molan

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1421428924' post='2661157'] The LBGS organisers have just announced a double bass builder, [url="http://www.thomasmartin.co.uk/"]http://www.thomasmartin.co.uk/[/url], among the exhbitors. Good news [/quote] These guys make some first rate stuff. Really impressed by them

[quote name='sshorepunk' timestamp='1421496980' post='2661971'] And Mr Turner! [/quote] Yep - those are the two Paul did some really, really intensive testing as well!

The new Bergantino CN210's will be on their way soon. I have a really good feeling about these!

[quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1421330106' post='2659926'] This isn't true...... Suppliers cannot dictate pricing by law so they have no choice. If the re-seller decides they want to make a small margin or even sell at a loss they can and the supplier can have no say in that. [/quote] They can simply refuse to supply in the future though and give other reasons than discounting as to why they won't sell to the retailer any more. I've seen lots of examples of this and there are definitely ways around things. The 'smart' thing to do is not to put the refusal to supply because of discounting in writing. Thomann is a perfect example. Every now and then products disappear completely from their stock list. There's a general assumption that this is because the manufacturer won't sell to them at heavily discounted prices but in some cases the manufacturer won't sell to them because they have the potential to wreck the pricing market for the manufacturer. I'm in discussions right now with a major manufacturer who has made it very clear there is a price point that a retailer can never go below or supply will dry up. All conversations are on the phone rather than in writing.

I know two fairly serious live/session players who use DB750's plus Aggie 4x10's live. Both of them use a TH500 and a pair of SL112's for club gigs. One of them went from the DB112's to the SL112's after some pretty extensive testing and decided that the SL's went louder and still gave him the sound he wanted but with a much lighter weight. The DB's are great cabs but they are one heavy side for small cabs whilst the SL's are a simple one-handed lift.

Of the people here that are playing covers of this - are any of you playing it without keys (or horns)?

I tend to point all knobs towards me on a regular passive bass in the 'full on' position. If an active bass has a vintage type control then I'll set it in the middle position when the screw is pointing at me as I use them for quick subtle adjustments on the fly. Then there's basses like a Sadowsky or an Alleva Coppolo with boost only active systems. They will generally be pointed away from me in the off position. That lets me see how much boost I'm using as I dial the control towards me. There's probably more as well . . .

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1421236088' post='2658688'] But shops like the one you work in (plus Bass Direct and The Gallery) are specialist shops and tend to cater for the more discerning musician. I go to shops like that specifically to see non-mainstream products. The OP was talking about the typical all-round music shop. Their customers was stuff that is familiar and cheap. [/quote] Ah, sorry, I was really referring to your thought that the 'majority of bass players' didn't want interesting. That's not the case with our customers but then, as you've said, a lot of people come to us already knowing we do have things a bit different to a lot of other stores. I do stand by the fact that we do get 'everyday' people that just happen to find us online, or live locally that pop in and they are always much more open minded about trying, and buying, things that aren't Fender.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1421229528' post='2658574'] These days shops have to play it safe in order to stay in business. TBH the majority of bass players (i.e. those not on Baschat) don't want interesting. They want something like a P or a J bass preferably one that says Fender on the Headstock. [/quote] The majority of our customers are not on BassChat but there's no great bias towards Fender. We find quite a lot of BassChat members are more 'conservative' than much of our customer base.

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1420658981' post='2651885'] Well, this song has edgamacated me in one regard. I was a bit baffled by the lyric "smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy". Apparently Skippy is a brand of Peanut Butter. I conclude he's not referring to the "crunchy" type. That is all. [/quote] Skippy is my favourite brand of peanut butter but it's become increasingly hard to find. Larger Tesco branches used to have it but removed it a year or so ago. Costco have it in larger jars

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1421181882' post='2658233'] How is the limp now Barrie? [/quote] Not good Having meetings at their HQ was always fun. The main meeting on doubled as storage for all the latest lingerie and all,of their staff (excluding the one bloke) wore AP underwear at all times - or so we were told, we nevertheless got any proof other than obvious stocking seams and flashes of frilly bras!

For hard rock you'd be hard pressed to beat either the GK MB500 or 800 heads. I think the power output of the GK800 is about twice that of the RH750 as well

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1421178910' post='2658172'] Imagine if you worked in a lingerie department [/quote] I worked with Agent Provocateur for a while. My main job was to check every display photograph was correct and matched th product description. It was tough job but someone had to do it. . .

[quote name='dieseldalziel' timestamp='1421095219' post='2657135'] I work for a small UK company that makes parts for guitars/basses & while I'm not involved in the sales side our sales manager has said that a U.S buyer wouldn't have to pay sales tax & so would pay less than a U.K. buyer...& yet the product is made here [/quote] Import duties are only about 2% to USA and sales taxes are maybe 4-5% unless you buy online, in which cases you're exempt from sales tax. However you have to get the item there and insure it. On an item by item basis this is expensive. Shipping in bulk reduces prices but you're potentially in for warehousing and/or local distribution costs.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1421077213' post='2656869'] I'm sure there is more to it than that, it was just a different possibility to throw into the pot. I'm far removed from being any sort of financial whiz kid, but could exchange rates perhaps play a part in this as well? [/quote] Yeah, exchange rates are a nightmare to deal with on things like custom orders with a longer build time. We're not money brokers so we don't have a nice fat $ or € reserve to work with. Can have a huge effect on a $10,000 order if the £ falls fast against the $ after an order has been placed. Obviously this can be a 2-way street but we generally reduce prices when the £ is strong & try not to increase if it's weak. An associated issue (not just to the exchange rate one) is that quite a few of the more bespoke suppliers insist on payment in advance before releasing any goods. With so many retailers going under I can understand where they're coming from but it really increases the cost of stock for any small independent seller. Some large shipments come by sea so you can be out of pocket for 6 weeks before something even arrives in the UK. It's then highly unlikely that you'll shift an entire pallet load of speakers in a few days or weeks so the cost of capital tied up in the business, and any associated interest rates, can be quite painful Supplier views can be 'interesting' on exchange rate fluctuations - we have at least one that regularly increases prices in the UK if the exchange rate is against them. Strangely thy don't tend to fall back again when it's the other way around. . .

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1421033898' post='2656428] Maybe the German manufacturer has subsidised the prices in the US to gain some market share? [/quote] I think there's a bit more to it than that Ian - there's loads of similar examples. A simple one is a John East pre-amp. Currently £195 direct from the manufacturer in the UK. Last time I checked it was readily available in the US for around £165. Obviously it wouldn't be worth re-importing one because the duties would take it up above the UK price but, if you live in the States you can buy a UK product for £30 less than it costs in the UK. Could just be differences in sales taxes but that would ignore any shipping costs and U.S. importation duties.

I lived in Barnet for many years - technically Hertfordshire although there's quite a few tube stations straight into town. Apart from the live venues mentioned above I used to really like Farm Factory Studios in Welwyn. One of the best rehearsal spaces I've ever used and used to be nice people as well

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1421008726' post='2656176'] Molan There's no way I'm going to ask what the order was for. That's company business alone. Judging from the products for sale the charge could be on products retailing at £2000 odds and the company would go bust up to a retail value of £32,000 where it's about 5%. That's still a lot of money but in line with normal business practise. Import duty is 3.5% and Customs Clearance is £8 so the importing company's fee isn't high. As the VAT is pasted on to the customer it's not at issue here nor is the cost of importing and insuring small quantities of valuable instruments. My problem is Fender,Gibson et al banning companies from selling direct to the UK and forcing us to pay prices they set, not what the UK shops have to charge.It costs no more to ship a container from the Far East to the UK than it does to ship to the US. That's why I used the Squier example. I said those companies won't get my money not the shop used as an example. Hope that's clear, this is not a dig at UK shops. [/quote] I think you're missing point that those big guys simply can't ship to the UK for free and there are loads of costs you're ignoring in your calculations. Most of the big guys send to a Central European warehouse. I know Fender CS go to Holland but not sure if this is the same for Squier or lower end Fenders. There's a significant overhead in maintaining this warehouse and also a sizeable cost of stock held waiting to be ordered. Individual UK shops can order single units to meet demand or block order larger consignments. Either way there's a further cost of shipping from the warehouse to the UK - plus we're an island so this cost is generally going to be higher than internal freight inside continental Europe. There's then a further cost in running a full, locally based, returns, warranty and repairs team (also with additional courier charges). Again I only know how the UK CS operation works but any warranty issues are dealt with promptly, returns are sent to Haywards Heath for assessment, you get a fast response and they either fix the issue on site or request a replacement. There's an additional network in place for rarer items whereby Fender UK can approach Holland or Germany (where a lot of instruments at also held). All of this costs money and there will be an inevitable tickle down effect in h cost of every instrument sold. Of course the US will have similar systems but their costs of transport are way lower than European costs and setting up a secondary infrastructure for shipping, storage, distribution, sales etc is almost certainly higher in Europe than in the States. All,of those costs quickly add up and are reflected in the price differential between US and UK prices. As soon as you add the increased average price of a UK retailer's overheads then this exacerbates the final consumer price difference even further. I could be wrong but, based on our experience, the margins aren't great on these instruments. I genuinely don't think UK consumer is being purposefully screwed on price, it simply costs more to get them in their hands than it does for US customers because the core business base has been set up to service the 'domestic' market as a priority. NB - The ones at I never quit understand are some European (including British) brands that are available at lower prices in the the US than over here. We had a recent example where it was cheaper for our customer for us to buy a European brand of pickups in the US from another retailer, ship them over here, pay duties and VAT and then pay UK postage costs. We actually undercut a 'large German online retailer' this way and the product we bought was made in Germany!

Set up next to him, point your cab directly at him, boost your low mids (because he'll really hear those on stage) get a decent octaver and hit him with as much sub-bass as you can. Then see if he complains at your low end is swamping him

We bring a lot of stuff over from the USA and there's always a lot more than 20% VAT to add on top. The latest one we were hit with was a £55 charge for the importing company levied on us for admin to pay the various import duties and customs clearance charges. The total bill on 4 basses ended up at £1,550! The other one that we often get hit with is fuel surcharges for collection at point of pick up and delivery from the airport to our shop. One recent charge was £25 from Heathrow which is only 20 miles away. Insurance on instruments is a bitch as well It never ceases to amaze me just how many additional charges there are over and above simple core shipping cost and VAT.

I had one for a while and didn't find any huge problems when I first played it. However I did counter the odd difficulty when swapping back and forth between the Dingwall and regular basses. Only up around the nut though, maybe first 3 frets or so. I couldn't find any benefit on a 4 sting bass so eventually gave up. Definitely of more use on a low B than than an E.

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1420927274' post='2655261'] Yes some are if you re read my post I said" no not all but some are"and some music shops I know of treat youngsters appallingly I have seen it and pulled the owner up and not used the shop again .For what its worth I don't think you are being difficult you are only trying to voice your views the same as I am Anyway sorry for my thread derailment guys [/quote] I don't understand why you won't say who they are then?

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1420926286' post='2655247'] No but that some are and I know from a lot of the young people I help out they feel intimidation from going in most shops around here as they get ignored or the piss taken out of them etc I know not all shops are like this so please forgive my generalisation [/quote] Sorry, I'm not not trying to be difficult here but, just to be clear, from what you've followed up saying, you don't know anyone in the music retail industry that complains about online retailers whilst living in large houses, driving flash cars and not caring about new young customers?