Cloff Posted June 21, 2010 Posted June 21, 2010 (edited) Well, as the title says, i'm from Holland. My real name is Gerben, 17 years old and playing bass for 6 or 7 years now. Yes, i started very young, due to a kind of accident; i wanted to play guitar, but there was someone in the neighbourhood who teached bass, so i took some lessons. After 4 years he quit and i did almost nothing with my "bassstudies" for a year or 2, 'til i discovered www.studybass.com and i went back to learning how to play the bassguitar again (and better, this time). So, that was my history on how it started so far. Now something about my gear. My basses inn chronological order: 1. Phoenix HB-33 (P-J with Dimarzio Split P)* 2. Ibanez Soundgear SR500 3. Bach Marcus Miller copy 4. Peavey T-40* 5. Tokai Fretless Jazz Sound My amps in the chronological order: 1. Hartke B-30* 2. Maccs M100* (Originally a Klemt Bs40, but it was modded from 40 valvewatts to 100 valvewatts for a kind of Beatband here in Holland back in the sixties) 3. Hughes & Kettner BK* Effects in chronological order: 1. Behringer BOD100 2. Behringer COH600 3. EHX Russian Big Muff w/ midmod* 4. Morley Power Wah Fuzz 5. Boss Bass Chorus CE-2B* 6. Boss Parametric Bass EQ PQ-3B* 7. EBS Valvedrive 8. Fulltone Bass-Drive I still do own everything with a * behind it So that's it for now. I hope my English is good enough. Any questions? Ask them! Cheers, Gerben Edited June 21, 2010 by Cloff Quote
Big_Stu Posted June 22, 2010 Posted June 22, 2010 [quote name='Cloff' post='873624' date='Jun 21 2010, 04:44 PM']Any questions? Ask them! Cheers, Gerben[/quote] OK, here's a question for you. I have friends with a son at your age getting into guitars. They are in the Maastricht area, when I've been there to visit in the past he told me that it's difficult for you there to buy "good" gear, and I didn't see many shops for modern stuff, just plenty of accordians etc. When he decided he wanted a Tele I bought one here & took it over, it was that difficult. So the question is, how do you find getting good equipment, both in having a choice & paying a good price? I've recommended them using Thomann in Germany for future things. Quote
Baskesman Posted June 22, 2010 Posted June 22, 2010 [quote name='Big_Stu' post='874179' date='Jun 22 2010, 10:54 AM']OK, here's a question for you. I have friends with a son at your age getting into guitars. They are in the Maastricht area, when I've been there to visit in the past he told me that it's difficult for you there to buy "good" gear, and I didn't see many shops for modern stuff, just plenty of accordians etc. When he decided he wanted a Tele I bought one here & took it over, it was that difficult. So the question is, how do you find getting good equipment, both in having a choice & paying a good price? I've recommended them using Thomann in Germany for future things.[/quote] Big Stu, I live in Belgium and can speak for people on the continent. We can get decent gear over here, no probs but in Belgium (and I think that counts for the Netherlands too Cloff?) you will have to pay a lot or Euros for it. Our resort is buying stuff in Germany, which got easier thanks to the internet shops (but then again do you want to buy a bass thru the internet?) I can give you an example of a recent buy I did: I bought a MCB410 Marshall cab via collegues from the UK. That costed me 234 pounds with free delivery into the UK. So I got it delivered at a family members address of a collegue of mine here at work. With the pound at an acceptable rate (back in february). So converting this value I got this for 290 Euros (that includes the incredible rate of the bank transfer arrrgggghhh ) in total If I would buy this in Germany it'd be 399 Euros, in Belgium I guess it'd go towards 450 Euros Also the second hand market has serious price differences as obviously we want a fair bit of the money back on what we had spent on this kind of gear. Yes as an european I'd say buy in the UK if you can! Mind you mailing amps cost a fortune... Quote
Big_Stu Posted June 22, 2010 Posted June 22, 2010 [quote name='Baskesman' post='874236' date='Jun 22 2010, 10:50 AM']Yes as an european I'd say buy in the UK if you can! Mind you mailing amps cost a fortune... [/quote] Sounds much like I found it to be then, when my friends son wanted the Tele we found it was cheaper for me to fly over with it than to ship it. So long as you don't fly RyanAir I did the same with an old practise amp I didn't need too! Quote
Baskesman Posted June 22, 2010 Posted June 22, 2010 oh oh I'm flying Ryan air soon... off to sunny Italy hey Cloff, leuk je hier te mogen verwelkomen! what is your opinion on the sales of gear in Europe? Quote
Cloff Posted June 22, 2010 Author Posted June 22, 2010 woo, been away almost the whole day and what do you get? 5 new posts in my own personal thread! @Big_Stu: As baskesman said, buying from the UK is pretty cheap right now, due to the exchange rate (correct me if i'm wrong, I don't know the right word for wisselkoers in English). What i also recommend, is checking local/ national 2ndhand sites, like Marktplaats.nl here in Holland. Lots of cool stuff, and affordable most of the time. And ThoMann and Musik-Produktiv are also good alternatives for new stuff, but Musik-Produktiv asks a bit too much for some stuff. @baskesman: Look above. En bedankt voor het verwelkomen! Now, it's time to go to bed. Quote
Big_Stu Posted June 23, 2010 Posted June 23, 2010 You were exactly correct with exchange rate! I've always said that the English you have over there is far better than 99% of our Dutch speaking here. Though when I tried my Dutch in a cafe I was told I was very good by the waitress ........ and she was VERY cute! I tried looking for old guitars at street markets too, one in Domburg, the other in Ieper. But there was nothing, plenty of porcelain & old records. Quote
matski Posted June 26, 2010 Posted June 26, 2010 [quote name='Big_Stu' post='874179' date='Jun 22 2010, 09:54 AM']OK, here's a question for you. I have friends with a son at your age getting into guitars. They are in the Maastricht area, when I've been there to visit in the past he told me that it's difficult for you there to buy "good" gear, and I didn't see many shops for modern stuff, just plenty of accordians etc. When he decided he wanted a Tele I bought one here & took it over, it was that difficult. So the question is, how do you find getting good equipment, both in having a choice & paying a good price? I've recommended them using Thomann in Germany for future things.[/quote] I lived in Amsterdam for 10 years and in my humble opinion the best store for BASS gear is in Nijmegen. The owner is a guy called Paul and he really knows his stuff, is super friendly and helpful, and makes good coffee! He also does trades and sells 'preloved' equipment, does good set-ups and can organise quality repairs too. VERY highly recommended. Check out this link: [url="http://www.bassmatters.nl/"]http://www.bassmatters.nl/[/url] Quote
Big_Stu Posted June 26, 2010 Posted June 26, 2010 [quote name='matski' post='878081' date='Jun 26 2010, 12:25 PM']Check out this link: [url="http://www.bassmatters.nl/"]http://www.bassmatters.nl/[/url][/quote] Excellent site, well designed. I'll pass the info on - thanks! Quote
Cloff Posted July 7, 2010 Author Posted July 7, 2010 Been at Bassmatters once when i was 13 or so. Really good stuff there and also a lot of vintage gear. Oh yeah, and really, REALLY good coffee . Quote
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