kerley

How long are you actually talking about? 20 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes? Could they practice their tuning technique as how is it taking more than a few seconds to fine tune (not as though you are tuning up a new set of strings or something, is it)

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1405945941' post='2506758'] I thought the feedback thing was to inform buyers about sellers selling dodgy or broken/faulty items, or not posting stuff, basically dishonest sellers. [/quote] Feedback is on any part of the sale, seller etc,. It is not an honesty rating, it is feeding back on the seller. This seller totally deserves negative feedback. Just imagine for a second if 50% of sellers did this and decided their item didn't sell enough and the winning bidder can't have the item they have legally won. Basic rules of auctions, reserve set or you have to take whatever it gets.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1405940233' post='2506654'] All this 'leave him negative feedback', what's that going to achieve ? [/quote] Because that is a key part of eBay! For example, if you were looking to buy an item on eBay and found two the same for sale. One from a seller who has 90% positive with a few negatives around not dispatching the item and one from a seller with 100% positive for 100's of sold items which one would you buy from? That is how having a 100% rating affects the seller so poor seller, less money or no sale at all. As for fees, the fee for a reserve is minimal. The main fee on eBay is the final value sale fee which at something like 10% is still very good for an auction fee. What he should have done considering he knows what he wants for the bass is list it as Buy It Now for 30 days at the price he wants. In reality nobody would have bought it but at least he would have only wasted his own time.

Look at it the other way. I have sold quite a few items where the winner has just not paid, doesn't respond etc,. Can't even leave negative feedback on buyers, have to waste time waiting for period before re-listing etc, etc,. Just as you can't force him to send the bass, I can't force people to pay. At least with a bit of negative feedback along the lines of "don't buy from this person he doesn't send the item" may stop it happening again I suppose. Or you think it would but even sellers with 95% positive still happily sell things but possibly don't get the same final prices as a 100% lots of feedback person.

I would actually say the opposite as it is one of the worst looking basses to me (yes I do wear glasses).

Another fan of Eight Miles High here. Bought the 5th Dimension LP when I was sixteen and still have it 30 years later. I like their version of Hey Joe on the same album too but you better not listen to it as you may not like the guitar work....

[quote name='electric nate' timestamp='1405379585' post='2501515'] It's sort of frustrating that something so simple seems not to exist. My googling shall continue but it's looking more and more like i'm going to have to spend a wedge getting something built for me [/quote] I like simple too and I did own a hand built bass with a single humbucker wired directly to jack with no knobs at all. I can however see why such basses don't exist as mass produced items - we are very much in the minority! You sometimes get signature basses like the Nikki Six Thunderbird with just volume but even that has two humbuckers And when you do find a bass with a single pickup it is very unlikley to be a single jazz pickup by the bridge as that is too much one trick pony for most people (especially without a tone knob to get some variety)

This is more evolution of shopping than capitalism as such. Shops that sell a small amount of what is available are not going to last much longer. 20 years ago you wouldn't have been contemplating buying bass guitar gear from a warehouse supplier in Germany yet now it is so easy to find and buy the stuff why wouldn't you. Example - I fancy some new flatwound strings. Using the internet I have a selection of 20+ brands that I can choose from and get the best price for each one. Going to my local shop (which is quite a comprehensive one) I can choose from 2 sets (both of which cost more than online and neither are what I actually want). I would never expect a shop to carry all 20+ brands but that doesn't help me as the consumer. All local shops are good for is the less discerning who would just buy whatever they stocked at whatever price. The forward looking business owner would have already seen this coming and moved on while others will drown.

A good tip if buying used if to set up a search on eBay using location. Set it with 25 miles of your post code and look for collection only items (which a fair few basses and especially amps are) The advantage of this is that the items go for a much lower price due to the much more limited number of potential buyers as a lot of people can't be bothered to travel. Prices can be lower to the point that I keep and eye out and buy stuff to just to sell for a profit by selling with postage...

If you have the time and more importantly the shop gives you the time then I would just go and try out the basses that appealed to me when seeing them. We don't know if you like short scale, thin necks, active or passive etc,. but you would soon find out when trying them out. And when I say trying out I mean in a separate room for 10 minutes each so you get a real feel for how they are to play and how they sound. Even then, if you are like most people you will start wondering within a week whether you bought the right one and start looking at other basses. If you are lucky you can rise above that and know that none of that really matters and will just put your time into actually getting better at the instrument.

Not wanting to pay the postage to return something is not Warwick's problem and if the item is proven to be faulty a good retailer (Thomann not Warwick in this case) would cover the postage to return anyway. The only course of action here is to contact Thomann...

You can't really have it both ways. You can't have a really low action and play with a heavy handed approach so I would say style of playing rather than technique is not helping if you want the lowest action the bass could get away with. I like a really low action but I play softly. If I hit the strings hard with a pick then I will get noise from the fretboard and would need to raise it if that was how I played.

[quote name='hubrad' timestamp='1404737169' post='2495185'] Have to disagree a bit with these two.. Not so much [u]where [/u]it's made, but by whom - a really skilled maker will make a difference it sounds like you've not yet experienced. I agree the actual country is immaterial. Electronics; even if you can't so much hear the difference, there are better and worse parts even just considering passive circuits. Case in point, we did a guitar show a year or two back on Merseyside, and a guy came along looking at the replacement parts. Good quality Japanese Strat 5-way switch at about 7 quid. 'I'm not paying any more than two quid for a switch, cos I wear them out half a dozen a year.' Well, durrr! [/quote] Exactly, I will have a bass made by a skilled worker in Indonesia please. I have no bias towards USA for example so why pay $100 per hour when I can pay $5 for the same thing. As for passive electronics, agree there are better and worse parts but even the very best pots, capacitor and wiring are still cheap. Of course if you need the exact sound of an Alembic then my point doesn't work, but if you only need the sound of a passive instrument (which majority probably do) then the extra money if not a neccessity in getting a nice sounding and very playable bass.

If using a simple passive bass then the number of parts involved is pretty low and it is very easy to get a very nice sounding and great to play bass for very little money. They don't normally arrive like that but the fact that a few tweaks and low cost changes can make a £150 bass great to play proves the point. After that what are you paying for that is really required? More expensive woods - debatable whether that makes it any better Better level of finish - looks nicer but doesn't play or sound better Made in a country with higher labour rates - makes no difference at all Electronics - £10 of pots and wire in whatever bass you pick Pickup - just put the pickup from the £1000 bass into the £150 bass So unless there is actually something technically wrong with the lower cost bass, i.e. the frets are not positioned correctly, then no you do not need to spend anywhere near £1000 for any purpose besides looks.

Just really down to the seller to claim lost item (assuming he has covered himself). I have sold a lot of things on eBay and any items that have a value I can't avoid to just throw away if lost (i.e. anything over about £20) always goes Special Delivery. I am charging the postage and people know they are paying for Special Delivery so if they don't want to pay the postage price then don't buy the item but at least I am well covered. Only had one lost items so far (standard first class with proof of postage) and Royal Mail refunded without any issues. They do contact the receiver apparently to check they haven't got it so if your item miraculously turns up you will have to decide how honest to be...

Yes, you will get your money back if you don't receive the item. You do need a bit of patience here though as assuming it was sent Royal Mail the seller can't even claim until 30 days so if he did send it and it is lost in the post it is hardly right to get angry with him about it. Okay he isn't responding but he has marked it dispatched so that is all he would say anyway isn't it? Agree with others up there. I have sold 100's of things on eBay and I am a very good seller but I have had more problems from buyers than from anyone I have bought from. The change I would make to eBay is that the payment gets automatically taken from the winning bidders Paypal account when the auction ends. A lot of people just don't bother paying but you still have to wait 7 days, cancel listing, realist and wait for auction to end again etc, etc,.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1359207165' post='1951549'] But that means reducing the value of the playing to the level of an unboxing video, or one of cats being cute. [/quote] No it doesn't. Just because they are using the same medium doesn't make it all of the same worth.

[quote name='dand666' timestamp='1359128813' post='1950354'] Thing is with the Line 6 mobile in, it has no AUX in and also doesn't integrate with itunes library. [/quote] Yes it does. As stated above you can have GarageBand or other amp sim app running in the background and play along to iTunes. But the better way is to store your music in the Apple "Music" app and the all the tracks are available in GarageBand and Mobile Pod themselves.

A few of you are missing the point and use of Youtube here. It is a form of entertainment in itself and these bass players are providing that. Maybe not to you but to many others. I don't want to see someone unboxing their new iPhone but clearly some people do so good for them and Youtube provides a means for them to see it. It gives me a chance to see 1,000s of players of all sorts of instruments up close, some are more informational than others clearly but without it I would have nothing to see at all.

[quote name='Kobra11' timestamp='1359113423' post='1950016'] IMO Yamaha definitely make the best budget instruments for sure,[/quote] don't limit it to budget instruments, they also make good higher end stuff as well.

Line 6 Mobile In is great. Absolutely no noise when monitoring or recording on Ipad. Sounds better than using headphones through my amp and so many amp models to play with it is easy to get a very good range of tones. I actually found the amps in Garageband to be just as good as the amps in Line 6 Mobile Pod and Ampkit. As 95% of my practicing/playing is via headphones in the house this has turned out to be an ideal solution. Simply plugged into an iPad mini with a range of amps, rythym backing tracks, metronome, music tracks, online tab and PDF etc,. all in one small unit.

Yamaha are a pretty safe bet. I have owned various Yamaha products and all have been well made (classical guitar, steel string acoustic guitars, bass, keyboard). I guess what is stopping them being a 'cool' brand is that they are a bit like the Toyota of instruments.

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1359018199' post='1948422'] Why can't Fender build basses like this, simple, straightforward, good quality control. [/quote] They can. The Classic Vibe P I bought a few weeks back is perfect and I cannot find a single fault with it. I guess what you are meaning is why can't they do it 100% of the time but there is a chance that the G&L you have is a good one just as the Classic Vibe I have is a good one?

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1358849478' post='1945869'] Chipped paintwork is an entirely different problem and is not what we're discussing. [/quote] A better analogy may be shutlines on a car. For example if one side of the bonnet had a noticeably larger gap between edge of bonnet and wing would you still buy the car. After all, it would make no difference to how the car drives or operates. I don't actually think a next pocket gap makes a greal deal of diffference either but there shouldn't be one and it can't be justified.

Line 6 also do a connector (Mobile In) that uses the 30 pin connection rather than going into the headphone socket like the iRig £50ish so cheaper than the Apogee jam but does the same digital conversion. Just picked one up used for £35 so will let you know what it is like later this week. I will be using with Garageband primarily although also have the free Line 6 POD app but it unfortunately contains no bass amp models.