Green Alsatian

Indeed, if their 'Classic' series are anything to go by, the Geddy is in good hands. I owned the MIM 50s P-bass which has been one of the best P-basses I've played to date and it was only finances that stopped me walking out of the shop with the 70s Jazz after I had a play on one. When I was buying a Strat, I played three different 2009 MIM models and it was literally down to the colour scheme that I left with the one I did (sunburst/maple). I think the MIM stuff has been great in recent years - probably down to competition forcing Fender to up it a bit.

I had an EST96A which I picked up for under £80 and found the preamp lacking in the same way - the Treble control was very subtle, the bass too boomy when boosted and the mid was the most 'controllable'. I put in a Seymour Duncan Alnico pickup and matching 3-band pre-amp with a push-pull on the volume control for a 'slap contour'. This was a massive improvement over the stock (naturally) - all controls were very responsive and gave much better tonal shaping options. Whether it made the Vintage sound like a Ray, I doubt it, but if you're keeping the bass, it's a worthy upgrade. If you're selling, it will not add any value to the bass if you come to sell it as people can't see past the 'Vintage' logo. When it came to selling the bass, I tried with the upgrades but received nothing but low offers (they were probably after the electronics) so I restored it to stock, put the pickup in another bass and sold the preamp.

I have the V4MVW, which is the vintage white colour with glossy maple neck/fingerboard and it also weighs 8lb. As for neck dive, I don't suffer from that with having a gut and it sits straight on a strap. One thing of note, is that the headstock is quite a large one and the neck profile is rather thick - certainly thicker from front-to-back than the Squier VM Amber and MIM Classic 50s P-basses I had. As for a band situation, I can't currently help there sadly, but in terms of output, it was louder than the Aria Cat Active with the active tone set in 'neutral' I had but not as loud as the Sterling SUB. Have you tinkered with the pickup height? Mine was set very low when it arrived, so I raised it a little. The stock strings are awful, so a new set should help. I popped on a set of Rotosound 40-100 rounds and then changed them to a set of Fender 55-105 flats. Both sets were a vast improvement over the stock strings. As a side-note, on the last Vintage V4 I had (rosewood fingerboard), I popped in a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 and to be frank, I didn't notice much of a difference over the stock Wilkinson Alnico pickup. so I put it back in and sold the SD. I've kept my current V4 stock as it sounds and feels like a P-bass, only a bit lighter .

[quote name='apa' timestamp='1347104544' post='1796974'] What a beautiful folk tune! Almost prog and worthy of Jethro Tull. That would make a realy good cover for someone of that ilk. Love it. Never realised that Trevor Horn was such a good bass player![/quote] He is indeed - have a listen to The Buggles albums 'The Plastic Age' and 'Adventures In Modern Recording' for more of Trev on bass. Going from the 'Video Killed The Radio Star' video, he could have been using an Aria SB-1000 on them.

Well played - especially with having a 'casualty' . I do like the white/maple combination on the Ibanez. Funnily enough, that was the first song I attempted to play during my brief dalliance with double bass years ago - "What's intonation?", asked I!

I ripped the tip of my plucking hand middle finger on the sharp pole pieces mid-gig once. I thought it was a blister and then the string felt wet, so I assumed it had burst. When I moved to a 'dry' section of string, it was agonising! I carried on using my 1st and 3rd fingers for the rest of the gig and it was only when the lights went on that I saw the bass was spattered with blood and there was a chunk of skin flapping loose! Took a bit of time to heal, that one, so I'd put a plaster on and then duck tape it. Good job I was using flats - the pole pieces were later filed.

I had one of those, picked it up as a 'couldn't resist' buy-it-now - it sounded really nice and the neck felt great. I liked the relic effect on it too - not an obvious 'lets take a sander to it' job. I only let mine go as I'd not long put a set of DiMarzios in my Peavey Zodiac BXP - I'd definitely have another ESP without question!

Here's a good demo of one: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yy7urpG81U"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yy7urpG81U[/url]

Does the problem occur with the chorus set on the other depth setting, via the switch? Does it occur with the rate at faster settings? One of the things I noticed about the Small Clone was that at its very lowest setting, it's almost flanger-like with the sound phasing in and out - it could be that certain notes/frequencies are affected by this more than others.

No probs - any excuse for me to waffle about synths! One of the things that I didn't like about the MicroKorg was its small keys, especially with having large hands. I got used to them after a while, but I did make more mistakes on minikeys than on full-sized ones. I preferred the Korg MS2000, which is the same synth engine, but with full-sized keys, more controls and a step sequencer, which was great for programming repetitive basslines into. Nearer the £200-£300 mark, the Alesis Micron could suit you as that has 37 full-sized keys and is pretty compact. It's metal casing is pretty sturdy too. The M-Audio Venom's still new for £156 on Thomann with 49 full-sized keys - a bargain. Its casing is entirely plastic, so I don't know how it would stand up to repeated gigging/accidental knocks etc. Between those two, the Micron is more geared towards recreating vintage synth sounds and has a more complex synth engine than the Venom. The Venom can handle these sounds just as well but can be easily goaded into sounding distorted and aggressive easier, due to its sound engine. Would you be looking towards programming your own sounds - the Venom is the easier to program thanks to the editor/librarian software, but programming the Micron is like trying to knit through a letterbox - fiddly, time consuming but somewhat rewarding in spite of it!

If you spot one second hand, the Guyatone Micro Octaver's small and pretty decent. It tracked no worse than other octave pedals from what I remember of it: [url="http://www.guyatone.com/Mo3.php#javascript"]http://www.guyatone.com/Mo3.php#javascript[/url]

Awfully kind of you to say so, sir! Just glad to offer any advice which might be useful to someone. Right then, I knew I'd end up coming back, as I missed off a few obvious ones and I might as well add a few bargains that can be had second-hand! I'll start with a wild card - another new all-analogue monophonic synth has been released - the Arturia MiniBrute, which sells new for just under £390. Unlike the other suggestions in the thread, it has no memories and you can't store sounds other than writing down the settings, like on the monosynths of the 70s and early 80s. This means that you have to create the sounds yourself from all the knobs and sliders. I wouldn't recommend it if you just want to start playing straight away, but if you want to learn about programming 'subtractive' synthesis, it's an ideal platform. (now this is something I could prattle on about!) I believe it comes with 10 overlay cards, which you put over the keyboard to and it indicates the settings for a few sample sounds, which is great for learning. I want one, that's for certain! As BigRedX has mentioned, the Nord Lead is still one of the better 'virtual analogues' - I picked up a Nord Lead 2 for a little over £500 a couple of years ago and while it handles bass excellently with just one 'patch', you can layer up to four to create something truly monstrous! It was succeeded by the Nord Lead 2x, which increased its polyphony and memories. If you decide to go down the programming route, every parameter is catered for with an individual control. There is the now-discontinued Nord Lead 3, but a different development team put that one together. It has the best interface of any synth I've owned, but I found it lacking in bottom-end 'oomph', but it did sounds that the 2 couldn't. I still think the 2 is the best of the series. The Alesis Micron was a rival for the MicroKorg (and sparked many discussions/arguments on the synth forum I used to moderate!) is an extremely powerful synth and out of the box, you have instant access to reproductions of many classic synths, including some fantastic bass sounds - there's a very passable Moog Taurus patch on there. Programming it is fiddly as you use the keys itself as shortcuts - I found it time-consuming but not impossible. Its bigger brother, the Ion, I got on much better with as it has a control for nearly all parameters. It can be had for around £280 new, but I've seen plenty going second hand on ebay for around £120, which is a bargain. On the subject of the the Micron, the Akai MiniAK (the parent company of Alesis also acquired Akai) is essentially a repackaged version of the Micron, using the same engine and is £229 new, but I've seen them as low as £100 second hand. I haven't owned one of these with it basically being the Micron. Another second-hand cheapie is the Roland SH-201 (now discontinued), which can be had for around £200 second-hand. It was seen as a replacement for the excellent (and superior) JP-8000 (which now fetches around £400+, I grabbed one at an insane bargain of £240 a few years ago!) and while the sound engine isn't as refined - the SH was designed as a budget synth, where the JP was £1500 new - it's still capable of putting out thick bottom end and has an onboard EQ to enhance it. Interface-wise, it has a control-per-parameter, which is great for tweaking existing sounds or creating your own. A friend, who wanted to get into synths bought one and I sat down with him and showed him how to program a few sounds into it and explained what each section of the controls did (it also gave me a chance to get to grips with it and I got a few beers for my trouble!). The synth-heads at the time of its release, gave it a rough ride, but I didn't think it was bad at all for what you paid. Again, there are many demos of these on YouTube. Apologies for the waffling and hope this helps! Just watch out for the synth bug - I caught it in the mid-late 90s and having bass AND synth GAS proved very expensive!!

I'll go from most expensive to cheapest, new. I haven't taken second-hand prices into account. I'll just mention a few, as I'll be here all night if I go through every synth I've owned in the past! It all depends on your budget - if you can afford one, a Moog Little Phatty will fit the bill perfectly. I owned one several years ago (among many other synths) and for bass, it's difficult to beat it really (well, my Minimoog did, but they're silly money now!). It's monophonic, so you can only play one note at a time. They're around £1000. Just beneath the Little Phatty is the Dave Smith Instruments Mopho Keyboard. I've owned the DSI Evolver Keyboard and it was excellent at bass - not perhaps as rich as the Moog, but still full-bodied. The Mopho features sub-oscillators to thicken up the bottom-end further and like the Moog, is monophonic. They're around £550. The Novation Ultranova is polyphonic and a 'virtual analogue' which uses modelling to recreate the synths of yesteryear. I miss mine somewhat and it was very versatile - excellent at bass. Around £450. The MicroKorg/MicroKorg XL are both cheap 'virtual analogue' synths which are cheap and great-sounding. The XL has double the polyphony of the original and an updated sound engine, but some prefer the sound of the original. Both can do bass sounds very well. They both around £250-£275 new. However, if you're really restricted by budget, you can't really go wrong with an M-Audio Venom for £154 (+ £10 shipping) from Thomann. The power supply has a UK plug attachment. A lot of the demos are brash, aggressive-sounding affairs, but it's capable of so much more. There are plenty of excellent bass sounds on-board and you can easily tweak them. It links up to your PC effortlessly, where you can program sounds from scratch and download other sounds from the net. Unlike the above synths, the sounds are based upon samples of vintage synths but they are still capable of delivering significant bass. I had to sell mine recently to pay a plumbing bill, but I found it a lot of fun and sounded great. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/news_msg_m_audio_venom_synthesizer_zum_plug_in_preis.html?sid=030ad01aaba7e6736148e57b1c9596d5"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/news_msg_m_audio_venom_synthesizer_zum_plug_in_preis.html?sid=030ad01aaba7e6736148e57b1c9596d5[/url] Check out demos of the above synths on YouTube to get an idea of how they all sound.

That's excellent. I looked up the album on Wikipedia to see who's on bass and it's Nick Movshon who it says favours a Gibson Ripper. Great playing and sound!

Yes - if you wanted, you could just remove the bridge single-coil, get it routed and pop whatever replacement you like in there and still have your controls as Volume (Neck), Volume (Bridge) and Master Tone. I've done this in the past, replacing a single coil with a cheap MM-style humbucker. The first time I did it, I simply desoldered the single coil and soldered in the replacement. Watch out for wiring them out of phase accidentally - this will result in a horrible thin sound with both pickups on. If this happens, simply switch around the two wires you soldered in on the bridge pickup. The only thing of note is that you may find the bridge pickup overpowers the neck, but this can be controlled with the bridge volume. I've also done it with a Seymour Duncan passive soapbar in the bridge position on a P/J bass. If you're feeling adventurous, you could add split/series/parallel switching to the bridge pickup. I added a Seymour Duncan MM pickup to a home-made P-bass in the bridge position. I added a switch to allow me to operate it as a regular humbucker, in series or just as one coil. Here's a poorly-recorded demo of mine. This was wired Volume, Volume, Tone. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ic5Aq0qXc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ic5Aq0qXc[/url] Note that putting an MM pickup in the bridge position won't get you a Stingray sound - the pickup needs to be nearer the neck in the 'sweet spot' to approximate that sound.

I've been asked if gear I'm selling has been 'gigged', so I state whether it has/hasn't in the description. Whether it's useful information, I don't know as any dinks/scratches I've done to mine have been anywhere but at a gig. In fact, I don't think I've ever had any dinks to my gear during gigs as I'm even more careful when transporting them. I'll try my hardest to avoid the first dink, but once it's there, I'm not so bothered about the second and onwards.

Excellent vid, Ped - better than an episode of 'How It's Made'! Looking forward to the Warwick one.

I'd love Prakash John's heavily-modded Rick. He uses it throughout Alice Cooper's 1975 'Welcome To My Nightmare' concert. It's a fantastically overdriven tone with a phaser on some songs. He does a bit of a bass solo when Alice introduces the band near the end. Here's a clip of him using it with Lou Reed - there were further modifications made to it by the time of the 'Nightmare' version. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc26EFI1_nw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc26EFI1_nw[/url]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1342996926' post='1743736'] I would say the definition is showroom condition. [/quote] Covered in fingerprints, light scratches and poorly set up?

As 4000 said, they weren't all identical. Here's my (much missed) 4001 from July 1982 (was originally a Jetglo but I sanded it down) - the binding is closer, like on Cliff's. This was a genuine Rick.

'To Live is to Die', a book about Cliff's life features an account of the mods that Cliff requested for his Rick. The Strat pickup was first, then the Jazz bass pickup and finally, the mudbucker, post-joining Metallica. Here are some nice (but blurry) pics of Cliff's bass - you can see where the scratchplate has split next to the mudbucker on the first:

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1342881117' post='1742332'] Its what Cliff Burton played, so is the same. [/quote] Cliff played a Rick - the mudbucker was a modification that he did to it shortly after joining Metallica, along with replacing the bridge pickup with a Jazz bass single coil (a DiMarzio, I read) and putting a Seymour Duncan strat pickup in the bridge, where the foam mute once was. Here's him playing it pre-modification in his old band Agents of Misfortune (with Jim Martin on guitar) and with Trauma, the band he was in before joining Metallica [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-QOujfgf8s[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpURVo6u-F8[/media] Lemmy went from a Hopf bass in Hawkwind to a Rick which he later (in the mid 70s) which he modified with a chrome Gibson Thunderbird pickup in the neck position (his heavily-modified 'Rickenbastard'). Here it is before the fingerboard was replaced with the maple/stars: Bruce Foxton (The Jam) moved from his Ibanez copy (with a P-Bass style pickup cover) to a Rick (or rather, Ricks - he had quite a few!) around the time of In The City (the first album) coming out, probably bought them with his advance.

Ace - I'll be giving that a blast.

Most of my gigs were DI'd and as I could hear myself from the front monitor, it didn't bother me as I'd keep my amp nearly flat anyway, tinkering with settings I could be heard in practice without having to use volume to compensate. In fact, I think my bass sounded better through the monitor anyway, so I stopped taking the amp along eventually (it couldn't be DI'd due to a ground lift problem).

That's completely brilliant!