It's easy to "average" above-minimum-wage wages when your CEO earns $725,000 per year and your other top managers are similarly lavishly compensated. I guess you didn't read the last paragraph of the Forbes article when even a business oriented publication stated clearly that Goodwill needed to do better.
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I would wire one pickup directly to the jack, bypassing all the dodgy electronics.
As long as it makes some kind of output I would play it for one song at my next bar gig and smash it at the end.
Basses aren't precious gems. They're tools for making noise. And smashing one makes a cool noise.
No more or less profound than your response. The difference is, I'm not shilling for an exploitative organization. The facts and articles about Goodwill's bad behavior are out there. Numerous ones from numerous sources (as pointed out in the Forbes article). But if you don't want to face facts, no amount of them will matter a tinker's damn.
Greg
Greg
You want to cherry pick facts to form your narriative. I look at the organization as a whole and choose to support them. I’m pragmatic.
I just donated my 1st bass, a gift Ibby GIO, to my kid's old high school. I had it two months and learned a lot. The teacher was happy to get it. I get a nice letter and a tax write-off if I want. And I'm not tempted to distract myself by fixing it weekly instead of practicing with my new used j-bass.
Attachments
Since I play bass and keyboards, I loan my beater bass to other band members to learn bass lines while I focus on a dedicated keyboard part (e.g Call Me the Breeze, Colour My World, etc).
Here's an ideal preamp solution if you want to make it playable again and donate it; 3 Band EQ Preamp Circuit Bass Guitar Wiring Harness for Active Bass Pickup-in Guitar Parts & Accessories from Sports & Entertainment on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group This is one of the more expensive options available. I have used the Guitar Fuel SBK-3A; [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] in my electric upright bass and it works very well!
This is the preamp that needs to be replaced
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Can't you get some leccy wizard to fix the Friar Tuck'd one?
I'm pretty sure I'd try that. Assuming I couldn't bodge it into life myself first of course.
The one of us who is cherry-picking facts to support their preconceived notions is a matter that's clearly debatable. I've been following the sad story of Goodwill for years. You have a single largely, but NOT completely, debunked email (by the way, I do respect Snopes.com as a source). Of the two of us, I'm the far more pragmatic. I want my donation dollars to go to helping people in need, not to pay fat executive salaries.
Greg
Just to be a little bit devil's advocate....
The people saying to fix it up and donate it are being quite generous with your money and time. If you're not a tinkerer, getting a bass set up can be a not-negligible cost, not to mention the price of strings and any necessary parts.
But what, one may ask, is the cost of a set of strings or a couple pots against the opportunity to provide a start to the next Stanley Clark (or whoever)? Well, it's still money out-of-pocket. That's a slippery slope. Perhaps some of the people so quick to say to do a bunch of work on the bass and donate it would be willing to front the cost of shipping so they could do the work and donate it? Shipping ain't cheap, but again, what's that cost compared to the warm fuzzy feeling you get at the end?
And there's another factor: from this thread, you'd think that every piece of crap old junker bass is some neglected jewel that could be an amazing inspiring thing, but, it should also be acknowledged that a bad instrument can actually dissuade a curious kid from playing. Donating a PoS that's hard to play, ergonomically challenged, ugly, broken, etc. to your local kids music program is not automatically doing them any favors. There may be that one kid who will work through all the shortcomings of the bass because he or she is so passionate about it, but far far more likely is the scenario where a kid gets a bad bass, doesn't enjoy playing it, and ends up not pursuing bass.
"Fix it up and donate it" is by far the most noble course of action, if you can fix it up yourself and want to, or don't mind spending that money, but if it's a real stinker I don't think there's any shame in taking it out of the bass gene pool, as it were. Some people have mentioned programs that will fix the stuff up themselves, and that might be a good option, if you can find one of those. But I don't think anybody should be expected/required to front a bunch of money in order to get a trashed old PoS instrument out of his house.
The people saying to fix it up and donate it are being quite generous with your money and time. If you're not a tinkerer, getting a bass set up can be a not-negligible cost, not to mention the price of strings and any necessary parts.
But what, one may ask, is the cost of a set of strings or a couple pots against the opportunity to provide a start to the next Stanley Clark (or whoever)? Well, it's still money out-of-pocket. That's a slippery slope. Perhaps some of the people so quick to say to do a bunch of work on the bass and donate it would be willing to front the cost of shipping so they could do the work and donate it? Shipping ain't cheap, but again, what's that cost compared to the warm fuzzy feeling you get at the end?
And there's another factor: from this thread, you'd think that every piece of crap old junker bass is some neglected jewel that could be an amazing inspiring thing, but, it should also be acknowledged that a bad instrument can actually dissuade a curious kid from playing. Donating a PoS that's hard to play, ergonomically challenged, ugly, broken, etc. to your local kids music program is not automatically doing them any favors. There may be that one kid who will work through all the shortcomings of the bass because he or she is so passionate about it, but far far more likely is the scenario where a kid gets a bad bass, doesn't enjoy playing it, and ends up not pursuing bass.
"Fix it up and donate it" is by far the most noble course of action, if you can fix it up yourself and want to, or don't mind spending that money, but if it's a real stinker I don't think there's any shame in taking it out of the bass gene pool, as it were. Some people have mentioned programs that will fix the stuff up themselves, and that might be a good option, if you can find one of those. But I don't think anybody should be expected/required to front a bunch of money in order to get a trashed old PoS instrument out of his house.
I have other data and I’m completely fine with Goodwill. You’re free to do as you wish. I think if you look into places employing handicapped at below minimum wage rates, you’ll find a lot of charities that do that. Take that away and it becomes uneconomical to hire them - many require a paid person to assist them, and you’ll see their job go away. Some CEOs for the various chapters of Goodwill have been paid high amounts, others have not. Overall, they’re rated at a 90% efficiency by Charity Navigator. I’m fine with them.
