Maude

I haven't played NYE in years through choice. It's always, without fail a nightmare. People who don't normally drink get sh!tfaced and act like d!cks, couples who don't go out very often go out and argue with each other, people who do go out all the time get territorial and act like d!cks to ones who don't go out all the time, the night never lives up to anyones expectations and it all ends up a very sad, depressing place to be. And I'm stood, sober on a stage watching it all unfold. No thanks. Merry New Year 😄

BTW could anyone tell me if the strap buttons are for Schaller straplocks. I've only ever used the Dunlop rings that you twist or rubber washers, my strap doesn't fit nicely/safely over these. It also came with a similar pair without a knurled edge rather that the smooth bevel on the fitted ones. The thread is larger than a standard strap button so would need plugging to revert to what I'm used to. I'd rather not got to a certain straplock or I'll have to change all my basses or buy a strap specific to this bass. Can you get a standard button with this thread?

And no stupid pick up covers in the way and razor sharp front bindings to dig into your forearm. To me a 'normal' Rick bass looks nice but just trying a bit too hard, where the 4005 is just effortlessly beautiful.

Ah go on then.... .... lucky. 😁

No more than Limelight I suppose 🤔 It'll never be able to be passed off as the real thing, there are things which aren't right like the placements of control knobs, but the biggest give away is that it just looks too new, the newest genuine ones will be 35 years old and this wood is as fresh as a fresh thing. 🙂

Great looking bass! I could see John Entwistle playing that. Congrats and hang on to that wife of yours 😄

Totally gratuitous, but here she is reclining in my little reading corner.

I'll second that! 😁

This is part of the blurb about me on my bands website, Being a "dyed in the wool" bass player, rather than a guitarist covering the bassist role, Al was an obvious choice....... That was written by a guitarist as well so some do understand our role.

I really have struck gold with the band I'm currently in. It's Mod/Northern Soul/Ska so plenty of The Who, The Jam, Specials, Toots, etc and most Northern Soul has great basslines. The band actually want to the bass to be upfront in the mix as well. In 'The Real Me' I was told "more overdrive and louder". Happy Days.

Totally agree with that. But at the risk of sounding like the moaning old fart I've always vowed never to become, if Kate Bush were a new artist today then within three months of her first single reaching number one, every other record label would've got themselves a 'Kate Bush' in a bid to cash in on the success. I'm sure that's why there's a sea of female singers around at the moment with that 'quirky' breathey voice that sounds as if they have Icelandic roots in their immediate family. Nobody is distinctive in pop anymore because if they're successful the record companies flood the market with their own version. My musical journey started in the late 70's, early 80's and if I slip my rose tints on I'm sure there were far more distinct bands out there. Madness were instantly recognisable, as we're Duran Duran, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Cure and many, many more. The Cure were massive but I don't remember any other singers copying Robert Smiths style, or David Byrne, etc. Sure there were similar styles but not the carbon copies that flood the airwaves today. I'm sure A&R men were more focused on finding the 'next big thing' rather finding their version of the 'current big thing' years ago. OMG, I'm like, so old! 😁

I'm going to spend some time getting The Who's 'The Real Me' sounding better. We gigged it three times before Christmas but I'm not happy with it at the moment.

If any of you are still wearing Grolsch bottle tops in your shoes, could I have the rubber washers for straplocks please. Thank you 😁

Same, the one bass I'd love to own. I'm pretty meh about every other bass. I'd considered a Chinese copy from AliExpress and then fill the PU holes, route in the correct place, sort any issues and refinish. But it still wouldn't have any correct hardware. It wouldn't look right and would cost pretty much the same as this one once done.

Apparently the bass cost £1300, the pickups £210 and the Gigblade £170, its not even a year old and is as new. I've looked at it as £900 all in, £100 for the case £50 postage, so £750 for the bass. Its hard to price something like this and it's as close to the real thing as I'll get so I went for it. Wise or not, I don't know 🤔

Quite possibly. It looks very similar but then it should, shouldn't it? 😁

Last being made in '84, I think, the price of genuine ones vary wildly. But they seems average at about 7 or 8 grand, obviously dependant on condition and originality. I will never be paying that whether I could or couldn't justify because I'd never be able to gig something of that value. I paid £900 including delivery and the Gigblade. A lot for a copy but not a lot for a luthier made custom bass? Who knows if it's a good deal, but I like it.

I did something silly a couple of weeks ago which resulted in me owning this gorgeous bass. I've always said the only Rickenbacker I'd ever own is a 4005 due to me not really gelling with any 'normal' Rick basses I've tried, but the 4005 being one of the best looking basses ever made, IMO. The price of 4005's being what they are meant I'd never be owning one anyway so it was kind of a running joke with our guitarist who owns eight Ricks. This bass popped up on my fb feed on one of the selling pages, one of those random posts that pop up from pages you don't really follow, I thought 'ooh that's nice', but it was in Chester and I was in Cornwall. Gigging commitments meant I couldn't go and look at it and I couldn't expect someone to post it really, could I? Anyway who knew what it would be like being a custom build and it was more than I wanted to spend, plus I was didn't need any new gear being happy with my own. Roll on 24hrs and I'd agreed to buy it 🤣 It's a faithful tribute to the 4005 (ok ok a copy) built by the luthier ***** *****(the names have been changed to protect the innocent😗), whom I've never heard of, body I assume is maple but would like any thoughts from the experts on here, it's got some nice grain and quilting, block binding, maple and walnut laminated neck, partial genuine hardware, not sure about tailpiece but it looks the part and the pickups are custom wound House of Tone toasters to give a Macca neck, Geddy bridge mix. The previous owner (don't know if they're on here) sent it by Parcelforce to arrive before midday next day, after a tense three days it arrived at work (Christmas backlog) and I'll admit I was a little nervous unpacking it, firstly was it in one piece, secondly what was the build quality like? It was in a Gigblade semi hard case which is actually a very nice case and when opened I had a wave of relief wash over me, it was beautiful. The quality of ***** *****'s work is awesome, the woodwork is great and the fit of everything is excellent, my only slight bug is the lacquer finish but it's not as bad as I thought from the sellers pictures. Most people wouldn't see anything wrong but I'm a fussy tw@t when it comes to paint. Too be honest it's not really bad enough too bother refinishing but time will tell if it bugs me enough. Anyway pictures, you must be bored of my ramblings. A couple close ups to try and show the quilting, as always it looks better in the flesh but you can see a bit of it. In real life some of it almost looks like velvet, it has a real depth to it. The neck is really well made, maple and walnut, bound and crushed pearl inlays. Lovely signature Rickenbacker carving around the bout. As you can probably tell I'm over the moon with the looks, but, and it's a big but, I don't like how it plays. Given that I don't gel with Ricks it's no surprise but my thought when I bought it was with it being a copy I won't feel guilty fiddling with it. Some of you may have noticed the thumbrest, it's a very crudely chunk of wood I've doublesided taped on to just try out. Because of the style of bridge the strings are very long way from the body, nice low action on the neck but string to body is huge and using pickups as thumbrests isn't working for me. Using the bridge PU as an anchor is just too close the bridge and using the neck PU just feels too sloppy for my style of playing. It has to be right or I won't end up using it. I'll make a nice wooden rest and tape it on so that it can be removed if sold. I'm making a new nut as the string spacing is wider than I like and the strings are very close to the edge of the neck, a few times I've slipped the G string off the neck while playing. Now for the sound, it's very nice but the PU's are quite low output, it doesn't seem to have a lot of punch but that's probably down to the placement, reading up a bit this seems to be the way the real ones sound. Either PU on its own sounds good but together I get that Jazz phase problem only worse and the volume drops. I might wire a series switch in and call on the electrical guru's of the forum for help. All in all I love it and once I iron out a couple of niggles, which are my fault not the basses, I'll be over the moon. It's certainly imposing, it's massive, and although I'd never claim to be the real thing with the mojo of the real thing, it's quite possibly better quality than the real thing and certainly doesn't look like your average Rickenbacker copy.

I use a clip on tuner on my doublebass (on the bridge) and it struggles on the E string if there's lots of noise, it reads B even though it's in tune. I'd tune it at the '12th fret' if I knew where it was. As said above, possibly a low signal, the lower the note the worse this problem is usually. If the bass is intonated correctly I'd just tune at the twelfth fret for the problem strings.

Just goes to show how closely related Celtic languages are. In my nearest town there is a huge Christmas decoration strung over the main street which reads 'Nadelik Lowen' which is Merry Christmas in Cornish. Merry Christmas everyone and I look forward to updates on these when the weather improves.

Is it acoustic though?

If you've got a vibraslap then all's good 👍

It's an illness, it sneaks up on you when you're not looking and causes you to make irrational decisions. It doesn't discriminate, it cares not of wealth, colour, sex, race or age. Be careful folks, it hides around every corner and pounces when your guard is down. I was totally happy with all my gear, even started working out what to sell in order to downsize to what I really need, and this time I really am going to sell stuff. Then in a 24 hour period I'd seen, pondered and spent the most I've ever spent on a bass, without even holding it. As I said be careful out there folks, beware of the classifieds, FB selling pages, instrument shops, even mates of mates who 'have this bass for sale', it's too late for me but if this cautionary tale helps just one person then it's been worth it. Stay wary! 😁

I can't see any family resemblance but I'd go along with it if she's certain.

Not quite 80's (91 I think) but I reckon Primal Scream's Movin' On Up would work well with an acoustic guitar and lots of youngsters singing.