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I've been looking at the Line 6 UX2 myself and I'm wondering the difference between the red faced UX2 and the black faced one on the Line 6 website.

Earlier this afternoon I was in a well known central Manchester guitar and as I also play a bit of guitar I had a go on a brand new Gibson Les Paul Custom, a shade under two grand which played like a dog and the finish on the body especially the binding around the body edges was extremely messy. Unforgivable on guitar of this price. However I also played a Chinese made guitar and an Indonesian made bass both of which played beautifully and neither was more than £300. As hard as I tried I simply couldn't fault either guitar as they were expertly put together. Had I not known their heritage I would have put both nearer a grand especially the neck through bass. My point is how can a company like Gibson pass off such shoddy work and expect us to pay for the privilege? Don't they have a quality control department? Also why would a guitar shop accept a flawed instrument and sell it at such a high price? I would have thought the shop owner/ manager or whoever would be within their rights to return the guitar to their distributor? If there is someone on this forum who could share any light on this I would be interested. Are guitar shops under some obligation to accept whatever a major manufacturer or distributor sends them for fear that refusing to sell a flawed guitar would mean they wouldn't be able to sell a major manufacturers instruments in future or have access to higher end instruments? I really cannot see this guitar selling unless the name on the headstock means more to its future owner than how well it's been put together. Maybe someone on here runs or works in a shop could let us know what really goes on.

He must be good. He has Jaco Pastorius as a friend.

There is a US-based seller I've used in the past called Stratosphere who usually has plenty of stock.

Yep that's MarloweDK no doubt about it. Nice guy. He answered a couple of queries I had too.

Nigel lives round the corner from me. I remember seeing him in a band yonks ago when he played a Rickenbacker... but much more slowly ...and to songs.

Good bits I have a couple of beautiful basses Can play along well to backing tracks/CDs etc Bad bits Crap memory Go to pieces if asked to play something Never gigged - never had the guts

A welcome return.

[quote name='solo4652' post='294693' date='Sep 29 2008, 05:16 PM']Thanks for your reply. It may be that I'm not quite ready for you yet! I'll PM you with more thoughts. Steve[/quote] Hi, I might be interested in that too. I've only got into bass in the last few years having been mainly a guitarist of sorts for umpteen years and have a lovely Telecaster that needs an airing.

A guitar made out of lead! Bet that hurts after a while. Were you a heavy metal guitarist. Cider in my veins. Welcome aboard. I'll get my coat.

I was in Reidys the other day with a view to buying a Tele. They had the old American series plus the new American Standard, both of which were lovely guitars however there was only £30 difference between the two and bearing in mind the older one came with the crappy moulded case the owner wouldn't negotiate on price which put me right off. The actual assistant (John) was fine though and it wasn't his fault. I've been buying and selling guitars for 20+ years so I'm certainly no kid but not to even attempt to haggle a price on old stock is a bit strange. I've never had this problem anywhere else so as a result my business is likely to go elsewhere. Also they have a shop floor price and an internet price and will not give you the internet price if you turn up in person. I made two trips on consecutive days from Manchester up to Blackburn so I was serious about the purchase. I've told John about this site so if he joins maybe we can have his input. By the way the VMJ was up on the wall while I was there.

I'm another left-handed rightie player too

Plain black all the way

I've spent the evening browsing various websites comparing prices and whatnot and having spent some time on the Thomann website I can't see what the fuss is about. Two guitars I was interested in were at least £100-£150 more expensive than other UK based websites. I was under the impression that they were really cheap but I can't find much evidence of this. Granted they seem to have just about everything you would ever want from most well known brands but none of it is particularly cheap. Plus you don't get to haggle which is half the fun. I've heard from other BCers that they have an excellent returns policy but at the prices they are quoting they should have.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='270796' date='Aug 27 2008, 09:50 AM']I have two Laklands. A 55-01 and a Duck Dunn. I hadn't heard of Lakland until i went shopping for a 5 string a couple of years ago but once i played a few i was hooked. As others have said, these basses are very well made, be it the Skylines or the USA ones. I dont think i have read anything bad about them (other than something i wrote a few months ago ;-) but even that wasn't really a big deal. Best necks ive ever played FWIW. I actually find my 55-01 to be the lightest Bass i have played (ok, thats not many but its still lighter than my DD and even my Jazz) If you look over on TalkBass there are at least 5 1000 post threads about Laklands (and a few smaller ones) This is the first [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310869"]Lakland Owners Group, thread 1.[/url] This is now my main Bass. [/quote] Crikey, you've got a big house ;0)

It's a sign of the times really. Some people will benefit from these low prices on new stock however others trying to sell stuff on are going to lose out...or are they? If the prices of 2nd hand stuff is being affected due to the current credit crunch so are the prices of suppliers trying to shift new stuff. For example if your 2nd hand Warwick S1 was worth £800 before the so called credit crunch but is now only worth £600 does it really matter when you can now pick up a £2k bass for half that amount if you shop around? There will always be winners and losers regardless of the perceived state of the economy. The one thing stores do not want is stock that they cannot shift so it is in their interest to move it on which is why you are usually able to haggle. After all what is 100% of no commission? Zero. A store will always make some profit on whatever they can shift and the more of a product they can shift the bigger the discount they can expect from the supplier so it's a win-win situation. You have to be a little bit hard faced (within reason) but there are deals to be had out there. A couple of years ago I bought a 65 reissue Fender Twin Reverb in blonde. It was listed at £1300 and on the day I went in I managed to get it down to £900 if I paid cash. I agreed to this and said I'd pick it up the following day. The following day arrived and I went in to pick up the amp and there was 10% off everything in store so I asked if that included my amp. A quick phone call later and they said I could have it for £800 cash. They even carried it down to the car for me (Fender Twins weigh the same as a bungalow). The guy in the store told me they still made a nice profit on the amp although not as nice as if I'd paid £1300 for it. The upshot of this is that I have returned to the same store and spent a shed load of money there as I find their after sales service is excellent. I benefitted from the discount and they have a returning customer and I have recommended them to others. ...It's Harker and Howarth in Bolton, by the way.

Ice blue metallic followed by the black one.

A beautiful job. I've nothing but admiration for anyone who can turn a tree into something so nice. Take a bow. Incidentally, when you say you just plugged your bass into Garageband. Er.. how?

I never liked Thumbs at all... until now. That is lovely.