peteb

You don’t have to be a Chinese company to move production out to China. The thing is that companies like Aguilar and Mesa are usually privately owned and understand their products and customer base. Of course, they want to make money, but they don’t need to make it all right now and they are just as concerned about their reputation and the continued excellence of their products. As soon as they are bought out by a larger company, their amps are no longer the core business and ‘Wall Street’ rules start to apply – its all about quarterly earnings, short term profits and cutting costs. The parent company understands the brand rather than the product and the new CEO just wants to make quick profits to justify his annual bonus rather than ensure the long-term reputation and viability of the company (in three years time he will have moved onto another job anyway). I am sure that there are exceptions, but this is why these mergers are rarely a good thing for these smaller high-end producers.

Unfortunately there is always the temptation for a company like Korg to acquire a high profile quality brand like Aguilar and then move production to the far East, cut costs and reduce standards. Let's hope that this will not happen with Aguilar.

Fender were the guilty party with SWR; I can't remember at this late hour who bought out Eden. I've actually got a Spector Euro 5 string, but it was acquired for a specific project that has been put on ice due to the pandemic, so I've hardly played it. I haven't heard any horror stories about Spector so hopefully they will look after the Aguilar brand. However, you will note the initial reaction of Chris, a serious player who I believe is an Aguilar user. We shall see...

Blind optimism isn't usually my thing, so let's hope that you're right on this one. What happened with SWR and Eden (broadly similar brands to Aguilar) was awful. I was once obliged to play a dep gig using a Line 6 bass combo. It was terrible, probably the worst amp I've ever used live.

History suggests that doesn't bode well (SWR, Eden, etc).

There was a big music shop in the town where I went to school. We would go down there at lunchtime and weekends to look at guitars we couldn't afford and get advice and impromptu lessons from the old timers who used to also hang out there. Ten years later, I was mates or had played with everyone who worked there, they would make me a cup of tea / roll me a cigarette when I walked in there, I would give them a hand moving stock and it was me teaching kids the odd lick or how to play certain songs. They went bust nearly 30 years ago. I have known a few pretty similar shops to that, but none of them have been in business for at least 20 years.

That will be shipped to a warehouse in Europe

I did amend my post as I am not quite sure of the reasons, only that we can no longer use a French system that we relied on for checking VAT registrations on imports. Apparently, there is also likely to be a shortage of scaffolding bolts in the UK soon. These are made in a factory in North Africa and shipped to a warehouse in the EU, who are not shipping to the UK because of the VAT issues.

Just been talking to my contractor on a scheme that I am running. He tells me that the system used by the HMRC for checking VAT registrations on imports into the UK is licensed from France and as such, can no longer be used...! Everything now has to be checked manually, which is adding to delays. Global Britain, eh...

There are reasons why China can trade with the EU on WTO terms. For example, while I know that wages in China are increasing, the average wage for a factory worker in Germany is currently 2.3 times that of an equivalent worker in China. Plus other production costs will be much cheaper and China will produce at a scale that would be unheard of in Europe.

I think that my major achievement since the pandemic started has been to finally learn to play Mars Cowling's bassline on the live album version of Gettin' Betta...!

But to what extent? Is putting a union jack on the packaging and Made in Italy on the product really going to make that much difference to their target consumers? Maybe a different thing if they move production out to the far-east.

Presumably it would be relatively easy for them to switch production to Italy or elsewhere in the EU?

Yes, I saw that as well. Makes you wonder how sustainable this wheeze by Boris to get foreigners to collect UK tax is and when it will be quietly dropped?

I suspect that it isn't sustainable and will be quietly changed at some point

Was the open D in bar 99 a mistake?? I always assumed that was a pretty cool use of an open string while you went up to the high F. I always made a point of including it...!

Good luck to you if you can get away with it, but it is likely that there will be checks if anything seems suspicious! It will be a bit hit and miss at best and you could find yourself in an awkward situation.

The Aguilar OBP2 is a preamp

How much is the bass worth? I've modded relatively expensive basses and still couldn't get what I was after. This has then been made worse by losing a fair bit of money when I've decided to cut my losses and move them on. I would try a few different pickups before I started taking a chisel to the bass (depending on how much it is worth).

I would have thought that it is the other 27 parliaments that could be the bigger issue! Having said that, I'm sure that they are pretty confident that it will eventually get passed...

Just got an email from Thomann to say that my order has now been dispatched.

Apologies - you are quite correct 🙂 I will re-send the PM to @Chienmortbb

I've PM'd you my email address (let me know if you need a snail mail address). After Christmas is fine.

I don't suppose that you have a list of the stock you have left?

I ordered something from Thomann on the 10th Dec and received it five days later, which I was quite impressed with. I've since bought a bass hardcase and a few odds and sods, but to be fair I'm not expecting miracles given what has happened since I ordered it. It will get here when it gets here - it's not as if I need it for any gigs in the next few weeks.