Wolverinebass

In a related update, I ordered my Klos bolt on replacement neck in March 2023 as per my post on the first page. I still don't have it. Every time I've asked since November last year what's being going on it's been "2 months away." The last time was in May. From looking at their website it's now a 5 month lead time. So clearly they're having some tooling or manufacturing issues. Probably because loads of folk (like me) asked for different specs than what they were offering. In saying that, none of even their standard optioned ones have shipped. They offered me a refund and offer to buy at the original price when they become available. Which led me to think it's not going to be 2 months. It wasn't. That's 3 months later and nothing. Quite disappointing really. I'm swithering as to what to do. Just get a wood neck from Warmoth? Considering Status have went wood, Modulus don't do replacement necks and wouldn't even entertain making a bass with a wider nut, Moses have long since ceased doing bass, Bogart and Gould only do 1.60 nuts as do the standard Klos basses, so you're pretty much stuffed on getting a graphite neck which doesn't have a 1.60 nut or thinner by default. I imagine the days of graphite are mostly over for the foreseeable future as most have moved away from it and those that do have a nut width that makes them unacceptable for me to play.

That's why I prefer necks that don't taper much. Like a Rick or Alembic. There's even fewer of them on the market too.

Well, I'm not a big guy as you know, nor have I massive shovel hands. If a bass is less than 42.5mm at the nut, my left hand gets all tangled up with the way I play. A few years ago I got a Schecter Raiden. Apparently, 42.5mm nut. Lies! I knew right away it was thinner as it wasn't comfortable to play. Dug the digital calipers out. 40mm. Which is a pity as it sounds fantastic. Good thing they stand by their specifications as opposed to just making stuff up. Idiots. Most manufacturers are going this way and it really annoys me as it totally limits what I can play and actually enjoy.

That bass sounded great. Then again, most things sound good when you play them squire!

I see your Darrin Huff and raise you David Schwab of SGD Lutherie.

Brilliant! I love it!

All of this has been said many times, but it's not worth it. You'll either get a tossed off bass you're not happy with or nothing. Well, not nothing. You'll have drank a cargo container of Gaviscon with the stress. So there will be that. Literally nothing is worth that. To put it into context. In March 2021 I ordered a Grainger Hades bass. I got it 3 months ago despite the initial thought being 6-12 months. Now, there was no messing about from Darren and Gavin. Both of them got covid multiple times. There were delays to parts and wood. Because I'd asked for quite an odd electronics wiring, that took a while to sort too. The difference is, I got an absolutely amazing bass exactly as I wanted. Plus, I'd only paid a third deposit, so it wasn't that big a deal for the delay. You won't have that outcome as Letts is I'm sure hoping it all goes away. Your mental health will thank you for ending this.

I'd be quitting. There's no way I'd be putting up with "Linda McCartney having a go." It's not an argument you'll ever win and it'll only get worse. The more you dig your heels in the worse the atmosphere will get. The more you accommodate it, the more will be taken from you. Sod that. Leave.

Why choose? You could hate them both!

One of my current bands. For those who might like Tool. https://open.spotify.com/artist/6iy7NPgPgZ8AWPPWHJpOJA?si=jEAiHqPMTvWBABbqB9c8hw

I used to own 2 Traveller cabs, the 2x10 and 1x15. There was lots to like and dislike about them. They were very light and well made and for the most part sounded good. However, I was then in a band where I was playing 12 string bass. That was the point where I realised the limitations of them. The piezo tweeter wasn't great and was completely uncontrollable for the top end especially when using distortion on the higher frequencies. It was kind of fine for a 4 string, just not for a 12. I couldn't get it to sit right. As I did more recording, I realised how much top end was being cut from the signal even when I was using a 4 string. That was the final straw. I flogged them and bought a Vamderkley 2x12 which is killer. As for the amps, I've tried a few and didn't like them. The low end seemed too spongy for me and the eq points were nonsensical. Does anyone boost a bass guitar at 10kHz? Not very much signal there. They're not rubbish, just they don't work for what I want to achieve.

I was outvoted by my band actually.

Ek is a carpetbagging tosser of the highest order. In 2013, Q magazine did an article about streaming and it showed that although (allegedly) Spotify was (possibly) not making a profit, it was however making $73 million a month from the adverts. A month. Now, here we have this guy who is making more from leeching off musicians in a year than Paul McCartney has made in his whole life (by being arguably the most successful songwriter in history) saying things like "if musicians want to be paid more, they should put out more music," "the cost of content is almost zero." Almost comically tone deaf. Now for the fun. This utter melt then brings in the 1000 streams threshold to basically hold on to our cash and get the interest on it, or just not pay you at all. Oh wait, there's more!! He's actively lobbying governments to reduce the payout rate for musicians, yet has 300 million quid to sponsor Barcalona's stadium in a bid to bail them out of their ludicrously over leveraged position that saw Messi have to leave the other year. Wait! There's even more! He's sacking almost 20% of the Spotify staff as a cost saving measure. He can dress it up any way he wants, but the simple facts are there. They're making more than a billion dollars a year and we're the ones who are being taken for chumps by this soulless, snivelling, jumped up, tone deaf tosser. The main problem is that I have no idea how we get rid of him and his ilk. All the artist advantages that people like Peter Grant (who managed Led Zeppelin) fought for in the 50s and 60s are gone after being eroded by massive companies like Live Nation. We're not being paid even remotely fairly and add that to venues taking merch cuts and soon the wheels are properly going to come off the whole industry.

To accommodate the wider string gauge.

Yeah, because they're great and you won't have to file the nut. That's the whole point of them. Wound at higher tension so you can downtune and not get enough flop to necessitate giving the strings viagra.

The action on my Rick is stupidly low. You won't have a problem with the DR'S.

I use DR DDT 105-45 on a Rick for C# standard tuning. They're great. String tension is same as E flat. At least to my feel.

Tell him to take a slightly bigger suitcase as he'll probably end up being "the mule." Ha!

That's a fair point actually, but I feel it's still way too pricey. If it had dual inputs (which it doesn't) I'd probably agree with you. For a pedal to have an almost 50% markup from US to UK pricing is obscene.

Sounds like they didn't have a tech guy at all. I'm glad I haven't had to deal with them. Still, somebody on here could be able to shed some light on buying stuff in the US and selling it here? It's non region specific thanks to the cute plugs with removable prongs, so does that mean if someone were to buy 30 of them and make a small profit selling to the basschat massive......?

They do. I recorded someone in my studio about a month ago who had one and it sounded great

See, I'd love to do that, but I bet we'd get sued as Rocky Road are the "exclusive" distributors in the UK. Or like Westside with Mesa some time ago, there would be a "non valid warranty of US items" policy just to choke it off. Am I wrong? Who was the guy on here that did the bulk preorder of the Dug pedals for folk?

Yeah. It's £335.

Now that the pricing is confirmed at £609, who's getting one? Ha! I put the comment on Tech 21's Facebook page about the preceived price gouging going on here by the distributor. No answer, though some of our American contemporaries were like "how much?!!" when I put it in dollars. It's costing almost 50% more. Frankly, for 600 quid, it'd better have dual inputs and every single button and dial function recallable via midi. Yet, it doesn't. For £680 you could get an HX Stomp new. The Darkglass Infinity/Photon/ADAM are £550 new. Just to put that in context. Until Tech 21 gets a decent distributor in the UK, they're dead to me and that's really saying something.

Well, I'll bring it along when the date gets arranged!