Al Krow

I think tbf to Cuzzie, he almost certainly meant his 19/20 tax return (ie not his 20/21) which was due by 31 Jan. Btw HMRC have given an extension to 28 Feb for online filing of 19/20 income tax returns in case any of you good folk didn't get yours done by 31 Jan.

Chinese pottery (Ming) German cars Swiss watchmakers Apple and Samsung phones Scotch Whisky Japanese basses? Well I'd better shut up as 5 out 9 of my herd are Yamaha / Ibanez and were at least designed in Japan, but only my NE2 (RRP = ridiculous) was actually made there. But if I'm being honest I've not found any of my basses comes close to the craftsmanship shown in my Ken Smith.

Doc J did mention Ninja skillz earlier, so that point should probably be taken as read. I think a meet up would probably be classed as "unnecessary travel" though.

Kinda fair point. But I actually don't think the best luthiers in Japan are necessarily going to better than the best luthiers in the UK or Czechoslovakia etc etc. FWIW Jon Shuker designs fantastic basses which I would take over a Prestige every day of the week and would cost less than that range. I'd suggest his skills would go toe to toe with his Japanese counterparts and I would get a fantastic choice of pups and preamps thrown in. I think my key point is that at the end of the day the form factor is that of mass produced bass. Putting a pretty veneer on it doesn't change that; you're still souping up a Mondeo.

The Bart Mk1s in the standard range come in for a lot of stick. I love the Nords on the Premiums. Just great! But I understood the higher end Barts on the Prestige were pretty good?

Well that's definitely not the case if you're buying second hand and not overpaying on the way in. There are plenty of "actual investment things" that will lose you orders of magnitude more than any bass - just ask the boys at Melvin who lost a cool $4.5 BILLION in January. Careless eh?

But at the end of the day it's an Ibanez not a Fodera Same EQ and same pups(?) as the Prestige range and blind tested I bet no one would hear any difference. It's a bit like souping up a Ford Mondeo.

Well that's interesting. What is this bringing to the party for the additional $3k?

That's a mad price for that bass!! As the OP said it's basically a Prestige. And the kicker for me is actually not that it's a Prestige but that I would take a SR Premium over a SR Prestige, given the choice, anyway. But there again I'm super happy with a Yamaha BB1025 which costs 1/4 of the almost identical BB2025 and would never look to spend the extra on a BB2025. And I like builder's tea. Ok the penny is finally dropping: I'm actually just a pleb.

I've actually sold more in the last year than I bought, which is a first for me in 5 years! Nearly spent some of it on a bass over the weekend that I didn't need, but the EQ was sadly a little shot. I guess not surprising for a nearly 20 y/o bass.

Falls off chair and dusts himself down! We'll be complimenting each other on our bass playing next - or at least I will you 😁

Yeah I could see Covid injections becoming annual events for many of us in the way that flu vaccinations have.

Actually quite an interesting point EBS - I presume you normally pay tax on your gigging earnings then? I guess that would be the case if you're a semi-pro or pro and your music is a "business carried and with a view to making a profit" (i.e. it's not a hobby) and your income from gigs during the year is more than your outgoings (gear, rehearsal, petrol etc)? My gigging money easily covers day to day costs such rehearsals, consumables (strings) and petrol money but it's got a fair way to go before it covers the cost of my kit!

@ProfJames "Got a pal looking for a Yamaha BB1100s for the last couple of weeks and there are none available." Here you go: Yamaha BB1100S - Basses For Sale - Basschat

Excellent post, thanks @jimfist Btw nice bass on your avatar! It seems to be a 4 string 24 fret twin humbucker with a spalted maple top and two band EQ? But as to make - I'm struggling!

Woody you know I'm a huge fan of Ibby basses and also the Boss SY-1 which I've very grateful for you introducing me to! But I do think that's being a little harsh? This thread was really all about celebrating the fact that Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford AZ had each developed a vaccine in record time and also that the Oxford AZ one didn't need to be stored at -80OC and was being made available to the world at cost (unlike all other providers). I know a number of folk questioned the ability of the NHS to roll this out to the general population, but they are doing a brilliant job and I applaud them. We all should. The sooner that we can get our schools open and things moving again with the economy, the better; and we can then start to make some in-roads into major issues like children's mental health and cancer care. And tying it into the thread even more if I may: one of my bands just had a gig enquiry for the start of Aug - ok I agree that is 9 weeks after the end of May, but at least it's something! Any of you guys also starting to getting any gig "nibbles"?

Not seen much about these on BC. I had them highly recommended to me back in 2014 by a fellow BC'er who was also a retailer but I ended up going for a Sandberg instead, so Carvins have kinda been lodged at the back of my mind, I guess! I've recently seen a couple in the FS which, on paper, look really good so I'd be really interested to get your thoughts on them for good or ill! Cheers AK

Yeah the front end of my amp is the AO ultra pedal, but if you're then saying it's got clever interface capabilities, well a lot of that's already there on the back of DG M900 Mk2 / AO amp. So for me the key thing it seems to be bringing to the party is presets, which is a "nice to have" for sure. However I suspect you would be the first to suggest starting with your usual favourite amp settings for your bass, whatever they might be, then adjust to suit the venue, at which point EQ presets start to lose some of their sheen. I'm not sure how many variations of dirt tone you would want or, given the inherent DG character of the pedal, this would be able to deliver? For me probably 3: a bit of grit, meaty dirt and full fat fuzz. Based on my amp I reckon this will probably do the first 2 of those 3 very well. I'm sure some folk will love it, but given its size and cost if someone said spend £470 on a decent mid range multifx or this I know which way I would be jumping. IMO, YMMV etc.

Not sure that's quite right. Bear in mind that quite a few of interface features you've suggested are already on the back of the DG M900 Mk2 / AO amps and having a built in audio interface is useful but not really revolutionary.

Ah my bad I missed that - I had wrongly presumed from a quick look that they were the visual indicators for the knobs, but now obvious that's not the case given there are 6 strips and 5 knobs! So yes this then becomes pretty much the front end of the DG M900 Mk2 / AO but with key addition of presets. So kinda delivering what the TC RH450/750 has been doing for the past decade, but with a few added bells and whistles?

There's one in the FS at £50 off the new price if folk are interested. Looks like DG have covered off part of the front end panel of the DG M900 Mk2 / AO, but with a character dial instead of the AO bite / growl buttons and, importantly, presets, but lacking the preamp EQ. Seems to me that if DG were to put this as a replacement front end of their M900 series amps they will be making a move into Berg B Amp territory; but the B Amp covers a bunch of additional ground eg allowing EQ presets also.

What commission do the Gallery charge out of interest?

Yeah - fair do's, over to me on this one. Interesting you picked up on the Indonesian birth rate point. I'm usually no defender and very anti the extremism that is carried out in the name of that particular faith; but I had to pick-up / push back on the comment made in the other thread because it was just so...well, bigoted!

Well it was your headstock point, but fair enough...

That would be good thanks. I'm actually quite interested to find out (apologies if that is a bit nerdy!)