Buying from the Bass Gallery online

[Pow_22]

Having never bought online/unseen from the Bass Gallery i was wondering if anyone had any experience on here.  I know they have a generally good reputation but a few things stand out.  Firstly, the pictures on their site are small, not very detailed and are generally just 2 or 3 pictures of said item.  Ive used the contact form on their site to ask questions regarding a used bass they have for sale but no response.  I called up a few weeks ago asking for weight, fret condition and a few more pics and was told they would get back to me and still nothing.  Im not tyre kicking here and if all stacks up ill be buying the bass on card but seems difficult to get information out of them and due to location its not really feasible for me to treck down to london to see it in person.

[peteb]

Their website is pretty awful and has been known to show gear that they sold months ago! However, they are good people to deal with, but I wouldn't do so online. I would strongly advise you to give them a ring and have a chat about what you are interested in. 

 

[neepheid]

I've only bought from them once.  Agree that the pictures of the items could be more detailed.  I didn't ask detailed questions about the bass (because it was pretty esoteric and I knew what I was getting myself into) but I did enquire if the bass came with the hard case and they did answer promptly in the affirmative.  Quite why that info wasn't on the site I don't know - descriptions aren't exactly effusive.  Anyway, I bought it, it arrived no problem and was well packaged.

 

I was a wee bit disappointed at the condition of the bass when it arrived - it was impossible to see in their wee pictures but the hardware was pretty dirty and needed a thorough clean.  Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things - it's a second hand bass, but with better pics I might have been more prepared (or possibly attempted to haggle the price down a bit).

 

All in all though, no real complaints, I just think their website could do with having better (more detailed/larger) pics and better item descriptions.

[SumOne]

I've sold via commission through them before, and once it sells there is something like a 2 week wait until you get paid in-case their buyer returns it. So I assume they offer buyers returns/refunds easily enough if something is wrong. 

[JazzyJ]

Bought a bass from them online about 4 months ago. All was good with communications including sorting out a farcical courier service by UPS.

I would buy from them again.

[baldwinbass]

I called into their shop on the off chance, tried an amp and bought it. First class service, no pressure to buy - great people to deal with, would buy from them again.

[Pow_22]

Ah well, still no response but they have now updated the bass as sold.  Like mentioned above it seems they dont keep a track of their stock on their site 

[PainInTheBass]

I travelled there to check out and potentially buy a bass only to find it had been sold a couple of weeks prior. Was in stock on their website. I stayed for a while to try a number of other basses anyway but left empty handed, credit card intact. I was advised to check their Instagram for incoming basses as this is updated before their website.

Ended up buying a bass from somewhere else in the end.

[chris_b]

I've never bought from them online, but have bought stuff in the shop and they set up and fix all my basses.

 

No help to the OP but they are great guys to deal with in person.

[Mediocre Polymath]

Just adding to the general consensus here, I think, but here's my two cents.

 

I've bought two basses from them in the past (pretty distant past now) and sold one on commission through them as well. They're good blokes to deal with, but because I'm in London I've only ever used their website for idle window shopping. All my actual dealings with them have been in person.

 

I get the impression that they don't put a whole lot of effort into the website itself, with most of their online activity (social media etc.) focused on luring people down to the physical store. The thing I find particularly strange, given the unusual and valuable nature of a lot of their stock, is how sparse their product descriptions are.

 

Like, they'll have some esoteric 1980s custom bass made out of gold and walrus ivory or something, and with, say, eight knobs and four switches and a bullet-hole in the body and the description will just say "4-string, details to come".

[LowB_FTW]

Bought a bass from them last year and everything was good. They answered my emails without issues, being in a different country to them everything was done remotely and no issues with the bass upon arrival with me.

I'd have no concerns with dealing with them again should the need/want arise.

 

Mark

[Sparky Mark]

I bought an as new Musicman StingRay Old Smoothie via the website and a phone call. Everything as promised and expected. I've bought amplification from the website too, no issues. Always call them before buying or visiting just to confirm things. I'd recommend the Gallery.

[BillyBass]

I live in North London, so they are relatively local to me, at least I can drive there quite easily.  I used to use them to set up and mod my basses but they messed up with one bass and instead of apologising and getting it sorted, I got excuses as to why something I requested wasn't done.  This was an employee mind, not Martin.  Since then I decided to learn how to set up and mod my basses myself.

 

I have bought from them before and I would buy from them again if they had something I liked, just be aware that, as per the OP's post, occasionally communication between them and you will be poor and you might have to chase.

[tauzero]

Their website filtering seems a bit odd - if you filter on basses that are in stock, a lot of the results are marked as "sold".

[40hz]

I've only ever bought a cab from them - and they were fab to deal with - another high profile Bass shop could learn a lot from them. However, I never really consider them when looking for basses as, personally, I find them really expensive compared to other Bass-centric stores, especially so on their used gear (although I appreciate this might be commission sales dictating this).

Edited April 18, 2024 by 40hz

[walshy]

23 hours ago, Pow_22 said:

Ah well, still no response but they have now updated the bass as sold.  Like mentioned above it seems they dont keep a track of their stock on their site 

Ive tried to buy a number of basses from them over the years, every one already sold 🤣 Guess thats good for the bank balance. I have bought other things and their service is excellent though.

[manol]

Had a complete joke of an experience today with The Bass Gallery. I've sold 3 basses through them on consignment, never again, and never setting foot in that shop ever again. - long story short -

 

I had 2 basses I took in on consignment, a Fender Flea Signature, and a Vintera 50's P-Bass, I had to call to get the consignment sheet sent to me because nothing got sent through., this was in late June and early July 2024. I had been checking the website though and saw that both the P-Bass had been marked as sold for a while, and the Jazz bass had dropped off at some point, as there was another one there with a different serial number to mine. So, I had assumed they had sold.

 

I hadn't heard anything from them since, emailed 3 days ago, no response. Had this same issue about 2 years ago when I sold an Aria 70's P-Bass copy through them, just poor, poor, poor communication. 
 

Decided to go pay a visit in store to chase it up and express my dissatisfaction at the poor communication between the store and myself. I'm not going to bore you with the intricacies of the situation, but turns out the Jazz Bass hadn't sold, there was a customer the day before that came in to make an offer on it, but no one called me because "it was the end of the day".  There was a lot of conversation and questions before this point, but, I lost my patience and trust with the shop because of the demeanour and the answers of this employee and so I asked for my bass so I can just take it away and sell it somewhere else....

 

The employee's face dropped and mumbled that he would be back in a few minutes. After a while he came back and said "I don't have the bass here", I said "what do you mean, you don't have the bass?". The explanation I was given, was that, they gave the customer who made the offer the bass to take home to 'try' because they're a regular and good customer that they trust. 

 

I couldn't believe that they would give a bass that is on consignment to another customer to take home and 'try', I don't know how long they had the bass or when they took it. I asked to speak to the manager (Martin) and had an 'assertive' conversation with him and essentially said, "if you had just called me and asked for permission, or for my OK, we would be having a very different conversation than we're having right now". I also asked how long this customer had the bass for, and he said "a couple of days", contradicting his employee's statement that it was yesterday and close of business. Frankly, Martin's attitude on the phone was awful, he apologised but it was just excuse after excuse about the poor communication from his staff, he sounded like he couldn't care less. His response to my concerns about the bass being taken home by the customer was "well, if it was damaged or lost, we would be taking the risk on it". I had enough at that point and wrapped up the conversation, at 6:15pm tonight I received the money for both the basses into my bank account.

 

I don't have any faith or trust that the customer only had it for a couple of days, I don't trust a single word that comes out of Martin's mouth, or his employees, or anyone else that works in that establishment. Never again. 

[Steve Browning]

Disappointing for sure. 

 

I have to say that Martin came into the shop on the morning he was due to go on holiday, to sort out a bass cab I'd bought from them. Service at the other end of the scale. 

 

Fully understand your stance though. 

[Mokl]

On 17/04/2024 at 10:37, neepheid said:

I've only bought from them once.  Agree that the pictures of the items could be more detailed.  I didn't ask detailed questions about the bass (because it was pretty esoteric and I knew what I was getting myself into) but I did enquire if the bass came with the hard case and they did answer promptly in the affirmative.  Quite why that info wasn't on the site I don't know - descriptions aren't exactly effusive.  Anyway, I bought it, it arrived no problem and was well packaged.

 

I was a wee bit disappointed at the condition of the bass when it arrived - it was impossible to see in their wee pictures but the hardware was pretty dirty and needed a thorough clean.  Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things - it's a second hand bass, but with better pics I might have been more prepared (or possibly attempted to haggle the price down a bit).

 

All in all though, no real complaints, I just think their website could do with having better (more detailed/larger) pics and better item descriptions.

Almost exactly the same as my experience! 

 

It's a UK bass institution in my opinion, very good to deal with but better if you can do it in person or by ringing, if possible. 

[attackbass]

I bought a EA amp and aguilar cab from there many moons ago and it was all fine. Except the EA arrived in a padded envelope but the amp was absolutely fine incredibly.

 

I've been interested in a few basses there before. I emailed them about the basses and they provided very detailed photos.

 

Would love to go their one day!

 

[Obrienp]

Interesting. My experience is that you really need to call them to get reasonable communication. I bought a Nordstrand Acinonyx from them a few years back because they were marginally cheaper than Bass Direct. It was probably a year between ordering and receipt of the bass but a lot of this was down to Nordstrand. There were a few false alarms, when they thought the bass was going to arrive and then didn’t. It did arrive eventually but I didn’t get the impression that Bass Gallery were trying to expedite delivery.
 

Similar experience  to @attackbass: I was amazed when it arrived to find it was just in the inner Nordstrand box with no extra padding. How it survived the courier, I don’t know! I don’t think I have ever received a guitar, or bit of kit, from an online sale that wasn’t double boxed.