Aidan63

MY shipment was with UPS , sent from California on the 4th and arrived in UK on the evening of the 6th, spent a week sat at Stansted, occasionally being scanned but not moving, then more than 2 weeks at UPS London Hub also being scanned but not seemingly progressing, before finally making it's way to Deeside depot, and delivered at the first opportunity by the final delivery team. Normally I can order from my supplier on Monday and have it in my hand, tax paid 5 days later, 3 days if I pay extra for the super quick service with UPS. Unfortunately in this case it was very much delayed. This is gearbox parts for my business so not 4 foot long boxes of bass. Your experience with USPS was a lot better which is great

Ernie Ball are a really small company in the scheme of things, 2018 Revenue $25.5million, and that includes the strings By comparison D'Addario revenue 2020 $167million Taylor revenue 2019 $180million Fender revenue 2020 £480million Yamaha Corporation revenue 202 $3.75billion Musicman have always managed the brand so as to have a perceived value somewhat out of proportion with the number of instruments they make, whilst the licensed brands OLP, SUB and now the far East Sterling range have helped many players to have the look without the cost, they can't make more instruments of a decent quality in the USA than current restricted level, and if they have to move the far east made stuff up in price to fill the void and balance the books they will, especially now they can see that other brands have done that ( with Korean, Indonesian or Chinese made) and made it work that is very likely the future; as long as they can pay the lawyers to stop anyone making real copies they are quids (or should that be dollars) in

The Laser ball end extra long set 2220 is very good, I've used one day in day out working on gearboxes and they are still good after more than 10 years, very hard wearing, and the plastic holder is still good too, just the right grade of plastic, hasn't worn much, hasn't split, still functions really well I bought a second set for my musical instruments as the workshop ones are always oily/greasy despite being wiped down before being put away The extra length is always useful I find, other than for storage, makes them easier to find if dropped though

There's a invite to submit views Tell MPs about your views on changes to work and travel rules for UK touring professionals and artists in the EU by completing this short survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/MJY6SU/ Please respond by Wednesday 3 February

I finally received my package from America yesterday, that arrived in the UK through Stansted on the 6th; seems that UPS are very slowly getting their shizzle together. What bugs me is the broken promises and lack of transparency, wishing me and my family well and other meaningless platitudes and apologies whilst seemingly doing b a to actually deliver the package They have changed the way they work a good bit since last October and none of it seems to be for the better, hopefully it will settle down, they'll catch up with the backlog and the next time I order from America it will be delivered in 5 days with the duty sorted without me getting stressed like it always used to be The drivers are still doing a great job given what they are dumped on with

A lot of you will know because you signed the e-petition on the Gov.uk website and have had the email today but for those who haven't the matter will be discussed shortly On Monday 8 February the Petitions Committee will hold a virtual e-petition session to discuss arrangements for UK musicians in the EU. So maybe time to get your views into your MP for presentation to the session. It looks like the government will continue to blame the EU for the situation that has arisen as per the initial response to the e-petition, so I'm not expecting any great change but worth trying to raise the importance of the matter to your MP, there is clearly enough support amongst the population for a solution as the petition gained enough signatures to be debated very very quickly, most e-petitions get nowhere. I was going to add this to the original thread but it has been locked.

my bad, I thought it would still be higher than that, I didn't actually check what it is but it is the world's 4th largest country by population and it does have a population growth rate of 1.3% which is moderately high so they maybe won't have the same demographic change in the short to medium term that other countries have gone through

Acoustic and semi-acoustic instruments require much more hand labour in assembly than solid body ones hence most of them are made in China where labour costs are generally lower than in Indonesia. South Korea is now suffering from a shortage of labour amidst a falling birth rate in much the same way as Japan did. Indonesia being prominently Muslim will probably not see such a change in the birth rate and needs to find work for its people so will probably continue to be a dominant force in instrument manufacture for a good while to come. It would be great if a proper documentary maker could get access to all the far East plants and really show the processes and the conditions that the staff work and live under, and that the materials are produced and stored under and do some real analysis of the true cost to the environment and cost and benefit to the people making the instruments of this industry. I realise of course that is never going to happen. If you want a new instrument buy something built in the UK, otherwise there's plenty enough used instruments in circulation to satisfy us, especially if we all restricted ourselves to 1 or just 2 each 😲😃

Same distributor as Elrick, Bass Direct sell Elrick so they can probably get these, and may do, but competes with Xotic and few other brands at that price point which they already sell, but how many Jazz-a-likes or Precision-a-likes can you sell

saw this earlier, nothing to do with me.. 62 RI Bass

add 20% vat on the whole amount and in theory 2.7% on the instrument plus a collection charge

especially as the body is sub £400 from Scott; what happened to the original Fender body or is that included ?

did you get a breakdown of the charges and how they were calculated, the vat part and collection charge . Did Thomann charge any shipping ?

Jon bought a Kent Armstrong Precision pickup from me after I replied to his wanted listing, quick payment, all good, thank you

the lovely grain pattern would make a good headstock plate if you don't incorporate it into the body and you'd likely get a good few of them out of that thickness great work with the Uke's and this is an inspirational project, good luck with it all

black silks, with pretty long winding at the ball end

UPS are having their own issues, I've been trying to get my invoice from them (and pay it) for the duty on a shipment of parts from America for my business for over a month, usually the invoice is raised before the goods are even on the plane from the US and I give the driver a cheque when he delivers the package. In this case I have the goods and no idea of when I'll get the bill or what I'll have to pay. They have another package for me from the same US supplier that has been sat at Stansted now for a week (hopefully not in bonded storage with daily charges), it should have been delivered on Monday, no idea when it will arrive. Their customer service team have no more information than I have from the online tracking. The last time I actually got an itemised bill from UPS over 12 months ago the charge for collecting the tax/duty was £17.95, since early last year the bills have just been a total owing with no breakdown of tax, duty and collection charge. I think the US operation has over time done a phased transfer of the work onto the UK team who have become overwhelmed by working from home, illness, staffing issues, probably system changes and now the changes due to Brexit. The depots and drivers are still doing their best. The visible online tracking now only gives a brief overview/latest status whereas before you could see exactly what was happening, including the customs clearance and raising of paperwork all the way through the system.

logically 0771333 is July 1997, and last 4 digits are serial number

has anyone pulled him up about the misremembered mythical BB600 on facebook ?

Why doesn't someone write a definitive book on the BB ? Looks like there would be enough interest. I guess you'd have to speak Japanese to do the research properly at source. Is there already such a resource in Japanese that needs translating into other languages ?

is it Klaus Schulze ?

you posted this and 24 hours later it popped up in my feed, and doubtless most BC members' feeds I enjoyed it with a cup of tea this afternoon, loved the Ebony 😍