neepheid

Any bass I can't afford is overpriced.

Grr!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1382007467' post='2246584'] Maybe, but I'm from a generation when going against your parent's taste in pretty much everything (especially music) was a required part of discovering who you were. My parents meagre record collection consisted of the blandest of the bland classical music and trad jazz. As I said in my previous post I can't recall having had any interest in music at all until I discovered pop music in the early 70s on Radio 1 - which was never on at home, I had to go away on holiday to hear it for the first time. Even artists as innocuous as Bill Haley and Cliff Richard were considered to be degenerate tuneless noise by my parents... [/quote] Sounds like I got pretty lucky then.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1382001730' post='2246472'] To me its rather sad that it's acceptable to like your parents' music. The few records my parents owned held no interest in the slightest for me. In fact I can't really remember being interested in music of any kind until I discovered T Rex, Slade, The Sweet etc. An important part of my "growing up" involved rebelling against my parents' taste in almost everything but especially music. [/quote] It's fair enough to hold this opinion, but it saddens me that you found yourself in that situation and it has coloured your judgement in this way. I found my parent's music to be highly entertaining. I was weaned on my Dad's vinyl and cassettes - Cream, Wishbone Ash, Deep Purple, Genesis, ELP, Curved Air, Fleetwood Mac to name a few that I recall and it didn't do me any harm. Loved it then, love it now. I found my Dad's stuff much more interesting than a lot of the pish that came out of the 80s. A sufficient primer in music to keep me interested BECAUSE of what I heard instead of IN SPITE of what I heard (or didn't). My wife's late father was all about the Beach Boys. She still likes 'em too. Maybe it depends when you grew up, and it certainly depends upon who you grew up around. To be honest, I think my parents were/are pretty cool and I didn't have much to rebel against.

Lovely, but can't say I care for the knobs. Not my bass though, so crack on!

You've got nothing to worry about. Distance selling rules will keep you right.

Well it's not me that's using them, but it's Manchester's finest: [url="http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/shop/"]http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/shop/[/url]

Honestly, I don't like hard cases. I only have three, one which was intended for the bass in question, one which came with a bass I bought (the Hiscox the Gibson IV I bought from Hutton came with, funnily enough) and one which I bought early in my bass playing days because I didn't know what I wanted and it had a cool B movie poster printed on the top of the lid. In which basses with angled headstocks don't fit. D'oh! The only time they ever get used is in mass transportation to the bass bash. But that's speaking as someone who generally takes care of his own transport to gigs. If my bass was being thrown in and rattled around in the back of a van that I'm not driving, I might change my opinion. But right now, I can't argue against being able to sling it on my back, so it's gig bags all the way for me. Decent ones, with good padding though. Only sold one hard case separately in my life, and it was a non-original one, so I didn't have a problem with it. Would be inclined to keep hard cases which come with a bass, it's like the whole package.

Some new pics from Rich - the colour starts off a bit wayhey but mellows into a nice deep red with repeated coats:

This information is absolutely no use to you but I just like to mention that the preamp in my Gibson Victory Artist is fully 2 band active and passive. The only annoyance about it is that instead of using concentric pots it uses dual pots. Home position in active is half way round. Home position in passive is 10, obviously. So if you flick to passive, you have to remember to "turn up" (of course I actually mean cut less) the bass and treble. Then you get a nice surprise if you flick back to active, because everything is +5, +5. More Gibson fun/idiosyncrasy/annoyance/WTF for you there

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1381761720' post='2243275'] Probably not rocking hard enough. Common problem with Gibson owners. [/quote] Awa' an' bile yer heid.

Indeed: "We do not recommend sending any item over £1000 as it cannot be covered for more than this value in transit." - from [url="http://www.interparcel.com/help/faq.php"]http://www.interparcel.com/help/faq.php[/url] OK, to rephrase - for a cheapskate like me who has frequently dealt in sub £1000 basses, I have found Interparcel to be brilliant The last time I had a high-ish value trade (Guild B402-A for a G&L El Toro), I did it in person. Approx 400 mile round trip.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1381753635' post='2243124'] If its a Gibson guitar, they are designed to have the headstock break off (must be, because if it wasn't on purpose, they'd have fixed the issue by now, like every other guitar manufacturer) so most luthiers in the neck repair field will be familiar with the work. [/quote] Aww man, how come none of mine have broken off? By this logic does that mean all my Gibsons are defective?

UPS via Interparcel (take their "Interparcel UK Standard" or "Interparcel Premium" options). My go-to solution and never had a bad experience yet. [url="http://www.interparcel.com/"]http://www.interparcel.com/[/url] ParcelForce are to be avoided because their insurance is unsuitable for any musical instruments worth over £50-200 depending on the service you pick (the faster/more expensive the service, the more inclusive insurance you get). You cannot increase this for musical instruments. Well you can, but it won't pay out. Inclusive insurance as detailed here: [url="http://www.parcelforce.com/help-information/compensation-refunds-and-claims/inclusive-compensation"]http://www.parcelforce.com/help-information/compensation-refunds-and-claims/inclusive-compensation[/url] Quoted from [url="http://www.parcelforce.com/help-information/compensation-refunds-and-claims/items-we-exclude-compensation"]http://www.parcelforce.com/help-information/compensation-refunds-and-claims/items-we-exclude-compensation[/url] : "Musical instruments - no enhanced compensation is available"

Meh, unfunny crap, the only redeeming feature of that vid that it's not happening to any of my basses.

Putting my scientist hat on, I'd say that an electric bass is a collision of coincidences, guided in the general direction of perfection by a combination of skill, experience, intuition and luck.

I am loving this.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1381576217' post='2240803'] Are we confusing mud with bass? .... tone vs frequency [/quote] Stirrer

Gibson EB-0 - not 3 - why brighten things up (slightly) with that bridge pickup?

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1381502691' post='2239985'] Last thing, I placed an OG decal on the headstock. It took a great deal of soul searching before I did this. Strictly speaking I shouldn't have as I never made the neck from scratch but as this is a tour bass I'm doing a bit of shameless self promo. [/quote] I think the work on the body more than justifies labelling it as one of yours. I wouldn't worry about it.

Try looking for "fingerboard blank" Here's a starter for ten: [url="http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/guitar-making-timber/fingerboards.html"]http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/guitar-making-timber/fingerboards.html[/url]

I'm all about the furry hat at the moment. Also been seen with the pork pie: And a daft cap:

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1381410011' post='2238652'] My personal faves are the Fender MIJ JB62m. A medium scale jazz with a smaller body too. IIRC the Epiphone Jack Casady bass is a 32" and that is a cracking bass it's a shame you need to carry it in it's hardcase. [/quote] No, the JC is 34" scale. It's difficult but not impossible to find soft cases for them.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1381413495' post='2238714'] Motivations are irrelevant to the issue of whether the artist is losing anything. There could be a million reasons why someone might copy music instead of paying for it (more likely a different reason why millions of people copy music) but none of them make any difference. The point is that copying music doesn't mean the artist loses anything. I would suggest that, historically, music sales may have been higher because people would buy music they didn't feel great about because there was no alternative. I'd bet we all have records we've bought, played once and never played again. Well once upon a time that would have been a sale. These days we still listen to loads of music once, but we do it through spotify or youtube and if we don't like it we move on. Yet we still buy the stuff we really like. What has an independent, self-funded release got to do with anything? All that matters is whether people like the music or not. [/quote] You were the one who brought up the music industry in the first place, hence my offering of an example outside of that. But whatever, I think you're wrong, I'm entitled to think you're wrong, and you are entitled to feel the same towards me.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1381408283' post='2238605'] That's what the music industry want you to believe and how they calculate their 'losses', but I don't see it myself. If I have no intention of buying a piece of music then I'm not an 'opportunity to earn' as far as that artist is concerned. If I then copy that music for free, the artist has lost nothing. I wouldn't have bought it anyway but no one else is being deprived of the opportunity to buy it for themselves. So how has the artist lost anything? [/quote] If you have "no intention of buying" it then why do you still harbour an intention to acquire it? What about independent releases? What has the music industry at large got to do with some poor wee band that has invested their own hard cash into getting a CD out there? Are you going to acquire that rather than buy it?