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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.

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.

I really liked my Spirit, so much so that I bought the big brother model, the Synapse. I travel a lot with work and the Spirit / Synapse is dead easy to lug around. Rock solid design, and stays in tune forever. I bought one of those little Vox plug-in headphone amps, and all is good when I'm away from home. I put a set of La Bella flats on mine (only about £25 from BassDirect), and it sounds great to me.

No-one seems to have mentioned the "playing". For me that's what it's about. I love playing music in front of people. yes, the process of coming up with original material is very satisfying, but so is the process of rehearsing a chamber music program of music that's been around for hundreds of years. How far does that crescendo go? Should that staccato be off the string or on it? How much slower should that rall get? No-one has ever played that piece EXACTLY like that before, and then you get to show an audience the fruits of your labours. Why is it easier to get paid in a covers band? Because they draw bigger audiences. Simple as that. I don't care, I love playing music. And FWIW, I think "Don't Stop Believing" is a great song. Of its time, granted. People want to hear it, so I love to play it.

I fully support this thread! I once had a bed that was a door stretched over two cabs. Space was at a premium!

And an interesting history. IMO these basses should never be separated, but that's just me.

As others have said, it's hard to get a handle on this without hearing the band. That said, if you're a 3 piece band and using a solo as a point of climax (see: bands like Testament who usually use the solo as an opportunity to up the tempo and introduce some crushing rhythm work), you won't really be able to get there without an additional guitar player/keys player/etc. My band don't really have too many solo sections but they're usually used as a way to create space before the rhythm guitar/vocals punch back in. All depends on the music but worth asking some questions about the arrangement before you start altering your bass tone.

Hmmmm there was a case on here a while ago of a pro signing up to tell everyone not to use a compressor live because pros don't, seem to remember there was some fairly robust disagreement which he didn't like and he left. Those who disagreed were then rounded upon for not being nicer to him. Personally I think if it can be done someone will do it, and if they are clever enough about it it will sound good, and then other people will try (Tom Morello's kill switch springs to mind, never heard that before, then everyone with a heavy distortion and a guitar was adding a kill switch or breaking their pickup selector switch :D). When I was learning sound engineering the one rule we had drummed into us was "There are no rules, just guidelines, any rule there is is there to be broken, if it sounds good, it is good".... Of course if you go too crazy in a studio you might just fry some very expensive kit (as in mortgage your house type expensive), so you best have a good idea of what you are plugging in to where before you start getting all 'creative'

Hope you enjoy it! A lot of people think they're a bit naff but I completely disagree. It goes to show that when we had a photographer at our gig there were more photos of me with the Hohner for the last few songs than there were of the entire band over the whole set. They're also light weight and reduce the chance of smashing headstocks with the guitarists... Though that may only be us kack-handers!

In the last year or two I had only gigged with my Lull P and the Sadowsky J. I decided to keep those and sell everything else. Easy decision really. I miss a couple of the basses that went, but they were no use to me sitting in the cases.

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.

One of the things Mike asked me to put in was access for adjusting the truss rod without having to take the neck off. A bit of chisel-work and we have it Finish shaping and sanding complete: Next job (this afternoon, with any luck ) is slicing some walnut for the hatches, routing the rebate and bending / fitting them. In the meantime, the Osmo Polyx 3044 is on its way to me, as are the captive nuts and machine screws for securing the neck (another request from Mike after talking about a similar thing I did for a replacement Wal neck). All of a sudden, this is getting quite close....

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'.

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.

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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.

Best live album ever.

IME, declining to quote is not the same as refusal of insurance.

Tricky one. Maybe the Metallica gig I couldn't be bother to go to in Birmingham 1986. A week before Cliff was killed.

Having owned, until very recently, a Hohner B2A I would recommend that over the steinberger. The Hohner second hand is far cheaper than the new steinberger and if you get one from the right period you not only get active electronics but EMG pickups too. They do sound fantastic, I would recommend GHS strings too. My only reason for selling was the string spacing was too tight for me to be making the change from the Fenders I play more regularly. My drummer did shed a little tear when I sold mine.

"we don't always publish winners names" err in my country this is definitely against the lottery laws. Every competition falls under this category outrageous

Is it not possible to hire an instrument while you're over there? Or borrow one?

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.

The Hohner B2A and Steinberger Spirit are/were made in the same factory apparently.

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

To specifically answer the OP's question: compressors as a separate device became more popular with the advent of good solid state amps that slowly started to replace tube amps and their natural compression. Many of the early SS greats like Trace and SWR included compressors in the amp for this very reason and for everyone else there were pedals.

I doubt any of them has the slightest clue what they're talking about. What they're actually referring to is that using two cabs sounds better than one. That's the case 99 times out of 100, and it has nothing to do with the impedance load, everything to do with the increase in sensitivity when you use more than one cab. How many of them did side by side comparisons of the same amp with two 4 ohm cabs and with two otherwise identical 8 ohm cabs? I bet you couldn't find a single one of them who's understanding of how a speaker works goes beyond 'you plug it in to an amp'.

With the greatest of respect Mudpup, that sound like forum talk.

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.