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One is stylish, well designed, well balanced, plays peachy and is versatile... The other is a Rick...

Now then. Some of you may recall the Smitten Kitten thread from a while back. I fell in love with a five-string Mike Lull NRT5, sold a bunch of basses and put in an order. Six months on, the photo below dropped into my inbox today with a brief message saying Mike Lull will be building it this week, so hopefully I'll see it before Christmas. I guess it's pretty rare to see his work like this, so posting here. I am heartedly excited. P

They're very, very different basses in every possible way, but there's no such thing as better, only better for you. As a case in point, I had a Euro LX and to be honest I didn't really like anything about it. Ergonomics didn't suit me at all, I thought the neck was way too big and the sound one-dimensional, whereas my two main basses are 1972 Ric 4001s (I've had about 15 Rics). Ricks can vary a great deal though so you'd need to try a few and you may actually get on better with a recent 4003 or 4004. Or you may hate them all! Ultimately only you can decide.

They both have their own sound and you'll probably like one more than the other. Great bass work has been recorded with both. That being said I don't think I could ever own a Ricky. I find the owner far too objectionable. If I did find one I really wanted I'd have to buy used to make sure he didn't get any money. And then I'd probably change the logo to make it look like a copy.

You need to remember that about half of them will be creationists and thus don't get an opinion on anything to do with maths.

I had a Mesa Boogie RR 2x18 that stopped the UK from lifting off into the air.

I would stick with the spector, I've never found a rick I can get on with and also find Ricks to lack versatility

There's always the Doug Wimbish model for a jazz neck option, and the Ian Hill is smaller front to back.

I've had both and for me the Spector was superior in every way, although less iconic.

That sounds about right. A refusal to cover will most likely be specific to the proposer, whereas declining to quote will be to do with the risks the underwriter is prepared to cover and as such no reflection on the proposer individually.

A trio I perform with. Not the strongest piece in the set but the video was the only one I could upload without editing a massive 30GB file!

Yes, after their first five or six albums they did become more "poppy". Here is the very first track from their very first album...."Chicago Transit Authority". As far away as it's possible to get, from songs like "If you leave me now"

Check out the albums CTA, Chicago II, Chicago V and Chicago VI for starters mate. Fantastic rock/jazz/pop crossovers.... killer grooves, rocking guitar, legendary horn section and 3 lead singers!

... and I would say, look for a Hohner B2B, which is passive with P/J pickups and sounds more 'organic' to me than the EMGs in B2As. They don;'t come up very often but there are a couple on eBay at the moment.

Iron Maiden Live After Death Long Beach Arena October 1984

I bought one for the same reason - I can take it away with me in my campervan. After a lot of adjustments, it plays really well and is comfortable to play sitting down using the fold-out support. It's a different story on a strap. The reach to fret one feels a mile away compared to a Fender. I solved this by making a carbon fibre extension (folding) to take the strap button to fret 12. It works a treat. By coincidence, I gigged it for the first time last night in a small pub. It did fine. The pickups are not in the league of my USA Fenders, USA SUB or my Warwick LX4, but, they're fine and I will get used to their different sound. All in all, I'd say they're worth the money although I bought mine used for about half the new price. I really pleased with it. Frank.

Mine and my sons Stingray basses for your delectation: Mines the pre EB (1980) on the left - reputed to have belonged to Neil Corcoran of Mother Earth at one time. My sons is the EB (1984) on the right, with added EMG active P pickup and D tuner - reputed to have belonged to Gavin Cooper of Paul D'Ianios Killers. It was Olympic White before my son stripped it.

My last band did originals and covers. Well, they were originals for them, for me they were just covers of unimaginative songs as I didn't write them. We would do a few covers, get the crowd going, do an original which gave them time to go to the bar, and calm down, and then some covers again. I wouldn't mind doing some originals if they were actually originals that were worth doing, not just some blues or singer songwriter stuff, but I think I would only do it 'as well' because it is nice to have a crowd dancing to something they know.

What Bono has an endorsed Bass, as well as Adam Clayton...?

And that makes sense too - when I was in a covers band the earnings from a years good fun gigging paid for a car, when I expected to take about 3 years to repay it.

This isn't aimed at you at all... but that kind of thinking with regards to compressors and bass guitars needs to be taken out back, shot at close range and buried in a shallow grave for the birds to pick at. PS: 51m0n! Nice to see you on here mate

Thanks, Pops. I do try to 'play the music' despite the reputation that Jazz has for random noodling. It is a nice trio with no egos on show. Michael composes all of the tunes and Tom and I agreed that we should maintain the integrity of the ensemble by remaining focussed on those tunes with none of ours (Tom is a pianist and arranger for big bands as well as a drummer) and no standards/covers. A lot of the playing is understated and there is a LOT of space in the performances with no-one inclined to fill it unnecessarily. My favourite gig at the moment.

I have a Korean built neck through NS2a which is as well built as the two Euro LXs that I owned which is why I still have it and have sold the others - the Korean ones don't come up very often but I'd snap it up if another came along. One of the best "cheap" basses I've owned.

Quite. My fingers don't have compressors and envelope filters in them. And for some strange reason my fingers can't make a set of rounds sound like flats.

Can't agree with that. My Euro tended towards a Jazz rather than a P neck. Mind you, that was coming from a 1.75" nut-width P Bass, so... I can agree with this, however. It's a controversial stance, mainly because people who don't think that tone comes from your fingers don't get their tone from their fingers...

Can't compare the two in any meaningful way. I can only post my own experience, which is that every single Ric I've ever played has been a dog. I'm quite prepared to accept that I've just been unlucky, however. I owned a Euro4 Spector for a while and loved everything about it except the colour. Great sound, great ergonomics and playability, great build quality. Very versatile too, and really what an active bass is all about. I'd get another one today if I could justify the expense. Mind you, a lot of very famous songs have been recorded with a Ric and they do look amazing. In an ideal world I'd have one in my arsenal, but I'd need to spend time playing as many as possible to find 'the one'.

I use an Idiot Box Blower Box for this application, which is also RAT based, so I think you are headed in the right direction. The COG Mini 66 is a good shout also, as is the Fuzzrocious BDPG. Unfortunately I have not tried either of these with a Stingray!

I have always preferred originals and, as a consequence of my conditioning as a fledgling player, cannot help but consider an excess of covers to be a bit 'cabaret'. I do the occasional covers gig with friends but I tend to do them for the social aspect rather than the musical and can't help but think of a life spent playing covers as a bit, well, pointless. I accept that I am in a minority but I think that time spent learning covers should be spent writing originals and that, were people to spend time learning how to compose instead of learning thousands of tunes by other people, then the quality of their composing would improve exponentially and then their originals might not be so poor. Self fulfilling prophecies and all that. I think covers bands tend to be the shortest distance between starting a band and earning money and it is that which drives the thing rather than the creative aesthetic. I completely understand why people do it but, personally, I just can't get excited about another run through of 'Ain't Nobody', 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered' and 'Son of a Preacher Man'.

Had a clear out to pay Dolly Parton,building them back up now,fancy a Rick next.Better than money in the bank

If you want gritty over drive the cat tail is a cool place to start, a lot of control over lows and clipping, also there moth ok you might not be interested in the treble side but sounds great a lot less eq control tho but I dnt find I loose lows from it. Also the lateral sound spore is very cool for this sound!! my cat tail is a custom so has a clean boost and kaeden drive before it aswell as a clean blend, not that I use it like a standard blend.

It is flat sawn which is why you get the pattern like that.

I wanted to fit a few extra pedals and stuff in so I bought one of these: http://www.spider-engineering.co.uk/industry/product.asp?item=spider-guitar-effects-pedal-board-flight-case-extra-large-7628-4748 It's heavy but bloody brilliant!

There's a brief glimpse of me on the front row on the Maiden England video.

Our 18” Cab was so big we put a door in the back and hung the band jackets inside when we were between gigs.

I feel like @0175westwood29 may be able to point you in the right direction re: fuzzrocious pedals that would tick your boxes

So very very true, but remember side 4 was recorded at Hammersmith Odeon, I was actually there for that bit, that was my second ever 'big' gig blew my mind at 14 years old.

It's not. Anything less than a fourfold increase in power isn't worthwhile. On that adding a second identical 8 ohm cab will have the exact same effect as quadrupling power, you'll get a 6dB increase.

For me it would be Rush at Wembley Arena on the Hold Your Fire Tour, with Primus as support... my own personal bass heaven

Any chance of posting an mp3 or similar, so that we can hear what you're hearing..?

Most of London Calling, I'd say. Especially the title track. I think the imagery is superb.

Eve then piped up... "Jaco only needed..."

Adam tried to impress Eve by 'doing a Jaco' but she said it was aimless noodling.

I just completed a very smooth and friendly trade with Stephen (my US Fender PJ for his StingRay 4). We met at a convenient Starbucks, had a coffee and a chat, checked over the basses, and both left happy. Really smooth trade from start to finish. The StingRay is immaculate - this is a guy who really looks after his kit, and a nice guy to meet and have a chat with. Hope the PJ works out for you mate!

It doesn't run best at 2 ohms, it's just capable of running at 2 ohms, and running at 2 ohms doesn't maximize anything other than current draw, which isn't a good thing. You're wasting time and money going to 4 ohm cabs.

I've written, recorded and played originals in bands and also played covers in bands. If I'm onstage playing music, it's all fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHWp6x24yRM This and pretty much everything else by Half Man Half Biscuit around that time. ‘Life changing’ lyrics for me and my mates, in that they made us realise songs didn’t have to be deep and meaningful, and could instead just be about stupid, mundane stuff. Totally transformed the music we were writing at the time - probably for the worse in hindsight! - and took our teenage garage band in a totally new direction, which led to loads fun. “Would you mind, dear sir, if I asked you a question? If music be the food of love, are you the indigestion?” ...and: "Frank was going through a state of depression in his bedroom When he reached out for the jar He swallowed every last pill and he lay back on his duvet A Haliborange overdose is perhaps not the right way" ...at a time when Bono et al were singing songs that we were supposed to take seriously. So it was the perfect tonic to all that '80s self importance. I hear a lot of Half Man Half Biscuit in what the Sleaford Mods are doing now. Another band who I think have broken the mould at just the right time.