molan

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1377990098' post='2194545'] Sterling's exchange rate with the Euro has plummeted recently, and that makes everything for sale on Thomann look a lot more expensive. [/quote] They have quietly been raising prices of some stuff as well. Particularly things they have to import from the States. One distributor told me he'd monitored prices and it seemed that they started to rise after DV247 went under. There has been quite a price war going on with some brands and it wasn't really sustainable - DV247 being a perfect example

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1377989149' post='2194530'] But he's not from Yorkshire, Molan Welcome in [/quote] I hadn't realised God was such a fan of rain But then I guess he's responsible for dropping so much of it on you so maybe he does prefer it a milder sunny climate .

My worry is that the PF heads have a really, really bad reputation for reliability. Some people have been lucky but a lot of people have had problems and I've heard of at least one Ampeg dealer who refuses to stock them.. Could just be 'urban myth' stuff but I've personally known two people who had big problems and that's two more than I've heard of with issues from MarkBass gear. My personal favourite of this type of combo is the MarkBass Mini CMD121. It's a bit lighter and smaller but still packs quite a punch. It also sits really well on top of quite a few extension cabs. I gigged one with a Traveller 1x15 for a while and I've played one with the vertical 1x12 which looks really good as a match and raises the combo controls to a great gigging height.

[quote name='Excalibr' timestamp='1377973405' post='2194313'] Also dropping in to say I had my first visit to the shop today - Barrie is a great chap and I had a great time messing about on a few basses - very tempted by the Godin Shifter P/J basses! [/quote] Allowing people to mess about on nice basses is what we live for Always like to see / hear people trying new stuff!

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1377965251' post='2194189'] Bought my first item from Bass Gear today. Great service and a good chat with Barrie too. [/quote] Always enjoy a good natter with another bass player - I think it's the only thing that keeps me sane sometimes

Thomann are great for 'commodity' items that will always sound the same wherever they come from. They seem to be going through an 'expensive' period at the moment though and have become a lot less price competitive than they used to be. Their historical strength in pricing tends to give them good listings in Google search but you can find lower prices on quite a lot of stuff at local UK dealers at the moment.

God's own country

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1377939356' post='2193745'] Alex usually gets a bad rap because he looks like he has the constant hump and that maybe people are put off by that without getting to know him, before making judgement. [/quote] Alex has always been really friendly and helpful with me - always gives me a smile when I pop in (which is a lot less these days as I no longer work in London). The thing I really like is that he's never tried to really 'sell' to me. He's listened to what I'm looking for and recommended things that he thinks would work for me I think he's only there 2-3 days a week now. Not sure how Martin will replace him when he completes the 'knowledge' if he takes up cabbing full time

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1377980444' post='2194420'] I'd have thought the same but I was playing the MIA Fender in his shop and was telling him about the Squier being a better bass and he agreed then said the MIAs weren't made for players. So he was guiding me more into buying a Squier from the other shop. Strange. [/quote] Believe it or not that's a classic sales technique that retail people are trained in. If they are fairly sure you are unlikely to buy the more expensive item then the aim is to close the sale on the cheaper one by making negative comments about the expensive one. Conversely if you're leaning towards the more expensive one then they are taught to say just how much nicer that one is compared to the lower priced one. I'm not sure how often this happens in guitar shops but it's pretty standard car sales stuff (and I'm sure lots of other markets as well).

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1377898124' post='2193500'] To put it in context I'd just told him that I'd played a Squire VM 77 Jazz, a MiM Fender Jazz and a MIA Fender Jazz with Custom Shop pickups. The Squier was the best one out of the lot by far. The MIA Jazz had a slightly better sound due to the pickups but those pickups ain't worth £900... So his response was that the US models weren't made for players. My opinion is that MIA Fenders are lacklustrely made as they can sell them on the strength of the brand name and the Squiers have to be good to compete in a very crowded and competitive market. Or to put it another way, Squier has to try harder whilst MIAs don't. His opinion was that they deliberately make MIA basses with flaws to put players off from buying them. Then he started whittering on about them being made for investors (despite very few, if any, that have been made in the last 10 years increasing in value at all). Very strange bloke. [/quote] Very strange indeed - the MIA Standard is very much Fender's 'workhorse' instrument. Everything else they make works up or down the scale from here. There's no way anyone would buy something like this as an investment (in any sense of the word). Sounds like he was just trying to make a sale and randomly spewing out any old crap to clinch the deal

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1377868834' post='2193020'] I think you're missing the point. Buying something as an investment doesn't mean that it [b]will[/b] rise in price, just that somebody has convinced the buyer that it will. If I'd bought Santander shares in 2010 for the price of a Fodera, I could now sell them and get myself a brace of matching Squiers. In the case of basses, by the time you've worked out that a particular one would be a good investment because the price would rise enormously, the price has risen enormously. However, those particular ones would also probably have been ones that you'd have avoided as a player when they were cheap because they were crap (75% of 70s Fenders, all Hofner violin basses). [/quote] Sorry - I am indeed confused I thought people were discussing whether people were actually buying new basses as investments (as in rising in value to be worth more than they paid) rather than trying to convince themselves that they were making a good purchasing decision based on manufacturer marketing hype. As you've pointed out there's a huge difference here. No 'sensible' person is going to believe the hype because new basses will, in almost every case, fall in value and not rise. However I can totally see people fooling themselves into thinking of something as an investment because the fall in value might not be as fast as something else. Maybe it's the definition of 'investment' that's in question

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1377866479' post='2192968'] What about limited edition runs? For example Status's 14 30th anniversary Series 2s: [url="http://www.status-graphite.com/status/frames/index_home.html"]http://www.status-graphite.com/status/frames/index_home.html[/url] I certainly wouldn't say that none of them will be bought to play down the Whippet and Firkin with, but might they be aimed as much at the collector as the player? As has been pointed out upthread, there's a bit of a difference between a high-end bass from someone like Fodera or Ritter who aren't turning out vast numbers of basses and a limited edition bass from a mass producer. In fact, if you look at Fender's blurb on [url="http://www.fender.com/custom-shop/series/limited-edition/"]http://www.fender.com/custom-shop/series/limited-edition/[/url] about Custom Shop limited editions, it says "Each Custom Shop Limited Edition instrument is only available for a short time, which makes it eminently collectible and adds to its investment value. Crafted with many features reserved only for certain artists and master built instruments, they are just what the name says they are: highly anticipated limited-edition models that go very quickly." which rather points to Fender aiming them at investors and not players. [/quote] It's just cheap marketing hype I'm afraid. Lots of manufacturers produce limited editions and try to claim that they will rise in value. This is merely another way of trying to move them quickly. Fender, and especially MusicMan, do this all the time. It definitely increases short term desirability and may command a higher price on the used market in the future but it's incredibly rare for one to rise to a level above the original new price - which is what it would have to do to be an investment. I'm no expert on Status values but I think the 30th Anniversary Kingbass was about £4,300 new and I've seen one for sale at £3,500 so it's lost 20% already. The Fender 50th Anniversary Jazz basses started out at about £1,900 and even retailers dropped them to £1,500 (maybe less) at one point and they've been available on the used market at between £850 for a well used one up to about £1,300 for a good one. As someone else pointed out it's possible that all of these will rise above their new prices eventually but it'll take a good few years for that to happen and there's a lot of basic financial investments that will generate a far greater return on the original investment (and greater liquidity).

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1377804780' post='2192202'] I read a story on the other side where some boutique pickup winder had some pickups lying in the corner of his workshop and some dude emailed him wanting him. Anyway the fella convinced the winder to sell them to him cheap... but when he got them it turned out the winders mum had made them and.... well no one was convinced she qualified as a virgin...... and yeah - it all kicked off on the other side.... [/quote] 40 pages worth already I've heard

[quote name='weepaul' timestamp='1377726639' post='2191160'] PMT. Ordered an Ampeg PF500 from the PMT web site(most sites priced them@ £349,PMT price £329). So I parted with my hard earned cash. Got it today....................USED, no manual, power chord. If knew it was second hand I would've went elsewhere and paid £349 for a brand new unused amp. [/quote] If this was a recent transaction you should return it and ask for your money back. Inside 7 days you have lots of legal protection even if it was advertised as used or ex-demo. The PF has a lot of reliability problems so it's possible you've been sent one that was a warranty return - this could be a longer term issue as even some of the repaired ones have been known to fail again

I'd forgotten about these guys. I remember seeing a few snippets, and some complete songs, where they recorded individual band members recording their parts. This was a favourite of mine: http://youtu.be/TDz2swd3LMg

Also - depending on whether yours is front or rear ported, it's worth experimenting with position near a rear wall. Some rear ported cabs can really use proximity to a wall to chuck out more low end. In fact some get too boomy and can be overpowering. Worth experimenting though

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' timestamp='1377725594' post='2191109'] Remind me to avoid Twyford for the next couple of weeks! Sonic Blue eh? Thanks for the kind comments guys [/quote] I think you're safe for a month or so. Looks like the new Pino will arrive first and the Sonic Blue won't be here until October. It's an NOS model with aged white guard. Probably £2,125 from what i can make out. The Oly White one will be a mild relic with tort guard. The relic adds about £250 - £275 to the price though

I think most MarkBass heads are 6ohm so I guess it's possible the TTE500 may not be chucking out enough watts to really get it moving air if you're up against a loud drummer and some 4x12 guitar stacks. However, it should be pretty loud if you've got your gain stage set ok. I'd think it's the issue (as outlined above) that you're not hearing what it really sounds like out front when you're right on top of it. I've definitely had this with 4x10's so maybe a 6x10 is 50% worse

I have a fairly chunky Maplins step down transformer for mine. It was recommended by Andy Baxter who brings quite a few very nice B15's over. I've used it in an environment with lots of other electronic equipment around and it's been rock solid and never suffered from any noise. I know it's a small thing but my B15 is entirely original apart from the valves and I didn't want to start changing things internally

In Saturdays you can usually track down a residents' bay space. The resident parking in much of the area is restricted until 6:30 on a weekday but open parking on Saturday and Sunday. The further up towards Holloway Road you go the easier it gets

Some of the Warwick sig basses are really nice. Just a shame they plummet in value like nothing else I saw a stunning early custom shop Streamer go for just £999 a couple of weeks ago. Good time to buy if you can find something like that one though

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1377724076' post='2191053'] When I went to get a bass last I tried the Squire VM fretless and the Fender fretless (that was £300 more). The squier sounded better than the fender and was nicer to play. I don't really care if anyone takes it seriously, it was just a better bass Although, maybe it because I am the type of person who wouldn't take anyone with a harley seriously! [/quote] I didn't say they weren't any good (in fact lots of the instruments described here as being dorky might be great) - just, for me, a bit dorky. Kinda like Skoda compared VW. Lots of the same parts but just lacking something for me Can totally understand the Harley thing - it was intentional. Harleys themselves not that great so the many cheap copies lack even more credibility

Anything with Squier on the headstock (apart from the original JV series). So easy to get a used version of the 'real thing', why bother with cheap copies. Bit like Japanese versions of a Harley - never taken very seriously

Not great apart from Saturdays. Generally resident parking everywhere during the week.