Steve Browning

Absolutely. I rather railed against 'learning' stuff earlier. Play what is instinctive, anything else is not 'you'.

I would hope he was flaccid. Oh, you said placid. 🙂

I played the Grey Horse, Kingston, to one man (no dog to boost numbers unhappily)!! I think a knowledge of theory is helpful. I had a good few years of piano lessons and, while self-taught on bass, I did have the advantage of the theory behind it all. I also concluded that if I was ever asked to slap I would provide Mark King's or Nick Begg's number.

Yes. In essence exactly the same. The agreement with the EU means there is no Customs Duty on the purchase but it's the same in all other respects.

I wonder if this can be linked to the buying/selling to the EU thread. I think that is more useful. The answer was provided ages ago and the later contributions seem to adding confusion and inaccuracy.

That's just a policy paper. It doesn't have the force of Law. I was trying to attach an up to date link but all the HMRC links are dead.

I note a lot of links to HMRC are now dead. I would guess an update is coming.

I believe you are referring to distance selling which is an EU concept. I am not sure that applies to the UK any more. What is the date of your link (I clicked on it and got nowhere).

Are you VAT registered in the UK?

You sell as normal to the EU. The customer has to p-ay their local VAT. When you buy from the EU you are not charged their VAT but you will pay (to the carrier) UK VAT on the cost of the goods + the delivery charge.

There is no UK VAT at all. Your French customer sees those charges, you will never see them.

If you sell a bass to someone in France you charge them as normal. When you send it you fill out a Customs form and the French tax authority charge your customer French VAT on the import. The value base is the cost + carrier cost. You won't see any of those additional costs.

Oh, they are!!! 😞

You will really like the amp. I know what you mean about the Buster. When I first got the 400 all those years ago, I actually stopped using it because I couldn't get the right sound. Eventually I persevered and figured out the eq. The controls work with each other and it takes a time to get your head round it.

My comment was aimed more at styles rather than bass itself. There's nothing wrong with not being a jazz improviser. I wish most jazz improvisers weren't either!! I play bass like Steve Browning. No-one does that better than me. That's how I see it working. I had my influences as a developing bass player but I haven't wanted/needed for someone else (however 'eminent') to tell me what to play. I have encountered so many brass players whose time in music college only seemed to encourage them to try and achieve the highest harmonic they could, and then repeat it endlessly.

To this extent it is levelling up. If Thomann export outside the EU they will apply the same principles to UK trade. Same goes for any (current) EU business. The UK is added to their 'export' list.

Just my own daft opinion but I am not a fan of any of these courses. In my mind, music is intuitive and you can't learn to feel something you don't. Not expecting anyone to agree with me but that remains my view.

Thomann would have been UK VAT registered due to the EU distance selling rules. They charged UK VAT. I keep forgetting that myself.

I believe we are Tariff free and so no Duty.

Interesting programme with Guy Martin where he helps to rebuild a Spitfire. During the programme he takes a .303 to a BMW. Scary consequences.

You can't beat a Browning!!

Ok. Maybe my own knowledge of the Tariff makes navigation easier. Unhappily, that's the future the majority wanted.

Do you mean commodity codes? The Tariff is available online and not difficult to navigate.

The spanner in the works is that this is how it has always worked for second hand goods from outside the EU. It would be unfair not to treat EU countries in the same way. I would be doubtful it was considered as any kind of negotiation point because it's the same in either direction. This is certainly a situation where the result of Brexit is detrimental to people buying second hand goods from the EU or selling to people in the EU. I don't think it's a political statement to say that we musicians are adversely affected by the changes. Maybe the rules will evolve over time. We have the regulatory right to change whatever we want to, of course.

All goods require a customs declaration. This records the value for taxation etc purposes. The sender will complete it. Customs don't check everything but if you pay 300 quid for a Fodera and it ends up being confiscated at Customs then you don't seem too clever. In my VAT man days I saw it all the time. People who thought they could outwit the system. Some succeeded but the vast majority didn't.