Rich

It's probably an unrepealed Law dating from 1328 or something.

[quote name='bassmerchant' post='267801' date='Aug 22 2008, 01:03 PM']A completely un bass related incident but I bought a home cinema system from a high street shop and couldnt get it to work ,phoned their customer service dept ,waited for hours and got told to unplug it and plug it in again !! so in desperation called a local independant shop who stocked the same gear ,the guy spent 25 mins on the phone with me and finally located the problem ,one of the leads was incorrect ,he sold me a new one for a fiver ,problem solved and since then have bought any home electrical gear from him - The moral ,todays "timewasters" are tomorrows customers !![/quote]Ditto. Some weeks ago I bought a feck-off big TV... rather than going to Curryometixons or another similarly faceless retail whale, I went to a small local shop. The sales guy couldn't have been more helful, dashing about the place to set stuff up for me to check out, patiently answering all my idiot questions ("duhh, what's 1080p mean..?"), arranging delivery to suit me down to the hour (not "oh it'll be one day next week... some time in the afternoon... or morning... dunno really..."), and throwing in the 5 year cover to make a killer deal. The delivery guys set it all up for me, plumbed it all into the cable etc. so it worked the way I wanted it to, took away all the packaging and stuff, stopped for a cup of tea and a chat. And a couple of weeks later, the sales guy phoned in the evening, well after shop hours, to make sure it was all good and that I'm still happy with it. Result? When I get a blu-ray player or whatever, I shall be going straight back to Freemans of Portishead. [i]And[/i] I've just sung their praises to 3,800 people. Now THAT's word of mouth. See, Mr.Bass Cellar, that could be you.

[quote name='Me!' post='267205' date='Aug 21 2008, 05:06 PM']So let's assume that the buyers looked at the house, realised it was close to an established working kennel and thought "oh well, we can soon put a stop to that"..? That's OK, is it? [/quote][quote name='Balcro' post='267732' date='Aug 22 2008, 11:33 AM']In [u]simple legal terms[/u], yes it is.[/quote] Aha. Yet another example of the law being an ass.

[quote name='bassman100' post='267223' date='Aug 21 2008, 05:33 PM']We would like to invite everyone who has posted a comment here to a real conversation regarding the issues they have raised. Our opening hours are 10am - 7pm monday to saturday and 11am - 5pm on sunday. We will be happy to dicuss these matters with you all and explain in detail the reasoning behind each of our policies. We are sorry to see a small proportion of our 200,000 plus customers each year feel they have received bad customer service, we welcome all feedback both negative and positive. Yours sincerely, The Bass Cellar.[/quote] Hi and welcome to the site If you really [i]are[/i] representing the Bass Cellar, I have to say I am pleased and impressed that you have taken the trouble to stick your head above the parapet, and your stock has gone up a bit already... but I think you're missing the mark somewhat by simply inviting people in to the shop to talk about it. As Machines and HJack and wayne and others have suggested, it is far better to address issues raised on a public forum, on that same public forum. It's for your benefit as well as ours. Also, it means that those disgruntled* customers living well outside London get to have a say too... I'm afraid I'm not going to spend 2.5 hours on a train just to come and discuss the poor service I received in the past..! Anyway, like I said, welcome. Ball's in your court. * [size=1]is the opposite of this 'gruntled'..? [/size]

[quote name='Earbrass' post='267178' date='Aug 21 2008, 04:23 PM']Only if I was sure no dog would suffer as a result. NIMBYism is our most valuable bulwark against ever increasing noise pollution and over-development. Long may its force be felt.[/quote]So let's assume that the buyers looked at the house, realised it was close to an established working kennel and thought "oh well, we can soon put a stop to that"..? That's OK, is it?

[quote name='BassBomber414' post='266590' date='Aug 20 2008, 08:17 PM']I've worked in sales and these Bass Cellar guys are simply clueless.Sales are made on goodwill built up over years.Customers NEVER forget good service and generate more custom down through the years.Kids given a good play of the gear today could be buying their grandchildren instruments in the future from a favourite shop. If I was selling instruments my priority would be to , be friendly ,get the thing in their hands, make them feel relaxed, put the kettle on, compliment their playing and offer any advice they wanted.I would make everyone entering the shop feel welcome, money or not.There is always tomorrow's sale or a mate's.[/quote] +1 to all this... and to "[i]Sales are made on goodwill built up over years[/i]", I would add "[i][b]but a bad reputation can be generated in seconds and last a lifetime[/b][/i]". [quote name='simondee' post='267128' date='Aug 21 2008, 03:23 PM']I wish the Wapping shop was still open. You only got true daytrippers in there and it was a great room to try stuff out in. Plus you could go to the brilliant pub over the road afterwards with a great view of the river.[/quote]Oh god yes, BCWapping was wonderful. I remember those mid 80s days... endless free coffee on tap, no hassle, lots of fabulous gear to try, and never anyone breathing down your neck or demanding to know if you're going to buy that Wal before they'd let you try it. And the pub was great too... sitting by the river with a pint, reading through the millions of brochures you'd picked up, or gazing fondly at your latest purchase... *long, wistful sigh* [quote]To be honest, I've had some great purchasing experiences just on the forums here. It's great to talk gear with other 'chatters face to face over a cuppa. You have to wonder how long music shops can last in their present state with communities like this and talkbass in their relative infancy and getting bigger all the time.[/quote]+1. There will always be room for the friendly, helpful music shop I think, but from the comments here, they seem to be increasingly thin on the ground. Tragic.

[quote name='Earbrass' post='264700' date='Aug 18 2008, 04:33 PM']But it's not a single night, is it, if it's an "established venue". I'm 100% on the side of the neighbours here - it's the venue who are being selfish, by not caring about their neighbours as long as they are getting their payment. Well done the neighbours for getting the restrictions imposed. More people should complain more often.[/quote]OK, so where does it stop? Years ago, near where I used to live there was a dog boarding kennel. Out in the middle of nowhere, only one house anywhere near it. That house was sold, new couple moved in and, yup you guessed it, they complained about the noise. The owner of the kennel had two choices: 1] install complete soundproofing/enclosures which he could not afford, or 2] close. So another business folds, and a few more people on the dole... all because of the selfishness of these twats who knew full well that there was an established kennel nearby when they bought the place. Would you have been 100% on their side too? NIMBYism is a curse, the authorities bend over backwards to appease people with even the flimsiest & most pathetic of objections.

[quote name='escholl' post='265395' date='Aug 19 2008, 12:31 PM']long band/album names win? [/quote] How about Will Ackerman's "The Moment in Which You Must Finally Let Go of the Tether Which Has Held Your Hope Airborne"..? Only a track name, not an album, but even so it's pretty impressive

'Jazz' as discussed before is such a broad term it'd be impossible to name one particular album. To cover several of the sub-types therein, I'd suggest things like John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", Miles Davis' "A Kind Of Blue" and "Tutu", Return To Forever's "Romantic Warrior", Weather Report's "Heavy Weather", Stanley Clarke's eponymous 1st album, Django Reinhardt's "Djangology", the list could go on and on. Of course, YMMV when it comes to the 'classicness' of some of these.

Incognito, '100º And Rising'. Julian Crampton and Randy Hope-Taylor holding it down perfectly, oh it's [i]wonderful[/i]. The whole album is an object lesson in Tasteful And Effective Soul & Funk Bass Playing.

[quote name='Mike' post='265247' date='Aug 19 2008, 09:35 AM'][i]The Bass Cellar is at the heart of London's busy West End on Denmark Street, Tin Pan Alley to those in the know. Any bassist who fancies a trip down the street will be greeted with a more eclectic mix of kit than even the most worldly player will be used to. [b]Any small amount of time spent mooching around The Bass Cellar will endear you to us straight away with well-humoured staff[/b] [/i][/quote]What a cracker. That's the best laugh I've had in days.

[quote name='Toasted' post='264714' date='Aug 18 2008, 04:46 PM']+1. Also, I think Rich who works there and used to work in the Bass Centre Manchester is a c***.[/quote] Not me, I hasten to add. Although no doubt some people probably do think of me that way...

I will never set foot in the Cellar again after the way I was treated last time I was daft enough to go in. Again, crashing ignorance from the guy behind the counter, who barely said two words to me and didn't take his eyes off his newspaper once. Personally I wouldn't piss on that shop if it was on fire.

The OP has a point, sort-of anyway... but what narks me even more is when people come here purely to look at/contribute to the For Sale sections rather than getting involved elsewhere... not even an introduction... [size=1]naming no names but casting more than just a glance in the direction of the OP... [/size]

Ick. Nasty.

Marillion, 'Clutching At Straws'. Their finest hour IMHO.

[quote name='TheRev' post='259149' date='Aug 10 2008, 10:33 AM']The Welsh bloke's right though[/quote]Nooooooo... don't tell him that, or we'll never hear the last of it... :lol:

So basically, all this is boiling down to the same old chestnut yet again: [b]Everybody Has A Different Opinion On What Makes A 'Good' Player[/b]. One more time round Piccadilly Circus please, driver.

[quote name='Mr Fudge' post='258594' date='Aug 8 2008, 11:12 PM']Lynott was born at Hallam Hospital in West Brom. And all the "Oirish he claimed to put in everybody" [/quote] He had one Irish parent and moved to Dublin when he was a kid. Making him at least 3/4 Irish I reckon Anyway, he would have been as cool as f**k whether he'd been from Ireland, Iceland, Lebanon, Luxembourg or Papua New flippin Guinea.

[quote name='Hamster' post='38724' date='Jul 30 2007, 12:44 AM']In any list of 'Cool' bass players, you have to put Phil Lynott near the top. Gay Byrne (TV chat show host), "Phil, what's it like to be black and Irish?" - Phil, "It's like being a pint of Guinness." Hamster[/quote] Yup, a big +1 for Phil Lynott. "I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight... especially those who came more than once...". Classic.

Those prices are going to kill them stone dead. They'll be gone in months if they don't have a drastic downward re-think.

You mean how [b]is[/b] the music shop, singular. That'd be the one that relies on the school market of descant recorders and 3/4 size classical guitars in order to survive. Last time I went in, the most exotic electric instrument they had was an entry-level Yamaha Pacifica. The folks who run it are nice people, but it ain't our kind of shop.

The thing that first turned me on to Alain Caron was his sense of melody. For me, he is the master of the tuneful fretless bass solo. I love his playing, and if it was just pointless shredding I wouldn't. Yes he can play blisteringly fast at times, but it's always perfectly in tune and melodic. MHO of course.