MiltyG565

[quote name='SolomonHelsing' timestamp='1417663075' post='2622851']
Sounds more like a "Take what we give you and shut it" shop than custom shop
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... I didn't think Ernie Ball had a custom shop at all...

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1417886583' post='2624905']
If the manager had a go at an employee in front of a customer that would have been far more unprofessional than a warehousing error.
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Indeed. Besides that, it's never good practice to have a go at people you work with or who work for you. That's not how one obtains the best from people. Mistakes happen. Highlight them and work to make sure they don't happen again.

[quote name='taunton-hobbit' timestamp='1417890614' post='2624944']
For my sins, I'm a manager. I wouldn't dream of having a go at an employee in front of a customer. What I might or might not say afterwards to that employee is entirely another matter(!). People make mistakes - it happens - it's life - deal with it (professionally) and move on....

[/quote]

Precisely

Shockwave - I find this slightly difficult to follow. Are you annoyed at how the staff handled this, or are you annoyed that they simply didn't have the instruments you wanted to try out?

It looks to me that the store manager did his best - tried to locate the missing basses, asked if they could be delivered to the store, dealt with you in a calm, respectable manner, even though this mistake was totally out of his hands. Sounds like a pretty good manager to me. If he had offered you something, as you suggested, would you be any happier? Would your impression of Anderton's music emporium be a slightly more positive one?

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1417565252' post='2621920']
Not all bands are 17 year olds happy with a back seat in a van.
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Even at 17, I wouldn't have done a tour sleeping in the back of a van. I find it hard enough to get a decent night's sleep in a regular bed. The least I'd accept is a mattress and heating. If that's in the back of some kind of van/caravan, fair enough. I wouldn't be sleeping on the floor of the van with a jumper for a pillow, though.

Perhaps I'm just a wuss and not all rock and roll (i.e. overtly masculine) like all the people who claim to do massive tours sleeping on a metal floor.

Just thought of another one;

Beautiful World, RATM version. Originally by Devo.

[quote name='spacey' timestamp='1417188204' post='2618004']
Hurt, Johnny Cash. - Nice inch Nails.
Thats what you call a cover.....
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Damn! That's all I came to say

Trent Reznor of NIN even said himself that Johnny Cash did it better than himself, and it's his song! High praise indeed! The NIN version is a bit more abstract though.

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1417202463' post='2618240']
Yeah thats pretty bad, but when you're over 50yr you are not welcome in music shops. Seems to make young sales people very uncomfortable!
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Absolutely not! And I never say to any customer "Is this for your son?". The diplomatic way is an inquisitive "Is it for yourself?" or "Who is it for?" if you aren't sure, but it's generally easy enough to spot if somebody is buying for themselves. IME, parents who want to buy for a kid, but haven't a clue, generally come over to you and say "I don't know if you can help me..." or "I'll tell you what I was wondering..." or something along those lines.

There's clearly a lot to be learned by music shops up and down the country.

[quote name='Mudpup' timestamp='1417129643' post='2617460']
This is the second time its happened to me and in these times of independent shops fighting to survive against the internet giants it constantly surprises me how little effort some stores put into selling their products.

Roll back the clock about 3 years - its a significant birthday for me and i have some cash (£1500) to splash. Always wanted a Warwick Streamer so i hunt around and find one in a shop about an hours drive from me. I call the shop to check its ok to pop in and have a widdle on it a few days in advance. Turn up at allotted time and wander around for about 20 mins in the shop waiting for someone to say hello to me. I eventually give up and grab a bod to ask if its ok to plug the bass in. I am directed to a 15watt Ashdown combo and given a lead. The bass has 10 year old strings on it and a set up that you can drive a bus under and sounds crap. And the combo isnt working properly either. I politely ask if i could use a different amp and could they pop a new set of strings on it and give it a tweak so its playable to which they answer "not unless youre going to buy it".
Anyone spotted the flaw in this approach yet?
I go for a walk taking my dosh with me and buy something else a few days later.

Now to todays experience.

Saw a Musicman bass (think zingy, twangy, lively.......) on ebay that i was interested in - Xmas just round the corner - and its for sale in a shop thats in the way back from work.
Pop in, locate bass, ask politely etc........
2003 bass with the original strings on it again and in dire need of ten minutes with an allen key. Sounded like a rubber band.
Suffice to say, i dont have a nbd to report.

Is it just me being picky or do people just not know how to present a product to its best advantage?

No wonder theyre all going bust.......
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I really don't get it either. Some people take the approach that the products speak for themselves. They will, if they're being presented in the best possible way. But some music shops seem to think it's enough that their staff are good at music, and that the presentation of the shop doesn't matter. Totally wrong, IMO. When you walk into a music shop, you're a customer just like you are at Tesco or any shop in any town, and you deserve at least the same standard of service and respect that you'd find in any shop. In fact, I'd say that small, independent shops should offer a much greater customer experience than large chains, because they need to go above and beyond to get and maintain customers.

Now, as for the chap not restringing the bass unless you were going to buy - What a moron. The immediate thought going through his head should have been "This guy's interested, and fair enough, that bass could do with a set of strings". We keep instruments on the shop wall purely for the purposes of display and testing out, and I will check the strings on a weekly if not daily basis (depends on how busy we are). If the strings are looking a bit dull, slap a new set on - any sale lost based on the sound of an instrument is worth far more than a set of strings. When you're talking about a £1500 bass, a £20 set of strings isn't going to hurt your profits.

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1417279428' post='2618815']
By the way @spacey, not sure what the exact figures are, but I'm afraid us bass players are WAY less than 25% of a guitar shop's custom.
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IME, way less than that. An estimate of 5% would likely be generous. YMMV I suppose.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1417247160' post='2618484']


I think the point is if you want to be out earning money from gigging you can't be too choosy about the songs you play.

.
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True. I think it would be naive to think you can be a small fish in a really big pond, and get paid for playing only the music you really want to play. It's a notion that I tried to explain to my mate a few years ago, but he's not the brightest chap, and couldn't grasp that playing for money and playing purely for the love of it can be 2 different kettles of fish.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1417238663' post='2618471']
[i]"All the musicians I know at the local bar level that will only play music they like, are all band-less, gig-less and sitting in their bedrooms noodling."[/i]

Blue
[/quote]

Maybe that's what they like to do?

[quote name='Cameronj279' timestamp='1417185517' post='2617942']
Long story short I've owned a Dingwall Afterburner 1 for a good few months now and love it. The feel of the bass is superb and the fan frets are incredible to play as well as the famous B string (and it weight almost half of my previous bass).

However. I've found myself feeling like the tone is somewhat "clinical" to my ears and I'm not one for wanting to change eq's on amps too much as they tend to vary so much from amp to amp it's near impossible to get a consistent sound. Even in rehearsals I've found myself constantly messing around with amp EQ's just to get it to fit in the mix correctly.

I was considering going down the route of putting a preamp in it but I'm not certain wether or not it may just accentuate the issue I already have with the bass tonally or not. It's a large expense for me to do that at the moment... one that I just can't afford with the rest of the money I'm needing to put towards the incoming ACG.

Perhaps it's just GAS speaking?
[/quote]

What kind of pickups have you got in it? Do Dingwalls use only their own pickups because of the non-standard arrangement - fan-frets/multiple scale lengths ?

If you can fit an off-the-shelf pickup, I think that would do the trick (pickup dependant, of course). The pickup shapes the sound of an instrument more than people often give credit for. If you've got a sound you don't like, rather than adding stuff on all the time to try and get a sound you do like, why not start with the root of your sound.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1417107707' post='2617175']
You those ads are chosen by matching keywords with your browsing habits?
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And this is why nobody can ever go on Twitter from my laptop except for me

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1416962847' post='2615639']
You're wearing t-shirts too.

Some T-shirts do look good on some people. Some people don't know this. Some people don't know recognise that they should never wear T-shirts.

The thing is many folk are not t-shirt shaped.
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I'm not t-shirt shaped. I'm more smoking jacket shaped. It hides the man-boobs better

[quote name='UglyDog' timestamp='1417034917' post='2616525']
His diatribe response seems to be based more on his dislike of the band and their music than anything else.
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And also some bitterness to the fact that they spent their nights on tour in some low-rent hotels. Very odd. If I have to be on the road for work for 28 days in 1 go, I wouldn't really relish the thought of sleeping in the back of the van or on somebody's floor. Besides, when you have hired-hands, you can't really ask them to give up the bare-minimum of creature comforts - a bed.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1417104298' post='2617129']
One Knob Pumper.

Fnarrr.
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This is only after coming up as an ad for me on Twitter, and I thought it was a joke until I looked a little closer

[quote name='tayste_2000' timestamp='1413373363' post='2577596']
Afraid I don't know the specifics but about a month ago there were lots of messages on his FB wall, it was very sudden though
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My goodness, I think I might have been talking to one of his mates recently. He was obviously quite upset about things. Can't be sure it's the same guy, but from the same area, and it looks like he has a similar rig. Very sad stuff

[quote name='DavidMcKay' timestamp='1416680528' post='2612627']
Well - after all the dust has settled down and I finally paid my £7 to post the ad I ended up selling via Gumtree.

Sods law.



David
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Sometimes that's just the way it goes. I've posted ads on eBay before only to have one of my mates say the next day "I'm looking one of those, sure I'll buy it. Take it off eBay.".

[quote name='jmchich' timestamp='1416639974' post='2612111']
How about ballkickers?

It doesn't have tyres... or balls.
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Obviously we differ greatly on what constitutes a good bass.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1416497369' post='2610901']
Is this open to timewasters?
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No tyre kickers! No low-ballers!

[quote name='tonybassplayer' timestamp='1416481292' post='2610581']
In 1995 I moved from running a small Ford and Nissan dealership to a Rover site. I went on a two day introduction course and couldn't believe the arrogance/naivety of the two guys running it. They had obviously been with the company for years.

After a day and a half I politely suggested that at the weekend they go out and drive their competitors cars. Clearly they didn't and the rest is history.

Unless you constantly go forward you automatically go backwards.

I am 56 and love my Jazz bass and Strat but I am no longer the target market.
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I get exactly what you're saying. I see some brands as being a bit stuck in the past (not necessarily just instrument manufacturers), and it's not hard to see why. The people producing the product love what they're making, the people selling the product love what they sell (and that they get it for free), but I get the impression that they never try out their competition, because if they did, they would realise the importance of changing what they do.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1416582338' post='2611677']
Yup, I'm starting to get that impression

The point to me though is PAINPal. They give you all this "use us we protect you" and, well, shock horror, not always it would seem.
Ultimately after going through Paypals procedures, then credit card company procedures, if no result, I will go to the fraud squad, even if they do tell me it's a civil matter.
Jeez, it should just be so easy
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No, they don't offer protection for all transactions. There's also no regulation which means they have to offer protection. It's simply a marketing tool. These are the things one should know about before using the service.

Luckily for you, you paid on your credit card, so you've still got protection It might be an idea to get in touch with the police about this now, rather than later, as it does seem thoroughly dodgy.

Douglas, Stu, I haven't told you about my sideline, have I?

I'm Sherlock Holmes in a local production of Sherlock Holmes

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1416580444' post='2611651']
Not being in on Saturday. He was apparently in Blackpool, had a turn, doctor told him not to drive.
Leaving it until Tuesday. Dunno, none given.
Phone number was for a Sunday league he allegedly runs (I didn't try it until I'd seen the old lady).
The old lady apparently was his mother in law, who, unbeknownst to him had been discharged, on her own, from hospital that morning. Bit of research last night shows the property to be a ONE bed council bungalow. I knew it was small but...............

Send flowers? I might if I knew who the Hell lived where?
[/quote]

Why would he give you the number of a sunday league club instead of his mobile phone or home number? Even if he does run the Sunday league club, unless he's there more than he's at home (and I doubt it), then it's kind of odd to give that out instead of mobile or landline number.

Mother-in-law who was discharged on her own? And then she just let herself into her daughter's/son-in-laws house? Still sounds a bit odd (especially since you also now know it's a 1-bed house). When I was in hospital, they wouldn't even discharge a 20 year old unless there was somebody there to pick them up. I doubt hospitals are waving bye-bye to frail, deaf 80 year olds, and not even telling the family.

Sorry, but it all still sounds very suspicious to me.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1416570224' post='2611512']
In true Karl " if I can cock it up, I will, twice" style, early last night, I had fired off a polite but obviously questioning rant as to why Paypal wouldn't accept this dispute.

Not long after that, I received the email from the sellers son, saying his dad had passed away suddenly on Tuesday..

This morning I got an email from Paypal saying they had opened up my claim .

Now I know I'm a soft sh*te and if this lad genuinely did lose his father suddenly on Tuesday, he really is going to be upset with Paypal giving him a hard time.

I shouldn't be let out really.
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That still doesn't explain why the house where this man lives had only a frightened old lady in it, who, from what you've said so far, hadn't informed her family that there was a stranger lurking about the house, and also why the number you were given was wrong.

You see, those things still leave a massive question mark over the entire transaction, for me. And it's not below a con artist to play on our innate human emotions. There's obviously no way to tell if that is the son of the seller, or even if the seller has died. Maybe I'm just overly-cynical? But what was his excuse for not being in on Saturday? What was his reason for leaving it until Tuesday to post? Why didn't the phone number work? Who was the old lady in the house?

There are far too many questions over this for me to take it at face value, and if I were you, Karl, I'd push on with the dispute. Even if it is all above board, it's still your money. You need to protect your interests too. Send the family a bouquet of flowers if you're feeling bad about it.

I have a similar one which I might sell, but I might keep it. Anyone interested?

iPhones are assembled in China, but I think most of the parts inside them are actually German, and very few are actually made in China.

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1416167113' post='2607562']
All of that lovely tone sucked away by the Behringer pedal!
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I listened to a demo of some pickups recently, and the chap demonstrated them clean, so without any effects at all, and then stood on a distortion pedal (a Boss one, nonetheless), and all the tone he had just died, and it was just fuzzy and distorted, which is not exactly what I expect from a decent distortion pedal.