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I want to thank everyone in here who insisted that this thread would stay open and public. Just caught up with it. Mr. Mason is lucky indeed so few people that fell for his antics took action with Police, legal ways or just plain accepted his invites to have a ‘chat’, as attempting to write on a keyboard or even play bass with a few broken fingers I’m told can be challenging. Just as another word of warning from someone who used to study conmen and scams for a few years (of which by the way he is only the latter, as conman is too much of a compliment for such a...silly Willy), obviously do not give any credence to anything he says - starting from ‘I’ve shipped your pedal’ to ‘I’ll sue you’ to ‘I’m coming over for a wee chat’. Just do not engage in angry countertalk as it fuels the scammer with the knowledge you are all still pending from his lips to get your own money back. Do not cede to conditions to get your money back. Stay calm and collected, pat him on the head and let it flow underneath your feet while you compile fraud and police reports. Do not give belief in any of his friends or associates contacting you on their behalf. Do not give belief if he tells you he’s talking to the police and *he* needs info from you to forward the police. Do not give belief if you get contacted by an ‘attorney’ or a ‘legal representative’ shortly after you’ve asked your money back or threatening to take legal action. If anyone falls for this specifically, they will go into the ‘sinker’ part of ‘hook, line and sinker’ and the scammer will manage to get even more money out of you. Do not fall for the thought process of ‘why would he do that for 50 or 100 quid? He gigs around/has a job/whatever’. This is literally the same argument thieves (and we are talking about people stealing millions) make when caught on fingerprints ‘why would I do it that way? I’d have worn gloves’ - the reason is because they’re lazy and incompetent, for if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be stealing or get caught in the first place. And although I do sympathise with anyone who has an addiction of any kind, do not give belief when the scammer hides behind those things as they are just another layer of lies. He finds himself in quite the unlucky situation of someone who not only has been exposed and now reported a few times, but also has a recorded criminal history and keeps forging identities and protected material, thus creating even more criminal liability on top of what would have been a ‘simple’ product fraud/attempt issue. I can’t help much more if not by saying that I am willing to chip in with SERIOUS amounts for help with legal costs against this person, as it will be sunk money for everyone even when the cases will be won. Let’s be clear, very few people will get their money back from it regardless. Even Her Majesty can’t squeeze blood out of a rock. Most of the times, those people live by flipping profits from a scam to the next, and they stay overexposed for way too long and will NEED to scam MORE people in order to give YOU your money back. And guess what, once they do, a good portion of the cases they will think ‘well...I’d rather keep this money now’. I am glad to see a good portion of the basschatters who were victims going out of their way to keep this thread healthy and alive. Scammers make it a matter of principle and so should you all. Just like the magnificent guy who knocked on every door until he found his house, then magically the money appeared on his bank account. THAT, by the way, Mr. Mason, is how you successfully threaten people, and how you are a class act about it (I can say for sure if I had been in their shoes, I definitely wouldn’t have been happy with just being refunded, I’d have definitely insisted on sitting down with him and have a nice...group videochat with the rest of the BC fellas myself) I’m sorry for the lengthy and frankly quite useless post, but after eating through 30-odd pages, my blood has been boiling non stop and this helped calm me down a bit. Mods, let me know if I have used unnecessarily unkind words towards him, so I can edit them out. Peace and happy festivities to you all low end geezers, Em

I posted earlier about my expereinces with Mr Mason and the Timshare Sansamp that I paid 110 quid for. Still waiting for a refund from him With encouragement from Paubass, (thanks amigo) I've made a complaint through Action Fraud.

No worries Bert. Fortunately I got my refund, but clearly many others didn’t and I want to help to ensure he doesn’t get away with this.

So my incredible other half surprised me on Christmas morning and gave me this incredible Sandberg that I had been drooling over since it landed at Bass Direct. I feel very very lucky indeed to have a girly that would do this and the fact that it is the best Sandberg I have ever played or owned. My older two (one I sold a while back) were the first generation ones and I had only played one of the second generation ones a few years back and had noticed the improvements they had made. Safe to say this thing has blown me away with how good it is and I love it to bits already. I just thought I would share some porn shots with you. My old TM2 is now hiding scared.

Just hidden a bunch more posts. If we can’t keep the updates clean and above reproach then I’ll lock the thread. Thanks to the mods who have been helping too.

Well, it’s pretty obvious to me from one listen through: Tying half a fire, fire the handle of your ball, But Toulouse is mine, he’s a wazzock from Nepal. And I’m numb from chews, got those twelfth century shoes. Don’t want Dave to call, don’t want his bristle down a tube, Trying to find some hum, and maybe crackers and some Brie And I’m numb from booze, got that health centre flooze. I’m not made of bone, so don’t be prepping in that hay, Cut me garden gnome, cos you don’t fear a wooden sleigh. Aint got nothing to chew, got those 20th century brews.

Also I forgot to say that after refunding me Mick had the audacity to send me a friend request on FB!

Best: How I love it so.

C’mon folks - let’s not make it hard on the mods: No matter what you would personally like to do to the miscreant, let’s not voice it! There’s no need to give his address here. Think before venting, This thread is a really useful resource; let’s keep it going.

Best: without doubt my Masterbuilt Warwick Thumb NT. Most expensive bass I’ve bought in years but it’s a masterpiece of an instrument and worth every penny. Worst? Well it was a very quiet year for new purchases really, so wouldn’t really be fair to give the worst title to anything.

"The strange thing about that song [20th Century Blues] is that it's actually a cover of an old Noel Coward tune, but for some reason the way the lyrics are delivered makes some people think it's about a Wazzock from Nepal, or even stranger things." - Robin Trower.

Ah well...now we wait.

Box of ash and mahogany. @Ricky 4000doesn't believe it exists.

My 3 bass purchases in 2020 😀

If the definition of ‘worst’ includes ‘unwise’ then best and worst, respectively are:- Stingray Special - lighter, more headroom and, to my neophyte ears, having only owned a couple of Stingrays prior to this one, more than capable of that ‘tone’. On to the ‘unwise’; Roscoe Century Standard Fretless; beautiful instrument, lovely fretless sound but an impulse purchase that I know is not getting or going to get the use it deserves. ‘A fool and his money...’ 🙄

Well Bridgey is the official DOI Lyricist *salutes*

This pretty much concludes the build diary for this instrument folks. The finish is a what I call a light "cryo-relic" with some mild abrasions to a couple of places. Personally I'm not a great fan of heavy relic instruments, but I'm happy to do it if a Client wants! 😉. All the best for the New Year folks. See you for another Build Diary soon....

I can't see the point of joining two invisible butts together. If they were visible however folk would be in awe of your quadrumped keister. There might be confusion when it comes to sitting on a bicycle though. Still... it would be good to learn a bit about vinyl wrapping.

I've been 37 years a VAT professional. Shall we do willies next?

Additional purchases of the year since the november edition. An honourable mention goes to my new ABM600 evo IV, which for less than £350 as a B-Stock from PMT is more than worth it (It has a break on the tolex on the side, pretty small, first gig sort of injury). Run it up loud once, still yet to gig it obviously due to a lack of gigs. The BAM200 at the top though still doing sterling service for home practice. While I am here, I forgot the pictures of the other things, which of course means they don't exist.. The Shuker: And the (replacement) EHB1505MS Actually, that isn't the replacement, that is the original, but it looks remarkably similar!

An Ibanez ANB306 with an active Aguilar OBP-3 preamp. It has restored my faith that Ibanez are still building seriously high end basses that can compete with the very top echelons of bass luthiery.

Well this bass landed on my doorstep on Christmas Eve, & fair to say i haven't put it down since. I'm predominately a Fender player, apart from a spell where i played a Stingray which ended up, quite literaly, being a pain in the shoulder if the gig went on too long!! I've always fancied a Spector, & liked the look of the Euro's, but being left handed the only ones that seemed to come up were the cheaper Legends. Then last week i noticed this Spector Euro 4 Classic come up on the Bass Direct website, so i decided i'd take the plunge. So pleased i did, just plugged in around the house it's amazing, can't wait to try it out at gig levels. Such a shame as any normal year it would have already been out to play at a Boxing day gig. Added bonus it only weighs 3.5kg ( 7lbs 10oz ) due to weight-relieved North American Maple body wings 😊

This was *exactly* why my dad warned me about shooting my mouth off or getting angry driving. You never know who you’re going to meet and what they’re capable of. I think what’s great about this thread is that as a community we can all come together, share information and stop more people losing out. The world will dispense justice in the end.

What it's for is to practice joinery and woodworkery. It became a box to put MDW's Christmas present in to give it a purpose. If that annoys you then you can take your "mates" and their thread derailment back to the DoI. Get orf my thread.

I very much doubt the OP would want my version of the lyrics...

I love everything about this build. The neatness of the control cavity that no-one will really see says a lot. I’ve owned some lovely gear and a lot of them look like spaghetti junction in there. And the subtle cracked finish is a dream come true. Little details maketh the bass!

Don't be put off by title and intro, this is a very beautiful piece of music:

It's just large enough to get another box inside.

Agreed. Better still, go the whole hog, take some random lyrics from Jimi Hendrix and fit them in any old how.

My kit (l-r) front Gibson Thunderbird, Eastwood EEB-1, Burns 6 strong bass, 51 bitsa, Rickenbacker 4003s, middle Fender Precision & Fender Jazz, back Eastwood BV, Gretsch G5440LSB, cheap Acoustic Bass and Hofner Verythin long scale bass.

Er. 2021 sometime 😂

Well. I’ve paid for it. I’ve used a Russian shop who offers a finding/shipping service on Reverb. He specifically deals in Japanese vintage gear, which is a happy coincidence. @walshy put me in touch with him (he bought an Aria through this guy). https://reverb.com/shop/denniss-gear-bazaar-167?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=shop&utm_content=929219 Super nice guy, really helpful.

We’re on...

Nothing to do with that at all - I just do not want to pin any advice which I do not fully understand or endorse, just like I don’t advise people on fees for importing items from non EU countries. It’s all up in the air, and will continue to be, for a while yet (Globally). Anyone looking to import at this time is responsible for checking or finding out for themselves.

My partner contributed at Christmas!

So... next year I’m definitely definitely not buying any gear ....and this time I mean it 😬

I remember when nostalgia used to be something worth looking back on with a fond yearning. Not like the rubbish nostalgia you get these days. I just hope in time to come nostalgia will be as good as it used to be.

Thanks Paul

Looks amazing... You are, indeed, a very lucky boy to have a wife who buys you such great prezzies.... Check the car for scratches or expect a bill for some very expensive shoes and a handbag.😉

That is the tucking fits

I think this is the list so far, note that some have got their money back. @prowla@walshy @nick_gontarski (allegedly owed gig money) @ForbiddenWytch @DIYorDie @Jamie Snell @Jamiexsilver @wavydavy @Dangreen326 @SamPlaysBass @misterhank

Great, looks like we're sorted then. PJ get a move on, mate...😁