Ian McFly

Well it's a good point... Look at the prices of these indonesian made Sterling basses: https://www.andertons.co.uk/stirling-by-music-man-sray-5-bass-hh-spalted-maple-top-natural-burst-satin-maple-neck https://www.andertons.co.uk/sterling-stingray-4-poplar-burl-top-neptune-blue-satin-rn Speaking of which, why that stubbornness in doing Stingray shaped basses with those funky wooden tops? It doesn't suit the model IMO. A Stingray body calls for a plain colour, or maybe a transparent finish on ash at best (again IMO). Same stubbornness in releasing the weirdest colours for their american models.... like a glittery pink with gold hardware... WHY? Who would seriously consider that colourway???

You beat me to it. Surely in a year or two, I can’t imagine them bringing the prices down. Unless they realise that they REALLY struggled to sell anything at that price point, and decide to lower prices a bit, but would that be fair for people who paid full price?

The Ernie Ball forum is the weirdest cult-like forum I've ever seen If you don't agree with summat there, you're dead.

Yeah, stock instruments ordered by dealers/local resellers. But when I ordered a US Sterling in 2016, it took 6/7 months to arrive and was made to order. Oh and I was able to choose a different pickguard colour.... and only paid £1400 for the bass brand new (but had discount as a friend worked for a music shop).

Plus, everything is made to order. They don’t produce for stock like Fender does. So, if you charge that much for an instrument, SURELY you could offer a choice of hardware colour, or fretboard... and some “basic” colours like white... if I fork out £3000 on a bass made to order, I’d like to choose my specs.

Hell, my Sterling by Music Man SUB Ray4 is made of Basswood and Maple.... cost me £350.

Surely, there’s also an increase in production costs involved (and supplies as well, ash wood might have become more expensive recently), and the fact they’re producing less so need to make up for it. BUT, the fact that the UK increase is three times the US one, well that is proper greed indeed.

Got any names? All the ones I know of don’t offer what I want

Repeating myself here, but Nino Valenti can build me a bass (Jazz style, not MM though) with MY specs for £2100, with premium components and building. And that’s after shipping from USA and includes UK VAT.... food for thought.

Unless you’re a “friend” of the company or an artist with decent exposure, you won’t get anything custom from MM. If you’re a famous YouTuber like Fluff and got friends at MM, you can get a Stingray guitar with a unique finish. Or if you play bass for a band like Neck Deep, you can have a pink Sterling. Otherwise, you have to pay an extortionate price for a standard instrument.

If you live in the US, Fender offers the Pro Mod service. Basically an American Std P or J with a choice of colour, neck wood and pickups... much cheaper than a Stingray, even imported (if you can find someone in the US to order it for you). Different animals though

£2899 and £2999 for the models I was interested in... it’ll be a hard pass for me!

Proof that it's all become a sh*tshow!

In my personal situation, I was planning on buying one end of 2021... Got other things to pay for first, and need to save more. Hence why I can't snag one of these now. And why I was upset at the price increase. Anyway I've moved on, and I'll be spending my money on a custom bass instead... for much cheaper.

Yeah, by law you can't pay VAT twice so that's why he removes the German VAT, and you'd pay the British VAT + custom fees. No idea, didn't ask. It used to be free... Maybe he's got additional paperwork to do indeed and decided that any shipping outside EU would be charged.

I asked Adrian, and he confirmed that they'd (logically) remove VAT for any order for the UK, which means you'd pay VAT upon receipt. Plus shipping for UK is now 20/30 euros.

Went for groceries today... got haggis, neeps & tatties and whisky sauce for tomorrow night! Been living in Scotland almost 7 years, never celebrated Burns night though , will be the first time!

This! We’re going to live with Covid most likely forever, so we need to adapt our lifestyles to it. Life WILL have to resume. Hopefully vaccine will decrease the risks of catching it and dying.... but in reality, it’ll still kill some fragile people. Just like the flu does. I was reading an article from a scientist who said that yes, Covid will still kill, but if the number of deaths per year can reach a number similar to flu deaths, then the society will “accept” it and life will get back to a sort of normality.

Scaremongering.... it’s known that one dose is not enough, otherwise they wouldn’t recommend two! So claiming “oh it’s not efficient, people are still getting sick” is pure scaremongering. It might be facts, I’m not disputing that, but that is to be expected. Full (-ish) immunity is expected weeks after two jabs. We’re only a few we’re after the first jab, of course there’s a risk... but claiming “it’s not as effective as though initially” is misleading.

That's two years from now. We're not even a year into this pandemic (at least here) and we've made massive progress already. Not enough, but still progress. SURELY, things will have improve before January 2023. That's the most pessimistic (and unrealistic) thing I've read. I'm no scientist, but maybe, a year from now is more realistic than two,

I have a SUB Ray4 made in Indonesia. The building quality isn't bad at all, the neck and frets are nicely done for a £350 bass. The only "issue" with this instrument is that the neck wood feel kind of cheap in the hand, you can tell it's not premium maple, but that's normal for the price after all. Also, I don't know if it's due to the construction or the basswood body, but it doesn't "resonate" as well as my alder basses, when playing unplugged. I guess that for more expensive indonesian made basses, if the woods are a bit better, then the building quality can certainly be trusted.

Sarcasm?

Well that’s more what I see coming too. It’ll take time, and we’ll have to learn how to live with it. Plus, they will hopefully find more medication that treats severe cases.

Oh thanks Dr Newfoundfreedom I know we’ll have to learn to live with it. But to what extent?!! Surely, what we all love doing needs to come back. With stricter/improved measures, yes, but you can’t expect humans to give up going out or going to a gig....

Oh man, I’m desperate to play live again. And go to gigs....