ambient

Maybe buy a 4 string set with a separate C string, lots of manufacturers do that.

[quote name='Jonnyboy Rotten' timestamp='1389697565' post='2336934'] No different to taking out a mobile phone contract etc....its a fairly standard request. [/quote] I had to show ID when opening my bank account, and maybe when getting my phone contact, but they [i][b]didn't[/b][/i] take a copy. I would want to know what happens to the copy.

Thanks . I'll enjoy watching that at some point after my exams end on Friday !

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1389658081' post='2336766'] I assume you've seen the whole concert of this on Youtube? [/quote] No, I got that link off his website.

You have to send copies of your passport , why ? Gotta say that's definitely not something that I'd fancy doing. What do they do with it when they've finished with it ? I don't like them, and I'd just be reluctant for them to have a copy of my passport and a utility bill.

Here try this.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1389658567' post='2336768'] Haha, me too! Ironically, my payment cleared about two hours ago! [/quote] Good . I hate Ebay and Paypal.

I've got a PDF of his Progressive bass concepts book. It's got some transcribed parts in there for 'metropolis' and 'scarred'. The accompanying TAB is for a 6 string, but the parts can be played on a 4.

[quote name='noelk27' timestamp='1389636860' post='2336404'] Gumtree is eBay. But, Gumtree is where eBay wants private sellers to list, with eBay proper being a part/full-time retailer marketplace. [/quote] I didn't know that .

I don't think you can beat Gumtree. I sold an Ikea bookcase on Gumtree last year. I placed the advert, and literally within 2 minutes of posting it the phone rang with someone wanting it. I've sold 2 basses on there, a condenser mic, studio monitors, an amp, and numerous bits of furniture. Best thing of all is it's free, and they come and collect it and pay cash .

I've got from within as a PDF, I don't seem able to upload it on here though. If you want I can email it you if you want to PM me your email address.

The very first ERB that I saw was a Manson. My uncle who got me into playing gave me a load of his old magazines when I was about 14. There was one magazine from the mid 1980's that had reviews of some 5 and 6 string Manson basses, still got it somewhere in the loft .

I have 100% feedback too, and in over 100 transactions, but I've never sold anything on there, so they'd do the same to me. My sister in law sold a load of furniture and other items from her late Grandfathers house a few months ago. She'd bought loads of stuff but never sold anything. The same happened to her, she had one hell of a job getting her money for one item. The buyer disappeared and didn't leave feedback. It took weeks of emails to paypal and ebay before they released her money. Despite sending them numerous copies of the receipt from the courier and the tracking number showing it as delivered. There's also the risk of the buyer turning around and saying the item is broken or faulty, as happened to my other sister in law. The buyer got a refund, my sister in law received an empty box back from the buyer .

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1389628438' post='2336274'] I have 100% positive feedback! [/quote] You misread me . I mean you have to have sold 100 items and received positive feedback for each one, therefore 100 positive feedbacks as a seller.

Patitucci.[url="http://s769.photobucket.com/user/ianhowardbass/slideshow/Scores"]http://s769.photobuc...lideshow/Scores[/url] Sorry the slideshow is backwards. I couldn't seem to upload photos direct onto here for some reason .

I believe they do it if you have less than 100 positive feedbacks as a seller. They hold on to it until the buyer leaves positive feedback, or sometimes later depending on how they're feeling.

Anthony Jackson.

I've got some Patitucci stuff that I can upload if you want ?

If it's a weekend that you're going then I should phone ahead, he's not like a normal shop with 9 to 5 opening, especially on a Saturday.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1389566875' post='2335691'] These examples above (& thousands more like them) are the reasons I'd never want to be a professional musician - it really does sound like hell on earth to me. I've never enjoyed playing enough that I'd play anything just to pay the bills. I've known a couple of fantastic musicians who worked in studios, did theatre work etc. for years & just became so unhappy with music they may as well have been working in a factory. [/quote] I don't. The theatre gig was amazing, I'd like to do west end stuff at some time. I got paid £400 a week, played three 40 minute sets 5 nights a week, I could eat what I wanted 24 hours a day and got to see some amazing places that I'd never been to, how can that be hell ?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1389565834' post='2335679'] Now this, I would contradict. If you mean by 'career in music', pop star, roaming the world in a jet, you may well be right, but I would maintain that there are far more healthy, satisfying and viable careers to be had in music than that. Teaching, orchestral pit work, studio sessions, sound engineers, producers... The list is long. Pop stars are only a tiny, highly visible, tip of the iceberg. [/quote] In the absence of a like button . The first day at uni we were told that we were actually sitting beside the most important person. Classmates and fellow musicians, networking. I did 4 evenings and a matinee at Birmingham rep four years ago through a drummer friend, and I did 2 months on a cruse ship around the med thanks to a guy at a music shop, who recommended me to a fellow bass player, who recommended me to the bandleader. Through that I got gigs from the 2 keys players that I played with on the ship. It goes on like that, spreading. I gave up on the idea of being a pop star when I was about 20.

Like we're taught at uni, there's more to a career in music than just playing. You have to have a portfolio approach to it, earning money from teaching, writing/composing, journalism, production work, arranging, live sound, studio engineering, organising gigs or open mic's or jam nights, as well as playing live and doing sessions. You have to be versatile at what you do, and treat things like sight reading and harmony knowledge as a skill, not as the work of the devil. The internet has actually made things easier. I did some sessions on bass, and recorded synths for a band in Bristol before Christmas, without leaving the house. You can teach students via the internet too. Ultimately though, it's all music .

One of my tutors said the other week, and it's something I agree wholeheartedly with. Being a musician isn't just 'something I do'. It's me, it's it's being me. I'd rather be a poor musician, but be a musician than do a real job where money is the incentive rather than music. Modern life is almost entirely money and consumerism focussed, and it's not something I aspire to. Sit on a tube train or a bus, or just walk down the street and you're bombarded with adverts by companies wanting you to spend money, or save money (by spending money with them), there's this new gotta have gadget or that gotta have holiday. I earn sufficient from what few gigs I do (I'm a full time student and used to do more, but have had to cut back), and I get a full student loan and grant. After uni I intend to teach music, and do more gigs.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1389550822' post='2335435'] I presume then that you didn't declare it or weren't stopped at customs. It has nothing to do with what i wrote. People are stopped at customs all the time at British airports when entering from EU countries. Customs are also well aware that although you may have come from an EU airport they will know the route you have taken to get there from outside the EU. People bring items into the country all the time undeclared but i was stating what happens if customs search your luggage. As i said they are not stupid people but just too busy to stop everyone. [/quote] It has because it's a way that I circumvented the workings and avoided VAT and import duty. I didn't declare it, there were no customs people there, and I wasn't gonna go searching for one to declare it to. I also avoided paying tax in the USA by paying for it before I went over . If you have an instrument booked onto the flight as luggage, I doubt (but I'm probably wrong) that customs will bother interrogating you to check that the one you've come back with is the same one you went out with. You could also insure the new one several weeks before you go, that way you'd have some paper work. I don't have receipts for any of my basses, they were all bought 2nd hand. By your logic if I flew to the USA with one them, I'd end up paying tax and VAT on my return for a bass that I already owned.

I met a guy a few years ago, he was an American living over here. He sent his brother the money for a beautiful Smith bass, and paid for his flight over as a holiday, his brother bought the bass over with him. So another option is for the other guy to come over here. It all depends on the values of the instruments, and the costs involved in shipping etc.