AndyTravis

Not got Gibson Custom Shop money these days 😉

Liked that Les Paul ES with a bigsby 😛

See my amendment 👆🏼

Was that the band with a girl singing and b.vox by female bass player - a lot of them, lad playing a fender acoustic? Just switched over and missed their name... god I hate Marc Almond.

That Black build from last year is great!

Well. Yeah. That, obvs.

Speak to @TimAl you can trace around the hole left behind and he’ll do you a new one, quickly and reasonably

What the feck could you actually do with that?!

Ooh...doubt this will stay up long. Think Ric shouted at BC a lot about replicas. Im not sure if this fits that criteria. looks lovely though.

I’ve gone from Lightweight Ashdown rig (800w and compact 210/115 which was by far and away the best rig I’ve had in years - and because I’m not gigging I’ve bought a huge heavy Hughes and Kettner combo. I will kick myself when gigging again and revert back to a compact rig.

It was an odd experience for me, him blowing £10k or the best part thereof when he couldn’t play wasn’t odd. watched a guy spend £70,000 on a piano he couldn’t play because it would “look great” in the foyer of his house....that was bonkers (it was a Yamaha c9 concert grand.

All day long 😉

I’ve seen her play an Aria Pro II avante and An ibanez SRX. Both with flats and a pick. She’s ace. And agreed on the “not much of a player” sentiment. I once held a Custom Shop ‘Peter Green’ Les Paul (which incidentally was a bit of a dog of a guitar) for a guy who was collecting - he flew over from Norway to buy it (I’m sure it was about £9000). When he arrived he asked “Can I hear it?” So I plugged him into a nice orange AD Combo and handed it over “no, no, can you play it?” So I did...a rough version of albatross and the obvious pigeon blues crap (best I can muster, don’t really play much guitar - but it was passable) he replied “wow - you’re a real accomplished player!”. The other guitar playing lads in the shop robbed me for months over that quote. He then sat and strummed between G/A/D for 5 minutes, paid up and left. Later ordered a perspex lidded Rick case for it and sent us a picture of it on his wall...Odd.

I’m not incensed... I was just sharing my two penneth, which ultimately shouldn’t and most likely won’t influence anyone’s wallet nor decision making 😉 Cables - Again, they do make a difference. Spent an afternoon (well, an hour or so on a quiet weekday) with 4 different cables at £5/£20/£40 and £100 ish. I agree that down the dog and duck this all really doesn’t matter.

Not quite a blind test...although he is colour blind. my best mate has a MIJ 51, and we sat with that and my (now gone) 55 custom shop. It felt and sounded more alive... Silly me for selling that bass...

I’ve been out of the retailing end of things for 5 years (Jesus - where does time go?) Like I say - the more you sell of stuff, just working on the law of averages states you’ll see more back.

I buy and sell more gear when I’m not gigging. What for?! I’ve no idea what my headspace is about at times.

With behringer gear (I used to sell a lot of it) it seemed (it certainly felt like) we returned a lot - but then again we sold it by the bucketload. The thing was though - if you got a “good one” they were unbelievable... they must make a lot on Friday afternoons.

Having owned 2 basses which fall into this demographic...yes it does. having sold instruments from £89-£20k for 12 years in previous employment...yes. its what difference it makes to you personally, if you have a budget of £200 for a bass, do you even compare it to the £2000 one? If you want to spend £2000 do you entertain the £200 bass? If you’re looking for a bass to do a certain job, I dunno - ‘I fancy a violin bass’ then you’ll test various types and ascertain what you want to spend. There was an old test we used to do for Gibson guitar events...people would want to know (and often would lament at length) about whether or not the Les Pauls by Epiphone were £1500 “worse” than the Gibson. Surely it stands to reason that the mahogany body and neck with Maple cap etc should just do the same thing - often, the customer paying £400 wanted to make the point of “there’s no difference, this is just made in the Far East”... We’d sit down and play a £399 Les Paul by Epiphone (unplugged) and it sounded clacky and plastic. We’d play a Les Paul Standard for about £1400 and it was acoustically louder, better seperation of notes and from a players perspective led to more vibration or positive feedback into your hands. Then we’d pull down a £3699 custom shop R8 Les Paul and it was the same difference again - louder, warmer and much more sustain. It is a law of diminishing returns - does it mean Epiphone Les Pauls are crap? Nope - they’re great for £399 or whatever they are now, but it was an easier way of demonstrating what that money gets you. That does translate into a good amp too - if it didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be doing it - there would be no point. Again, in the wrong hands - a £4000 custom shop sounds like crap no matter what. The assumption being that if you’re spending £4000, you’ll have either a decent idea of what you’re doing...and if you don’t, you’ve got more money than sense, but one hell of a nice guitar. One of the worst guitars I’ve ever played was a Koa Breedlove which was £12,000 just sounded dead. But that was very much a “look at what we can do” showpiece. And I have played a Taylor acoustic made out of Pallets which was ace. And a Fylde made of Whiskey Barrels which smelt great. But wasn’t my tipple sound wise. now, can I get back to willy jokes and Giraffe pictures?

Well I think that goes back to the ergonomics thing...I know the Gibson explorer, Flying V, moderne and Futura were derided upon release...that was only 7 years after the Precision bass. Leo Fender sort of followed the lines of an acoustic guitar, an hourglass but then added cutaways.

They did some lefties like this, my mate dave has a jazz and a strat like this...

Looks nice. I’d say about 250-275w at 4ohm. rough guess. I don’t know half as much about amps as I do basses.

It’s an analogy with flaws - but it’s set a benchmark... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Would burn plenty quick if dipped in diesel first.

You’re obviously not visiting my local chapter...