Ironbar

Bad Girls, Donna Summer- A celebration of prostitution. YMCA, Village People - A song about meeting young homosexuals in a public gymnasium. The list goes on. I take no offense.

I'd rather shag my hot coworker.

I had a 5 stringer. I used the B string for approximately four notes on two songs. I finally asked myself the question, "WTF do I own this thing?"

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1488947474' post='3253139'] Singing and playing bass has always been a huge challenge for me. I'm getting better and the separation from my fingers and voice is getting a lot better. I don't have a great voice, however my band has allowed me free reign with backing vocals. Because we gig a lot, I've had the opportunity to really work on this. I still have a lot of room for improvement. I really like singing and being on the front line. Any stories about singing and playing bass you guys care to share? Blue [/quote] I cannot do it.

My Sire is active and I love it, love it, love it!

Well, as an update, today I pulled the trigger on a fretless Gold Tone MicroBass 23. Did a lot of looking around before I settled on this one. I like the fact that it's a 23 inch scale. I'm a pretty big guy and I don't have sausage fingers but I figured it would be easier to play than something shorter. Guess I need to stock up on strings, batteries, and a new strap!

Just got an email from Thomann this morning: Dear Mr. XXXXXX Thank you for your email. Yes we ship Harley Benton products to the United States but be aware of the CITES REGULATIONS: The Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) held a conference in October 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa where it was decided that all species of rosewood under the genus Dalbergia and three Bubinga species will be protected under CITES Appendix II. A new regulation took effect on January 2, 2017 that calls for documentation when shipping instruments internationally that contain any amount of any kind (i.e. fingerboard, back, sides, binding) of rosewood or certain types of Bubinga. As every commercial transaction outside of the EU must be accompanied by a CITES re-export certificate, Thomann is only able to supply the required paperwork and meet the export conditions required for items over 998 €. Therefore we can´t unfortunately sell this product outside of the EU anymore. Kind regards [b]Katja Sarigül[/b] International Sales

I've never been a fan of the old Washburn B20 head stock.

Picture it, 1979, somewhere in the Northwestern USA. OK it was Salem, Oregon. I was a young man during summer break in what I think you Brits call early Secondary School. I was home alone trying not to be bored so I rifled through my brother's vinyl collection. There I found an odd looking record from a band called Rush. It had a big scary looking owl on the cover, and was titled Fly By Night. I put the record on the hi-fi, queued up the title track, and my mind was blown forever. From the opening guitar riff, I was hooked. I found myself particularly drawn to the bass. In all those years though I never picked up the bass. It wasn't until decades later when my daughter started taking guitar lessons. I sat there in one of her lessons listening to her play, and I found myself envious of my own daughter. I figured if I didn't learn my instrument of choice now, I'd never do it. Been playing badly ever since, but I still love it. Curiously enough, I don't know how to play any Rush songs.

So buy one and then keep the damn thing this time!

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1488627382' post='3250565'] Ironbar "[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] I wish I knew someone in the UK who could just buy me one and send it here!"[/font][/color] I'd do it in a heartbeat but there's a good chance Customs would just destroy it on arrival. Then there the shipping cost, Thomann charge $30 but every guitar I've had shipped from the US cost over $100. Not really an option [/quote] No worries man! Thanks for the offer though. I'm sure something will pan out if I'm patient enough.

[quote name='bassist_lewis' timestamp='1487434616' post='3239803'] I've had a set of DR Lo-Riders (I think) on my bass for about 18 months and I was curious about the DR Sunbeams - nickel wound on a round core, supposedly more 'old school' sounding - so I changed them a few days ago. But now I seem to have a dead spot around the 7th fret on the E string, the notes don't seem to have as strong a fundamental as the other frets on that string and a slight dip in volume (could be because of a loss of mids rather than actual volume lost). This doesn't happen on any of the other strings. Does anyone have any insight as to why this would happen? And that's why I hate new strings, I had my sound nailed and now it's gone I might even get my old strings out the bin and put them back on! [/quote] That's SO funny because I experienced almost the exact same thing with the exact same situation. Switched to Sunbeams from Lo-Riders- hated them. Went back to Lo-Riders.

I found a Hadean Model, the UKB-31 that looks very similar to the Harley Benton. Of course.......they're out. If all it would take is a month or so of waiting then I'm down with that. Not like I'm in a hurry (too much). I wish I knew someone in the UK who could just buy me one and send it here! Do they sell these things in retail shops in the UK or are they only available through the Thomann website?

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1488588788' post='3250378'] Ironbar Sounds like CITES to me. You could hang fire until Thomann sort out the license or Rondo may be your answer. [url="http://www.rondomusic.com/bluegrassfolk.html"]http://www.rondomusi...egrassfolk.html[/url] [/quote] I had to Google what CITES was. I can't for the life of me understand why mahogany and or spruce couldn't be imported to the US. Not like they're exotic woods or anything. Blast. I really liked the HB because of the size. I'm a big dude- 6'5" and I think the HB would have been a better fit for me than the Hadean models.

Well gents, it appears that my question about which bass uke to get has been rendered moot. I attempted to buy the Harley Benton today, and I got an error message saying that it can't be shipped to the U.S. Sh*t. Now what?