Al Krow

Yup, thanks I'd spotted that 😁 Trade deals are definitely a good thing, no question. It's win win. Alongside the UK do you know who the EU's largest trading partner is?

Come on, that's bordering on plain silly. We already trade more with non EU nations than with the EU. There are plenty of small retailers who are geared up to import from outside the UK eg Mark at Bass Direct will happily source you a 3 Leaf pedal or a Mesa amp. He's hardly a "large corporation"! Yes, I'm sure there will be an initial learning curve, but if we can learn a new song we can surely cope with a new form to fill out which is pretty much the same as what you do for a courier. YMMV

Missing the point big time. No changes in tax when buying new - so yes, we will continue to buy new goods from the EU and EU manufacturers will want to continue to export to their most important export market, the UK. It would be seriously daft to think otherwise - can you imagine BMW or even Thomann saying "screw that we have a 10 minute customs form to fill in?". The key change is when buying used goods from private sellers - we now have UK VAT when we import these just as we do with new goods and just as we have always had with used goods from the rest of the world (USA, Jersey, Japan, India, China etc) However, there may be a work around for the used goods issue too - we're just looking into that on the thread Bunion linked into above.

Well, one things for certain no more 2020 purchases possible now! So you should definitely know by now what your best purchase of last year was! 😎

That would be superb if something similar was available here. I guess one obvious problem is if you were the second owner and hadn't paid any GST/VAT when you bought it off the first owner. Would there actually be anything to reclaim?

5 string in my case, preferably with a 3 band EQ and passive option, please.

And just to be clear, which hopefully it is in the context of this thread, Steve is just referring to cross border sales of used bass gear between GB and EU. ie second hand stuff sold by private sellers in GB to other GB purchasers will not have this additional VAT. As @chris_b said a while back, surely there are enough sellers within GB to buy from if you are living in GB (and similarly within the EU to buy from if you are living in the EU) to be able to avoid the second layer of VAT on private used purchases? @Steve Browning - do you think the UK and EU were aware of this double layer of VAT issue? Typically tax treaties work quite hard to avoid double taxation such as this. If not, it could certainly be something worth raising via our professional organisations.

Yeah agreed. More difficult for us 5 string players - trying to find a 5 string Spector PJ EuroLX at the mo is hard work! I did have a look at the Ibby 655E and nearly bought one, but advice was that it would fall short of the SR Premium I had in my herd. And not sure that the TRBX 170/270 would stack up against the BB 1025 / 735A on anything other than number of frets. I understand that the Yammy TRBs were bought out as more 'aspirational' models. Would love them to relaunch with a lb or two shed from their waistlines!

Nice comparison. Providing 24 frets on a PJ is pretty neat - not too many PJ basses available with 24 frets as standard these days. The modern series Yammy BB PJs are 21 frets which is pretty typical.

But a lot better than doing so while Rome burned, eh? 😊

I need to qualify my earlier comment from a while back as I think we may have been at cross purposes! There are similarly a couple of key pitch shifter models and Octaver on the B1-4 also and I agree that one (BaMnShift) is less wobbly than the obvious one (PitchSHFT). If you're mixing with a dry signal to try to get a powerchord - it's really pretty poor; Helix does that much better as it can layer pitch shift in parallel, whereas Zoom is purely series. However (and this is what your comment above seems to be relating to and not the powerchord stuff I was yacking on about!) in terms of purely changing key with 100% wet, whilst Helix IMO still considerably better / tighter etc., I agree that Zoom is, indeed, decently passable at dropping a tone, even in a home practice environment etc.

This I believe... You've just cost me £20 Mr 63 😁

...and exactly why did you sell that and so many others?! I guess if you were taking a break from bass and thought you might not be picking it up again, then fair enough...

Stunning! Which model?

Sometimes it's the only way! I was finding that I was getting an unpleasant crackle from my little PB, but which wasn't always there. I wondered whether it might be my WL 20s with an active bass (which has had some comment on that score from others), particularly when they were running out of juice - but the issue was still there with a full charge and they were completely fine when connected directly to the amp. After checking each connection in turn it turned out to be my VT Bass DI feeding into my Proton filter either directly, or indirectly via another pedal, even when both were in by-pass mode. Didn't happen the other way around i.e. Proton --> VT Bass DI was fine! Weird, huh? Anyway, I've just swapped the running order of the pedals and all now seems to be well in the Krow bass-ment, much to my relief!

Harry - totally understand the sentiment. Except I think it will be a fair few months before the message actually sinks in that there is now an additional 20% on EU <--> UK purchases of used goods, and we are just at 1 Jan. I still come across BC'ers unaware that they will need to pay VAT on imports from Jersey and that's been the case since they brought VAT in, in the 70s! And this is a much bigger issue for forum members as there are a lot more sales EU <--> UK than from Jersey <--> UK or EU. The "right thing" IMO is for a pinned notice to be put up on the FS along the following lines: "When buying from outside the UK or from outside the EU (depending on where you are based) please note that local territory VAT rates are likely to apply". I think we are all now (sadly) agreed that this will be the case and I hope the expertise of someone like Steve B will have given @ped the reassurance to do this and, frankly, no one is going to criticise him for putting that red flag up. Please could you and the mods give something along these lines consideration?

@Steve Browning Do you know what the VAT position is for private sales from Britain to NI and also from the EU to NI? I'm guessing that NI may be a sweet spot with no VAT from either the rest of GB or from the EU?

The most recent / "modern series" of Yammy BB basses are: 414, 614 424, 1024, 2024 234, 434, 734, P34 together with their associated 5 string versions (and X for scratch-plate / additional chrome bits with the series 2) You can see that Yammy are using "1" "2" and "3" in the numbering for each of these most recent / modern series, which is a departure from their pre-millenium BBs. There's a lovely little article from just a few weeks back that covers the history of the BB's - I'll post this on the OP for ease of reference: History of the Yamaha BB Bass – Workhorses That Became Thoroughbreds - Bass Musician Magazine, The Face of Bass Happy New Year gents! 🥂🍻 Here's to a great 2021 and hoping that those of us in bands will all get a chance to be playing our BBs to appreciative audiences again!

80s synth tones - Line 6 will struggle to deliver this. You're better off with a quality dedicated synth pedal (e.g. Future Impact or Source Audio C4) Thicken out the sound under a guitar solo - do you mean something like the Fishman Fission? Helix can do this pretty well, but by making use of its parallel routing. I don't think Pod Go can do parallel i.e. all fx are in series and I suspect you would end up with a "mush". So based on that, I'd say stick with your GT10B.

Interested you're suggesting that, because obviously there were basses well before the 414/5 which I presume you would refer to as Mk.I ? 1, 2 and 3 series reference simply follows the mid-serial number on the Yammy numbering 414, 424, 434 etc. so unless Mk.I etc. is Yammy's official numbering it seems to make sense to me to stick with what we are calling them.

I guess the key point for me of a laminate neck is the additional rigidity, rather than anything to do with sound. My biggest concern with older basses is the risk of neck warping and a laminate provides additional layers of protection (literally!) against that. I'm probably at the over cautious end on this, but both having witnessed neck warping in former Fender I had, and a fellow BCer I know had the same with a Warwick, I do personally prefer a laminate neck given the choice.

Yeah, but we're they all orange / red? 😁

...but maybe worth holding out for a 425 and someone willing to post - given that it will be newer and benefit from a laminate neck and may not cost too much more.

Flip side is that it may be an opp to pick it up for a good price? And I'm sure one of us who are in the vicinity can sort out collection for you if you manage to bag it.

I'm sure we can sort out collection between us good BC'ers, if need be: it's a short hike from Oxford.