neepheid

Nah, paid by card. Always had good service from Thomann in the past so I'm not concerned about some of the interesting tales recently reported regarding returning goods. This is a different situation anyway - it's not a return, I've never received it in the first place! Besides, I have little doubt that this is a UK Customs snafu.

I decided to treat myself to a bass. I ordered it from Thomann on the 18th June, it was awaiting the arrival of stock so not worried about a bit of a wait. However, the backordered stock arrived pretty quickly and it got despatched on 21st June. Haven't heard a peep since. Been staring at this ever since: So it's disappeared down a customs black hole I reckon. I have been in touch with Thomann and they've asked me for a little more patience and to let them know if nothing changes by Monday. What happens now? Ask them to send another? Cancel the whole effing thing and buy something else from somewhere in the UK? What's especially annoying (and I'm not angry at them!) is that another BCer also ordered a bass from Thomann which got despatched the same day as mine and it got through no problem. Just sitting here a bit grumpy. Sympathise, tell me to grow up (first world problems and all that) or ignore, I just felt like having a whinge about it

WTF is it with these fantasists? "Small crack on back of neck", yet lists the condition as "Excellent (used)". I think someone's applied some reverb to their brain.

For £200, maybe. EDIT - nearly spat my tea out when I saw it had been listed as "very good (used)" condition on Reverb. Are they high? With a band name like Mammoth Weed Wizard B'stard, there's a fair chance, I guess...

I drive. Public transport is a non-option - spotty timetables in the city and utterly hopeless out in the 'shire. Also, last buses way too early for playing gigs. Rehearsal space is 30ish miles away in rural Aberdeenshire - good luck getting a bus out there. Sometimes in the interest of taking less motors to the gig, I'll drive as far as the drummer's house then we'll go together from there. Or the drummer will pick me up on the way through to a gig in the south. He's got a bigger car than me. So, for the sake of argument, let's see how public transport works, using google maps for time estimations etc. Let's say I have a gig in Fraserburgh (played there last Friday, so a real world situation). Car takes about an hour, bus takes 2, so already there and back that's 2 hours stolen from my life I'll never get back. Want to get there for 8pm for a 9.30pm start. Well, the bus stop in Fraserburgh is a 5 minute walk from the pub, laden with gear - that'll be fun in the height of summer - so getting the bus which arrives at 8pm will make me late, better get the one that arrives before at 7.22pm then hang about like a plum waiting for my compadres to arrive. At least I can have a beer while I wait. Play until 12.30am, pack up, load out, probably takes us to 1am or thereabouts. Oopsie poopsie, no buses back to town - first bus back is at 8.30am. So, either find somewhere in a teeny tiny NE Scotland town to hole up for the night (good luck with that) or spend half my gig earnings on a taxi back to town. If you think I'm going to participate in any of that charade, in the immortal words of Judas Priest - you've got another thing comin'. Happy to forego the beer.

Rude! And we've had folk in their 20s ask us for Pink Floyd. You never can tell!

With the covers band it's safe to play a 'Spoons song, no bugger knows them I once made the mistake of noodling "I Wanna Be Adored" (a song we don't do) and some pished guy was all "STONE ROSES, YAAAAS!". Thankfully he was too drunk to remember by the time we got started, phew!

I haven't, sorry. There, someone answered

Covers band gig success == good audience reaction, repeat bookings from venues. Money is nice, but "paid rehearsals" sap the soul. Originals band gig success == getting a gig in the first place, having anything that can even be technically described as an audience, people coming up and saying nice things afterwards.

Go away BBVIII, you're drunk...

That's really nice of you, thanks!

The distance really doesn't bother me (you don't live in Aberdeen for your entire adult life if you're bothered about having to go places sometimes to get stuff done), it's just time and safety. If I didn't have the gig the night before, I'd probably travel down the day before, take my time, stay over somewhere nearby then toddle over on the day.

Hmm, maybe it might be worth my while to drive all night nearly the length of the country for a spread like this...

starts whistling the theme from "The Great Escape"...

Dispatched 21/06 at 6am. Heard hee haw since. Surely I'm due a gurgle from the customs plughole today... In the meantime, enjoy your basses! I hope the neck on my D5 is roasted to within an inch of its life like your P5...

How long was it stuck at "The goods have left our warehouse and are on their way to the border."? I'm into the fourth (working) day of that, with an intervening weekend it's getting a bit old and my F5 key is going to file a restraining order against me.

I don't have mine any more, but I don't remember any volume dropoff, not that I use the volume knobs much, I mostly use them like switches. There's one song when I do a fade in, and that's not enough for me to be bothered with a volume pedal, just roll the volume knob. Maybe the volume pot needs a bit of attention - get some magic spray in there? Nice basses though, would still have mine were it not for a period of financial dark ages.

Yes, I'll have the word salad with extra nonsense dressing please.

When I saw the title of this thread, I was expecting a story about a revelatory truss rod adjustment or something! The Epiphone Jack Casady is a good lazy person's bass - it's loud enough unplugged to play along to a laptop (the speakers of which generally suck the bass out of things anyway). Done that many a time when I cba with ampage, the sessioncake or even plugging in the USB interface and headphones.

The young 'uns can surprise you sometimes. On Friday night, a young lass, I'd say under 21 (but everyone looks young to me now) came up to the singer and asked if we could play Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage"! We can't, but that was certainly an unexpected request! If older songs have been featured on popular TV shows or some viral video then they can work. And it continues to amaze me how many young folk dance to "Bad Moon Rising"...

For a change, someone took video at the gig and it didn't suck (bless folk for trying but the sound quality is usually bloody awful on these). May I present - a cautionary tale for bands who leave their bassist with nothing to do for half a song... VID-20230625-WA0001.mp4

I don't think that particular malaise is limited to professional musicians these days. This weekend warrior also drives the smallest, most economical car he can get his gear into. On the plus side, can drive into Low Emission Zones.

Second night of a double header, in a new (to us) venue too. Grays Inn in Aberdeen was the place. Things got off to a positive start, relatively easy load in from a lane round the back of the pub then only up a few shallow steps, pretty decent - and there was no waiting around as they had already the tables from an area facing the bar where we could set up. But man, it was hot. There's no point in air conditioning a bar in Scotland 360 days of the year. Unfortunately, this was one of the 5 where it would have been nice! Towel in use during load in and setup, hadn't even got started playing yet! First half was a bit quiet, we started at 9 but the beer garden was open until 10 so that limited things. But we had a few folk in, and the singer's getting better at his banter so we were having a laugh with the people who were there. More folk came in when the beer garden closed so that helped. Second half went well, got some folk up on the dance floor - if in doubt, play Summer of '69. Yes, pure camembert, but it works! Oh man, it was a hot one though. I was towelling my face after every song and I was thoroughly damp by the end, ewww. But it was a successful debut at a new place and we've got a repeat booking from them so all in all I'm pretty happy with my night's work. Also, probably because of playing last night too, I personally thought I played really well, very few mistakes, band was tight, honestly it felt like being part of a tightly working machine. Love that, when everything clicks. The aforementioned back lane had become a LOVELY wind tunnel when we were loading out - so good that we hung around a bit after packing the cars because it was so refreshing. Cue adopting the pose from The Shawshank Redemption after Andy escapes from the poop tunnel. Epiphone Jack Casady for bassage last night, and it was sounding fscking amazing. I love that bass so much. Get a room!

I had a Tribute L-2000 a while back, so have used the same setup. Do you use it in plain active or active with treble boost?

Was there an update to the rule book that I missed?