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There was a divide between bass tone on British and American-made music. With UK artists it was brands like Wal, Jaydee and Status you were hearing regularly on records, and ubiquitous Trace Elliot amps and cabs for live rigs. In the States it was more Steinberger, Spector, Alembic and Fenders always had an enduring popularity with American players, and Gallien Krueger amps and still plenty of SVT's about. If you listen, there was huge variety within that modern '80's sound.

Jessie F Keeler?😮 JFK? Why did no one tell me that earlier? Well, that puts a very different complexion on things. Jessie F Keeler! If only I had known. My mistake then, apologies to all concerned.🙂. . I totally get your point a Rickenbacker's eccentric design and marketing philosophies. I'd love for JFK and/or Rickenbacker to explain the ergonomic advantages of this design. Then again, if they weren't a bit Kookie maybe the guitars and basses wouldn't have such a gloriously distinctive sound and look. Few things in this world are as beautiful as a Rickenbacker. I'd love to see Rickenbacker do a faithful reissue of the 4002 rather than (ironically enough) the short scale approximations I've seen. They could have my money for sure. I've seen some really sumptuous one-offs from their custom shop on the internet, too. Sooner or later I'm sure I'll end up pulling the trigger, despite the fact that I should have learnt by now that I can't play on a Rick. I wish I had got one when I first started and couldn't play on any other bass either, so it wouldn't have made any difference.

permission to add a certain mr tony levin to this list.

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight - More Jam

I concur with all of the above. My own design onboard pres have individual buffers for each PU. Swap active and passive in your comment to better reflect how I feel about the two topologies.

IMO rehearsals are not for learning songs, but getting the arrangements right and topping and tailing the songs. If you're paying for a studio the band has to turn up knowing the material. Play with guys who don't need to be told.

Going Underground - The Jam

Sums up 80s bass playing for me 😂 Oh, and some guy called Mark King

I have a Blackstar amplug, and with the gain up high it has a really heavy distortion that sounds great to me (in the right context) I haven't found an affordable distortion/overdrive that is comparable. It does seem to be heading for Darkglass territory but I don't want to spend that kind of money for maybe one or three songs. If anyone knows this sound and can suggest a pedal...

It helps to remember that there are no right or wrong answers here. Each to their own. I have both active and passive basses, and I enjoy playing all of them.

Bury the hatched. NMA

Well done Richard! I'm in as long as I get back in time to eat and then set up for my gig. Probably need to leave about 3pm to avoid stress

In order: Yes. Depends... is is a new material rehearsal or moshly a revision session with one or two new songs. If we can't get it right after 2 or 3 attempts it's "go home and learn it properly before the next time". What'sApp Not in any structured way.

Ooooo a streamer Stage 2. Is that the P-pickup one?!

Because it was a custom build made for a specific person (Jesse F. Keeler) who requested it that way and rick built it for him. He was happy for it and they made a few other ones for people. Then people requested a reissue, that is what this is. This is what some people wanted, and they will all sell just fine - it is the rickenbacker way!.

My passive basses are much easier to get a good tone than my active ones. It's like having to solve a puzzle where >90% of the settings are poor and you have to find something in the usable range, then tweak it to what you want.

Several reasons to stay active: 1. Buffering ..it's not just a long lead that eats sound. Some amps have a relatively low input impedance and when matched to high impedance ( lots of windings) pickups plus resistive volume and tone controls a lot of high frequency content is lost. Also if you have two pickups or humbuckers the individual windings load eachother. Now if you like that warmer sound passive is good ..but it's easier to cut high frequencies than put them back. 2. On bass EQ... I don't really see the point, the amp can do it, but sometimes the builder puts in eq that's specially matched to the bass. 3. Active filtering....is a better tone control than a resistor and a capacitor; you can make the roll off steeper and/or add a little boost at some frequencies. 4. Low output pickups ( fewer windings) have lower inductance and less intertwinding capacitance so can have a wider frequency response ...if you want those high frequencies..but then need a signal boost. 5. Possibility of separate filtering for separate pickups...you can't do that on an amp ( not without stereo wiring and two channels) I agree tho that passive is nice and simple and that you sometimes get a sound you like without needing any of the above 🙂 . Eg The classic fender jazz sound relies on that inter pickup loading I think

Funeral For My Future Children — Anna Von Hausswolff

You're correct, I now have both models and the mnt port is longer.

Frankly, no banana yellow Auerswald, no deal. None of the basses on sale are any that you would care about. Great, a bunch of horribly ugly Warwicks bought when he was changing basses every song on tour. Hold me back from selling my kids into copper mine slavery.

King King, they remind me very much of Free and Bad Company.

Bury A Friend - Billie Eilish

We did a ticketed charity gig last night at a local music venue. It was our gig, our singer organised it all (the venue also helped masses). As we're still a newish band, this was our 6th gig, it was a bit squeaky butt timeas to how many would turn up. In the end we were absolutely chuffed to get a decent number there. And a great crowd they were as well. It was a really cracking night and we raised several hundred £s in the end. We had support from a former band mate of mine, who did a great solo set and went down a storm. We're all still buzzing I think.

That's fascinating - I had a similar issue with the pickup placement on the original Jason Smith designed Fender Rascal. The pickups were too far over to the left of your playing position, making the bass virtually unplayable on a strap. Rickenbacker have made some very odd choices here...