The eagerly awaited Phil Jones Bass D-400 bass head has just arrived in stock and will be on the website with full spec etc. in the next few days. Our price £549 (List £650).

Warwick Custom Shop Masterbuilt Streamer Stage 1 Yin-Yang finish.

This is a Pro-level performance instrument and is the last of our acoustic basses from this Oregon, USA builder. Its offered at a clearance price of £450 including Breedlove Hardcase. This bass, before the models names/specs were re-vamped, retailed at close to £1000. This bass shouldn’t be confused with its significantly down-specified current equivalent which retails at several hundred pounds less than the old model.

See our page for full details.

The most powerful tone shaping tool for bass - ever? We think so. The brand new BPA-1 represents a completely new approach to bass guitar amplification and tone - all in a compact floor FX pedal.

Designed by legendary recording engineer (Trident Studios) & professional studio equipment designer, Prof. Malcolm Toft, the BPA-1 is a studio quality preamp/tone control/compressor ‘stompbox’

For more information visit www.bassics.co.uk or to buy…

With the weakening of the pound, especially against the Euro, over the last 12 months or so its inevitable that price rises have had to come into effect. These are not necessarily generated by the manufacturers, rather, UK Distributors (Importers) who have been taking a hammering on the Euro/Sterling exchange rate for a while now.

Markbass & Sandberg trade prices have recently increased and Gallien-Krueger prices are about to rise in the region of 7% as we understand it. It goes without saying that Dealer prices therefore have to rise by a similar amount.

The prices of all current stock will stay as advertised on our website.

GBBL offers a Commission Selling Service for pre-owned bass guitars (not amplification). A ‘commission bass’ must be a brand that GBBL doesn’t stock and must be deemed, by us, to have a re-sale value of £750 or more.

The charge for our service is 20% of the sale price of the instrument, inclusive of VAT. Our service includes preparing the instrument for sale (excluding any necessary repairs/remedial work) but including cleaning/reconditioning, setting up and re-stringing where necessary. The cost of new strings (at trade price) shall be borne by our customer. GBBL will not fit new strings without the customers prior consent. GBBL will not reduce the agreed sale price without its customers consent.

GBBL will photograph the instrument and advertise it for sale on its website and on Social Media pages, along with a detailed description and specification. GBBL will, where appropriate, suitably package and ship the bass. The shipping cost will be borne by the end purchaser unless otherwise agreed.

GBBL’s policy with regards to preowned instruments is to offer a 3 month warranty. This must apply to basses sold on commission and, in the event that repair/remedial work is genuinely necessary within that period we will put it right for the end purchaser and our customer will refund our reasonable costs. Such remedial work and its cost will be agreed with our customer before being carried out.

We can now take payment via Paypal but will apply a 3.5% surcharge (on the goods and, where applicable, the shipping costs) to cover Seller fees that we incur.

This facility has been introduced, in the main, to assist non-UK based customers for whom International Money Transfers can be time consuming and expensive. Most folks in the UK are generally happy to pay by Card or bank Transfer. We do not add a charge for the use of credit cards.

In our ongoing search for ‘real world’ bass brands that stand apart from the crowd, we will shortly be offering Blade basses from Swiss based Luthier Gary Levinson.

First to arrive will be a B2 and B25 (4 and 5 strings respectively). These are highly refined Jazz style basses that offer an enhanced playing experience in terms of tone and playability. Gary Levinson, in his own words ‘Builds musical instruments not furniture’ so we’re not talking about silly money but about thoroughbred basses that are simply fit for purpose.

Expect the first Blades to be on our website early April

From a standing start 4 years ago, offering only preowned basses, we’ve constantly had to re-visit the business’s aims and objectives and how best to achieve them.

What has become very apparent is that we can no longer compete in the second hand markets and we have had to change the ratio of new to preowned instruments to the extent that the split is now 90% new, 10% preowned. In other words we are now a fully fledged retailer of new bass guitars (and amplification) who also offers a few nice preowned pieces. We still welcome quality part-exchanges but we no longer actively search out preowned basses

6 preowned basses sell to every 1 new bass in the UK (thats a fact). We’ve had to accept that this means selling fewer basses now but we’re countering that by widening our amplification offer and adding new bass brands to those we already have . These are premium brands that aren’t widely available elsewhere, regionally or in the UK. This fits in with our mantra ‘Stay small, stay niche’.

We’ve tried to include novices and players with smaller budgets by buying in worthy, affordable basses but these don’t sell well. As someone said recently - ‘people don’t come to GBBL for budget stuff. They can get that anywhere’. Point taken.

We’re trying to keep our (bass) offer diverse and interesting and a brand that will be arriving very soon is Levinson/Blade. If you think we’re missing a trick somewhere in terms of a brand(s) we’ve overlooked then let us know. We’re mostly interested in ‘real world’ instruments not 10 grand pieces that should be in a glass display case. Once you go much north of 3 or 4 grand you have to wonder what exactly you are paying for.

being from Yorkshire we still like value for Money!