NancyJohnson

I seem to be going through a phase of obsession with guys either turning wood or building guitars out of scrap. This is a build where the guy has used coloured pencils and acrylic pours.

I was searching for some old Bell Musical catalogues a few days back...these are from 1974:

Before I even owned my first bass (I had a classical guitar for Christmas one year...), I used to borrow the exact same bass as this from a guy who lived round the corner from me. He also had a WEM Dominator III. I owe a debt of gratitude to that bloke. Simon Kellet, wherever you are, thanks!

Somewhere in the depths of a box of old bits, I still have the original cable that came with my first proper bass. Mid-70s. It's a bit crackly and the rubber has perished a bit, but last time I plugged in with it, it worked OK. Insofar as instruments go, I have a mid-70s Epiphone FT-140 acoustic I bought new with some money my grandmother left me and a 1950s/60s Zenith Josh White parlour guitar that my mum procured for a couple of pounds at a Salvation Army jumble sale in the late 70s/early 80s. While I have some oldish basses, these are fairly recent acquisitions.

Any sightings this side of the pond yet?

Prior to my initial dalliances with Amazon, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with this comment. We had a fantastic little bookshop locally who just seemed to be in denial when the net book agreement was abolished; they just limped along and I remember the proprietor bemoaning online sales, all the while turning a blind eye to what Amazon or Play were doing. They maintained charging the full price until going out of business a couple of years ago. Back to the original point, yes, I do/did try and support local businesses, but it's 2019 AND a buyers marketplace, why would I pay £5.00 more for book?

Different SKU/ASIN. The more expensive product (Prime) is stocked and shippedby Amazon, the cheaper is not.

When my dad retired I tried to persuade him in investing in some vintage Gibson and Fenders with his lump sum. Some 30 years on, sure had you bought wisely, you could have seen your investment triple ir quadruple in value.

Just some background and basis for Amazon's pricing methodology. When I worked in the jewellery trade, we had a caveat in the terms and conditions that ANY jeweller who wished to pursue sales online must have a High Street presence before we could ship product; this was looked upon as our way of supporting the High Street. We would not embrace traders who operated a mailorder business out of a spare room or garage. Towards the end of my time there however, things changed somewhat; it would be fair to say that we had a new managing director and FD who were wholly sales driven and there was a changing marketplace and more competition within our pricing sector. I'd say a precedent that led to the change in our distribution channels was set by one shop that maintained a tiny store in Reading whilst being the biggest online retailer of wristwatches in the country and as a consequence the lid was off a box that we tried so hard to keep closed, so it became open season. A couple of years before I left, we jumped into bed with Amazon. While I'm not wholly aware of the specifics behind the contracts, I figure the management finally caught on that Amazon was becoming a huge player in just about everything, that logistically it saved us a fortune on long-term warehousing and shipping and through them we could control/undermine the businesses we were trying to limit selling online. I mean, what better way to beat people down than - irrespective if it's good ethically - to side with another business to ultimately drive more small retailers out of business. Concerning prices, let's not forget that have huge resources at work to track 3rd party marketplace products and to ensure they are always the cheapest. We'd just ship into Amazon's warehouse locations and if XYZ Ltd were selling one of our products at £295.00, Amazon would automatically track that product and sell it £10.00 cheaper. You have to remember that because of agreements and bulk selling, we're selling into Amazon at a) cheaper than we would a High Street retailer, b) the mark up is almost definitely more than 80%, possible double and c) Amazon were rewarded with contributions from us based on sales out numbers. The long and the short of this is that Amazon will almost certainly always be the cheapest that you will find new product on sale for. Forget going out and looking at stuff now; people are effectively using stores as showrooms; it doesn't matter whether it's TVs or wristwatches. If you know what you want, you will not find it cheaper elsewhere.

Well, I guess when these originally dropped (1987/88) the musical landscape was somewhat different to how it is now and by way of small credit to Gibson, they were trying to do something different. Conservative estimates have actual production numbers as 'under 50', so it hardly set the world on fire.

Not Prime. Other sellers. They're simply using the Amazon Marketplace as their storefront.

I'm sorry, but whaaaaaat?

It does look to be the same bass...dings in the same place.

I found one in Australia a while back that was in better shape for around half the price. That said, the shipping, duties etc. made any purchase prohibitive. £1.2K is still way too high. 50% of that.

Gibson 20/20 on eBay. Milton Keynes. At £1.2K, too rich for me... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1987-Gibson-20-20-bass-guitar-make-me-an-offer/254288675631?hash=item3b34c9432f:g:V04AAOSwOwJdIdlP

Amazon are ALWAYS my first port of call for any online service; I pay for their Prime service, so next day/next working day delivery on pretty much everything, TV service etc. They're generally the cheapest in the online marketplace and at the end of the day it's down to customer choices. The only negative (as discussed earlier up the thread) is that if you do have an issue (rare), it does seem very difficult to find a contact form to advise them. On the subject of how ethical they are, I have a good friend who has worked at a (very, very) high level for both J P Morgan and Chase Manhattan; he's of the opinion that while Amazon are throwing a bunch of money at whoever their accountants may be, they're not actually doing anything that's specifically illegal, it's moreover a case of the business being well versed in tax law, what the legal loopholes are and knowing how to exploit them. Concerning the @T-Bay experience, I just find it difficult to grasp why Amazon (who, if your description is correct, only acted as the marketplace agent, not the owner/seller), would not handle a return/refund/replacement for the component you purchased; in the ten-odd years I've been buying from them - literally hundreds of purchases - there's been a couple of instances where things have gone awry, most noticeably a UPS that wouldn't hold a charge, they just replaced the unit like for like and didn't even want to old one back. They bent over backwards to satisfy my issue.

In an alternative universe, I wonder whether the guitars and basses procured by Mr Phillips have a consciousness and when they wend their way to his workshop/kitchen table for necessary upgrades and modernisations, their heartwood is actually screaming for mercy.

It staggers me to this day when stories like this hit the media. Irrespective of the tag you want to apply to these people (SJW/Snowflake/Strawberry/Me-Generation etc. etc.) SURELY if you move to an area you do your diligence don't you? Man alive, go out in the evening and investigate the area. Guildford is a reasonably nice area, The Star is literally at the bottom of the High Street, about 50m from a church. Did anyone complain about the bells ruining anyone's lie-in on Sunday morning? Nope, because music venues are easy game.

Nothing to see here. Move along. Bwahahaha! You've left this to me in your will, huh?

In recent months, The Star in Guildford, a venue I've both frequented and played at several times, was subject to a noise abatement case bought about by the occupants of an apartment block adjacent to the venue. The apartments had been converted from an older office block, the new tenants had taken residence, failed to do their due diligence and get this, din't like the noise emitted from the venue, so a legal case was brought against the venue by Guildford Borough Council. Happily the matter has been quashed; it appears moreover that the GBC case was fundamentally flawed and the judge threw the matter out. It's a moral victory and a victory for sensibility. It's a wonderful venue and so geared up for live music; killer PA system. https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/live-guildford-star-pub-court-16511558

I hadn't seen the site, so bookmarked! I hope he's back; I feel a real affinity with pretty much everything he's been part of.

Mighthy Atom uploaded a full set from 2004 about a month ago. He still hasn't surfaced. How the hell does someone just disappear?