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The Author - Budgie

Full disclosure - I haven't played one but based on the Namm videos and Johnny Dibble's recent video reviewing a 5er in this series, as well as the broader hype about Sire, I'd have no worries on quality. That said, I'd be more alert to whether the form-factor works for you. I have a similar Ibanez EHB 6er and it's probably the multi-scale aspect you need to try to see if it works for you. Particularly, if you like the dusty end for chords and soloing as it is a different experience taking some getting used to. Around the 8-12 fret it's not very different and at the low end, a boon albeit some stretching required.

In recent years this has been my experience too. With a couple of exceptions, it feels as if people are less concerned about the band and its certainly not the main reason for being at the venue. The couple of exceptions I've experienced have both been bands with a more professional attitude than has become the norm, a set that doesn't include the same or similar songs to every other local band and that as a result of the first two have attracted a following.

We were on a wedding and the singer was playing his usual, blues/soul set and not going down well at all. He kept complaining about the disinterested audience. In the interval I took him aside and pointed out they were not an audience, but wedding guests and his second set should reflect that! Talk about the bleedin obvious!! He dug out some proper songs and the second set got a much better response from the guests.

I had a pre-Vintage Circuit 4003 from 2005, and that sounded pretty full. It's the VC that takes the guts out of the sound. According to the Paul D. Boyer book: "From the beginning of the Rickenbacker bass design, a 0.0047uF capacitor was wired into the circuit to cut bass response from the treble pickup, giving it a brighter sound. Simply replacing the capacitor with a piece of wire was the quick and easy fix. In 1984, RIC responded to customer preferences and jettisoned the capacitor, giving the 4003 a more ballsy sound right out of the box" "Starting in early 2006, RIC restored the 0.0047uF bass cut capacitor to the circuitry. But a push/pull switch offers the option to activate it" (p64)

Well, you can gain access to these new bass ones on any ToneX pedal for the low, low price of €99 by purchasing the whole collection...

The only "name" players I can think of who played G&Ls are Jerry Cantrell, Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith and Cass from Skunk Anansie. I'm sure there's been plenty of others, but those are the only major ones that come to mind. Cantrell now has something going on with Gibson/Epiphone and thety've worked with him on a signature Les Paul and an acoustic, Tom Hamilton plays all sorts of different basses and always has done, and Cass uses Alusonic basses now, so they've all moved on. I also owned a Saab. Still got my eye out for a nice 2012 9-5!

Isn’t that just business? No one if forced to upgrade, but surely if you want new things it’s not out of the ordinary to pay for them.

Paulownia body wood gets very mixed reviews.

It does compression and doesn't seem to cause any issues or tone changes in the process. I haven't given it a thorough workout, though, since I use a compressor before the ToneX, then the ToneX compressor is set to post-effects.

It appears to have longer, somewhat less "lumpy" horns than the regular bolt-on Thumb. Might be the angle though.

Oh there are definately times in the set of a wedding that the audience have all buggered off outside, but then they are not there to see you. They come in later and there is cake!

Sadly I missed my chance to get one of those just after brexit when thoman had them for €1350 but didn't know how the whole import tax thing worked, by the time they added it they had none left. I am not sure I wanted a 5 like that anyway. Well, I have a genuine 4004 ric with 5 string and its neck seems fine with the strings on it, I just used lighter than normal ones, 40-125 and it seems happy. It is one of my most played basses, that and the maruschyk but the look of the 4003 was always an appeal. I spoke with HW, he said he put a Shaller 3D bridge on it so I could get the spacing smaller - ironically my 4004 started with one of those but now has a narrower bridge on it otherwise it wouldn't fit on the neck and would go outside the pickups. I keep thinking i could just get a normal ric, but they are such stupid money even tatty these days, and ultimately a 4 string is not really going to be something I end up gigging, and if I don't gig it, what is the point having it?

For me, it's The Who's live performance of Pinball Wizard from their IoW 1970 set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J03yCE15rg Listen to the buildup; it's only 20 seconds in. But that moment where The Ox's bass blasts in (filling in for the distorted guitar stings from the studio version) rarely fails to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. They also have an entertaining effect if you put it on for unsuspecting friends who usually looked shocked and exclaim, "holy s**t, is that the bass?!"

Thats the business model for IK Media. Always find a way to get consumers to pay more and more.

Harry White