Kiwi

I laughed out loud when I read the MacDonalds Islands, which are uninhabited and governed by Australia, were slapped with a 10% tariff. The penguins...think of the penguins.

Hey everyone, Just wanted to share that we've had a couple of incidents recently involving 'middle man' scams. This is where someone has joined the site and registered a username that is almost identical to the name of an existing member, apart from changing characters in the name for ones that look similar but are different. For example, they might replace small L with a capital i, they might replace O with 0 or they might add a full stop at the end of the name. Changes insignificant enough to allow the scammer to take a punt on a buyer not noticing when they make contact via PM and eventually get them to send money. In our situation we believe that the scams are from one individual who has registered two accounts that emulate the names of existing members. We have already taken steps to ensure their accounts are frozen and we have accrued enough information to help us identify if that individual if they try to register more accounts in the future...they won't be able to hide behind a VPN either. We are also going to raise how to prevent spoofed usernames with our forum software provider as a future development suggestion. So...if you are PM'd separately by someone about an item they claim is for sale in the marketplace, check their user name carefully and if you have any doubts based on I or 0 or . in their username, maybe reply to them initially from their post in your thread rather than direct to their PM. That way you can check if your message adds to their message or starts a new one. Also if members spot anyone masquerading as someone else, feel free to use the report function to flag it with the mod team and we will take a closer look. It's probably also worth reminding everyone to avoid using bank transfer or Paypal F&F to a seller. These payment methods don't offer refund options in the event of there being an error. (Although if you are quick enough, sometimes your bank might be able to reverse the transaction but it depends on your bank and whether you can prove deception as opposed to a lack of vigilance.) Thanks in advance for your help in making life difficult for these scumbag parasites.

Lucky lucky bastard. Welcome aboard I spent some months in NH many many years ago...during the Summer.

And this is specifically mentioned in the video I posted, too.

On a related topic, this was a fascinating debate between two self made, financially independent men. One, Gary Stevenson, an working class maths prodigy who trained as an economist and then got rich as a trader betting against the UK's economic recovery. The other, Daniel Priestly, an entreprenuer with a group of about seven different companies including software companies and various agencies. Stevenson struggles to listen and follow a coherent line of reasoning without letting his deep seated anger about inequality and single issue political agenda distract the flow with provocations, contradictions and misrepresentations of Priestly's position. Priestly, in complete contrast, is patient, tactful, diplomatic and persistent. The irony is there's a significant amount of agreement between them about the potential solution to wealth inequality and what this is doing to the UK. However, neither of them pull back enough to see it and the moderator isn't perhaps as proactive as he could have been to keep the discussion on track. It's a long one at over two hours but really interesting to see them both agree on the need to challenge orthodox thinking. See what you think!

Legend has it that when Geoff Gould was focussing on setting Modulus up around 1983, he left oversight of the neck production to someone else and they got the mixing of the phenolic resin (aka Bakerlite) wrong. This affected his agreement with Alembic and impacted on the necks made for Musicman as well. It's also affected all the 90's Quantum basses I've owned by Modulus but not the other models (Sonic Hammer, Flea). And also every one of the four Cutlass basses I've had featured overly flexible necks (but I know earlier ones are OK). Rob has done a huge amount of R&D on his necks, and his basses still sound like Status basses even when the electronics are completely replaced. So the sound is very much in the necks.

When I had a conversation with Rob Green about this specific characteristic, after he had done some work on a Modulus bass for me, he told me the fingerboard had quite a big impact on the rigidity and sound. Ken Smith also mentioned the same thing to me in a separate conversation and explained this is why they use such thick slabs of ebony for the fingerboard. He wants the necks to be just rigid enough for the mid range warmth which is so characteristic of his instruments. It was an idea also inspired by the upright basses that he collects.

Me too. It's not theory.

What makes you think its a theory?

I see where you're going with this - it seems potentially contradictory. I should probably clarify that it depends on construction and fingerboard material. Not too stiff because an overly stiff neck and phenolic fingerboard creates a very brittle sounding instrument. I've played early to mid nineties Status Empathy and Modulus Quantum basses with this quality. For extra context, other bass makers like Ken Smith aim for a neck that is just stiff enough because it introduces some warmth into the lower mid range and tames the highs a little. Overdesigned means designed far beyond what is needed to resist string tension. That could mean the number of layers of weave used (typically more than three layers), the orientation of the weave in selected locations and the choice of unecessariy thick fingerboard material. Purely based on observation alone, in the late 70's necks seemed over designed. Super rigid but also very easy to fret dress and achieve incredibly low action. The problems with aftermarket Modulus necks in the early to mid eighties were apparently due to Geoff Gould delegating the mixing of phenolic resin while he was off setting up Modulus operations and the person responsible not paying sufficient attention. It was why Alembic ditched graphite necks as an option. However, I've played early 90's Modulus basses with floppy necks too - just had a 92 Quantum 5 pass through my hands for set up and restoration with a neck that wasn't stiff enough to resist string tension and there was no way to set the bass up with reasonable action. I've also owned a 94 with a neck that was brittle and a 96 with a banana neck. And a 96 Sonic Hammer that was just fabulous in action and sound. QC seems a little inconsistent to say the least. Ironically the Modulus basses with flexible necks sounded great - really growly and warm.

I've found there are Steinberger replacements being made by a one man operation in Guangzhou but they are available domestically only in low numbers and for over 600 quid a pop. But it has to be said there's a huge difference between a simple structure and something that has to be stiff but not too stiff. Early necks from Modulus, Status and Vigier were over designed (which I like). Later in the nineties there were issues with stiffness and many still didn't have truss rods.

Drop me a PM if you would like to change your email. We've had to remove that ability from members due to accounts being set up and sold on by scammers.

Is it possible that people might have reported BC emails as junk instead of unsubscribing?

There's nothing here that we need to worry about. This advice is aimed at people who sell on Ebay, not Ebay itself. As Woodinblack says we are also limited to whatever information can be provided by the third party software we use which, currently, doesn't allow monitoring of successfully completed transactions.