Nicko

For purchases outside the EU duty and VAT are paid only if the purchase value exceeds £390. For items which exceed this, up to £690 is charged at 2.5% duty, - if you bring it in with you. and I think if its second hand VAT is not applicable So for example if you were buying a used US Jazz worth say £800 in the UK for the equivalent of £500 the duty would be 2.5% of £500, no VAT and the total cost would be £512.50 and you'd be getting a good deal. On purchases over £630 the rate of duty varies. The other issue of course is is you are bringing it in yourself and its clearly second hand how would the bloke at customs know?

This is too true. I'm fortunate that I have easy access to London, so Denmark Street is viable for purchase of anything that's not bulky. There's a music store quite close which has a massive range of FX pedals but a, frankly, disappointing range of instruments and amps. It survives through on line sales of the pedals. The only other local shop shut down last year and to be honest it wasn't really worth visiting. Other than that I can jump in the car and get to Wembley Guitar Centre or Andertons. Its only stores of this size that really have a decent range of instruments. I have always resisted online purchase of instruments as I really want to try the actual instrument before I pay for it.

What do you have against mexican? Are you Donald Trump? Seriously, there isn't an issue with mexican made, and just remember that the MIJ range were started as a low cost version and ended up being, for the most part, better than the US made. Fender have, for years, been opening low cost factories and every time they open one the price point for the previous low cost centre is increased. The "Standard" used to be a US instrument, now its not. Having said that low cost/high cost does not translate to low quality/high quality.

A bargain at only 24.7 million NOK

Nice idea https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64576818.html

When trying guitars in the 90s, I'm sure many shop assistants were amazed at my lack of nailing the only bit of Eruption that I'd learned - the two handed tapping bit . I still can't play that bit properly and never got very far with the rest of it.

^This. That said, when buying a PA recently it really came down to the fact that powered speakers don't really come in the power range you need for a medium sized pub. There's speakers in the 2-300 range (ie not enough) and then others in the 1000-1300 range (more than you need). The other catch is that some speakers claim to have high power but others with lower power (in Watts) quote higher sound power levels (in dB). I'm sure there must be another thread here covering this aspect. We ended up with a couple for Mackie Thump which state they are 1300W. They take the vocals, BVs, my bass and any acoustic guitar although having said that I recently added my own backline rather than DI it and it sounded better to me.

My guess is that when pubs are allowed to reopen they will have reduced numbers of people permitted so that they aren't crowded. This has two potential effects. 1. Bands will not be able to pull in sufficient punters to make it worthwhile, because the cap will be so low 2. You can play jazz and save them the trouble if policing it because no one will turn up anyway.

As a pub covers band we didn't have a massive number of gigs booked this year, and the ones in September/October have IMHO a 50:50 chance of going ahead. The singer has recently announced a relocation that will make getting together and gigging more difficult. If gigging doesn't happen this year I think the band will be gone, even if the venues survive. Strangely, I don't think I'll be that sad to see it go. It's a band that has a good set list, performs well and is well received by the punters, but I just don't get the same joy out oi it as I have from other bands I've been in - and I don't think I'm alone in that.

The BC collective are obviously less driven by brand names than they are by functionality. Eggle and Telecasters seem to be well represented.

In order that I acquired them 1. Patrick Eggle New York Stage. Its really the essence of guitar - a slab of mahohany with virtually no contouring, satin maple neck, 22 fret rosewood board, two humbuckers, one tone, one volume, Wilkinson wrapover, thin satin finish. Plays great and sounds great. 2. Mid 90s MIM Fender Telecaster, maple neck. Upgraded with Seymour Duncan Hot tele pickups. Plays well and sounds so much better with the upgraded pickups. I'd play this all the time if I didn't prefer a shorter scale neck for most stuff. 3. Simon & Patrick SP6 acoustic 4. Fender Sonoran thinline Electro Acoustic. Impulse bought on the way back from a boozy lunch in Soho. Sounds OK but the strat style neck is too thick. 5. Epiphone 339 in cherry. Sounds good, plays well, more comfortable than a 336 and with coil taps really is a bit of an all rounder.

I'm mid range bistro. The sort of thing that anyone with practice and a little training can do, but far better than Joe Public does. My cooking on the other hand is much more accomplished.

Interesting - is that a 70s CV. P If so what replacement did you use, and did these require any extra drilling or were they a direct replacement?

Que?

I wondered if it might be the truss rod or a tuning head. I've wrapped the tuning pegs in a cloth and the buzz seems to be reduced. I'm not sure there is any adjustment on the peg though. Is replacement the only solution?

My Squier P bass has developed a rattling sound when I play certain notes - most notable when I play unplugged. I've had the scratchplate off and checked inside, checked the bridge springs, tightened everything up that I can and its made no difference. The noise is hard to locate but seems to me to be coming from around the neck/body joint, although that might just be the body amplifying the rattle that is actually elsewhere. Any ideas?

We have two gigs coming up in early April, both of which are still "on" according to the venues. However I visited one of the venues last Friday to see a mates band and the place was empty - and that was before the Govt advice to avoid pubs. I think the opposite. We have a moral responsibility to fulfil our promise to the venue. However, I'm hoping the venues will cancel because if they don't our self preservation and social responsibility will trump our responsibility to our client.

This is a good question. Since the OP started talking about ethical woods, I would expand the question and ask what can be done through the whole production process to make it more sustainable if the USP is going to be ethical instrument production. Things that could be considered - not that I care greatly about some of these myself but some might: Transport impact of the raw material Quantity of the raw materials used (how to use less, or at least have less waste) Energy efficiency of the production facility Disposal of the waste product (the wood shavings etc) Environmental impact of the non wood bits - are you going to use petroleum based plastics for the pick guard, what lacquer are you going to apply (and do you know how its derived), what case options will you offer, etc.? Is the glue that you use vegan? What can you make from recycled material? Environmental impact of using the bass, if its active will it require a battery or can you phantom power it?

Not really. If I was that bothered about sustainability I would only have one bass and one guitar. I wouldn't knowingly buy wood from an unethical source, but I wouldn't particularly be bothered about checking that it was ethically sourced. Yes. As others have suggested, I don't think the species of wood is that important to overall sound of an electric guitar/bass, although I suspect density of the wood may be. I have never bought a guitar or bass for the way it looks and prefer to keep away from flashy looking finishes, but I do have a couple of guitars with translucent finishes. ps I seem to remember a period in the 90s where some manufacturers were providing exotic looking finishes using something called Foto Flame. In those days it was so that you could get an exotic looking guitar without an exotic looking wallet.

If its on top of your cab won't you look a bit silly trying to press the buttons on the stomp with your foot?

I've been playing guitar for 40 years but I'm pretty average at it and got into playing bass by accident. I'm a good bass player in a band situation but to be honest I rarely pick it up and play it for pleasure at home (I'll learn stuff for the band but that's about it), whereas I'll happily play the guitar for the fun of it (I haven't been in a band playing guitar but have done open mic nights). Playing bass in a band has improved my guitar playing, and my theory knowledge gained from learning guitar has helped my bass playing. I don't have to learn chord tomes because I know how to play the chords and normally a few inversions so can always "see" the relevant bass notes on my fretboard.

When I read the OP the "vast experience" suggested to me that they'd all been there and done it before, not necessarily that the band was an established one. If they are amateurs or weekend warriors why wouldn't they be on bandmix?

I use an MP3 player plugged into the aux socket. However, if I don't have the track I'm learning youtube on the PC while paying through the amp is my preferred alternative. Of course there are also some songs with bass covers and tab which you might find useful.

The Arctic Monkeys. Took me a while to get them, but now I think they are one of the best bands of their era.

We have a google sheet which we can all add suggestions for songs and the plan is that we look at that and agree what the next couple of songs to add should be. We all have a veto of we really hate something. However, what actually happens is that the singer will whatsapp a couple of comletely inappropriate songs As a singer she fails to understand that the instrumentation on some tracks just isn't possible with one guitar and one bass but that doesn't stop her. She will also suggest songs which are completely irrelevant to our band (we are an indie 90s/00s band and she'll suggest things like Tom Petty or Crowded House). And then she will message a choice of several equally crap suggestions and expect me to avoid hurting her feelings by telling her that I'm not playing any of them. It hasn't worked so far.