dlloyd

[quote name='leo_tender' timestamp='1316207077' post='1375999'] Some tips on a US retailer who's willing to ship to Europe? Won't the price be the same shippingcost, taxes etc included? [/quote] Most dealership contracts prohibit international sales on new product. This is to protect the international distributors. For instance, all US EBMM dealers have signed a contract that prohibits them from selling new basses to the UK. The UK dealership network served by Strings and Things, the distributor in the UK, are the only ones who are allowed to sell new instruments here.

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1318325112' post='1400447'] It is incredibly poor. Can you imagine the furore that would arise if you rang your bank with a query and they hung the phone up on you? Or if you wrote to your local council and your letter ended up in a shredder before it was read? Actually, forget the last one there, I think that already happens. [/quote] Poor analogy. EBMM actually have a stellar customer services department. Don't confuse the EBMM forum with customer services. It's essentially a fan club that is hosted by EBMM. If you post there about a problem with your instrument, you will be referred to customer services. In the UK, however, it is not EBMM that we deal with. It's Strings and Things, their UK distributor, and whatever retailer we bought the thing from.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1318254609' post='1399704'] Why, Its connected with their basses so why not talk about it? This is whats so confusing. [/quote] Because it's a house forum that was set up as an exercise in online marketing. It's there to promote their own products, one of which is Ernie Ball strings. It's not that difficult a concept: http://www.copyblogger.com/building-your-fan-club/

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1318246922' post='1399575'] Blocking owners posting about issues is not really on IMO. The best place to ask for help with a certain product should surely be the manufacturers own forums. [/quote] It depends on the issue. When the issue is one of whether Thomastik Infeld flats are better than La Bellas on an Ernie Ball instrument, I think it's fair for them to ask people to take it elsewhere.

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1318247098' post='1399577'] I'm not concerned with folks being picky about unrelated products, it's an Ernie's Balls Forum after all, I think it's awful that someone can't share a negative experience with a product and have it discussed rationally without being attacked... [/quote] Sure.

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1317982259' post='1396858'] [u][quote][/u]dave_bass5, on 07 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said: I think its more a case of not worth it as the posts will be deleted and the poster banned. Just a waste of time. Ive seen someone get told off by a mod just for talking about another manufactures strings and comparing them to EB's.[/quote] Regardless of Gareth's recent problems, that kind of crap is more enough to put me off Musicman as a brand, the company appears to be run by complete elitist arseholes. [/quote] The rule regarding other other manufacturer's products was brought in for fairly sensible reasons. When the EB forum was still in its early days, there used to be reasoned debate about replacement pickups, preamps, necks, etc. and there were no problems. The problem, as I see it, came when the forum grew. House forums often attract an obsessive clique of fans, and the EBMM forum was no exception. People would come on the forums and ask about replacement pickups and would be piled on by a bunch of fanboys who would tell them why they were wrong to want to adulterate a Stingray... and it would descend from there. Blocking discussion of other manufacturers' products has, I would imagine, prevented a fair bit of nastiness on the EBMM forums. And lets face it, there are plenty of other places where discussion of replacement parts is possible.

It's a through neck Hamer Impact. Not very common.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1317983867' post='1396887'] That's definitely what Fender would do. Obviously bodies and necks sit around all the time. The reason why it concerns me is because: A - EBMM specs are listed in full on the boxes. This points to Aug 2010 complete build (eg the bass was ready for sale and sent on this date). This also ties in with their serial number records....and they also don't state matching headstock. B - EBMM don't swap and change things. Once a bass is built, if a part is faulty, they replace that, and then it goes on their records. That's what it seems like they have done here...older bass, new neck. Im guessing previously it was just a normal HH Rosewood board, but they didnt have a matching headstock version in, so instead of ordering a new bass, they have put a neck off another bass onto this to make one they can sell. Which took seven months and might explain why it doesnt fit right and the marks near the neck pocket, (in the paint). It's kinda why I came to this conclusion. They make them to spec, so why would a bass built over a year ago take seven months?! [/quote] I would imagine that the problem lies with the distributor rather than the manufacturer. There just isn't a rational explanation for why EBMM would send out what appears to be a year old, parts bass. The most likely scenario to my mind is that the bass you ordered arrived in this country damaged, so Strings and Things swapped necks on a bass they already had in stock to fulfil your order and returned yours for repair.

The origin of the Sterling range came with the discontinuation of the SUB in 2006. EBMM couldn't afford to continue manufacturing the SUB in the US and was looking to replace it with one that was less expensive to produce. OLP was a licensed deal with the Hanser group. It was seen as a way to prevent the flooding of the market with unlicensed knock-offs and to protect EBMMs trademark. The license expired and EBMM didn't renew it. There had been some issues of product consistency with the OLPs, but ultimately why license your trademark to another company to build guitars in Asia when you're going to be doing that yourself?

Can't help with the tab, but Hendrix was a pretty good bass player, wasn't he?

I had a Hohner Jack bass back in the early 90s. It was a great little thing that fitted in a guitar case and didn't need a guitar stand. I regretted selling it for some time, but recently tried a couple. They weren't what I remembered.

How nice is this, by the way:

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1317190299' post='1387732'] That bad? Wow thanks for the advice. [/quote] They're an insult to firewood. I've never seen anything as bad that was being sold new. And I'm including the plastic ukulele I bought from the 99p store. Go back to the cheeky devil who offered you it and set fire to his trousers.

I've tried one out in Costco of all places. I wouldn't give you £10 it.

[quote name='electric nate' timestamp='1316951963' post='1384668'] Supposedly the covers have some effect on the pickups, i'm not sure if they were intended to contain or reflect the magnetic field (perhaps an attempt to improve sustain?), or if they were just supposed to reduce interference and noise. I'm sure you'll find plenty of people willing to claim they have an effect on tone, but there's no great players with great tone I can think of who left the covers on. (edit: I'm sure that'll sound like [b]an invitation for someone to post a bunch of pics of famous players with pickup covers on[/b] and prove me wrong!) [/quote] Why not?

[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1316864138' post='1383779'] Are Bb players lazy? Are many guitar and bass players lazy for often playing in E and A(usually minor),or whatever they tune their open strings too? It's no big deal to play in different keys-especially as a bass/guitar player.Sometimes the horns have to play in uncomfortable keys and sometime the guys in concert have to,it's just the way it is. If it is a big deal,it means you need to spend some time learning new keys. [/quote] That's true, of course, but even if they can play with some degree of comfort in any key, they're always going to prefer to play closer to their C major. If you ask me to play in concert E major on a Bb clarinet, I'm playing in F# major or Gb major. 6 sharps or 6 flats. Assuming I'm okay with that, it's never going to sound as good as it would do if I was playing in C due to the physical limitations of the instrument and the way the tuning is optimised to the home keys (it's not tuned to equal temperament. If I had an A clarinet, there would be less of a problem, because concert E major is G major on an A clarinet. Easy peasy.

[quote name='gilmour' timestamp='1316851522' post='1383588'] Of course that said when I used to be in a jam band we used to pick keys just to annoy the horns [/quote] Listen to the horn players complaining around 20 - 30 seconds in... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtC2XDbE8Zo[/media]

Here's an early clarinet for example... it just wouldn't be possible to play in all keys on one of these, and composers would tend to gravitate towards a few that sounded half decent tonally. This one is about the same period that Mozart was active.

I've had clarinets and saxes that were tuned to Bb, A and Eb. One of the reasons is timbre. There's a heck of a difference between matched clarinets tuned to Bb and A, with the A sounding darker. C clarinets and saxes do exist but they sound like crap. The main reason for having transposing instruments is historical. There's a fair bit of engineering that goes into producing a clarinet that can hit all the chromatic notes and early instruments had only a couple of accidental keys at best. For pieces that deviated from the home key by more than a couple of sharps or flats, you'd swap to an instrument that could handle it. Even today, the accidentals are a bit of a compromise, and the best tone is achieved by playing on an instrument that is close to the written key. Same goes for all other wind instruments. Some, like the flute and oboe have standardised at C because they sound pretty good at that tuning, but they also have transposing counterparts like the alto flute and the cor anglais. Brass instruments... similar story. It's a hell of a lot easier for a stringed instrument player to transpose on the fly than it is for a wind player, but a decent wind player should be able to do it.

[quote name='EskimoBassist' timestamp='1315748036' post='1369445'] DD-6 is a good choice for this. DD-5 (if you can find one) would be better, especially with an external non latching footswitch. [/quote] I really liked my DD5s. I've had two, only selling them when I had a notion to dress like a fisherman and play folk music. Twice that happened. What a dumbass...

[quote name='MB1' timestamp='1316708211' post='1381796'] MB1. Or a Taxi yellow,(dont think ive ever seen a yellow ray!) [/quote] I don't think they've ever had a bright yellow as an option. They've had medallion gold and trans gold .

Okay... how do you post youtube clips now?

Anyone know where I can get these? Prefereably stamped with the "F"

Bass needs a setup, strings need to settle in, but yep... that's what I'm talking about. I've been playing more with a pick lately... Fender jazz, flats, pick... instant West coast 60s sound. Nice...