neepheid

There's nothing to feel guilty about. Taking a bass such as this and turning it into something greater than the sum of its parts is a noble endeavour. Just remember to keep the stock bits lest you ever need to sell...

It was always the plan to use the G4M bass as a mule to carry something unusual/exotic, and defy expectations. Bass cost £150, pickup cost £135. It plays nicer than the sum of its parts, imo. I kept the stock pickup if I ever need to offload, but it won't be worth very much second hand and therefore not really worth selling, so I think it's pretty safe.

What, both kinds of music? In a single gig?

I'll be sure to report how I find the Z7 when I get it. Damn, after all this hype, I bloody hope I like it! To be honest I think the 4 in line looks better on the Sire also, but that's not really why I've got a bee in my bonnet anyway. My ultimate objection is to the fact that EBMM seem to think they "own" 3+1 in any circumstance. That's a load of anti-competitive balls - imagine if Benz had said "right, our car has 4 wheels, one in each corner, that's ours, you can't have it" - we'd all be driving around in Reliant Robins! At best they have a trademark on 3+1 tuners in that specific headstock shape, and that's as much leeway as I'm prepared to give them. In this way, I don't see that Sire did anything wrong in the first place. But that's just my interpretation of it - as I said, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm certainly nitpicky and "dog with a bone" enough to be one . Happy to accept that you and I are unlikely to ever see eye to eye on this one. I have enjoyed today's robust but fair debate. Well, this was nice, but sometimes I feel I must stand up for my beliefs when challenged and occasionally invoke the zealot gene for the benefit of my self esteem, but I have to remember to keep it under wraps most of the time...

First of all, thank you for your calm, eloquent and reasonable response, so sadly lacking in today's average Internet user. I'll put my cards on the table and say that I don't consider the Sire Z series to be copies, and I never got the feeling that they're trying to be copies. Heavily influenced? Sure. To my mind though, this bass says "bastard child of Stingray and Lakland 44/5-02" to me rather than slavish Stingray copy. Compared to a Stingray - different headstock, different body shape, an extra fret, what appears to be an amalgam of the EB and Lakland bridge plate. For starters. I see this bass as a melting pot of influences and to my eyes succeeding in coming out with something fresh and different enough to be considered on its own merits. I'm not buying the Z7 because deep down I want a Stingray and I can't afford it. I'm buying one (if it ever bloody arrives) because it's a Sire Z7 - I like how it looks, I like the specs and I think it has its own style. It's the same way I feel about my D5 - yes, it's a '54 P - but there's something... off (in a good way) about it. Maybe it's that pickguard shape, gives me Cowpoke vibes. I dunno. Brains are soft and squidgy like that. I think the bottom horn of a Ray is goofy looking. There, I said it. To call this "industrial piracy" is a bit extreme in my estimation. I think it's lazy, route one internet bollox to simply label the Z3/7 as "Stingray copies" and I think they can happily co-exist in the market without treading on each other's toes. They do different things, they're made differently, have different specs, and I don't think they'll cause that much cross contamination of the gear gene pools. Your diehard EBMM/SBMM fan is not going to give a Sire houseroom, so who's poaching sales from anyone? You'd have to be thick as a brick to confuse the two, frankly (and continuing the Tull references ) I absolutely think that EBMM should go after obvious and physically (almost) identical copies, and support them in doing so - that's not right and I don't support it one iota. I just don't think that it applies in this case. I'm happy to accept the point that things may well have changed at EB Towers in 14 years, but consider that the internet has a long memory and if that's the kind of reference I'm going to find upon a cursory search, then you can bet that's what people are going to go and run with in today's instant gratification world.

Yup, shim the neck then. You won't need much - a little goes a long way.

That is indeed fortunate. Out of the box mine had the aforementioned rough fret ends (only a handful at the dusty end, but they were well scratchy), a duff tuner (D tuner became really stiff to turn as it approached being in tune - but they were all ropey TBF), and one half of the pickup was microphonic. But my motivation was always to use it as a mule to carry other things and I had a spare set of black Grover minis in the shed so it all worked out well in the end.

It certainly is, and some marker thrown down for what £150 can buy you these days. Now it isn't perfect - and I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner because it needs work to realise the potential contained within, but fundamentally, the bones are solid and the modder can have a field day. Tuners and pickup replaced, nasty fret ends tidied up and it's a killer bass. I'm really fond of it. Plus it's just a little bit different from your average P bass with the bound body, lightly roasted and 21 fret neck. A fantastic vehicle for whichever pickup you want to put in there. The Lace Aluma-P is a fantastic pickup, it's got that "active without being active" sound for want of a better description.

Friday night, Nine Lives played at the Butchers Arms in Inverurie. It was... ok. Not super busy, crowd had a weird ebb and flow to it, sparse but with some enthusiastic dancers, and as is typical a big bunch of folk came in with about 10 mins to go - why do folk leave it so late these days and then get all butthurt when you say "this is our last song" - mate, we've been playing since 10pm, if you wanted more music, you should have got here sooner. No, we don't get paid more if we keep going. Anyhoo, a gig's a gig and deep down, even if it isn't an epic one, it's still fun to play and we made some people happy, so that's the main thing. Gear: Gear4Music/Lace rat bass followed by the Wunkay, into the usual Markbass tone cubes. Also, the singist took some "proof of audience" video. Of course, when the camera turns to me, I flub my lines - right at the very end too FFS. One Way Or Another - Butchers 20240906 - bands eye view.mp4

Well well, looks like internet court is in session! But who's the judge?

Right, I've had some time to digest this and now have a considered response for you. Now I am not a lawyer, so this is this layman's understanding of the situation which will hopefully at least explain where I'm coming from. First off, it's not a patent, it's a trademark. https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77407809&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch Patents generally run out in 20 years (the reason why we're allowed to buy (classic) Nespresso pods from anyone nowadays - for the first 20 years you could only get them from Nestlé so that Nestlé could make reasonable hay whilst the sun shines off the back of their invention). Trademarks are a different beast, they remain in force as long as the fees are paid and you are seen to be enforcing them. But they should really stick to the trademark as registered. Let's read the description... "The mark consists of a fanciful design of a headstock of a guitar, namely, a two dimensional bass guitar headstock outline of compact shape, featuring a straight side on the left and a curved side on the right, forming the appearance of the "bow of a canoe" at the top of the headstock. The dotted lines are not part of the mark and serve only to show the position or placement of the mark." Now, I read this slowly several times, and I couldn't find any mention of the position of the tuners. Also, the last sentence is significant. Let's look at the picture submitted: Hmm, I see dotted lines around all the tuners. "The dotted lines are not part of the mark and serve only to show the position or placement of the mark." Please explain to me why I'm wrong to think that this trademark covers solely the shape of the headstock and has the square root of naff all to do with tuner arrangement. And if you think it has nothing to do with individuals, I'll just leave this here: Taken from https://forums.ernieball.com/threads/trademark-of-tuners-setup.45317/ It is unfortunate that companies simply roll over at the slightest "cease and desist" letter from this bully and his representatives, but I can understand why - they don't want to tie up their product launch in months to years of litigation, paperwork and expense (even though I think they'd "win" in the legal sense). Unfortunately, this emboldens bullies who indulge in this practice to continue their egregious use of the trademark system to squash competition. What are they afraid of anyway? Are you seriously telling me that people would confuse this: with this? To my mind (and it's my opinion, I have no proof), EBMM appear to be being a bunch of bullies who are abusing the trademark system in order to squash competition. I've said my piece - I know you're not going to agree, or like it, but if you're going to use me as a leaping off point to have a moan, I would prefer it if you got your facts straight.

LOL

All the original designs which were going to sell in any significant numbers have been designed

I've been pretty ticked off with the stringing along with false dawn ETAs but the only reason I'm sticking with Andertons is that I'm after the burgundy finish Z7 and it looks like that has been the most popular choice, with Thomann having availability listed as "11-13 weeks" on that finish for weeks now. Any threat to go elsewhere would be a transparent bluff because they won't care - they know they'll have no bother selling the bass I leave behind if I bail. Believe me, the temptation to cancel and order a white one from Thomann (I want the ebony board) was strong. Next week then? For real this time?

*sound of fingers drumming on desk intensifies*

Oh, is that Rod Stewart singing? I thought someone was mixing concrete.

A bit of an odd request, but does anyone in or around Aberdeen (or will have cause to be in Aberdeen any time soon) own an Epiphone Jack Casady? I'm having some bother with mine and as part of my investigations I'd like to A/B it with another JC to see if I can narrow down what's causing me grief. Must be in stock configuration - no pickup swaps or loom changes for it to be a meaningful test. There's deffo a cup of tea in it for you, and even some biscuits! Grateful for any help offered.

Others are available, it was just an example - some others are showing as "Available at short notice (usually 2-5 days)" which I believe means they have them, but they haven't been checked/inspected yet.

Not at the UK prices vs. the US price you won't...

Meanwhile, at Thomann...

Meanwhile, at Thomann...

Rumbled! Yeah, I'm still lurking around in here, in case of gig cancellation. IIRC it was a cancellation that allowed me to attend last year. They say lightning doesn't strike twice, but you tell that to the Empire State Building!

Nothing wrong with Anderton's customer service from a friendliness/initial responsiveness point of view. Their powers of procurement are a worry though. Last year I tried to get a price out of them for some custom shop DiMarzio pickups. By the time I had a response, the pickups were already on their way across from the USA courtesy of an eBay seller who didn't give a monkeys about geographical restrictions. Now this might have been them getting poor service from their distributor, but I got fed up chasing it and took matters into my own hands. Between that and declaring most (but not all) of Scotland north of the central belt to be "remote", I think they're having a bit of a 'mare with some of their internal workings right now.

You can shoot me for harbouring such an opinion, but as far as I'm concerned this is more for placating gear racists than acheiving higher quality.