected] and I'll be happy to help you out.

Hi Pete. Mark from GAK here. Thanks so much for this. Always nice to get some good feedback!