BigRedX

[quote name='Passinwind' timestamp='1490901118' post='3268977'] For starters: Did you need a Shipper's Export Declaration? What Harmonized Code number did you use for the customs declaration, and which customs form did you need? Did you confirm that you had sufficient third party insurance for a vintage instrument, since US couriers are notorious for not actually providing that in the event of a claim? If there was a dispute who paid for return shipping and customs brokerage fees, if any? For experienced sellers all this stuff is a known quantity, and part of the landscape of doing business, but many first time sellers tend to just say no thanks. My wife and I both worked as FedEx couriers, and frankly, so many people get international shipping wrong over here, and as usual, even one bad experience balloons into an Interweb meme at the drop of a hat these days. [/quote] If you really need to deal with all that stuff in the US then I will happily concede that shipping outside of the country for you is simply too much hassle and stop trying to buy musical instruments from you. Having said that though I've successfully bought basses from private sellers in the US through eBay... Selling something to someone in another (non-EU) country here in the UK is far simpler, which is probably why we are so unsympathetic to the US stance on selling abroad. IME you simply get in touch with the shipping company - I use UPS or FedEx booked through a broker for international shipping. If you need a customs declaration for the country you are sending to the shipping company provide the appropriate one as part of the shipping documents, and IIRC there's not a lot to fill in - mostly a short description of the item (I've found that "Bass Guitar" is sufficient) and the value, which is the price I sold the instrument for. And that is it. Customs charges and import taxes are the responsibility of the person receiving the parcel. Insurance is bought at the time of booking the delivery and I have had occasion to use it for a package to Japan that was lost in transit. The shipping company paid up promptly, in full and without any quibbles. I've never had anything returned, possibly because all the items I've sold have been fully and accurately described, so I haven't had a problem like that, but if it was to happen AFAIAC it would be the responsibility of the person returning the item. When it is that easy here in the UK you can probably appreciate why we can't understand why US sellers are so reluctant to ship abroad.

Unfortunately the first and last of those aren't very wonderful.

Both are beautiful IMO, although I prefer the Pagelli, because it's an original design.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1490890095' post='3268868'] Buy OBBM, buy once. [/quote] Until your guitarist nicks your cables...

[quote name='Passinwind' timestamp='1490890410' post='3268874'] Unfortunately, if the instrument has rosewood of any type in it that is emphatically no longer the case for those of us in the US. It never really was the case though, actually. [/quote] I can appreciate that post CITES no-one wants to take a risk with sending instruments abroad. However, can you explain for us here in the UK exactly what the problems were for someone in the US were with sending a bass abroad before CITES messed everything up, because from the opposite side (sending from the UK to the US) then only issue was the increased postage.

YouTube videos work fine on my desktop Mac, but are invisible on my MacBook Pro. Both are running the same version of El Capitan and Safari 9.1 I was getting a message recently overlaid on the videos saying that the YouTube API has been depreciated - this is the one that the forum software uses to display videos in posts. I suspect that this is at the root of the problem.

IMO there are only two reasons not to be using OBBM for all your cable requirements. 1. You have both the time and expertise to be able to produce your own leads to the same high specification as OBBM. 2. You require something very specialised from either a visual or connector PoV that OBBM cannot supply at a competitive price.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1490863758' post='3268555'] Yes indeed - it was one of the photos Mick sent to me when he was describing the full-length fretboard concept. It's something else isn't it! [/quote] I was going to order one, but unfortunately when I enquired, Pagelli had just licensed the design to Marleaux, who never bothered to get in touch with me, so I ended up commissioning a Sei Flamboyant instead.

I've bought and sold lots of basses from other parts of the world, but never through an ad on TalkBass, as IME even before CITES all the basses I was interested in seemed to be owned by members who were reluctant to ship outside of the US. Having had lots of experience of buying from other countries, I know in advance that shipping is going to be more expensive for me, and I know that the additional cost can put some potential buyers off. I also know from the basses I've sold to people in other countries that here in the UK at least, sending a bass abroad is no more difficult than sending it to the next town in the same country, it just cost a bit more. Maybe because there is such a big potential market within the US, sellers don't think that dealing with someone from another country is worth the slight amount of extra effort, when a US-based buyer will be along very shortly.

+1 for Neutrik plugs and OBBM's cables. I have cables that I made up over 30 years ago with Neutrik connectors on them that are still going strong. My last lot of new cables were made for me by OBBM in 2010. Not a single one has shown any sign of unreliability despite having been been gigged heavily for the last 6 years.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1490879060' post='3268716'] Yeh - my happy situation is playing 1 or 2 gigs a month maximum but it's very hard to find people with the same lack of ambition. They either don't want to gig at all or hate their day job and want to play 7 nights a week. [/quote] Join and originals band. Most of those will only be playing once or twice and month. You will however been spending more time in the rehearsal room working on the songs as you write them, but that tends to be more "sociable" hours.

If you're not feeling it any more, then don't do it. I'm now in my mid-50s and would still be playing at least once a week if my band was being offered the gigs. I don't always like the late hours and the travelling, but TBH I wasn't anymore enthusiastic about that side of gigging back when I was in my early 20s, so for me nothing has really changed.

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1490852094' post='3268457'] Indie was originally artists releasing on independent label music , so bands not signed to a big label... ...I could be wrong of course and often am [/quote] The Independent Charts which is where the term "Indie" originally comes from was always based on the status of the distributors being used and not the labels themselves. Many of the so-called independent labels were subsidiaries of major labels but used independent distribution rather than using their parent label's distribution network, and therefore their records were eligible for the independent chart.

If that was me, I'd be looking at spending lots of time and money experimenting with string gauges (and tweaking the truss rod) to find out what suited my playing style and the guitar I was using. I'm sorry I can't offer any more advice than that as IME everyone is different when it comes to gauges and tensions. I like my strings fairly taught at the bottom end to the point where I have a dedicated guitar for drop D with a slightly heavier bottom string so that the "D" feels the same as the "E" on my guitars with standard tuning.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1490803288' post='3268201'] We've distribution via Cherry Red at the moment. It's their money tied up in the physical product too. We get a statement and royalties every quarter ....we sell copy via our own outlets but effectively have to buy product from Cherry Red to do so..... [/quote] With Cherry Red funding the physical product and being the distributers, you should be fairly safe when it comes to getting your money - to me it looks more like a licensing deal than a distribution one. When you are a small label (essentially a band self-releasing) relying on 3rd party distribution it's unfortunately fairly easy to get ripped off. My personal experience with distribution deals has been disappointing in terms of getting either unsold product back or income from those records that did sell. However at least I didn't suffer the same fate as a band a friend of mine was in where they lost their entire stock of their debut single and any money owed after their distributer went bust.

You should also have a look at the Pagelli Golden Bass, which is one of the very first basses that I saw which had the full-length fingerboard (and tuners at the back of the body IIRC). There aren't any images on the Pagelli site right now, but a quick Google should reveal some...

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1490780046' post='3267835'] or Pinnacle or Jungle or...there were many back in the heyday - today there are several new ones [/quote] Why would anyone want independent distribution for physical product these days? IME in the past when distribution of your records and CDs was essential if you wanted to sell any outside of your home town; unless you were a massively popular act and could guarantee sales of at least several hundred copies of your album or single every month, the best you could hope for would be to get most of your records back unsold and in slightly worse condition than when you initially supplied them. Most likely you would never see any product returned or any money paid. Nowadays it's far easier to sell your records directly from your band's website or a site like Bandcamp, and you don't need to worry about half your stock disappearing never to be seen again.

Is this the 4th or 5th thread for this bass?

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1490717142' post='3267347'] Re: The headstock end and securing the "ball-less" end of the strings I found photos of a Bogart Blackstone (well Stu Clayton posted pics of his in the For sale thread) which suggests that Andy's plan should work. Imagine this with grub screws (Andy's proposal) instead of tuners.: What's that thing where two people/nature invent the same solution to a single problem??? [url="http://www.ebay.de/itm/SKC-Bogart-Blackstone-5-/382002414720"]http://www.ebay.de/i...5-/382002414720[/url] [/quote] Bear in mind that the tuner mechanism on that Bogart will make it easier to change a string in a hurry than grub screws...

Schaller are normally very good with spare parts, so long as it's a genuine Schaller Straplock and not a knock-off. Send them an email.

Why do boutique pedal makers insist on giving all the controls stupid names (and then refer to them by what they actually do in the description rather than the names on the pedal) which makes it very difficult to actually work out what does what. At least the graphics don't look as though they were done by a 5 year old...

It's all very well the rest of the band saying that you really need an acoustic bass to fit in with the look, and in a way they are right. However I doubt any of them will have spent the kind of money on their instruments, that you need to in order to get a decent electro-acoustic bass guitar. I once spent a weekend auditioning electro-acoustic guitars, and while the really good ones were all £1000+, if I had been on a budget I could have been perfectly happy with something costing £200 - £300. I've yet to play an equivalently priced electro-acoustic bass that even begins to feel and sound any good at that price point. After having had a play of a Takamine TB10, I really wouldn't be happy gigging with anything less. Unsurprisingly it cost about twice the price of an equivalent standard electro-acoustic guitar...

[quote name='Ba55me15ter' timestamp='1488808247' post='3251907'] No speakon-out, only one 1/4" jack which struck me as a brave decision these days. [/quote] [quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1489929498' post='3260849'] With regards to the jack speaker out, I hate jack outputs because most connector are NOT rated for any sort off power. Many plugs and sockets are rated at 0.5A as they were designed for line level signals. So hopefully Peavey have used reputable jacks rated at 5-7A and that means you have to make sure your plugs are also power rated. Neutral, Switchcraft, Amphenol and Rean make high current plugs so be careful. [/quote] IMO any amp rated at over 100W that does not use Speakon connectors is not a serious piece of kit.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1490642274' post='3266744'] Maybe it's a genre thing? We play there to some cracking crowds, especially when supporting some better known touring acts [/quote] Actually I think it's down to whoever is organising the evening. I've played two really good gigs there, but neither were booked by the Maze itself, they were just providing the venue. All the standard Maze gigs I've done have just been just a hotch-potch of very vaguely related bands playing at the same venue on the same evening, and very poorly organised with regards to running times and equipment sharing.

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1490638596' post='3266704'] The defifition of indie used to be that you were not signed to a major label... [/quote] Actually the original definition of "Indie" (and the only qualification for eligibility to the Independent Charts) was that your record was not distributed by one of the major label distributors which essentially meant that it was done by either Rough Trade or Red Rhino.