molan

I had a long conversation with a top American string maker a few months back and he was really, really against through body stringing. He said it tends to be worse on modern, and particularly, cheap bridge designs. He still makes longer strings for this use but advises anyone who'll listen not to do it as, amongst other things, it can kill strings really quickly. It can totally deaden the tone of flatwounds very quickly and one of the really annoying things is that it can often depend on how they are strung individually. E.G. You can find a single string to be totally dead whilst others sound OK. It was enough for me not to think about ever stringing through the body again

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1376899420' post='2180373'] Absolutely. There are [i]always[/i] two sides to every story. Since this whole tale kicked off, I've been trying to refrain from making any judgement in my own mind until I heard JC's POV. All I've got to go on so far is an overly-defensive and sarcastic response from him, which doesn't help. [/quote] Jimmy is a passionate guy - I think anyone who's ever met him would agree with this. He wears his heart on his sleeve and writes the way he speaks. I've had a lot of communication with him over the past 2-3 years and all of his emails are a little like his TalkBass response. He just writes stuff down as it comes out of his head and hits the send/post button. He's clearly not happy with the representation of events as put, very eloquently, before the denizens of TalkBass. However, my understanding is that he feels there's nothing further to be gained on his part by getting involved in a fractious, and very public, debate. Given the vitriol and bile directed at him I can certainly see where he's coming from. Were he to put a more detailed explanation of his side of the story out there I'm pretty sure a lot of people would continue to condemn him - after all, just look at the abuse he got on TalkBass before he even knew that the other party had publicly posted stuff - something like 38 pages worth I think. The fact that there's 17 pages worth of thread here, much of which continues the condemnation or hotly disputes there can be another side to this story, pretty much demonstrates that a lot of people aren't going to believe anything he says either. Of course, none of us are ever likely to know exactly what happened here and both parties are obviously disputing the other's version of events. I can't see Jimmy deciding to say a lot more in the public domain now - but I've been wrong before

All I, and others are saying is that there are often two sides to every story. Some people seem to find it difficult to accept this and believe information gleaned from a web forum must be correct. I've gone to the trouble of speaking directly to one of the parties involved and have picked up first hand knowledge of some of the events discussed. This has lead me to believe that there is much more to this tale if woe than has been made publicly available. A lot of people clearly have no interest in this. I can completely understand this, after all, it's much more fun taking shots at someone with a, previously fine reputation than accepting there may be an alternative story.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1376857996' post='2180112'] I don't think that's a scenario relevant to this buyer's situation, unless the buyer - having spent five grand on this bass - then decided to take it into his workshop and make some changes to the body shape. This seems pretty unlikely. Unless you're saying that the terrible work on the back of the body was 'obvious wear marks'. In which case, I say 'Haha, good one'. [/quote] And I think my question is directly relevant to this scenario - and, by definition that there are two sides to every story. Of course, your interpretation of the events and the exact sequence in which they occurred is probably based on a greater knowledge of the facts than anything I've found out. . .

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1376847994' post='2179916'] Please enlighten us as to the reasons (if there are any) for your "problem"... Admittedly, I own a BF Compact - but I am no "fanboi" of any brands. Just interested to hear. [/quote] Mostly I think that they look cheap and nasty. Both on stage and up close. Don't look, or feel, to have the build quality of lots of other brands. Also a lot of people whose opinions I respect have had real issues with them tonally. I realise I shouldn't just rely on third party comments but sometimes you just hear things from people who seem to really know their stuff and have to have to give them some credence. When you don't like the look of something and you hear they it doesn't sound great it tends to colour your opinions a fair bit

[quote name='scoobystig' timestamp='1376843107' post='2179821'] Yep there where I tried out the mark bass rig Lm3 head and traveller 115 and 210 cabs, seriously nice rig and smaller and lighter in total size to what I am using now But they didn't have a lot in their to compare against, would of been nice to stack it up against TC! Hartke and gk offerings [/quote] They wouldn't stock two of those three brands I'm afraid - too many bad customer reports about reliability and/or tone quality

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1376838042' post='2179728'] Bass Gear is great but you sxhould ring any shop you intend to visit to see what they currently stock. If you are looking for high end stock they have some great stuff. They say they are getting a big Berg delivery soon.... but check with the shops. Top end gear can goes out the door pretty quickly [/quote] Berg gear is in transit: CN212 CN112 HD112 NV15 HD210 Aguilar also on the ocean:) SL112 DB410 DB210 DB112 DB115 Maybe more but I can't remember offhand exactly what!

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1376785767' post='2179207'] Barrie - surely you arent telling me that the purchaser of this bass routed the horn like that.. then went to the trouble of refinishing it? The superglue would have cleaned up easy. Whether it was put there or not be JC, I cant believe it would have left the JC workshop without the glue being removed. All very odd. [/quote] I'm not suggesting anything - I just wondered whether people would think a builder would be in the wrong if something was damaged after it had left his workshop. By complete chance this has actually happened to me personally. Something was sent out in perfect condition, a buyer tinkered with it and caused some problems. He then said it was faulty when it arrived and asked for his money back. What made it worse was that he said it was faulty when I sent it and that I had deliberately misrepresented it when I put it up for sale. I took it back without getting involved in a protracted wrangle because it seemed easier and then had to pay to have the damage rectified. With hindsight I guess I could have publicly 'outed' the person but he was quite belligerent and we could have got into a 'he said / she said' type argument which seemed pretty pointless.

Hypothetically speaking. . . If I buy a bass that's been used and shows obvious wear marks that the builder tells me about, then I fiddle around with it and make it significantly worse, does that mean the guy who sold it to me is completely in the wrong and shouldn't have sold it to me in the first place?

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1376736477' post='2178505'] The simple answer is they don't just make money on a friday and saturday. If the pub is not doing so well on those times they will spend money in the hope of making money! [/quote] That's very much my experience as well. I used to know a landlord who put on bands on a Saturday and he never really made much additional income on the Saturday. However a lot of his everyday locals really liked the fact that the pub had live music and often cited this as a reason for making it their local - the bizarre thing was that many of them didn't come in on a Saturday, lol

Had a chat with Jimmy about all of this last night. Some 'interesting' stuff going on behind the scenes that didn't hit the public domain on TB. He's decided, wisely I think, to keep it, mostly, to himself. Needless to say it was some of this stuff that made him so angry and, I'm sure, lead to his public response. I'm not sure there's anything to be gained from stoking the fires any further either. One thing appears certain though, his dealers around the world haven't picked up any negative feedback from people with orders in the pipeline and there's been no reduction in demand. Could be early days of course. . .

Wow, that's £900 more than one I was offered a couple of years ago!

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1376730454' post='2178417'] Agree Stan, but when I watched that programme I also was amazed at how many Ricks were used in comparison to Precisions. [/quote] There were a few noticeable exceptions (and even one Jazz bass) but it seemed like the 'everyday' players all had Rickies! As it happens I shared a flat with a P bass owning punk player for a while and I remember him buying a brand new Ricky. He was a ticket collector on the underground so no record company cash for him. I bought his 76 P bass and sold it for something like £150 a year or so later

Gosh, that Mark King bloke is a truly incredible player. I bet he never has an off night. Such an entertaining guy and full of originality as a musician as well. Just can't get enough of his incredible, and faultless, technique . . .

Watching Punk Britannia on Beeb 4 and Ricky basses must outnumber Fenders by about 5:1. Every band seems to have a Ricky toting player with his bass slung low on his hip

[quote name='funkle' timestamp='1376686018' post='2178131'] Molan, how much for a Dove Cage Monique? Or the Rack Mount Monique? [/quote] Don't have final pricing yet but approx estimates are £900 on the Dove Cage and £825 on the Rack. It'll depend on shipping from the West coast and $ exchange rates. Should have it all sorted by Monday.

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1376609157' post='2176941'] Ahh well, a clash of egos I guess. The clip doesn't do it for me, although slap playing rarely ever does. [/quote] From what I heard it wasn't an ego thing - MK was basically rubbish and unprofessional in he middle of LG's gig and LG clearly wasn't happy

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1376677782' post='2178007'] Forgive the thread hijack, but are BG going to stock Demeter as well Barrie? [/quote] Absolutely Will be placing the first order next week with delivery in about 6-7 weeks time. Zap me a message if there's anything you fancy and we can add it to the order list

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1376609607' post='2176945'] Is the Minnie 800D available with a rack mount kit? I think there would be a lot of call if this was 1u height 1/2u width and rackmountable. There's loads of guys interested in a lightweight pre and poweramp setup (me included). There just doesn't seem to be a good solution at the moment! In other words, something like the Amplite - but less anaemic! [/quote] Yep - literally just spoken to James and there is a Minnie Rackmount option Don't have final prices but I think Minnie is looking like £975 in the UK with the rack at about £50 more. Final pricing will depend on how many we can order up front and shipping costs plus whatever the prevailing £ vs $ rate is. There's also the monster 1600w D which is just 12lbs: http://demeteramps.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=61&product_id=94

As far as I know the Minnie isn't currently available in a single rackmount format. You can buy a Jule Monique as a rackmount with a Minnie inside it and you can also get some of James Demeter's racked pre-amps with the Minnie power amp inside. However - I do have a price list that shows a rackmounted Minnie and, possibly a Minnie Twin with two of the little buggers together! I'm due to speak to James Demeter later so I'll ask

I keep buying sunburst basses and then selling them again I don't know what it is but it really doesn't do much for me. As someone with a pair of vintage Fenders (Olympic White P & Seafoam Green J) I must be one of the few who doesn't look at an old sunburst J or P & start drooling.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1376664777' post='2177680'] I would be shocked if someone didn't buy Modulus...but it shows how bad the economy is. SWR is apparently no more, and Genz are (apparently) going through changes....I predict that as they are part of Fender, we are going to see new Fender micro amps from the Genz chaps. In fact, I want a Modulus, so they best carry on. Flea Bass PLZ. [/quote] Try selling a high end graphite necked bass at the moment - they are really out of fashion. I wasn't at all surprised they had problems

Yep - all imported instruments have risen sharply over the past couple of years. To be fair some manufacturers put of hiking prices because of the weakness of the £ for quite a while but I think they've all buckled now. One thing I'm pretty sure on is that the recent prices aren't retailers trying to hike their margins up. If anything the retail trade is seeing margins squeezed ever tighter. There's certainly some who absorbed some of the early price price rises from manufacturers but these are now being passed on. Let's face it - when did you ever meet a well off musical instrument retailer In fact margins on some of the brands mentioned here really aren't that great at all. I've checked a few and I'm not sure how some shops keep going at the prices they are offering! One little thing I've definitely noticed is that the big online boys have been edging their prices up ever since DV247 went belly up. Check some Thomann prices now on things they are importing from the US and you'll see that a surprising amount are now higher than UK ones.

Lots of mutterings about a 'mystery' investor for Modulus. As it happens one of my least favourite customer service stories (far, far worse than the Jimmy Coppolo one) was regarding a Modulus It wasn't direct from Modulus themselves though, just someone involved in the sales chain. And no, I'm not going to publicise it here - might make a few people's blood boil and it's really quite a sad turn of events. . .