4000

3 hours ago, casapete said:

I agree with most of the above posts regarding using them purely acoustically. However, I’m struggling to think of any that are made without any provision to amplify them, so am guessing manufacturers believe they are designed to be / best used plugged in, unless playing with others.

There doesn’t seem to ever be a lot of love on here for electro / acoustic basses - ‘I’d rather just take my Precision with flats’ etc being the usual kind of comment. For me I do think they have a different enough sound from a solid body electric, and perhaps more importantly they look different too! I’ve had my Washburn AB20 for over 25 years and used it on many acoustic duo and band gigs. It always sounds great and often gets commented on by people in the audience. Also got a Fender Kingman too, which sounds fab. I use Fender 8060 acoustic bronzewound strings on both.

Yes, they definitely sound different and I have used mine plugged in for gigs. 

I find my Warwick Alien quite useful, although I don’t play it much. It’s good for acoustic rehearsals (we’re an acoustic band so sometimes get together for acoustic run-through s before gigs) and good for working out ideas at home. The neck on it is as thin as a thin thing, kind of like an early Thumb, and it’s pretty nice to play.  Couldn’t use it unplugged for a gig though. 

3 hours ago, ped said:

In about 2002 I bought my first decent bass - a Pedulla MVP from an ex session guy in London. I remember going home on the tube then the coach to Oxford with the case and really wanting to open it up all the way. I think I paid £500.

A few days later he offered me a shell pink ‘57 P bass reissue for the same price which I got too. I kept the pedulla for a long time (it’s why I’m called ped, used to be pedullaman)

Those two basses gave me the initial capital to trade almost every bass since without having to put much more money in. Until I ended up with more than two of course - I think the most I’ve ever had at once is five and now I’m very happy with one (and one for sale!)

That reminds me actually, I bought a new old stock Pedulla MVP from A1 Music for £599 in I think 1993? They had 2, the one I bought, which was a trans gold/amber tint,  and another in a kind of washed trans green. It looked a bit driftwood-y. 😉Sometime later I tried to buy the green one too but it had just gone. I loved that MVP, it was my main bass for a couple of years. Wonderful tone. I’d have that back in a second. PX’d it against a Wal Custom in Musical Exchanges; didn’t like the Wal half as much once I started gigging it. 

My main bass, my Fireglo ‘72 Rick. Sometime in ‘92 I went with my then girlfriend to Manchester, and as usual We went in A1 Music for a browse. They had an old-looking Rick in, crushed pearl inlays, chequered binding, neck toaster, walnut headstock wings, no skunk stripe etc. At the time I knew a lot less about them than I do now - pre-internet! - and I thought it was maybe a late ‘60s one (it’s actually Feb ‘72). Obviously I love Rics; my first bass was a Ric, and the bass I was playing at the time was an Azure ‘76. So I picked it up and plugged it in and my head exploded. I loved the neck, which felt wider and flatter than all the others I’d owned/played, and the sound was unreal, everything I’d heard in my head. It was, by a vast margin, my favourite bass that I’d ever played. It was on the wall for £680. Unfortunately I didn’t have any money at the time so went away thinking “well that was the best bass I’m ever likely to play, what a shame I’ll never own it”.
 

A year later I’d been saving up for a new amp and took a trip to A1 with a friend, this time bringing my ‘76 along for testing the amps. I walked in and the ‘72 was still on the wall, rather incredibly on sale for £490. I plugged it in next to my ‘76, expecting my previous experience to have all been in my head. Nope. It was absolute night and day, so I put the deposit on it there and then and went back a week later to pick it up. I still have it, it’s still my favourite bass that I’ve ever played (many thousands of basses later), and it’s worth a rather large amount more than I paid. But I wouldn’t swap it for a genuine ‘59 Les Paul. It’s more like one of my limbs than a bass guitar. 

I later sold my ‘76 and subsequently spent 17 or so years tracking down a ‘72 in Azure, the other bass in the picture. 


 

Saw him play stick with John Paul Jones (yes, that JPJ) in 1999. Great gig. 

Mapleglo?

1 hour ago, grenadillabama said:

I wonder if the newest 4003 sounds or feels much different ?? This Jetglo 4003 was a great bargain. A new one will cost almost $2000 /I miss my old Mapleglo and want another one.

Well that a very blurred photo but assuming it’s a 4003 and not a 4001 (it’s got the fat horns common after about ‘75), Id say a newer one will feel and sound somewhat different, depending on what spec you actually get (as you’ve probably gathered, exact spec changes intermittently). Whether any of that bothers you will depend on you. 

3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

How can a genesis track, especially from Wind and Wuthering be overrated when 99% of people have never heard of it

 

 

I think the 400 bazillion people who recently bought tickets would beg to differ.😉😁

15 hours ago, W1_Pro said:

Chaps, does anyone know if the C64 reissue had a single truss rod or double truss rods? Thanks!

 

Double. As Prowla says, the recent Al Cisneros was the first with a single rod.

In fact, if you see a Ric 4000 series bass with a single rod that’s prior to the AC being released, it’s a fake. 

53 minutes ago, BassicBbBlues said:

All of you haters should be ashamed of yourselves.

I grew up playing Graham (11) Stanley (12-15) and Jaco ( 16-59) and do all the magic tricks by 17 yrs old. (Donna Lee, Portrait of Tracy, Duel of the Jester and Tyrant.) Since 2008 I’ve studied Upright with names you should recognize. 

1st and foremost, the kid is smiling and grooving his behind off. That should tell you something.  His feel is A++

2nd He hears ALL OF THE MUSIC.; every little bounce, burp, nick and pop. That’s like understanding calculus but doing it in crayon with bad handwriting.  Particularly his rhythmic articulation is all there.

Branford once told me something that I had proved true: when you get a sound in your ear, your brain figures out how to get it eventually. In my experience, the cats who never make it happen don’t really hear it in their ear first. Check back with him in 24 months.

3rd to the extent that he’s flubbing some notes, playing out of tune, ghost noting and faking some notes, he has learned the First Commandment of Bass:

“Thou may f)$@ up the note but thou must never f%#* up the groove.”

He knows this at 10!

Your quibbling about him only is an admission of failure for all to see. 

Put something up that shows us how it’s done if you don’t like what he’s doing rather than trying to tear him down. Damn. You just put your weakness on full display when you try to tear him down,

Somebody really has had a sense of humour bypass, haven’t they?

8 minutes ago, BassicBbBlues said:

As long as he keeps on smiling and grooving he’s going to love it.

Non-musicians (particularly those that struggle with trying to play) look at the pain of musical development as a net loss.  In a musician’s mind the confusion, soreness, callouses, fear is just a part of getting to the good stuff.

You sound like a bad cook who says saying “all that work to find Good ingredients and all that time in a hot kitchen seems like a huge chore”. 
 

He’s obviously found the happy place. 

Well I was half-joking. Which you appear to have missed.😉 But being 100% serious, there are lots of people who are forced into learning instruments at a very young age who eventually do see it as a chore. 

You say it’s made of alder? FWIW, Steve actual bass was (surprisingly) made of maple. 

Yes, get it a lot.

Was it a Stunburglar?

Just now, wateroftyne said:

It’s beautiful.

 

Unfortunately it gets my vote for the most overrated Genesis track ever. It took me a long time to admit I thought it was a bit tedious, but it was a weight off my shoulders when I did. 😉

Of course this is all relative. It’s still Genesis, and it’s still better than probably 75% of other stuff. 

Selector switch issues aren’t uncommon. Was the bass new or used?

1 hour ago, spectoremg said:

My beef with Wind and Wuthering is that Your Own Special Way got included and Inside and Out didn't. 

My main beef with it is the dreary One For The Vine.

1 hour ago, spectoremg said:

Nothing on Wind and Wuthering?! I don't think you like Genesis much. 

Really? 😂😂😂😂😂😂

With the exception of Yes and possibly ABBA, they’re my favourite band!

Oh man, that really is funny. You crack me up. 

3 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

Nursery Cryme is the first Genesis album I heard. Wind and Wuthering is the best.

Fly By Night was the first Rush album I heard. Permanent Waves is the best.

I said it wasn’t a hard and fast rule. 😉 I’ve always been somewhat ambivalent about W&W. I like it, but I don’t really love it, in Genesis terms at least. There’s nothing on it - apart from the stunning Afterglow, obviously - that really grabs me. Whereas Nursery Cryme has The Musical Box, which I really, really do love. That’s probably my second favourite Genesis track, along with maybe The Cinema Show.

You know, I have no recollection of the first Rush album I heard. The first time I ever heard them was a live set from the Hemispheres tour on the Friday Rock Show (I still have the tape); I guess the first album would probably have been Hemispheres or 2112. My favourite Rush album would be a toss up between A Farewell To Kings and Moving Pictures. 

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Moonmadness *is* their best album that is why, although Trick of the tail is genesis best album. They may, coincidentally be the first I heard too.

I’d agree that TOTT is the best studio Genesis album, I think, although it’s hard to argue with anything with Supper’s Ready on. I just marginally prefer listening to ATTWT.

1 minute ago, Bilbo said:

Absolutely - amateurs copy, professionals steal.

Unless they’re Jimmy Plaige, sorry, Page, who appears to get away with it at least some of the time. 😉

Have seen them playing live on the telly a couple of times and they were definitely playing live. 

3 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

Agreed. But surely studying someone else's 'creativity' is not going to make you creative. I don't actually think we disagree. When I say simple, I generally mean genre specific - like a root five bass line in a country song or a root note shuffle on a Blues tune. If you are genre informed, a walking bass over a blues is easy whereas a walking bass, superficially the same thing, over Giant Steps changes or some other peculiar set of chords will require more study. The trouble with studying complex improvisations in Jazz is that  you would never play the thing you have studied if you played that song again whereas, if you learn a complex part like 'Rhythm Stick' you will always play it the same way. Anyone playing a Yes cover is going to find it relatively easy to get under the bass parts. That's what I mean when I say simple. I agree that writing a part is where the artistry is (although, it is known that Yes lifted a lot of stuff from all sorts of places)

Everybody lifts stuff from all sorts of places. 😉

Have all their albums, not that there were many. Really good band.