Dood

Oh maaaaan have there!!!! PHEW! Thank you so much indeed, thank you! Incidentally, on the subject of QUEEN: This day in 1976 they played their famous free gig in Hyde Park to an estimated 150,000+ audience. So I'm celebrating with my new bass

And here she is, the object of my affections. One Y.O.B Fender Precision Bass (1976) Of course in natural with a rosewood fingerboard. This is a very specific configuration for a reason. Firstly, because I grew up listening to Queen. The late-70's mid-d80's era of John Deacon's "main" precision bass actually had it's sunburst finish removed to natural, rather than this one that came as is. Said Precion bass ended up having a refinish in black with gold hardware, which is rather sexy! Anyway, I digress... I've been trying to find this spec bass for ages and have never been able to afford one. (I've just sold lots of bass gear!!!) Also, many years ago, my mum helped me buy my first precision bass (which I tried to re-buy last year when it resurfaced some 25 years later on this very forum, but the seller wouldn't budge). I've always felt rubbish about selling it, so it will help put my mind at ease now that I have replaced it. - Funnily enough, same colour scheme! And, finally, to bring this long tale to an end, I have of course a huge thank you to make. WUNJO GUITARS https://www.wunjoguitars.com for being, frankly, bloody amazing in all of this. I've had so many conversations with Jimmy in the bass department that he's practically family now. They kept on at UPS every day and would not let this situation drop for a second. They've displayed a customer service that I've not experienced "when the sh*t hits the fan" and get my thorough thumbs up. I'd also like to thank Tom who stepped up to the challenge of recording me a whole bunch of videos so I could see and hear the bass in action as I was unable to get down to London to see it in person. Now that we are getting acquainted, me and the bass are gonna see if we hit it off together. We've just played through the whole of Queen's The Miracle from start to finish and that went pretty well.

Yes apologies! My day has been a busy one away from my computer mostly. Ok, if you are all sitting comfortably, then I will begin. But first, a quick recap. UPS Customer Services up until this point had taken 8 days to do what essentially feels like "not much". At the 11th hour, the UK CEO stepped in after a lengthy communication from the shop supplying the bass. And...... can you chuffing believe it, FOUND THE BASS in what seemed like 30 minutes flat! Yes, it took having to track down the UK CEO to put this debacle straight. Needless to say, the box (condition unknown at the time) was sent straight back to the shop in question to be inspected. I had a long, long conversation with them about how I was feeling and then FINALLY yesterday said box of joy was despatched out to me:

Tidy stage, tidy mind! Im not sure what the original phrase is, but I am totally with you. It winds me up when cables are just dumped on the stage. Piles of knotted cables around stage boxes or mixing desk just looks so messy - and a total nightmare when you are the one to have to root around fault finding in the dark. It grinds my gears to see people unable to coil up cables correctly, because it always ends up being a total mess in the cable storage. Not to mention a waste of space as nothing will lay flat. Of course as you mention, it’s also most likely to cause problems when cables are constantly stood on, knotted and pinched under speaker cabinets and other band hardware. if I am running multiple cables back and forth, I’ve bought some re-useable cable ‘sheaths’. They look a bit like tubes made out of string vests ha ha! It keeps my stage area super tidy

I suffered my first ever cable failure after using the same type and brand of instrument and speaker cables. It was only when I looked at the label and markings on the cable I was able to work back in my memory to when I bought it. It could be older but it was definitely part of my live rig (4CM) for a band that released an album in 2000. It has also been in use pretty much every day for the last 8 years in my teaching set up, that I know for sure. So, if you look after your cables and you buy quality, you should be getting about... 18 years use!

I suspect it could be down to the new partnership that is happening down at BGM Towers.

It does however slice cheese beautifully.

Oh man, I can't believe this! I've not been able to post anything on this thread for almost a day (trying) then all of my attempts mysteriously appear! What's going on! Anyway.. Just to drag it out a little bit longer, you're gonna have to wait until tomorrow!! After the investigation was closed, we went back to the Management Concerns team absolutely appalled by the abrupt halt to proceedings and the lack of any sort of sympathy considering it was UPS themselves who had not only screwed up but lost (for me) a sought after instrument. Oh and the shop would have to foot the entire bill for the loss!

Many years ago, I played in a band with the very talented worldwide talent that is Andy James, with Matt Goom on drums (ex-Quireboys, ex-Glenn Hughes). We had just slammed our way through a covers set and being as our singer and guitarist both loved a bit of Bon Jovi, we finished with "It's My Life". Last note punched out when out dashed behind us (via the toilet next to the stage) Papa Lazarou shouting, "It's MAaaaaaaa Wiiiiife, now!" The funniest thing ever and also the most profound upstaging I've ever experienced!

Test post.. @charic

Test post

In all my years playing this song, I don't think I ever actually listened to the original to reference the actual notes I should be playing. Therefore, heading down to a "low D" was purely because I felt like it rather than having learnt it note for note from the original track. So, I couldn't have been 100% sure if there was a D1 in it. Yet sure enough, the D1 appears and therefore yes you could drop D on a 4 string or use the D on a 5 string bass.

ok, so I caved @Al Krow. The Valeton OC-10 arrived today. Hoping to get a chance to play with it later on. I love that it comes with a precept piece of velcro for pedal boards. THAT is a huge bonus.

Ok Basschat appears to be eating my posts. So I’ll try a third time before I give up tonight. This exactly my point. I can forgive a company for a service failure. “We’re only human” is fine. What I find totally unacceptable though is when a company knows it is 100% their fault yet through a failure or process or even just common decency, they make matters worse and worse. The responses ranged from ‘not bothered canned responses to borderline rude. The comment above was literally unbelievable. They had a detailed account that included confirmation from their own driver that the parcel in question had been picked up, yet they still didn’t care for it or their customer. Right up until the CEO’s office stepped in. They stopped the investigation (I.e. sitting around doing fcuk all) at day 8. A further 2 days passed with no communication and then........

Testing, testing. I’ve posted twice and neither of my replies have appeared. Just trying with a different browser...

Look Ped, those photos are just not appropriate for a family platform. I know you are immensely proud of it, but I simply can not “cup it for a while” 😂😂😂

Yes, absolutely bang on. I can totally forgive small failures in service. “We’re only human” blah blah blah.. but to be repeatedly be given the run around by several staff members, not be included in communications and then to top it off saying we hadn’t supplied the necessary information that even I was CC’d in to at least three times... I had to check I hadn’t taken too much medication. They have demonstrated that they have no process and no idea what to do when something like this happens. It also seems they have no fall back system should something be “not scanned” at source.. oh and again at the depot. Fail, fail, fail.

Money, Amps, Money, Pedals, Money, Basses lol... oh and Money

The investigation ended up taking 8 days and 30 minutes. I’ll be back after that pause they do in game shows, when they give you the bad news after the advert break...

Well, I know everyone is waiting for an update and sadly it got a lot worse long before anything improved. So, i’ll cover that first. UPS give an 8 day window to, ehem, ‘resolve’ any problems. However, as both the shop and I quite literally had to plead customer services for answers and updates, our lack of responses lead to frustration that things weren’t moving quickly enough. When we did get through to our contact, he just threw us canned responses that we’ll have to go with the 8 days.. slightly frustrating when he kept telling us that is was “only day 5...” and that we’d still be stuck without knowing exactly what they were doing, if anything.. especially when it was obvious the poor chap couldn’t count either. He was always a day behind lol.. Day 9 came around and the CEO’s management concerns department had been mobilised. Yes, we had to go to the extent of finding the UK CEO’s office ourselves because customer services certainly wouldn’t escalate for us. Poor, poor show. Day 10 arrived and there’s obviously some crossed wires in UPS, despite them having a blow by blow account including confirmation from their own driver that the parcel(s) were definitely collected on that day. Two parcels safely completed their journey, yet the box in question had disappeared in to thin air. Then our hearts dropped: Good afternoon, Today the investigation was closed, unfortunately we were not able to locate the parcel after the checks with the depots and a claim will not be issued as you were not able to provide us a proof that the parcel was collected and we did not have any records that the parcel was within our system. Kind Regards, Paulius

Funnily I heard something similar and I was then sent a link to the video of the baggage handlers on flights that rifle through the baggage to see what cases are easy to open...

If I could, I would review all day, everyday. I would love to be able to do say, 5 pedals of the same type, from all different manufacturers at a time to compare them.

For Mac users, look at the app MainStage. I use it off and on myself in my studio space. It's literally no money and can do all of the above and more, but also allows you to install other plugins and external 'processing' too, like my favourite Guitar Amp modeller made by Positive Grid: BIAS and BIAS FX. - You could also run and automate the Line 6 Helix Native plug in too which has all of the functionality of the hardware versions. I'd install Toontrack's EZ Drummer 2 (or Superior) along with some cool piano sounds from Addictive Keys. Run the whole band off of one decent interface! I love music tech these days!