NancyJohnson

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1509375935' post='3398424'] The 2018 RD Artist guitar is a stunner. [url="http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Designer/Gibson-USA/RD-Artist.aspx"]http://www.gibson.co.../RD-Artist.aspx[/url] Doesn't see to be anything too special about the electrics though. I'm not sure if there's any point in releasing a bass version if doesn't at least try to emulate the original Moog circuitry. [/quote] Why does the RD have the 120th Anniversary inlay? None of the other models on the 2018 catalogue seem to have it.

[quote name='Hellzero' timestamp='1509365218' post='3398307'] Final price including all customs taxes will be close to 2000-2200 GBP and you'll get a bass with a reglued broken head. Sorry, but you better wait for Sander De Gier to make its 5 strings Lowlander or ask him to make you the first one... [/quote] Touche

There's a clearish photo of the reverse of the headstock...there does appear to be be some rippling in the finish, but otherwise the refinish is pretty good and you'd think that if it wasn't stable then the finish would give some clues to whether the join was unstable. I think everyone would put some credence in the fact that most glues/adhesives used for headstock breaks are probably more stable/stronger than the material they're holding together.

Guitar Chimp in the US have a stupid cheap Mike Lull T5 5-string Thunderbird up at the moment, buy it now £1,375. You'd need to factor in shipping (£135) and duty/handling, but it's still very cheap. [url="https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272901832580?rmvSB=true"]https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272901832580?rmvSB=true[/url]

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1509310863' post='3398020'] Ebay seller is well known, and can't be discussed here. it is a shame that otherwise perfectly good guitars wind up in their possession to be modified in such an unsympathetic manner, but they can't all be winners I suppose. [/quote] The guy became a member here on 10/10/17, did six posts, and promptly disappeared on 11/10/17. Perhaps he did a search on the stuff he'd sold previously and decided this wasn't the place for him. I can understand moderators wrestling control of some content here, but the guy became legendary historically through his pursuit of purchasing budget instruments on eBay, [i]Frankensteining[/i] them to something he honestly believed improved them and putting them up for profitable resale on eBay. The more keen-eyed and investigative here could actually trace the purchases of guitars and parts, through the bolting together process and eventual resale. Thing is, while we seem to be free to say something is fantastic, we're seemingly gagged/dissuaded from commenting against something we feel is horrific, for fear of rebuttal from other members. Which is a shame, because the majority of his past-mods have been hilariously awful. I feel for the purchasers of these monstrosities, but with over 1,500 positive sales on eBay, who am I to question his practices or methodology? Caveat emptor, as our glorious Roman conquerors would have said.

Well, despite Gibson's website still maintaining that there are no basses for 2018, Sweetwater in the US are now advertising the model below for $2K. (They're listing the retail as £3.3K.) Now, I'm not taking any credit here, but I did have some lengthy email exchanges with Thomann about a year ago to see whether they could persuade Gibson to do a Thomann run in cardinal red or sapphire blue...anything other than ebony, sunburst or the rarely available ivory. Who knows. Maybe something lodged in Gibson's psyche. There is an ebony model, but no photos (yet). P

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1509109470' post='3396694'] Isn't the idea of pole pieces on pickups that the strings go over them? [/quote] Try telling that to MusicMan.

[quote name='Old Man Riva' timestamp='1509130063' post='3396941'] Think I saw them supporting Rush once upon a time in the 70s. Good band, as I recall... [/quote] This. I bought 'A Million Vacations, but I think the only reason I did was because of their association with Rush. (Much like the saddoes I recall seeing at Kiss shows wearing Diana Ross and Cher t-shirts.) I might have a root around Spotify later...

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1509216634' post='3397407'] I do remember reading of customs 'getting wise' to musicians travelling to America to spend. Stories of guys leaving the UK with a Squier P bass in a hard case in hand luggage and coming back with an Alembic only to find that customs had cottoned on to their trick and they were hit with import duty. At a roadside somewhere in California, the old P bass had been dumped! [/quote] To an extent, this sort of thing has been going on for years. I cite a passage from Ian Hunter's epistle 'Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star'. Mott The Hoople would tour the USA and do raids on pawn shops, purchasing anything that would sell for profit in the UK. Remember none of this stuff was really vintage back then, they were just Gibsons and Fenders. They'd just put the purchases in with their tour gear, it woukd all sail through borders and when it arrived back in 'Blighty, Hunter and Ralphs would be up in the West End hawking this gear around dealers.

Damn, I hadn't actually watched the whole thing yet.

You're welcome. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpylinrztnU[/media]

Songs From The Big Chair is a nice album, well the original eight track version was. You know how sometimes you like something and you wish you could have more of it. Like pistachio ice-cream. I remember the first time I had pistachio ice-cream, I was in Devon while I was convalescing from an operation to fix a burst appendix; I think my parents were trying to recompense me in some small way after ignoring away my ten month period of persistent stomach aches as some teenage folly until it actually burst. 'Is that nice?' My mother asked, following up with, 'Would you like another one?' Well, it was like nectar to the gods. I'd never tasted anything like it, but on the return journey to our little hotel, I projectile vomited the whole lot up in the car and on the street where my father had pulled over. Well, anyway, the 27 CD set reissue of Songs From The Big Chair (yes, I know it was only 5CDs, it just feels 27 hours long) is a little like my pistachio ice-cream story and was a tad hard going. I really don't have the capacity to appreciate nine different versions of [i]Mothers Talk[/i] and ten each of [i]Shout[/i] and [i]Everybody Wants to Rule the World[/i]. Or three bowls of ice-cream on a dippy stomach.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1508958474' post='3395671'] Tried without luck to get Albert Hall tickets. [/quote] You and half the country. Albert Hall's ticketing website is a debacle. Ticket resellers did OK, mind. How long is is going to be before it becomes mandatory to upload a photo of yourself that gets printed to the ticket?

If it helps, I didn't like the 2015 Thunderbird either, but it really wasn't the disaster you've described it as either.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508752947' post='3394115'] And what part of all of that means Sander De Gier's business deserves to go down the tubes? You started the asshatery mate... [/quote] OK, get a coffee. For a decade plus, I worked for a very successful wristwatch company - if you search my posts you'll find out who they were easily enough and hey, you know I'm buying a Lull, so you you must have done your due diligence. Our product was pitched from the low end/catalogue business up to pieces with a retail price of c.£650/700. Largely because of one key piece of technology (that no one else had), so we romped home year after year through a combination of sales betterment and a strong marketing strategy. At one point were the 3rd biggest watch company in the country by sales (only behind Rolex and Omega) and top by volume by a country mile. Because we were doing so terrifically well, one bright spark in our managerial structure decided that we should start punching out of our weight and bring out a [i]Signature [/i]range of watches that were pitched at £2-£3K range. Pretty much everyone in the business was horrified and correctly so because in hindsight was a massive failure. Now this wasn't down to the product being rubbish, it was because no one wanted to pay that amount of money for something they could buy a Rolex or Omega for. It didn't matter that these pieces looked great (albeit a bit too blingy in my eyes), or that they were handmade by watchmakers in Japan, or that they synchronised with the atomic clock or had diamonds or had crystal glass etc. no one bought them because they were overpriced and it cost the company a whole lot more than just money and we got our ass handed to us on a plate. It affected our market share, our reputation and standing in the sector. All because of strategy and one man's folly. Now juxtaposition the Lowlander with the above and apply the same analogy. The Lowlander is representative of the Signature range we did, because passion, commitment, workmanship, innovation don't necessarily come into things when you're in business. Maybe he can sell a dozen a year and live comfortably off the profits. Granted, he may only make/sell five of these basses and then consign the design to the bin, but ultimately he's an unknown luthier asking potential customers to stump up nearly £3K for a bass that kind of looks like a Thunderbird, but really isn't. £3K will buy you a lot of bass elsewhere and would likely go some way towards a 70s Gibson Bicentennial Thunderbird or a '60s model if that's your thing. Looking at his other models, the same applies. Custom shop prices for guitars that ape Precision, Jazzes and Strats, but aren't Fenders. This ultimately is my point, but I make no apology for you not being able to read that into my post. I mean, credit to the guy for trying, but at the end of the day, he is pitching a £3K bass into a marketplace flooded with better(?) £3K basses; Spectors, Lulls (heh), Sadowsky, Warwick and so on. I think you can probably pick up an entry-level Fodera for that money too. And when you do actually pull that £3K bass out of it's case, the shock will be that you've paid £3K for something that people will squint at it and say, 'What the hell is that?' I'll look forward to seeing how you get on with one if you decide to buy one, but suspect there won't be an order winging its way to Ballymena any time soon, but please feel free to prove me wrong.

[quote name='Hellzero' timestamp='1508660830' post='3393544'] Did you watch Sander DeGier video ? I don't think so. You'll get plenty of informations about his new approach of this Thunderbird. I hate Thunderbirds, but you have to recognize its work and knowledge. I tried a friend's 2015 Thunderbird (new price is close to £2500 GBP !) last week and it's simply a piece of sh*t, really the worst instrument ever made : impossible to play as it's neck diving all the time and absolutely muddy sound, lacking so much definition. [/quote] [quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508677507' post='3393683'] Perhaps if it said Lull on the headstock (and possibly cost a couple of thousand more) you might like it more? [/quote] Let's address these snips. [list] [*]Yes, I watched both the videos, but hey, thanks for telling me that I didn't. [*]Hellzero, you hate Thunderbirds. Well, good for you. I like Thunderbirds. Hooray for me! [*]Hellzero, if your friend paid £2,500 for a 2015, then he's been done, hook, line and sinker. The internet is your friend's friend. Shop around. For £2,500 he could have bought a Lowlander. You should have worked on him. Perhaps there's a reason why he bought a Gibson. [*]Hellzero, neckdive, impossible to play and muddy sound. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Big yaaaawn. [*]Bigwan, because, oh yes, if it had Lull on the headstock I'd definitely buy three. Maybe four. (And remember, I didn't bring Lull into this thread, you did.) Put Spector on the headstock and perhaps Gary would buy a handful as well. [*]I liked the tone (but the You Tube video is drenched with EQ and reverb), I liked the volute, I thought the rear straplok location was interesting, but not something I'd consider. [/list] Thing that I don't seem to be able to grasp here is that if you got lucky you could by three used Thunderbirds for the price of that bass and with the Lowlander you're getting a copy of the aforementioned bass, but with the added bonus of having two big bites taken out of the body, which for me is a mahoosive turnoff. It's like those Schecter and Jackson basses that ape the Gibson design but there's something fundamentally wrong/flawed with the body shape. If the bass retained the original body shape, then I would probably been more positive/interested. On their other stuff, the Origin and Evolution basses look OK, but not really my bag in the slightest. The Soulmate, BeBop and Surfer are just Precision, Jazz and Strat reinterpretations. The Junior looks like a Novak Charlie Hunter.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508339906' post='3391483'] Really? Like, really? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. [/quote] There's no doubting the design lineage, but come on, it is a bit of a munter, especially the double cutaways and the accommodating pickguard. They're copying everything else from a '60s Thunderbird, so why not just go the whole hog? The demo sounds decent enough, but it's swathed in layers of reverb; I'll wager that that tone is obtainable from pretty much any bass with fresh strings and decent outboard gear.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508339906' post='3391483'] Really? Like, really? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. No arguing over the price, it's not cheap, but neither is a Lull ($4.3k wasn't it? Plus shipping and import duty no doubt...). [/quote] £4.4K delivered.

Any progress here?

Hideous and it's a snip too at nearly 3,000 euros. Sorry, but man alive, with a sales strategy like that, this company needs to go down the toilet.

Are they new or used?

As discussed elsewhere, played two gigs in Milan on Friday and Saturday (13/14th October). Hot and sweaty packed houses. I'm home now...back to reality. It was a load of fun.

I actually thought DV247 were based in the UK, so that threw me, but I guess they can probably ship from anywhere. Anyhow, to get back on point, your contract of sale is with the seller, not UPS. DV247 should be refunding you or expediting another bass to you. Also you shouldn't need to set up an account with a courier to be able to track a parcel; they should just be able to give you a shipping/tracking number and you should be able to just plug that into the appropriate online track and trace website.