NancyJohnson

Yeah, but what Bezos does with his money is his concern. He's been shrewd and if he wants to fund a space programme off his salary and share options, then so be it. I've dealt with Amazon at a previous employer; I know we landed product for about a quarter of the price it was retailed for on the High Street. When we went into Amazon, they monitored the handful of retailers who were selling the same product and decreased/increased prices in line with that but only within an agreed percentage rate. They were supplied at within agreed bulk discount rates that applied to all our customers. We didn't sell any more or less product although our distribution channel changed. It meant little or nothing to us as we were still making the same £££ per product, but we sold more. This model would (or should) apply to every manufacturer out there. We're only worrying here about Amazon's impact on the small retailer and you're only focusing in one particular product line. You have to weigh in the absolute inconvenience of having to buy other stuff up against the convenience of one click shopping. I've heard numerous arguments about how Amazon were going to drive everyone out of business and start hiking up prices. I've been using Amazon since December 1999 and I've seen little evidence of this in 22 years. If nothing, this business shows customer is king and you have more availability at your fingertips than you would if they didn't exist. The only retailers complaining are probably geared towards the ones who haven't moved with the times. Forget just buying a set of strings. When my father-in-law was gravely ill a few years back, in desperation we went onto Amazon and sorted out vast array of products for his well-being in about ten minutes and it was delivered within 24 hours. I doubt we could have found this stuff on several trips out, without factoring in petrol, parking, shoe leather, time and availability. For that service alone, Amazon would be my first point of call every time. Right, as you were.

As a society that have access to so many retail outlets, it still surprises me that people maintain this stance and would happily pay 20% extra for something simply because they don't like to use the cheaper retailer. If Strings Direct went out of business today, nothing would change for the end customer, there wouldn't be any dip in demand and the manufacturers would just push more through Amazon (and Andertons and Thomann and and and..).

Spot on. The NR/Firebird reverse pickguard horrific.

Oddly familiar...

On the Gibson Mod-Shop they had a pelham blue NR Thunderbird up for $1.6K last week. Interestingly, this lacks the scratchplate and the chromed hardware/pickup covers of the current reissues and, to be honest, this looks a whole lot better for it. The only things I could add to improve things? Put the Gibson logo back on the truss-rod cover, give it a two part bridge, and cosmetically, line the pots up in a straight line and move the output jack to the lower bout. [Edit] Oh, and paint it black. https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Guitar/DMOWGQ675/Non-Reverse-Thunderbird/Faded-Pelham-Blue

@Biscuit_BassThese sort of questions are ten a penny here, you might as well ask people what their favourite colour is. It's just a matter of time until the thread degenerates into a discussion about the best basses for funk and people start posting photos of their basses.

OK, I'm going to get cheesy on you. Our first dance (shudder) was 'Walk Forever By My side' by The Alarm. I remember my mum crying at the time saying how beautiful the song was and that she thought they were a punk band. Bless.

Soul Asylum. The early stuff. When they were edgy and indie.

Oi! I know Carlton!

I am intrigued by the brief coverage of other Rickenbacker basses at the end of this. I'm familiar with the 3001, but only from some old photos of Geddy Lee. I'll admit I did get a little wobble on at the twin pickup Hamburg/2020 or 2030 model. There's some lovely looking black ones.

Anyone got any suggestions? Start me out at Amazon!

I think it's something to do with my phone and dry fingertips. I hit 'Submit' and nothing, so I tap again et voila! Two identical posts.

I've never been in a band with a saxomaphonist (sorry), but yonks ago some mates had a sax player and there wasn't any need to mic him up as he was painfully loud, but complained of the same thing. Thinking outside the box here...is there any kind of battery headphone amp and earbuds you could investigate? Perhaps use it with a cheap, clip on drum mic?

Doublepost fail.

Shameless self-promotion thread. One of my longstanding on/off/on projects has a single out today; I wrote the music about two months ago. One of our number is well connected with a few people in the cloudy cabal otherwise known as 'the industry' and I've been stunned at their positive feedback.

I'm a big fan of the Five Watt World You Tube channel, lots of good stuff on there. Keith has just dropped a sub-30 minute piece on Rickenbacker basses (4000 series only). As usual it's well edited, detailed and enjoyable. Grab a coffee.

As you may have seen elsewhere, I have an EUB incoming (well, it's here, gotta wait until my birthday); I've been asked whether I'd like a bow...I'm a) completely in the dark about bows and b) completely in the dark about bows. I only need an entry level one, it's not going to get much use and I can always go the whole hog later on, if necessary. I just need to know something - I see bows sold as violin bows or cello bows (different sizes); are these all quintessentially the same thing or should I be looking for something specific? For instance, this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/VINGOBOW-Natural-Black-Carbon-Violin/dp/B0813611VP/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=bass%2Bbow&qid=1635363157&sr=8-7&th=1 ...it's under £50.00 (which is fine).

Back to the OP, while it's highly unlikely Fender or Gibson are going to come a-knocking, surely a signature bass should be something unique rather than rehash of a production instrument that someone used for years (viz. Geddy). I suppose Lull have already built me a signature model as it's the only oversized NR Thunderbird 5-string they've built to my specs. For me though, it would just be a cobbled together bass that reminds me of the good stuff I own or have owned. Couldn't care less about (cough) tonewoods (cough), but said signature model would be matt black so it doesn't really matter to me what it's made of, but as I prefer a darker fingerboard, that would have to be ebony or something stained black. So let's see. Visually, a Spector-style 2-a-side headstock. Ebony board. Body shape? I like my oversized Lull JAX-T4 body or the later wide-horn Travis Bean 2000 basses. Guts? John East Uni-Pre 3, let's go with Rickenbacker 400* pickups in their sweet spots. Hardware, chrome. So long as it stays in tune and intonates, then I'm happy. Dunlop Straploks.

I've had this issue...I just crimped the end of the string in a vice. No issues.

It's still in the box, yep! Five weeks to go. This is what we were waking up to then:

Ooh, I think the original strap buttons were V-shaped. I might have these somewhere.

I had one of these, bought new from FD&H, Charing Cross Road, 1980/81. First proper bass. To be honest, it played nicely enough, it did suffer an earth/ground issue. Sounded nice. Couldn't give you any more than this even if you were holding a gun to my head. Looks a good project.

I'm having a bit of a Nathan Larson type of day. Shudder To Think, Mind Science Of The Mind, Hot One. Will wind down with the soundtrack work and the white soul buy period stuff.