robocorpse

I realised early on there are 2 standard types of people working in Denmark street shops. A ) Very very knowledgeable people who will lie, cheat, scam and do anything possible to make maximum profit from minimum effort, including forgery, misrepresentation, bankruptcy scams, burning shops down, "ringing" guitars between pet dealers in the red book to up the prices, selling guitars on commission then waiting 6 months to pay the owner etc etc etc. B ) Talentless students with practically zero knowledge of guitars who will work for peanuts so they can brag they work in a London music shop. And nobody in between. This way, Joe Public walks in, gets fed up with the ape serving them, knowledgeable guy gets called over, then they take Joe to the cleaners. Seen it time and time again. Honest people are very few and far between and usually have the morals to LEAVE the job after a while before they turn evil. Life is too short. Can you tell how much I hate the culture down there?

Because the low end market has been irrevocably damaged by all the chinese rubbish like "Shine" and "Lindo" thats been shipped over the last few years, and nobody is prepared to drop decent money on a higher grade Epiphone now, why spend 400 new when you can get a better LOOKING instrument for 99 quid on ebay, or a used Gibson for 600? The gap in equipment between serious players and beginners is widening, theres very little really good gear in the midrange anymore unless you look secondhand IMHO.

If you can't get a good Metal sound from a P-Bass, you either have a very different idea of the definition of "Metal", or you have a sub-standard P-Bass to start with. A good one should still have loads of cut and top end if its well built and matched. Steve Harris gets a great choppy sound even with 50-110 flatwounds and no pick! However, if you want to tune down to A and play Technical Egyptian Progressive Vegetarian Deathcore, you might well be better off with something else. I always thought Warwick Corvettes had an amazing and very tweakable sound for many types of Metal, but not everyone likes the feel of the necks.

I have been goin to Denmark Street on and off for over 25 years, and have many horror stories from all the shops, but the most annoying thing that happened to me personally was the '67 Ricky 4001 they had in the window for 5k "no offers". DREAM BASS = MUST BUY. I saw it in the window over the weekend while they were shut, so I went in 10am Monday morning and offered them 4000 cold hard cash, they refused, but within a week it went onto ebay for 4k or best offer, I phoned again and was told "its on ebay mate" and they allegedly sold it a matter of days later for 3500 to someone else. I phoned them up, asked it it was still there, reminded them I had offered a firm 4 grand, they said "tough its sold" and put the phone down on me. Or the time "B......" had a '61 Gretsch 6120 in the window for £2k (this was a looong time ago). I asked about it, played it a little and said I'd think about it. I went back the weekend afterwards with money on the hip and tried to buy it, and was then told the price was now 3 grand. Or the time I phoned M.... G.... after another 6120, and was told they had 3 of them, one with bad laquer cracks, one with changed pickups, one with something else wrong, and they offered to swap the parts around to make a good one out of the three if I paid extra. I'm presuming at least one of them was on commission... The funniest thing was having the "USA Charvel" argument with one of the paid troglodytes in Wunjo, who spent nearly half an hour telling my how the XL series (toothpaste logo) Charvel he had up for 995 was a "real, handcrafted instrument by John Charvel himself" I nearly wet myself laughing! W*nkers the lot of them.

An aquaintance of mine tried selling a totally original 60s Telecaster "on commission" in Andys a few years ago. They phoned him up about 2 months down the line saying "Great news, we've sold the neck"... Obviously some practical joke, but he went up there and sure enough, they had actually removed the neck without his permission and sold it to someone, they offered him 200 quid for it, then had the cheek to ask to hold on to the rest of the guitar as it "might be worth parting it out now" That was a 2 grand guitar even then. Words fail me...

Yes it does. However, Jaydee and Wilkes both made fretless slapping basses in the 80s that had little metal plates at the end of the fingerboard, and they are bloody brilliant. If you don't like the metallic sound, I spose there would be nothing to stop you replacing them with slivers of ebony, and replacing them when they start getting too grooved?

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='126971' date='Jan 24 2008, 03:12 PM']Total feedback of 8, with no activity at all since May'05, and he pops up selling an expensive bass with a single, poor-quality photograph. Oh yes, and his Pay-Pal (sorry, that should be "Pay-Pall") has been hacked. So he gets your dosh long before you see his bass, unless you happen to live close to Norfolk, though he doesn't actually mention [i]where[/i] in Norfolk, of course.[/quote] Haha, a mate of mine has been talkin to the seller of that fake 4001, and the seller reckons its "real", but wont email any more photos and got insulting when he was told it was fake. God help the winning bidder if he isn't within driving distance of norfolk, and more importantly, god help the seller if he is!

[quote name='simon73' post='6989' date='May 26 2007, 05:29 AM']I was looking at blx80 on the bay last November. They were going for £120 to £180![/quote] Right, so 150 should be about right? thats what I was thinkin... Thats still cheap money for such a nice combo.

A mate wants my Trace Elliot BLX80 off me. Im tempted to sell, but what price should I be askin him for it?

Cheers m8, nce to know there are some places left where you can do a good deal and not have all the crap that ebay throws at you!

Yeah, but BWP are a good laugh live, so it'll be worth the trip anyway, especially if Sheep from Seventh Cross gets involved in the pit

(Repost from old board. Old, but Im posting anyway for what its worth, some of this is very recognisable) All this equipment was illegally removed from premises in Willesden sometime before Xmas. There was a lot more, but these are the main bits. If any of this appears (quite possibly smelling heavily of tobacco/skunk, not mine BTW) then PLEASE contact me urgently. Reward offered if I can find the druggy bxstard who ripped it off, his mobile number miraculously doesn't work anymore INSTRUMENTS: Tempest (Greco) Electric Guitar (double cutaway, natural finish, maple/walnut thru neck, like Alembic, extremely rare) Selmer Clavioline (late 1940s, black covering) EFFECTS: Alesis Microverb 3 + PSU Grampian Reverb unit, 1960s, grey casing. TLA Ivory Valve compressor Great British Spring Reverb tube AMPLIFIERS/SPEAKERS: Sound City '67 DR103/105 Valve Head (S.no 0198) Watkins Custom 15 guitar combo amplifier Ekosonic 2x8 guitar combo amp (extremely rare, only a few in the country) Nolan Valve guitar Head (blue panel, silver Vox type knobs) Traynor YM3 Guitar Combo Amp Selmer Zodiac 100 Valve Head with rare built in effects Orange PA Head, transistor, but in valve-type case. Kelly 50 Valve Head Lafayette 12" Dual Concentric speaker (very rare) 3x Reslo mics HI-FI: ART VPL valve preamp. DD Audio valve preamp Thorens TD160 + ADL arm and cartridge Ariston RD80 Reference Turntable, BOXED Anyone seen any of this?