molan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r6x99 Watched this last night and realised I think I saw just about every single band on the show live! I moved to London in '78 and spent many a night out on the pub circuit. In fact it was seeing some of these bands in previous years that was a major influence in going to Uni in London instead of Oxford or Bristol. Graham Parker was my personal favourite, such a cracking live band but most of the bands on the programme were great to see in little London pubs and clubs

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1394367414' post='2390668'] I realise there are specialists out there who manage a brand in the UK, but some distributors are basically just another bill to pay and a middleman. The store has to make profit, the distributor has to make profit, and the manufacturer has to obviously make profit. Some distributors will be brilliant, some will just store and sell. [/quote] Based on personal experience I think if there wasn't a distributor for Mesa then their cabs wouldn't be available in the UK at all

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1394187231' post='2388818'] If Mesa had normal prices over here, I'd try a Walkabout. It's not that I won't spend that cash, its that I see the distributor taking A MASSIVE chunk for no apparent reason. I think over the next 10 years or so, as the international market continues to grow, and the web continues to dominate sales, then we will see an end to the middleman distribution. I don't actually think having a 'distributor' makes it easier. There should just have an approved service for faults, but one that doesn't need to distribute. Basically, everyone takes a bite of the cherry and we foot the bill. Annoying. [/quote] I must admit that, as someone who sees the retail side of the business, I'm seeing the reverse of your suggested trend Gareth. More manufacturing brands are realising that they can be much more effective by concentrating on R&D, quality control and production rather than the monster hassles of distribution and handling retailers or, even more problematical, direct customers. The cost of managing internal customer services and distribution can be huge and the time drain on senior people can cause all sorts of problems. One of the biggest areas a distributor makes a difference is in storage of large stocks of cabs. The size and weight of most cab ranges mean they have to be land or sea transported to make any kind of financial sense. Buying one or two cabs direct from an overseas manufacturer means the relative cost of shipping compared to product value is huge. This means a retailer who's buying direct has to make large bulk orders. From initial order to delivery can take 12 weeks - I've tested this more than once and this is a fairly average schedule if the products are built to order (remembering that most specialist bass equipment manufacturers do not hold large stocks and make most things from scratch as they are ordered). For a retailer this means laying out large sums in advance of delivery, long wait times for products and then problems trying to find storage space. The net effect often means that product range availability is cut right back or even discontinued completely. My personal example would be Carvin - they make some really nice bass cabs but do not operate a European distributor model. Because shipping costs are so high compared to product value they are virtually unobtainable at a price even remotely close to their US equivalents. Our store doesn't even take orders on them because we can't justify the UK prices A quality distributor can make a massive difference in terms of product availability and after sales service. My current favourite example is MSL who handle MarkBass. Their customer service is exemplary, product knowledge is great and delivery times are very fast. Warranty claims are handled without question and with total efficiency. Synergy, who handle Phil Jones and Sandberg, are right up there as well and the new arrangement from Barnes & Mullins with Aguilar is proving to be top notch as well. Without these guys in the chain you'd see massive issues with product availability and delivery times and warranty claims would be both delayed and patchier in service and quality. Unsurprisingly they need to earn some money in order to offer this kind of service but in many cases their outlay is huge in order to hold decent stocks (this is much more of an issue with US made products because many Euro brands have a central storage hub with land delivery access). Without distributors I'd see a lot of products disappearing completely from many UK retailers and, bizarrely, prices for some might rise due to scarcity and costs of individual shipping. Of course, not all distributors are as good as others. Rather than getting rid of them I'd much prefer to see the better ones taking over more stock lines

I've found there's a few amps that sound great in a store or home environment but don't quite cut it live. Personally I've found the Streamliner, some of the Shuttle range and TC Electronics suffer from this. All of them seem to suck the life out of a bass at volume with a live band. I think some of this is definitely a lack of mids in he core tone. At home I don't want the mids slapping me in the face and they can sound harsh and abrasive so a mid-cut seems to smooth things over and creates a smoother tone. However, get in front of a loud band and, for me, it's all about those mids. Getting them right makes so much difference to my personal enjoyment of live gigging and that's the reason I've moved GB and TC gear so quickly because I really didn't enjoy using them live

I guess my limit would be £2K for an amp (excluding cabs).

Gold looks great on some basses and not so good on others. Chrome looks great on some basses and not so good on others. Black looks great on some basses and not so good on others. Are there other colours? If so they look great on some basses and not so good on others. . .

Nothing really beats the Lehle. Used by lots of serious pro players as an integral part of their pedal board.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1394045652' post='2387369'] Ah , you must mean the Randy Jackson Alchemy strings. I noticed them because I used to use them , and they are intriguing strings in many ways, with a unique sound. It's a shame the Dean Markley discontinued them , but I don't think many bass players were willing to fork out that kind of money for them , and after RJ jumped ship then that was probably the death knell for them. Those strings had a lot of good points and a nice, sophisticated sound, but I found that the gold coating came off and they died pretty quickly. However, when they were dead they had a really unusual sound a bit like half rounds or even flat wounds that was quite fun to play with. I would venture that this retailer has done a deal with Dean Markley, either in the U.K or in the States, for their remaining stock. I noticed in a branch of Guitar Centre somewhere or other in the States a couple of years ago that they were selling them off cheap, and probably were doing so nationwide. . [/quote] You are correct and win the official detective prize My friend has them on a stunning Alembic and they look very cool. I think he's ordered a batch of them before they all sell out!

I'm also still really impressed that Ernie McKone was working on Andy Baxter's stand all day on Saturday - he's a real legend amongst UK funk players & a super-nice bloke. Can't believe he was simply standing there and covering Andy's stand! Here's a recent recording of him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLtj24m9B-g#t=43

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1394025555' post='2387029'] I had a PF-500 (Lozz's first one) and used it for a year 2 or 3 nights a week at gig levels and never let me down. Even survived being dropped into a concrete floor from waist height! Such a shame they're so poorly regarded in the reliability stakes; great sounding heads, good weight, they look sexy and they're well constructed (if poorly designed!). It would be interesting to see exactly how many have failed. Truckstop [/quote] I know someone who went through 3 in two weeks. He's a pro player and used them for his smaller, quieter gigs so they weren't driven hard. One of them expired as soon as it was turned on - just went bang when he first plugged it in I'm definitely with Chris B in terms of not having the confidence to gig one week in, week out. I'm sure they are a lot better now but it would worry me and I'd always have my Sansamp ready to plug into the house PA if I had to gig with one. Of course, I always have this with me anyway but I never approach a gig worrying that my amp is going to fail and I think that's the mind-set I'd have with a PF500. It does rather feel that Ampeg used the general public as a test bed for earlier editions and this is probably what's caused so much ill-feeling. I guess we get used to it from software and PC builders but not from big amp companies who make stuff for performing musicians. Let's hope the latest batch are really sorted because the core concept of these is really good

This is how I always think of TM Stevens - killer bass line and I think he co-wrote the song too - if you don't want to listen to the whole song then check the bass solo part from 3:00 onwards. This used to pack dance floors when it came out in '79. At the time there was only really Bernard Edwards & Chic that had quite such a prominent bass line in 'mainstream' disco (of course there were loads of other great players around but not many had the level of omnipresence in every club in town!). http://youtu.be/R1H7P8XJZqE There is a promo vid with Randy Jackson playing the part but I've always understood TM actually played it on the record

Good quality cheaper strings. Quite a few bass builders use them as standard fit, I remember when Wood & Tronics swapped over to them a while back. Paul Turner has just swapped over from DR (which he's used for years) to Dunlop steels and he's very, very picky about his strings! Personally I like the nickels and my only criticism is that they seemed to die a little earlier than the Fodera string I usually use.

The strings aren't for me, lol. I have a good friend in the USA who's been looking a discontinued line of Dean Markley strings. There's an odd shop that stocks them but they are all huge money. Strings.ie not only have them but they are half the price of anywhere else. Reason for asking questions about them was just that it's odd they are so cheap

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1393933948' post='2385914'] Is this more likely to happen to me if I buy a Fodera? If so I'm in.... [/quote] Ask Dave Swift - it's his bass I think, in his case, the answer is probably a resounding yes

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1393920067' post='2385717'] I go through periods of thinking I'd quite like one... Then I see something like the single cut they had on the bass gear stand at the weekend and I come to my senses. God that thing was ugly, looked like an expensive ironing board with strings. [/quote] Was that the six string or the five? I used to think the six, which is an Anthony Jackson model, wasn't the most attractive thing around until I played it. May sound crazy but my opinion of its looks totally changed after spending half an hour with it. Maybe it's a bit like having wonderful sex with a woman you thought wasn't very attractive - once you've experienced it you have to keep going back for more I should say "as your local Fodera dealer" (referenced in my initial comment on this thread just in case anyone thinks this is in any way misleading), we can't actually sell these models. They are so complicated to build that Fodera only take direct orders.

I've seen some strings that are really hard to get hold of but I've not heard of them before and just wondered if anyone has ever bought from them? http://www.strings.ie/

[quote name='ern500evo' timestamp='1393890506' post='2385633'] Yes he did say that a used or ex demo model wouldn't have the same restrictions, so that's another option. They do have quite a few used MM basses on their website, so maybe I'll just have to keep checking to see what they've got. [/quote] Check eBay as well. Quite a lot of US dealers sell on eBay and will happily ship ex-demo stock to the UK. Promenade in the UK sometimes have good prices on Used or ex-demo stock too. I won't go into MusicMan pricing over here in the UK but it's not a 'dealer margin' issue. The base price charged to UK dealers is really high compared to USA.

[quote name='HartkeUK' timestamp='1393852713' post='2384986'] Not sure where the "management got involved" came from cause they certainly never mentioned anything to me or the other guys as far as I know. [/quote] I think it was when the Eden guy challenged the two players on the Hartke stand to a slap battle and volume war. They played louder and louder and louder (and one of the buggers was out of tune which made it even worse). You could literally see the Eden guy pushing them to play louder and retaliating by turning his rig up. People were physically wincing and putting their hands over their ears (luckily I found my earplugs but even then I had to leave our stand because the noise was intolerable). I then saw someone disappear to get help because it was so objectionable and saw him heading back to the stands with an organiser. Two minutes later the noise war stopped so I can only assume the organiser got them to shut up and show a bit of respect to both other stands and the show visitors. The Hartke players weren't on the stand at any other time so I think they must have been visitors and not official Hartke people. The Eden guy was definitely one of their demo players. He repeatedly played nasty clicky clacky bass off and on throughout the Sunday sessions. Even his finger style play was very percussive and, at the volumes he was using, was really unpleasant to hear.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1393860160' post='2385125'] No, that was my first recommendation and I did name check you..! Barrie (Merton) had been talking to someone about the Star Bass and as he's tried mine mentioned me and how I was knocking around. Just after I then went over to Bassgear to say my cherios and Barrie ran after the guy, brought him back and then we had our chat, my second Warwick Star Bass endorsing session of the day. Actually, I could not help mentioning to Lee Sklar that I had a Star Bass too.... (forgot to mention it was a cheapy mind) [/quote] It was Sibob Actually I think I deserve the commission payment given that I chased after him and tracked him down at the coffee stand in order to recommend a brand that BassGear don't sell

Look out for a used one in the US. If there's a dealer with a used or ex-demo one then they can ship outside of US.

The noise levels were a bit strange this year. For much of the day on Saturday they were kept really manageable, certainly down in our corner of the show anyway. We had a fairly simple policy of not ever turning up loud and asking people to be respectful of others. Maybe more importantly we asked players to be respectful of some of the instruments we had on display because they were owned by customers and for display or gentle playing only. Anyone that slapped like an idiot was imply turned right down on the amp and asked to stop playing because he might mark the bass. I totally accept that some people feel they can only get a feel for a bass if they slap the living daylights out of it but we weren't able to accept that given the venue constraints and the instruments we chose to display this year. I wasn't aware of any problems from any of our customers and, on Saturday certainly, we had a lot of nice players actually playing nice chordal and harmony driven stuff. The volume near us only really started to rise on Sunday. The biggest culprits in our corner were Eden. They had some demo players on Sunday who just played the same dull slap riffs over & over again at ever increasing volumes. At one point they were nastily out of tune too, we wanted to loan them our little digital tuner. . . Then two guys on the Hartke stand (not anyone we knew) decided to have a huge volume slap-fest duel with them. It actually could have been fun had they not decided to continually turn their amps up higher & higher. Eventually someone complained and they were told to stop by the organisers. In the main this was awfully policed though. At one point we had one guy playing some quite nice stuff, not very loud, just after the horn had sounded to cut volume. We instantly turned him off and gave him headphones. Approx 5 seconds later the Eden stand plugged in and played at a roaring volume and the organiser just walked away and left them to it! I must say that the single loudest thing I heard all day was from Bernie's stand. I was chatting to someone on the Sims stand when a GB player slapped an open E and popped something higher and it nearly took my head off. Literally hurt my ears badly and made me wince. I sense a bit of 'competitive' noise going on & left immediately In terms of stand layout it's not really much to do with the organisers. Each attendee gets to choose their own position. We, very purposefully, went for a corner that seems to be a decent distance from anyone other than, our good friend, Andy Baxter who we know to be a sensible guy. We hadn't allowed for Eden but at least they were Ok for most of Saturday & a chunk of Sunday. The big trick for anyone who seriously wants to try anything out is to wait until there's a big act on the performance stage - the main hall empties right out and the 'noise merchants' tend not to bother playing much because there's no crowd to show off to

[quote name='Geddys nose' timestamp='1393839344' post='2384749'] They always reply promptly to emails and have good stocks. I called in the last time I was in Florida and was surprised how small the shop was but the guys inside were super friendly and let me try anything. [/quote] It's amazing how much high end stock they sell. I believe they are the biggest retailer of both Fodera and Alembic instruments.