bass_dinger

Robert @bass_dinger I have bought a new car, and more basses, and retired from work, all to make my attendance more possible. It was a sacrifice that I was willing to make.... Is there a table for people selling their bass gear? Or will that be a separate thread?

Specialist musical instrument insurers would understand a musician's need for specialist instruments that are rare, and expensive. Think of what an orchestra would play - everything is likely to be custom made by specialist makers, or old and irreplaceable. In my case* I have a 30-year-old bass that only rarely comes up on the secondhand market and for which I needed to have a neck made in the USA. Realistically the replacement value is about £1,400 but the resale value is maybe £600 if I can find someone who is interested in it. So I insured it for the higher amount. For yourself, like @Downunderwondersaid, you will need to have your bass remade - find yourself a lightweight body, sandblasting, refinish, rebuild. That will cost more to do than a standard bass, and the premiums would reflect that. My view is that you should cost up the actual price of a replacement bass, get quotes for the work, and use that as the basis of the insured value. *a Hiscox, so, I need to insure that too, for what another manufacturer would charge for such a moulded case.

There goes my plan to buy, store and then sell Hiscox cases, to fund my future musical instrument purchases. Unless ... "For Sale. Pre-RUF Hiscox Case, for your pre-CBS Fender. " Yes, I think that I am on to something. More seriously, RUF sounds like a great fit for the Hiscox legacy, and I am pleased to hear that their product will continue to be available. Thank you for sharing that good news @matrycy.

And there's only one of you, so you're rare too! If you can fit into a Hiscox case, I can store you in my airing cupboard for the next 30 years.

There is a single surprise minor chord in there, toward the end. Fall asleep during verse 3, and you'll miss it. And the right rhythm is important - get it wrong and you'll sound like the Sunday Strummers Ukulele Club. Ask me how I know...

Not me. I have sold a comic collection, and other instruments. I also put aside a piffling £12.50 per month to save regularly for instruments. Christmas and birthday presents, even money found when clearing out my parent's house. It doesn't always work out - right now, I owe the joint bank account £550 for a spray job and body rebuild. However, last week, I found £500 worth of shares which I can now sell. The above process has funded three Hiscox cases (1 mandolin, two bass), electric piano, two Washburn XB925s, an EMU synth module, a strap. So, no, I do not have that problem.

One could instead use an earth pin repair kit. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315722101136?_skw=replacement+plug+pin&var=614139214463&itmmeta=01JZ3AWDX0KBZVACP3MC8BXV3T&hash=item498280f190:g:0HcAAOSwxiBm1tjf&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eTrMiAGCJNorG0l7hwVVWPKgUQq0m0Wsden2GMNXeci9%2B%2Fdt8F7Yz6zHc0mcLCZwslevuhVCQayf1i1c5PTrfq4nBAXPsmRCsLlhy9nMVT2WsfbI2crLzT2y2Mq%2FMtkMg6MYvmprscq5FlM%2Fo5sc4AyailVWLNHN%2BR8J2lfk6WpJM6DhbDudxDgsXgHua%2FWExvC2yhsJmIjWu4624OriFaFuCeCYgDyDnsFhC8CBj9N%2B9ijt2mzZpelclfsqne56GkDhnXZbGCwkqpF85%2F7pKtmqR%2Bp3FB5wpwdqP2l3jV%2Bw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBM3t7x6vhl Its purchase preserves both the pencil and @Marky L, for future and alternative use in the band. I have one in my kit case, should the previous superglue-and-dowel repair to my own adapter fail.

Rhiannon Giddens can.

Hobgoblin is more your folk music shop - they do have acoustic basses (4 string, fretless and even a 5 string which they made for me). But they specialise in stuff that other shops don't stock: accordions, thumb pianos, erhu (Chinese violin), Indian lap-harmoniums, fretless banjos, marimba, chambord, bagpipes, and a couple of zebra-hides worth of African drums. If you haven't heard of it, can't play it, and don't need it, Hobgoblin stock it.

One of the chaps there (John, who has since left) told me how Paul McCartney was a regular visitor to the shop, and he sold him a Hathway mandolin. Paul McCartney asked for a discount, and after a few minutes of negotiation, John said "in the time that we have been talking, you have earned enough in royalties to buy it!". All in good humour, and Paul McCartney paid full price. John also taught Paul McCartney a few chords, which he used in a song that he later released - Dance Tonight.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry! Poor mandolin! Silly man for storing it in a van!

That's a shame - a lost sale for them, and off-putting for you. About 20 years ago, I visited Hobgoblin in Rathbone Place, with my 7 year old daughter. They let her try every instrument in the shop (even a Low Whistle - the holes were so big that her fingers went inside them!). She eventually settled on the violins, and told me that her two favourites "played good and sounded nice". They happened to be the two most expensive in the shop, and the chap behind the counter was so impressed with her technique and her ear, that he offered to let her borrow his own personal violin while we were looking for a ¼-size instrument for her. Hobgoblin - YMMV.

Even though PMT (and other big chains) have sadly shut down, music shops still seem to be viable in the UK. We have.... The specialists who sell just one type of instrument: eg The Gallery, selling nothing but basses and bass gear. Add to the list of specialists Just Flutes in Croydon, T A Craig (a violin shop in Sevenoaks), Laurence Dixon for Double bass, sax.co.uk The quirky: Hobgoblin, for folk instruments. Richards Guitars for high-end acoustic guitars and mandolins, with each instrument set up before it leaves the store. The traditional shops which provide excellent service: people here often commend single-store music shops, and which have built a good reputation. So, Rich Tone Music in Sheffield, and Rock Bottom in Croydon. As @SumOne describes them, such shops are "a go-to hub for musicians ". When I go shopping for an instrument, I want a seller who knows more about the item than I do - not someone who got a discount because they bought 20 boxes of guitars, and needs to shift them quickly.

From that helpful link, we see the following: "Immediately following their appointment, the joint administrators concluded a knock-down sale of £2.4 million worth of stock and “certain intangible assets including websites, trademarks, and commercial data,” for £1.2 million to York-based Gear4music, which said it is not acquiring any part of PMT’s trading business, nor any other assets or liabilities, and has no current plans to use the PMT trading name." So, Gear4Music has purchased the PMT stock.

I recall reading Michael J Fox's autobiography, in which he shared his own battle with Parkinson's (and his open-head, conscious, brain surgery to relieve him of the symptoms). He was unable to act, but could do voiceover work - Stuart Little was him. So, perhaps the voice will be unaffected by the illness?