4000

Looks and sounds lovely (my fave is the blend I think). Congrats! Mine arrived last Friday but we've got an awful lot on at the mo so I haven't had much chance to let rip, other than briefly through an Ashdown Five Fifteen (?) combo in our rehearsal room last night.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1322594486' post='1453350'] As Lance Armstrong said, 'Its not about the bike' (the statement carrying its weight as he was given the best the world could produce). My point was that for hobbyists it often is. [/quote] Often pros have less money to spend.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1322575347' post='1452871'] So does an artist only use paintbrushes or pencils which have been beautifully carved from the finest and most expensive materials with the latest carbon fibre finger pads? Or is the art the output of these basic tools in the hands of an artist? If designing and producing such pencils and paintbrushes for artists is a wonderful new and untapped business opportunity do you think it will be because professional artists will buy them, or well-off amateurs? [/quote] Speaking personally I use the best brushes and paints I can afford, but that's not really the point. Your post is still about the end result, with the brush as a tool, however nice. Why can't the brush itself be a beautiful, beautifully made object? To me a musical instrument should be, as I've said before, functional art. If that's not how you see it, then that's my point exactly. We all see it differently.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1322489376' post='1451378'] Perhaps to bring this back to the OP question, there's no doubt the quality of workmanship in these instruments, some of it is breathtaking, but is it necessary? Do we benefit from such lush finishes, exotic materials, perfection in shaping etc when the vast majority (and some of the best) music that uses a bass guitar was played on a mass produced instrument with a bolt on neck? No matter how perfect the neck joint I cannot play like Jamerson or Pastorius. No perfection in craftsmanship, no matter how beautiful, no improved neck stabilising design will help me play like Seth Govan, nor even my mate, Sam who always sound and play much better than me and use basses with a painted finish and bolted construction. [/quote] Is that all a musical instrument should be? A functional tool? Not to me. IMO it should be a work of art in itself. Playability matters a great deal to me (although as BRX quite rightly states, playability is different things to different people; at the Moffat bash several people struggled with my Sei as the action was too low for them, because they play differently than me.) I believe that a musical instrument should inspire on all levels, sonically, ergonomically, aesthetically. Obviously different people have different requirements for each of those categories; one may like the sound/feel/look of a Fender over that of an Alembic, while another may feel the opposite. Some may like both. My personal favourites are Alembic and Rickenbacker but many here don't like either. IME, there is no "better" bass, and over 30+ years I've played a lot, at all price points. There is only the best bass for YOU. It could be cheap, mid-priced, or hugely expensive. What you will get as you go higher up the price bracket is better fit and finish, more expensive woods, more expensive electronics. It may be that none of this is relevant to you, or you're unable to perceive any of the "advantages". It may even simply be certain basses don't fit your music or style. A guitarist friend, a former US Fender/PRS/US Hamer player, once walked into a local guitar shop to buy a Strat and came out with a Squire, because "it sounded more like a Strat than the others". Generally speaking I'm happiest with fairly up-market through-necked basses, but I've played cheap basses that in practical terms have matched many of them. The thing is, for many it's not just about "practical terms". Otherwise, why do we play music at all? What point is there in art? Again, it comes down to individual perspective.

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1318346585' post='1400934'] I agree they feel and sound awful, but the 4001 looks gorgeous - not in sunburst of course (twatglo I think it's called), but the white ones and the black ones look ace. I would buy one to hang on the wall if it was cheap. But they are stupidly expensive and not that well made. [/quote] Yeah, I'm selling both of mine and buying a chrome Warwick instead.....(sadly at work I can't put a wink after this).

Loz, I still have to see yours in the flesh, but it's about as nice as it gets in pictures! Considering the Orion is a low-end Alembic, if you'll excuse the pun, you'd never guess it looking at Retroman's. Really lovely and as Loz says, gorgeous multiple laminates.

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1321215191' post='1436642'] I'd go for Lozbass's Stanley Clark style Series II Alembic. Jazzyvee [/quote] +1 here, followed by my old Sei 4 (Moonbassalpha) and Sei 5 (Ziggydolphinboy). There may be others I can't remember..... BTW, I'm actually happy with what I've got, although if I could have anything it would be my old Alembic Triple O back!

I've tried to buy them over the phone several times and only been successful once. Shame, because I'd like to try the round core set.

Good luck Zig!

No Bass? I'm with you on Adagio Bilbo. I've also fallen utterly in love with Martin Simpson's playing recently; Rose of Allendale or She Slips Away would be prime examples. Simon & Garfunkel Scarborough Fair/Canticle, KT Tunstall "Alchemy" & "Scarlet Tulip", Kate Bush "The Man With The Child In His Eyes", and loads of others that I'll have to think about (it's late and I've had wine!). My all-time favourite bit of music is the start of Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd, the fade-in keyboard single note with all the tinkly stuff behind. Nothing has ever come close to approaching that for me. It's like the Sound of the Universe! To be honest most of the music I listen to at the moment is fairly haunting, hypnotic, repetitive stuff, played on acoustic guitar and with no bass whatsoever. If I could play guitar like Martin Simpson I'd probably give up bass entirely. Here's KT: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQKKRhYmkEI[/media]

[quote name='nick' timestamp='1321101595' post='1435370'] +1000 to all of above - bang on correct. [/quote] The above is obviously a no-brainer, but isn't it fun to give / see examples of people's favourite tones? I think so.

What bothers me is that his P doesn't sound the same, particularly in the upper register, on other recordings i've heard. It's normally drier and a bit clunkier, but hey, that could just be the recording. If he could confirm either way I could finally sleep at night! Regardless, it's a blinding rock tone. Must admit that until I got my '72 Ric I could get closer with my old early 70s P than with my previous Rics ('80 and '76). Chris is my main man; glad to hear they were great. They usually are.

[quote name='acidbass' timestamp='1179870550' post='4753'] Mine is KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See. Anyone else think this song has one of the best recorded bass sounds ever? I was listening to it earlier - the album version, and thought what a GREAT bass tone the guy gets. I looked him up online, some dude called Arnulf Lindner, but I couldn't find any information about his equipment unfortunately. I have it on good information that he plays a Jazz though? I'd love to be able to get this sound in the studio or indeed live. It surprised me too that he used a hell of a lot of reverb in the recording, something which is strange for bassists a lot of the time. So....anyone else got any songs that they just love to listen to because of the bass tone? [/quote] The guy she had in her previous touring band (not the most recent one) who I assume is the same guy on the record, played a vintagey-looking Jazz live (and a double bass). That's probably what's on the record, nicely overdriven. The most recent guy used a variety of basses first time I saw him and then a Ric 4001CS last time. I love KT to bits, she's my celebrity crush. Met her twice and she's absolutely lovely (and hilarious). Saw her last week and she was fabulous. As far as bass tones go, anything by Chris Squire, but a special mention goes to Long Distance Runaround. The first few Stranglers albums. The first 3 Jamiroquai albums but particularly Didjital Vibtrations. Most Leigh Gorman of Bow Wow Wow (including Hippy Chick by Soho) but especially Mile High Club. Most 70s Stanley Clarke. Made in Europe (Glenn Hughes). Entwistle Alembic period. Lemmy. John McVie on Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk (Brown Eyes and Sisters of the Moon are standouts). Geezer Butler on most things but Heaven & Hell (partic Die Young) and Mob Rules especially. The sound I'm aiming for is somewhere between all those.

[quote name='analog kid' timestamp='1321033335' post='1434704'] Well off to see Yes shortly at Birmingham Symphony Hall and to worship at the alter of Chris Squire and then next Tuesday Glenn Hughes acoustic show at Brum Glee Club where he will personally sign copies of his autobiography! Thats 2 of my all time top 4 Bass heroes i will be seeing in 5 days.......sorry just had to share im just so excited! [/quote] Can you do me a favour and ask Glenn to confirm whether it was the Ric or the P-Bass on Made in Europe? I believe it was actually the P despite the cover photos (and some distinctly Ric like upper-register tones), but I need to know! I've been fretting over this for years. FWIW, 2 of my faves too.

Saw them at Glasgow Green on (IIRC) the same tour. They were unbelievable. I've now seen them about 4 times; a couple of gigs (MCFC and MENA) were a bit flat, but the other gigs were some of the best I've seen. I've got the Slaine Castle DVD, bought it when it came out, but every time I try to watch it something interrupts me. The first was the delivery of my custom Alembic, several years back. That was some interruption.

My own personal stuff isn't that embarrasing (except in my head), stuff like playing an entire song in the wrong key out an outdoor gig because it was my first with a 5 and the wind was blowing the sound away from me, or playing my first ever gig in a hole because the stage had been built out of boxes and the mic stand turned out to be too short (we removed a box, that being the hole I then stood in to sing). The most embarrassing band situation however was when an old band played a big (in relative terms) local gig many years ago. Having been told we were too loud before anyone had actually plugged in (it was the drummer's fault, even though he was actually a pretty quiet drummer) the gig went from bad to worse before descending into farce. Just before the encore our singer's ex-missus (still-missus at the time) found out he'd been sleeping with her sister. In the dressing room she poured a pint over his head and he wandered back on stage for the encore dripping. She then climbed on stage, grabbed the mic and proceeded to announce to a 1000+ strong crowd that he had indeed been sleeping with her sister. The rest of us scarpered as fast as possible. In his defence, his missus had already attempted to sleep with at least half of the band, including me (I didn't bite ).

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1320765867' post='1431089'] So your post would read............... "4000 The Jammy Dodger" Garry [/quote] "4000 - The complete k**b" more like.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1320763137' post='1431011'] mine was sh*t. Bands? forget it mate. +1. Well, sort of. For me, every year has been pretty much downhill since the turn of the century... [/quote] +1!

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1320762450' post='1430991'] Sorry to hear about that. Sounds like a great opportunity to start something all your own? [/quote] It would be, but I'm so far out of the loop the dreaded stagefright is back with a vengeance, I don't drive (no, I don't know how I managed to get away with that either!), my back is worse again.....yadda yadda yadda. Still, did bump into an old mate who's a drummer the other day so you never know. To be honest if the rest of my life picked up I could live with it, but my band was kind of the fingernails holding onto the edge of the building...

My band was unable to play all last year because our drummer was too busy with another band - we're all best mates so it wasn't a case of just replacing him and we coudln't get a permanent dep/deps. We finally agreed to go our own ways and then our guitarist decided we were going to have to play covers (why, I have no idea). After a half-hearted attempt to go along with this, we realised it wasn't going to work and he left too. The band is now defunct, after several years, which is difficult in some ways. But to be honest, the death of my band has been a minor issue compared to the torrent of crap that the past few years have been. So, 2011, good year? No. 2010? No. 2009? No. 2008? No. Get me back to'88 and you're talking...

[quote name='Yoda' timestamp='1320670983' post='1429663'] I'm not [i]really[/i] a massive fan of live albums, but you'd have to go a looooong way to beat "LIve And Dangerous" by Lizzy IMHO etc... 2nd would come "If You Want Blood" by ACDC Both tick all my boxes [/quote] Ah, great wisdom, as I would expect from Yoda! In addition to the above, my personal faves would arguably be Seconds Out by Genesis, Yessongs by Yes and Space Ritual by Hawkwind. Oh, and the Golden Years Live EP by Motorhead! Made In Japan and Made in Europe are up there too....Glenn Hughes's bass tone on MIE is just stunning. I love Matt Garrison's live cd/dvd too.

[quote name='Pete Academy' timestamp='1320692476' post='1430146'] Doddy leaves tomorrow for LA, where he will be playing on the cruise ship Golden Princess, travelling to Hawaii, for four months. [/quote] I'm obviously not right in the head. I turned a cruise job down once as for me it would have been kind of like having a permanent job in Hell. LA, great, Hawaii, great, but the job itself (assuming he's playing cabaret/covers - no difference to me - and not actually playing with Return to Forever or something)? No thanks. Good luck to him though!