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Where is your gear made?


chris_b

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I should add Japan to my list. . . . my Sadowsky Metro was made there. It's only my #1 bass, so how could I forget that!

 

When I started there were dozens of amp companies manufacturing in the UK; Vox, Marshall, Burns, Hiwatt, Wallace, Park, Baldwin, Watkins/WEM, Carlsbro, Simms-Watts, Orange, Sound City, Selmer and Alligator. Later there was Trace Elliot and Ashdown. Did Session ever make a bass amp?

 

Who is left? Trace, Orange and Ashdown, but I'm not sure if they are still manufacturing in the UK.

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22 minutes ago, chris_b said:

I should add Japan to my list. . . . my Sadowsky Metro was made there. It's only my #1 bass, so how could I forget that!

 

When I started there were dozens of amp companies manufacturing in the UK; Vox, Marshall, Burns, Hiwatt, Wallace, Park, Baldwin, Watkins/WEM, Carlsbro, Simms-Watts, Orange, Sound City, Selmer and Alligator. Later there was Trace Elliot and Ashdown. Did Session ever make a bass amp?

 

Who is left? Trace, Orange and Ashdown, but I'm not sure if they are still manufacturing in the UK.

Session did do bass amps Chris. The one I remember was a 100 watt combo, with a large graphic eq. Came in 4x10 or 1x15 varieties. I had the 4x10 briefly, not my best purchase!

The guitar combos were pretty good though, especially the 15/30 valve job.

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My gigging basses were all made in either America or Japan / America, amps from Poland or America (with a spare made in Italy) and cabs from America again. 

 

I'm not at all bothered about buying British these days, but I do think it's quite cool that the amp that I use live the most was handmade by a small company (in Poland as it happens). 

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I buy my gear based on whatever gives me the best value for money. Where it's made is irrelevant in my decision, but I doubt any will be British. I would have to look.

 

12 hours ago, chris_b said:

Over the years I've owned gear made in the UK, Denmark, USA, Germany and Italy. Recently I realised that I've never owned the full set of UK made gear at the same time, so I've been contemplating putting together such a rig.

 

In the past I have owned UK made gear, 2 Wal basses, Vox and Marshall rigs and now use UK made cabs, covers and leads, Barefaced, Roqsolid and OBBM, and I briefly owned a Thumpinator but I've never gigged a full set of UK made gear. I'm limiting this to actually made in the UK. I had a lot of time on my hands during Lockdown!

 

Is this something that people think about? Does anyone load up their car with exclusively UK made gear when they head off to a gig? What have you got? What do you like about it? in mod

I notice that there is no Eastern made gear listed there, which is odd given the overwhelming prevalence in modern day times.

 

Any reason why?

Edited by TheLowDown
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It's not something I pay a great deal of attention to. I'm all about the item itself, not where it came from.

 

Basses - China, South Korea, USA

Amp - China

Cab - would be UK, I guess, being home made (not by me)

Effects - dunno, China probably. A home assembled Wooly Mammoth clone that I never use, so technically UK?

 

It's all baloney anyway. UK "made" electronics means "assembled" to me - do we even make anything electronic from base materials here on Financial Services Island any more? If we do, I shudder to think of the cost and diminished returns - if indeed there are any.

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7 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

 

I notice that there is no Eastern made gear listed there, which is odd given the overwhelming prevalence in modern day times.


I only listed my British stuff, as that's what I replied to but most of my basses are now from Indonesia, most of my guitars will be from korea (as they are older). I suspect all the other amps are Chinese, and the effects pedals.

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4 hours ago, Beer of the Bass said:

I have quite a bit of home built gear (basses, cabs, pedals, guitar amps) which is inevitably going to be British. I do like the idea of supporting smaller quality makers wherever you can afford to, but I'm not patriotic about it.

 

I was thinking along the same lines, but as I am finding out, it's difficult to support UK manufacturers as we hardy make anything anymore, and the "best" (my preference), seems to come from elsewhere.

 

My UK Cabs are taken care of. I'll probably just stay with my USA made amps. My budget is pretty limited these days so my chance of buying another quality UK made bass guitar is pretty limited.

 

I put the thread up to see if anyone else has UK made gear that I had missed.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

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17 hours ago, casapete said:

Session did do bass amps Chris. The one I remember was a 100 watt combo, with a large graphic eq. Came in 4x10 or 1x15 varieties. I had the 4x10 briefly, not my best purchase!

The guitar combos were pretty good though, especially the 15/30 valve job.

 

Session? Valve job? Stewart Ward will go ballistic if he ever reads that. No man on Earth hates valves more than he does.

 

I also had a Session bass amp but I had the 1x15. Even Stewart admits they weren't great but made it because he pretty much had to offer a bass amp. Session are rekindled and he also makes excellent cables as well as amps.

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Pretty diverse here: the Netherlands (an Ellio Martina bass and two Koch amps), Sweden (several EBS amps and pedals), Germany (two Warwicks and an Esh), the UK (two Statii), the USA (a Longbow and a Peavey amp), Mexico (two Taylors), Japan (several old Ibanez and Squiers), South-Korea (a Cort and a Tokai) and China (another Squier). I've previously owned gear made in France (Lag) and the Czech republic (Furch) too. To be honest, I don't care a lot :)

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5 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Session? Valve job? Stewart Ward will go ballistic if he ever reads that. No man on Earth hates valves more than he does.

Think he made these before embarking on the solid state Sessionette range, which were / are good amps too. A friend of mine had the 15/30 valve combo, and I remember it sounded great. https://www.award-session.com/pdfs/Award-Session History0003.pdf

 

Since obbm has retired, I will continue to use ClearTone cables from Award-Session. Fairly priced and use top quality components. I bought some from him maybe 20 years ago at a guitar show and they're still going strong. https://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html

 

Apologies for the slight derail OT.🙂

 

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It's not something I've been overly conscious of, just bought what I liked using or could afford. 

 

My cab is a Barefaced so UK and my amp's are probably Chinese as they are an Ampeg PF500, Ashdown Mi550 and Warwick Gnome. 

 

My basses are a mix as well, American Musicman Stingray, Japanese Fender Jazz, Mexican Fender Precision with a British Shuker neck and American Fender Pickups and a Limelight which I guess is possibly a mix of American and British.

 

Strings and leads are UK as they are OBBM and Rotosound.

 

I would love it if Barefaced made an Amp head,  this would be something I would seriously consider but until then, I am considering an Aguilar head at some point. I wouldn't mind a Status at some point as its not something I have ever tried but not sure that day will come.

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I’ve never thought of where my stuff came from really, I just buy the best of what I like, my basses are mainly US jazzes and precisions but some are Mexican, also  Yamaha and hohner, cabs are barefaced and markbass, amps are Ampeg and Ashdown, so there’s quite a mixture in there 

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A mixture for me too.

 

Basses - USA  (Fender, MMan), Japan (Fender), Korea (Washburn, Danelectro)

Amps -    USA (GK) China (Fender)

Cabs -     USA (GK), UK (Barefaced, Loud)

Pedals -   USA (Sansamp), Japan (Boss), China (Behringer)

Cables -   UK (obbm, Cleartone)

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Both my guitars and two of my basses were assembled in the UK. My other two basses (from UK and US based companies) were made in either China or Korea. But who knows were the materials and components used to make these instruments in the first place come from? And what about 3rd-party electronics and hardware? Some of my instruments have hardware from Schaller, Hipshot, and Gotoh, but are these actually made in Germany, USA and Japan? and even then where do the raw materials to make them come from?

 

My Helix Floor is designed by a US company (Line6) who are owned by a Japanese company (Yamaha) and is probably made in China...

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