MiltyG565

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1414524723' post='2590284']
I actually think the problem lies in that they have Strats, Teles and Jaguars and not much else. They are, as you rightly say, putting too much choice within these. I think they need more variations in model rather than as many variations within each model range if you know what I mean? You should be able to choose a jazz, a precision, a jag, and several more models rather than have to choose between 25 different jazz models. Then I think the decision becomes easier and you don't have to go to Ibanez for a nice, lightweight active bass for example.
[/quote]

Yes, you're probably right.

We had a sales rep in the shop earlier, and he was talking us through the range of SX guitars that they have, and it's very simple, but they sell very well. They basically produce 2 or 3 different ranges across all their Fender copies, so they have a Vintage range, or a Swamp Ash range etc etc

Maybe Fender should consider consolidating. Again, if I had any persuasion within Fender, I'd be pushing to implement a couple of ideas.[list]
[*]Consolidate the ranges - reduce the number of ranges, and then reduce the choice within those ranges, but roll it out to more products
[*]Offer a modification service - Allow people to select some of the parts they want installed on their instrument (limit this to a few easily installed items to keep costs down - I'm thinking pickups+electronics
[*]Offer better choice of colours across the entire range. Possibly do a range-specific "special" colour. Easily distinguished and encourages people to buy.
[/list]
Basically, I'd be trying to bring it into the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, they make some fantastic looking and sounding guitars, but I just can't see how a range so large across so few instruments could ever be a massive money maker. It's top-heavy IMO. Squeeze it all down, and then make a range called something like "Premier Edition" where they can sell their limited edition (what are currently full-run productions) guitars. Other than that, I'd simplify the hell out of it, and make it entirely uniform. I think it would annoy some people, but I think most wouldn't care (and I think it would actually help those people decide what to buy).

However, I don't like how it appears they're moving towards direct-to-consumer sales. At the same time, though, it would level the playing field for guitar shops (especially small ones with no hope of getting Fender on board with them).

[quote name='sharkboy' timestamp='1414523983' post='2590268']
That bloody song is a curse! I've got our keyboard player trained to shout "Hipshot!" in my ear as soon as the song is finished
[/quote]

It's awesome, apart from the fact that the different parts of the song are very different, so you have to switch quickly between playing ultra-fast at the low end of the neck to playing double stops way up at the 17th fret on the D and G strings.

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1414521284' post='2590220']
'Tequilla Sunrise' by the Eagles.
[/quote]

"'s'just another tikeeeeeela sunrise, na-na slowly 'cross the sky, said goodbyeeeeeeeee"

Awesome song. Especially that na-na lyric. Inspired.

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1412788065' post='2572083']
Close (almost).

[url="http://www.daddario.com/DaddarioFAQ.Page?solutionid=37"]http://www.daddario....e?solutionid=37[/url]
[/quote]

It's a bit "American", though, innit? I can't say it without thinking that I'm doing an American accent.

I asked an Italian friend, and he said Da-dar-ee-oh was right (or as close to right as I could manage).

When people call them Dee-ad-dario though It's an apostrophe, not a full stop

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1412709380' post='2571253']
... no taper,
a purple fixing ring for the B,
a bronze fixing ring for the E,
a red fixing ring for the A,
a black for the D and finally,
a green for the G?

It's not a quiz, it's just that I'm not particularly fastidious about changing my strings and the current set have been on about a year and I forgot what they were...

I quite like them so and Ident will help me replace them like for like.
[/quote]

Sounds like a set of D'Addarios.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1414244166' post='2587436']
Nooo!!! Don't tell Milty! He's started StingPing.com.
[/quote]

It's too late, I've found the thread

On the plus side - special deal coming for BCers as soon as our StringPing BC account gets authorised

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1414439147' post='2589323']
Wasn't the bass in tune when you bought it?

Sorry, old band joke

I'd personally NOT buy a Korg clip on tuner. I've got one and it's absolute pants. The £5 non brand thing I bought for my son off Amazon is miles better. All seems a bit hit and miss tbh
[/quote]

Clip-on tuners are very good now. Even ones at £8-£10. You'd think at that price, it would be nothing more than cheap crap, but they usually aren't.

When you buy something else, all you're paying for is the brand and their specific take on the idea. Hardly worth it in most cases. I would (and have) buy the D'Addario micro tuner just because it's so discrete (and it also has a visual metronome - how cool is that!?), and it works really well, but it tunes the bass like any decent tuner.

At least none of us are these guys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIeNM5t8_jI

[quote name='Ticktock' timestamp='1414139027' post='2586220']
When I played drums. Just finished "NeatNeatNeat" by the Damned and the singer announced that the next song would be "NeatNeatNeat" by the Damned. I said to the bass player that I had just played that song (I looked a bit confused). He laughed so hard that we couldn't start the next song until he had calmed down..
To this day I still don't know what song they played as I drummed. Hall like a tunnel, I could only hear a muffled roar.
[/quote]

I would have fallen over laughing!

First gig I ever did was a school thing. We were supposed to play 2 songs, and the first song went really well (especially considering the circumstances), and I was settling in well, but then right as we were about to start our second song, there was a problem somewhere between our singer's acoustic guitar and the mixer. After a few minutes of faffing about, somebody basically told us to get off the stage because we were starting to hold things up. That really annoyed me.

If you want a headstock tuner, it's hard to go wrong with the D'Addario NS Micro-Tuner. Incredibly discrete too. £15-ish

[quote name='miles'tone' timestamp='1414363965' post='2588720']
Random observation:
This reminds me of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. He'd show up at some failing restaurant to troubleshoot and get them back on track, turn them into a little goldmine. Usually the restaurant was overstretching themselves with too many choices on the menu, therefore spending a fortune on stock, customer relations not so great, etc..
Ramsey would always slash the menu down to a handful of dishes and concentrate on doing those dishes incredibly well.
Cue excellent word of mouth, reputation restored, everyone happy..kerching!!

Should've given Gordon the job instead of fu**ing Bono.
[/quote]

Indeed! No company can be all things to all people, and sometimes a company has to keep focus, be ruthless, and simply say no to themselves.

There was a show on a few years ago where a UK furniture company was going bust, and this person came in and asked how many lines they had, and it was thousands! They cut it down to a few hundred and focused on marketing those lines and making them well, and their profits increased.

It's not rocket science. Less lines to manufacture, less money tied up in stock, training, specialist machines etc etc

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1414261223' post='2587720']
I've always felt that Fender never had enough variation in models and in particular never had enough variation in colours and styles. I do think that the various levels of bass (by which I mean Squire, Mex, Chinese, US, standards, specials etc.) is too varied with not enough to distinguish between them in terms of quality. I agree with what Norris said about about that. The differences in price do not match the differences in quality.
[/quote]

I think they have too much choice. How would one ever decide?

Some people think as much choice as possible is fantastic, but it isn't, because it's daunting and off-putting for customers. Just look at their Strat range. Absolutely endless. 15 pages of Strats on their website. In what volume are they selling each and every version to justify 15 pages worth of product variations?

Maybe that's where they're going wrong - too much choice. Too much invested in slight variations of the same product. If I had any persuasion within Fender, I'd be looking to cull a few lines and consolidate the range.

As it is, their variations are a bit mad. Sometimes you see a colour you like, but it's not available on the guitar you like. I presume that's most a cost-saving measure. I would think if the range was consolidated that they could offer all their guitars in all finishes (and do some limited-production "special" finishes to peak the interests of the hardcore fans).

Those are just my thoughts on it. I don't really know of any brand where expanding the range (beyond a certain point) expands the profits. In fact, one of the biggest companies in the world only offers a few variations of each product, and they have millions in cash reserves - Apple.

I hear the news today is that Takamine are now being distributed by Korg.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1413729823' post='2581287']
Cheers geezers Thing is, no-one would be able to convince me to be happy with that timing, the timing is simply not what I want to hear. It honestly sounds TERRIBLE to me

But I really do appreciate your reassurances, thank you
[/quote]

I thought the bass track was cool, and nothing jumped out at me as being "wrong".

Anyway, are we forgetting rule number 1? Never listen to your playing in isolation - the final song is what everyone hears. I know that a lot of RHCP have faults (depending on your definition of fault) in them, but they're more or less inaudible when listening to their albums.

Whatever mistakes you made, I didn't pick up on them, so I guess they aren't that obvious

I've nearly finished my own take on the track, which I'll hopefully upload tomorrow (depending on whether I decide to do more to it or not).

This re-mixing business is really difficult, so I didn't really change the arrangement all that much, but I've changed other aspects which hopefully make it feel like a different song. Nigel might want to hit me, though

This is really difficult! Respect to all entrants so far!

I've finally gotten around to downloading the stems I've never done a remix before, so this could be interesting (and by interesting, I mean my mix might be unlistenable )

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1410628973' post='2551454']
Birmingham! Still waiting for an to pass the baton on to. Interested?
[/quote]

I'm in Northern Ireland buddy. Was wondering just how far north the bass had come. I'm not in a band currently, so have no place to use the bass, but if it came this length, I think I could maybe encourage a couple of local bassists to use it. That was all I was thinking, really.

[quote name='Jimryan' timestamp='1410626884' post='2551423']
Does any other BC members up North want to join in with the relay? Anyone at all?
[/quote]

Where is the bass these days?

[quote name='machinehead' timestamp='1410208184' post='2547208']
I might try the ProSteels out of curiousity but I'm more interested in the feel so I won't go chasing a different sound as I'm happy with how the ELX220BTs sound.
[/quote]

They feel "drier", if that makes sense? EXLs are very sleek and silky, but ProSteels are much different. I've never had anyone complain about that, though. In fact, I've put people onto ProSteels and they've come back to buy more - both guitar and bass.

[quote name='Qlank' timestamp='1410108484' post='2546184']
And I came across the Roto nickel wound and I was really interested to know what they were like. Really disappointed. Felt rough like Roto stainless, too clanky-OP may dig them- and they started to rust after 3 weeks. Back to Picato, more than happy.
[/quote]

I've never had them rust so fast, but they do lose their tone quite early. They sound alright, IMO, and are quite cheap for a big-brand set of bass strings. A couple of years ago, I remember picking up sets of them in a high-street music shop for £14 a set. Undoubtedly, they'll be cheaper online.

[quote name='machinehead' timestamp='1410124476' post='2546452']
I've recently discovered the D'Addario ELX220BL balanced tension strings.

I like these strings so much that I've fitted them to two of my basses, a USA '75 reissue jazz and a MIM 70s classic jazz. I have a third set waiting to go on my 2008 US Precision.

They just feel so lively. Bending and vibrato seem somehow easier to accomplish and overall, I think my playing is a little better due to these strings. Yummy.

Frank.
[/quote]

Try a set of ProSteels for a nice, crisp, piano ring

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1410109847' post='2546211']
And D'Addario are one of the few manufacturers who consistently quote tension figures.
[/quote]

Yes, that's why I used them as an example earlier in the thread. They also make a really good set of strings.

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1407067982' post='2516982']
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]I have been very lucky to acquire a set of Ernie Ball regular slinkies from a fellow BCer through the recycling , these are Brand new in a sealed foil pack , virginal to any purchasers grubby mits.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]These were destined for a project that I am playing with , and a dry run set-up was on the cards , [color=#282828]except , on opening them , I opened the 105 E first and strung it on , then the A 85 , I thought it seemed a bit thin , but carried on , then the D then finally the G , I had terrible issues tuning the thing , so I got out the vernier and would you believe the labelled packet with the 85 was indeed a 70 , so bizzarely from a sealed unopened pack of strings it was put together wrongly , so now I need an 85 to suit .[/color][/font]
[color=#282828][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I generally use Rotosounds and have never had an issue like this , have I been incredibly unlucky ,or is this a relatively common occurrence ? [/font][/color]




[color=#282828][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]ps anyone go a spare new EB .085 roundwound spare , [/font][/color]
[/quote]

You've been unlucky. It happens sometimes, but tbh, I've never had it happen, and I've never had any complaints as such. Somebody on the production line simply put the wrong string in the wrong bag, unfortunately.

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1407159230' post='2517860']
With how good string companies are with any issues I'd have been very surprised if they hadn't got back to you. Good news!
[/quote]

Yup!

[quote name='Shonks' timestamp='1409586729' post='2541205']
I personally love the twangy sound of brand new roundwound strings.
I think you can use eq and damp 'em down for the old school sound or ramp 'em up
for the biting twang I adore.
Either way, they are, to me anyhow, the most versatile, and if I could afford it I'd change 'em at least
once a week, sometimes twice, and if in the studio, I'd change 'em every day.

At £15 on average, that's a hefty amount of cash, and unless you're endorsed by a decent string manufacturer,
you're gonna suffer.

I used to have an endorsement with Rotosound, but now I'm not famous enough for them I became rapidly unendorsed...

anyway, if you look on Ebay there's all these unknown brands going for about £5, and some known brands, eg Stag etc
[/quote]

Try TGI. We get Brunswick guitars in at work from Barnes and Mullins (who own TGI and Brunswick, among many other brands), and they strings they have on them don't sound bad at all. In fact, it's probably the strings that make some of the guitars sound good. They aren't a big brand of string that sells well, so don't expect to find them in your local music shop (although you might be surprised), but looking around online, it seems you can pick up a set for less than £10 - mega cheap by bass string standards. A basic set of a big seller will often be double that price.