Graham A

Thanks @warwickhunt I've had a quick look at the phantom coil on the internet. On the pictures i've seen It looks like it's soldered to the bottom of the pickup, so could be a possibility.

I'm tempted to do that, but i'm going to give Thomann's a call tomorrow & see what they advise as it's a brand new bass. I don't want to start poking around with it until i've spoken to them in case it's invalidates any claim.

Just put my ear to the bass again, & the noise does appear to be coming from the pickup, or should i say under the pickup. Is there anything that become loose under the pickup & start moving around? The facts that the controls, three way selector switch work, i'm hoping it's just something that's worked itself lose in transit.

There's one i use in North Yorkshire, but i know he was shielding last year due to corona virus. Not sure if he's taking on any jobs yet. If i knew it was a simple fix, i could possibly leave it until after lockdown, but it's a brand new instrument. So it's either been damaged in transit ( no damage to boxes or case though ) or been faulty from the off. Unplugged it sounds like something moving about in a cavity. I've plugged it in & run through a couple of songs with it, & it sounds great. All the controls, three way selector switch appear to be working as normal, but tilt the bass & you get the noise of whatevers moving amplified. I've emailed Thomann's to report it. There's definitely something amiss, i'll just have to see what they say. As i say it's going to be a hassle to send it to them for repair & get it returned, probably wouldn't see it for months!!

Apart that i purchased it from Thomann's, & it took three weeks to get here. Was hoping for a quick fix as i don't fancy the hassle of sending it back!! 😭

Hi there, Thought i'd ask this question on here as there appears to be quite a few Sterling owners on here. I've just taken delivery of a brand new USA Musicman Sterling, one thing i noticed when i took it out of the case was it sounded like there is a loose part in the body. When you rock the bass you can here a clunk as if something is loose in the body cavity. I've checked the back plate & battery compartment, they appear fine. When you plug it in & rock the bass you get the noise amplified, so i've come to the conclusion it's the pickup. Anyone experienced the same, can the pickup be easily damaged in transit? Cheers

@Steve Browning is correct, i bought a Musicman bass from Thomann's last month. As well as VAT, & the £11.50 handling fee there was an import fee, i think i worked it out as being approx 2.5%, which is about right according the HMRC website. UPS just grouped it together as Government fees on the invoice. Be aware though goods are taking some time to be delivered. My bass was was ordered on the 15th January, & only left Standford Le Hope on Friday evening. Thankfully it's passed through Tamworth in the early hours of Saturday morning & looks like it's made it to my local depot. Hopefully picking it up tomorrow morning. I had emailed UPS last Monday about the lack of movement of my parcel, & i was assigned a customer resolution manager whose been pushing it along all week. Thomann did inform me that smaller items are getting through without much delay, it's the larger items that are taking longer, which seems to be bourne out by a number of threads on this forum. @Annette1954 If you do order & your parcel gets stuck at least i've got a few email addresses i can give you to try & get your parcel moving again.

Well, i'm pleased to say it looks like my bass has finally started to move again. It left Stanford Le Hope yesterday evening, then a few hours later it arrived & left Tamworth. I assume it's now made it's way to the Sedgefield Depot, although the depot don't work weekends. I was told last week that anything arriving on Saturday morning is not scanned in until the Monday. Fingers crossed i can go & collect it then 🤞

I've spoke to someone at Thomann's this morning he mentioned that UPS have a huge backlog at the moment. He went on to say that the smaller the item the better chance it has of getting through the system albeit still taking longer than pre-Brexit, it's the larger items they are struggling with. Perhaps Thomann's have decided to temporarily use another courier due to the backlog UPS are experiencing. Who knows??

Thanks @bassist_lewis 👍

I've got no criticism of Thomann's, i've emailed them about my delivery...or shall i say non-delivery & had replies. I sure they're just as frustrated as me, as these sort of issues will more than likely have an impact on their UK sales. I've seen the criticisms on their FB page as well, some people even mention the additional cost!! It clearly states prices don't include VAT & there will be other charges to pay. In fact i managed to work mine out to very much the ball park figure with one of those import calculators you can find online.

In the end i've had delivery escalated by the customer resolution team due to me i emailing the CEO of UPS UK on Monday, i can't see what else i can do my end. It'll be 3 weeks on Friday since i ordered, the parcel cleared customs either on the 27/01 ( according to tracking ) or 30/01 ( according to the person dealing with it from UPS ). Looking on social media I've seen other people in the same boat as me, but others seem to be getting there parcels with only slight delays. There just doesn't seem to be any system in place on how goods are being cleared!! I've already expressed my concerns to Thomann who have just sent me an email saying that the parcel is fully insured whilst in transit, & that they will continue to monitor the tracking, so i'm sure they are aware of what's going on. Maybe i've just been unlucky 😞

That's great 👍 This adds to suspicion that they've actually lost my parcel!! Can is ask, did your parcel go through customs, & Stanford Le Hope? If so how long did it take if you don't mind me asking? Edit - Quoted the wrong thing @bassist_lewis. Should have been about your parcel being at the Edinburgh depot. If mine ever makes it to the Sedgefield depot i'm going to collect. Lol

Well despite the promises from UPS my purchase from Thomann's still hasn't arrived at the Sedgefield depot for me to collect. From the sounds of it, it's been loaded onto a trailer to be despatched but doesn't look like it has!! So the chances of getting it today are slim 😟 It's now been 19 days in transit!!! While i accept that none of this is the fault of Thomann's sadly i can't see me ordering from them again if this is the run around i'm going to have to endure everytime i make a purchase.

Hi @bassist_lewis, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if UPS are the courier it's more than likely that date will come & go with no delivery, unless you're very lucky!! My initial delivery date was the 25/01, & i still haven't got my hands on the bass i ordered from Thomann's on the 15/01. I've since been told that the first delivery date you get given is generated automatically, & bears no resemblence to the reality to where your parcel is in the system.....which leads to the question "Why??", a sure fire way to get your customers backs up. Just to give you a bit of a time frame to work with, my parcel arrived into Stanford Le Hope on the 22/01, i paid VAT / fees owing the same day. The next tracking event showed it had cleared customs on the 27/01. It was then rescanned on Sunday evening 31/01, still at Stanford Le Hope!! I ended up emailing the CEO of UPS yesterday afternoon about my non delivery, pointing out that seeing that i had purchased the goods / paid the fees by credit card ( always do this for large purchases for added protection then pay off so i don't pay interest ) i would be looking at contacting them to make a chargeback claim for non delivery of goods. That did the trick, & within an hour UPS's head of customer service for the UK & Ireland had contacted me, & escalated my case. My parcel is now due to be with me tomorrow....but i won't believe it until the goods are in my hands. I have been told by the person dealing with my complaint that despite the tracking saying my goods had cleared customs on the 27/01, they didn't actually clear until Saturday 30/01 because of the backlog!! Edit 02/02 1650hrs ; My parcels just been scanned again, so fingers crossed it's on the move. I'll keep hold of the UPS email addresses i've got, just in case any other Basschatters end up in the same situation as me 👍

You could be right, and it looks like it takes just as long anyway 🤔

Haha, that was the figure then...i knew it was a hundred & something. Thanks @Stub Mandrel 👍

Totally agree with you, especially when you factor in returns etc, which won't be straightforward having to claim the VAT back off HMRC, if you're lucky. Shame really, it means that us UK based musicians have a smaller pond to fish in as far a gear is concerned.

Haha, I may live to regret it yet!! Being a lefty if you see a bass you want you just have to go for it. God knows when i'll see another one for sale. I would accept there's an element of risk, more so since Brexit, but that could be said for a lot of online purchases. It would be the same as importing a bass from the US, which was the only other place i've seen what i was looking for, for sale. As previously mentioned i did try & source what i was looking for in the UK with no success. I couldn't even order the model.

Doesn't it depend on the value of the goods? Goods under i think it's around £150 ( can't recall exact figure but it's on one of Thomann's / Brexit threads ) have the VAT paid for at Thomann's end...not sure about import fee's etc. If you've got the goods i think you must have slipped through the net. The girl at the UPS depot i visited yesterday said that they had a storage room at the depot where goods were being held because the fees hadn't been paid.

I think the UPS app isn't very reliable Kev, that added to UPS's reputation ( look at Trust Pilot reviews!! 😮 ) leads to a bit of an uncomfortable wait. The girl at the Sedgefield depot has my number. I'm hoping that as soon as it lands there she might give me a call & i can go & pick it up in person.

I posted on another thread about a left handed Musicman Sterling which i ended up ordering from Thomann's on the 15/01/2021. I had been waiting a few months before Brexit hoping that it would come in stock beforehand, sadly it came in about 10-11 days after...sods law. I did try & source one from the Musicman distributor in the UK but they informed me that there were no lefties, & none becoming available in 2021!! As Thomann's only had one in stock I bit the bullet & ordered. Prior to Brexit the price seemed to fluctuate between £2030 - £2050 from what i can recall. Price after brexit was £1699 ( no VAT added ). It was shipped on the 16th by the UPS, & seemed to sale through Germany. I received an email on the Thursday night ( 21/01 ) saying that i owed charges totally £399.71, which was the ball park figure i had worked out around the £400 mark. Government Charges - £388.21 Brokerage Charges - £11.50 On the Friday (22/01), it appeared to cross into the UK, as the app showed it had been imported & accepted into Stanford Le Hope. Then there was nothing...... With no apparent movement or update since the Friday i decided to visit my local UPS depot yesterday, as it's only a few miles away in Sedgefield, & definitely better than trying to get through on the phone. That seemed to do the trick & last night it actually cleared customs, something i assumed had happened last week reading the app, but at least it's back on the move. The girl at the depot did mention that there is a huge backlog at Stanford Le Hope with goods trying to get through customs. Fingers crossed it gets here in piece. I would say to anyone buying from Thomann's now, don't expect a quick delivery, mine looks like it's going to be at least two weeks, & a few heart in mouth moments when you think you parcel has been lost.....saying that there's still time for that to happen!!

This appears to be the case, i've been watching the one from Thomann's, & it's been on a countdown for months. I was hoping it might have come in prior to Brexit, but sadly that wasn't the case. They confirmed this morning that they only had the one item as well. With that in mind, & not knowing when the next left handed Sterling might come along, i've bitten the bullet & ordered it from them. Fingers crossed it's a pretty painless experience, but i'm expecting it to take longer to arrive, & cost more than pre-Brexit. I've calculated the 20% VAT, import fees, paperwork fees as best i can, & come up with a ball park figure, so hopefully there'll be no nasty little suprises along the way. Hopefully i'll be able to report good news on here. If you don't hear from me, you'll know that it ended badly!!

Looks like i could be sticking with the basses i've got.......but GAS does terrible things to a person!! 😂

Don't blame you @Al Krow, if you like them etc there's minimal risk. Being left handed you can rarely try basses before you buy, so i rely on the ease of return to minimise the risk of not gelling with it. In the case of the Sterling i was looking at if it was damaged or i didn't get on with it i would be chasing the best part of £340 with no guarentee of getting it back!! 😮