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Mark Schmieder

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About Mark Schmieder

  • Birthday 03/27/1958

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  • occupation
    Software Engineer & Semi-Pro Musician
  • hobbies
    photography, hiking, European strategy games, comic books
  • Location
    Annandale VA

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  1. Don't bother: price is NOT the impediment these days. I am so far below bottom-dollar way-under-market prices on no-response ads that I am convinced people are simply afraid to spend at the moment, and rightfully so. The eBay situation remains mysterious but I think it is as I described, unfortunately. I've never sold on Reverb but have good buyer experience there. Music-Go-Round can have some decent stuff at good prices; I think they sell on consignment so their take might be smaller than GC's.
  2. I'm always amazed at how many of my bass heroes played basses I don't get along with. :-). But for my first 20 years of playing, I dictated my choices accordingly, and only after a fair amount of pro studio work did I switch away from modern, active basses and towards a Fender P-Bass as my mainstay that isn't all that frequently supplemented, despite having done a lot of sessions without it at hand. At any rate, I by now know better than to try to own instruments my heroes play. They would probably sound about the same on a cardboard box, their technique is so good! Even so, it is always interesting to hear what was used.
  3. I found a number to call, and left a message, asking them to at least leave a message to say whether the buy button on their site works and will result in an order placed and shipped. No response so far. I called some local stores in the region for some other hard-to-find items listed on their sites, and all were gone, plus some numbers were no good. My experience with the internet since COVID started is that most small players have fallen by the wayside or no longer keep their web presence up to date. It's very frustrating.
  4. I finally figured out why nothing I post is even getting views, bids, or reasonable sale prices, on eBay anymore, despite others selling bad condition copies for over twice what I'm asking: If you don't pay a large fee to "sponsor" your ad, it doesn't even show up in a FULL LISTING of similar items when you look at a sponsored listing or just do a search. This is in stark contrast to a year or two ago, before they added this "feature". But who can afford to pay the bribe, which is a set fee (around $20?), especially for cheap items, and as their new almost 20% commission is based on full sale including taxes and shipping? I sell a lot of stuff that's under $20. Have people moved to Amazon Marketplace and Etsy at this point? I have positive experiences on Sweetwater Gear Exchange when they happen, but it still seems to be a little-known site, although I have by now gotten four people onto the site as sellers and buyers, through other avenues, and they too are very happy with how the site operates. There is a minimum of $25 though, and a large percentage of stuff I want to sell is less than that, unless I create bundles that are unlikely to get buyers. For instance, high-end patch cables, guitar slides, lap steel tone bars, etc.
  5. https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/sammy-ash-ceo-sam-ash-music-stores-passed-away/ Not sure if the timing of this move relates to the recent passing of the COO.
  6. Isn't Zzounds owned by Sam Ash? I seem to recall looking into it a few years ago, but it might have been a different store for the connection. I just remember a lot of similarities in product write-ups and layout, but I may also be confusing with another on-line retailer (not one of the ones GC owns) whose name I now forget but who I used a lot in the early days alongside Zzounds.
  7. When I went to the one in Hollywood well over a decade ago, it had a better selection of keyboards and acoustic guitars than GC's flagship store across the street. That remains the only Sam Ash store I have ever seen. I lived in Durham NC for half a year near the start of COVID and didn't know Raleigh had a Sam Ash store! Otherwise, I have never lived anywhere that they served, so it is hard for me to know how sudden the closures may seem to staff, if they weren't selling anything?
  8. Nope; that one isn't as good as the Italia model, which is why I spent so much time late last year examining every possible option, after first carefully reviewing the recently rereleased Danelectro model with the harp strings. There's a bunch of Jerry Jones models on Reverb at the moment, and they are definitely very good, but at insane prices! The Italia is one of the few that isn't 24.75", which makes a big difference for e-sitar.
  9. I never realized the connection as I had not paid attention to who was at the head of Access. Seems like he's had a streak of successes across different parts of the music industry!
  10. https://www.italiaguitarsusa.com/product/modena-sitar/ I am priced out by the $7K cost of the electric sitar I'd really like, but I do feel if only for the longer scale length that this Italia model will be a step up from my Danelectro Baby Sitar. The challenge is in how/where to buy it. No one gets back to me at the listed resellers, nor does Italia USA, after several attempts since the Thanksgiving timeframe. I thought maybe they'd gone out of business, but they had a showing at NAMM this year.
  11. That makes sense, especially given its likely target audience. I think NAMM had so many new releases this year because manufacturers felt they'd sell better if they waited then if they were perceived as "old" products by the time the pandemic started to wind down.
  12. Sorry, I didn't notice it's a zombie thread, but that explains why it wasn't shown at NAMM. I must've missed all the fanfare in 2022 :-).
  13. He's always struck me as a bit like Jeff Beck, not particularly embracing the limelight, and always ready to try something new.
  14. I love Hackett's solo material and even his stint in the commercial GTR project. I wish I hadn't been too busy to catch him on his pass through the DC area last year. He is said to be an easy person to work with. Always a fish out of water in terms of rock stardom, but he's done a good job running a successful solo career anyway.
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