Beedster

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1431459996' post='2771643'] I used to work for Royal Mail, this was all brought about once Royal Mail lost the monopoly on delivering items under £1. It used to be run as a service, and that service was very good, however it is now run as a business, and businesses have to be profitable to compete. Ironically, Royal Mail thought the advent of the internet would spell the end of letter delivery as we know it. Massive propaganda was trotted out by senior management on declining Mail volumes, the need to cut costs etc. All very true, however what they completely underestimated was the massive growth in packet and parcel traffic that the rise of internet shopping brought. They never saw it coming. Back in the good old days of Mail Order, packets and parcels were minimal, and easily managed. It is only in the last few years, the nationwide revision in 2011-12 to be precise, that they have tried to adapt to this market. So back in the 'good old days', postman pat was trusted to use his initiative when delivering parcels, and whether to 'doorstep' them. Live out in the sticks and friendly with the neighbours? We'll deliver it to them. Live by the side of a main road in full view? Probably won't leave it on the doorstep. Plus he had the time in his working day to make an informed decision. But with the massive increase in parcel traffic completely mismanaged by Royal Mail, and the extra pressure on staff who were told their workloads were going down, 'doorstepping' began to increase. Complaints went up, naturally, and 'doorstepping' was outlawed, punishable by conduct procedures, from somewhere around 2005 iirc. After a few years, it was obvious customers started complaining more about us not delivering it to their trusted neighbours, or leaving it in a perfectly secure place. Customers were also taking advantage of the free redelivery service, which was so clearly not profitable, so initiatives were brought in to ensure we delivered first time, in an attempt to slicken up. The 'tracked' service coincided with this. This obviously stretches across to the wider Royal Mail group and Parcel Force, and hence why you have basses thrown over your garden fence. Regardless, the delivery driver must be an absolute tool, and will probably be sacked for this. I left Royal Mail in 2012, and it was clear there was massive conflict between running it as a business, and running it as a service. Until they sort out which one it is, it will continue to decline. [/quote] Good post by the way

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1431459996' post='2771643'] Regardless, the delivery driver must be an absolute tool, and will probably be sacked for this. [/quote] Decent bottle of red says he won't

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1431428561' post='2771151'] Surely having the driver "sign" for the delivery counts as fraud? Might have some interesting implications if you paid for the bass by credit card. [/quote] There is some quite amazing small print exceptions to normal practice around contracts when you book a courier and I suspect that this might be one of them...

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1431358455' post='2770433'] Very good. I like the idea of the lipstick alongside the mudbucker and I agree on the aesthetics of moving it to be properly in line. [/quote] Yep, apparently having spoken to a man in the know it's a job somewhere between a b**ch and a f*****g b**ch to do and cannot be done without leaving at least some trace, but near enough will be good enough for me. Played it in anger on Sunday and was pleasantly surprised at the balance between PUPs, specifically finding no real drop in volume when I switch to the back PUP. No doubt that this was in part because I tend to back off on the front and dig in on the back on all my basses, just seems to make more sense to me tonally, but the front-back balance on this bass is actually way better than that on my 4003.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1431417930' post='2770965'] Makes you wonder why deliveries aren't made outside business hours when people are at home and there is less traffic. [/quote] Unions

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1431410259' post='2770902'] If you've not already e-mailed them, I'd make a comment about their management who put the driver in a position where he was able to do this. If he is capable of going off process, then that is management failure. As has been aluded to earlier in the thread, he's l probably quietly encouraged,to do something like this to keep costs down and KPIs up. It's very easy for a company like this to blame the driver, but it's them who created the environment where the driver thought this was an acceptable thing to do. Not saying the driver isn't at fault, he could genuinely have acted in a self-serving and malicious way; but I would suspect that the ultimate blame lies with Parcelforce management. [/quote] Absolutely, and it is not 'quiet encouragement', it is explicit instruction albeit on a 'don't tell the punters' basis. My Parcelforce delivery guy, a nice bloke, left a parcel in my dustbin and it went off to the dump because the card he put through the door telling us it was in the bin went walkabout (it did turn up but some time after the bin had been collected). I asked if he was going to get into trouble for signing for it (it was signed for as delivered) and he made it pretty obvious he would have got into more trouble if he [i]hadn't[/i] signed for it. Most people are out during Monday-Friday 9-5 which is when Parcelforce do most of their domestic deliveries, if they didn't do this type of thing and had to keep taking things to and fro depots with all the handling and processing, their business model wouldn't work and prices would go up with all the consequences for competitive edge etc. They simply live with the fact that in a small percentage of cases - and it is small - things go wrong. Will the MD/CEO care about this, absolutely not, it's acceptable business risk. In fact not doing stuff like this represents higher risk from senior management perspective. Personally with most items I'd prefer the delivery gets to me without too much messing about and on the day I expect it. If that can be done via wheely bins, neighbours and clever hiding places, I'm generally happy. Until it goes wrong

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1430040844' post='2757270'] Chris, congrats but we need pictures. [/quote] Hi Dave, with apologies for the delay, here's the evidence [url="http://s80.photobucket.com/user/Beedster/media/IMG_4310_zpsctlcl3rv.jpg.html"][/url] I've done the following[list] [*]Taken it apart, had a good look around and ascertained that, obvious deviations excepted, it's original [*]Installed a period incorrect Badass III which is the only bridge that will allow me to get the strings and the neck aligned without drilling new holes (you can see the quite extreme angles between the point at which the string comes through the body and the point at which it crosses the saddles). [*]Replaced the neck tilt bolt with a substantial screw to stabilise the neck [/list] It sounds GLORIOUS, it plays beautifully, and the lipstick blended with the MB is marvellous, as it is soloed. The MB soloed is of course equally glorious and is, despite what a lot of folks appear to believe, entirely useable. Next steps are to get a new neck tilt assembly sorted and to have the lipstick moved upwards a centimetre or so, probably doesn't need it for anything but aesthetic reasons but it being so far off line bugs me And while I'm on though I'd mention these two beauties..... Warmoth Dusty Hill Telebass [url="http://s80.photobucket.com/user/Beedster/media/IMG_4304_zpstvt4ecvh.jpg.html"][/url] Does it rock? Do fish have waterproof heads? Fretless Telebass [url="http://s80.photobucket.com/user/Beedster/media/IMG_4321_zpspy5cayoj.jpg.html"][/url] Just getting into this bass but whilst is rather lovely, I'm not sure it's going to stay.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1430928152' post='2766068'] I've got the score for diamonds on the soles of her shoes, had to learn it for uni a few back. [/quote] Hi mate, hope all's well, any chance you could get it to me?

[quote name='Stuart Clayton' timestamp='1430815584' post='2764717'] Hmmm. That would be a good book...! Stu [/quote] Ha ha, I was thinking that Stu, how long would it take you

Worked on these lines years ago and having gone back to them think I may have missed a few of the subtleties that make them so magical. Anyone got any good tabs/scores for any of the tracks? Cheers C

Have to say that on reflection the only bass I can say with all honesty me the 'one bass' criterion - although of course I'd prefer to say it was a Precision - was a Jazz fitted with a J-Retro. For some reason it worked better than a Sadowsky P/J although you'd have thought the latter would cover all basses so to speak. Nik is spot on above, as is the post re the 4003, it's as much about how you play what you've got as it is what you've got. C