4000

12 hours ago, RhysP said:

It was all original, so the bass must have been older than I thought. I was never that knowledgable on all the Ric variants.

I really wanted to like the Ricks I've owned & played, but everything about them was wrong for me. It was like wearing the wrong size shoes on the wrong feet.

I still think they look lovely though.

The genuine horseshoes stopped around ‘68 or ‘69 off the top of my head. If that was a genuine ‘60s one, that would be worth a lot of money now, dog or no. 
 

Well, that’s basses for you. 😂 I’m the same with Status and Fender Jazzes, amongst many others. Both are ergonomically and sonically horrible for me. As Prowla suggests, I do think some of it depends on what you’re used to. I learnt on a Ric, my first bass, so to me they feel ‘right’, whereas Fenders generally feel all wrong. If you started on something else then you may struggle to adapt. But then I have the same issue with Strats and Les Pauls. Assuming the weight is ok I find LPs really comfortable but not Strats, the opposite of what many would say. 

So far as I recall the “Matrix” tag was applied across several models. That would seem to be one of the ones I remember from back in the day. Have you tried checking with Status? 

I’ve played several US Subs over the years and never liked any of them. To me, they all felt a bit agricultural. I’d take a Sterling Ray over those any day of the week. 

8 minutes ago, RhysP said:

I got rid of the Wal shortly afterwards too. Never seen what all the fuss is about them either. 

Well, just like the Rics, they vary a great deal and of course people like different things and have different requirements, which are always the most important points to consider. As stated elsewhere I’ve played several duffers and some really nice ones, and many at some point in between. But no instrument is going to be for everyone. 
 

To be fair, I had a checker bound, toaster-equipped ‘73 that was a dog too. I don’t generally like Rics after very early ‘73 up to the introduction of the 4003 all that much, although there are exceptions. There’s a ‘73 in the Gallery that I played and didn’t like at all; of course someone else may love it. And there are many 4003s I’ve not been keen on either. 
 

Was the horseshoe on yours a genuine ‘60s horseshoe or a reissue? Either way, it wouldn’t have been original to the bass if it was early ‘70s. 
 

5 hours ago, RhysP said:

Out of the Ricks I owned my early 70s checkerboard/horseshoe/toaster one was the worst.

An absolute dog of a bass.

Swapped it for a Wal.

Wouldn’t swap mine for every Wal ever made. 😉

14 minutes ago, prowla said:

 

 

Well, there y'go; you can't please all of the folks all of the time!

 

Me, I've bought 9 Rics in my time and I've only sold one.

 

I've got a nice '72 FG too...

 

I’ve had about 20-odd and only kept 2 (both ‘72s). My Fireglo is Feb, pre-skunk. There are others I would have kept if funds had allowed, but only about 3 or 4. Probably my 8 string, my ‘72 and ‘73 4000s, and I’d have back my 4004. All my Rics been vastly different, only the 2 x CSs were really similar.  
 

And just to prove it’s such a personal thing, the friend who bought my ‘76 prefers it to my ‘72. 

1 hour ago, dclaassen said:

I think the perfect instrument has to grow on you. I bought a l2000 tribute thinking, at the time, it would be a great workhorse, but we never quite got along. This has happened to me a couple of times. But, the ones I count on have never impressed me that much at first glance.Plus, I am convinced that you have to gig with a bass under different circumstances (pop, rock, country, pit work) to really know what you’ve got.

My “perfect” bass (my Fireglo ‘72 4001) was perfect from the moment I picked it up. I’d played probably thousands of basses by that point , not least having spent my Uni years forever down Wapping in the Bass Centre, but the moment I played the first note I knew it was easily the best - for me, YMMV - that I’d ever played. I couldn’t afford it at the time so assumed it would remain nothing but a treasured memory, but when I went back a year later to buy a new amp it was still there and, even better, was on sale. Luckily I’d taken my then-current bass with me (a ‘76 4001) so I could do a direct comparison and see whether I was imagining it. I wasn’t. It was night and day. I didn’t buy an amp, I bought the bass, obviously. 😂 The ‘76 didn’t last long after that, that was replaced by an ‘88 Pedulla MVP. 
 

I guess the fact that my “perfect bass” lasted a year in Manchester’s then-main guitar shop before being put on sale means it wasn’t perfect for others, but that’s fine by me. 😉

58 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

We're about to re release our long sold out first CD, remixed, bonus tracks etc.

These days quite a lot of people don't have a CD player, so what's the alternative apart from downloads and streaming? which don't produce much revenue, and like a lot of small bands we sell most of our music at gigs

Anybody tried selling them at gigs from a memory stick or something similar?

We had a debate about this before releasing our last cd and decided to ask our fan base, who mostly wanted a physical cd. 

6 minutes ago, binky_bass said:

That has never stopped me buying more basses!

 

I mean, if I had the funds my 'perfect car' might be a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport, but that would stop me buying the odd Lambo or a 66 Shelby GT!

 

Owning the perfect bass won't cure the lust to build the perfect collection!

This.

I bought my “perfect” bass in 1993. It was only about the fifth bass I’d bought at the time. Since then I’ve probably had another 50 or so, all but 3 of which have now gone. 

21 minutes ago, Misdee said:

I had a Fender  Jazz with those SD pickups in . You had to strain to hear any difference between the different settings, from what I remember. Sounded pretty good though.

 

The early Warwick's also offered OBL ( Original Bill Lawrence) pickups as an option too, from what I remember.

From memory I thought the settings sounded pretty different, but then I am one for minutiae! 😂

5 hours ago, wright/watt said:

I Remember buying a Wal pro1 fretless for the incredibly cheap sum of £400 in the mid nineties!! Something about buying your dream bass, and being totally let down after a couple of days!! The reality was it weighed the weight of a forrest!!

The neck was chunkier than a box of Yorkie chocolate bars!! On the plus point, looked really good! The electronics were  just amazingly good!

 

So ironically enough sold it a couple of months later for the princely sum of £350 of which I don't regret..I guess people were not so into Wals then? lol🙈😁 

 

It didn't rankle with me to see it up for sale a couple of years ago on eBay for offers over £3.5k..If I had a spare £350, sorry I still wouldn't buy one again..It's horses for courses I guess..Sorry Wal owners just my humble opinion!👍😃

I sold my Custom for approx £550, also mid-nineties. It actually wasn’t that heavy, maybe 9, 9 and a half pounds? I’ve played a lot of Wals over the decades and they’ve differed so much. Some very good, some dead as posts and everything in between. The weights have been all over the place too. I think my favourite-sounding of the Customs was a wenge-faced one in the Bass Centre but it weighed as much asa small house. 
 

I really liked and miss my Pro (although again pretty heavy),easily preferred that to the Custom. 

I’ll never tire of listening to that track. Incredible. 

5 hours ago, bassbora said:

I remember the SD pickups. Never tried them. I have 89 Thumb 6 fretless which originally was a fretted model but has an ebony board. Early Thumb necks are just amazing (if you like thinner necks) and has Barts. I think it’s the original and I love them in that bass. 
 

I have both 91 Streamer 1&2 5s both with Barts and I really like them but all these things are very subjective and personal. 
 

I remember those MVPs that must have been a killer bass. Do you still have it? My teacher had a 5st of those back in the mid 90s and it sounded so good. 

I played several basses with the SDs with the switches in those days. I liked them IIRC.
 

Ironically I px’d my Pedulla for a Wal Custom in Music Ground (?) in the mid ‘90s. A big mistake as I never bonded with that Wal like I did with the Pedulla; I wish I’d kept it. I later sold the Wal to a friend. Different style of band though, the Wal might suit my current band better, but if I could have either back (based on merits and not value) it’d be the Pedulla, no question. 

1 hour ago, bassbora said:

I think you were right in your reply above that early Thumbs had wenge fretboard.  At least my 89 5 st has wenge.  I have no idea what they use these days.  I prefer the old Warwicks over the new ones.  Not sure about the EMGs.  I cant remember if there were options to get Barts as well (maybe some other as well).  Mine came with EMG and I love that tone.

The fretted early Thumbs generally had wenge boards, but I meant the fretless ones; all of the early fretlesses I’ve played (a few) have had ebony boards, which isn’t to say there weren’t wenge ones too of course. 
 

I’ve always preferred the EMGs to Barts. Having had a few basses with Barts, I eventually realised I didn’t get on with them at all. The only bass I had that I liked them in was my ‘88 Pedulla MVP. That was a lovely bass.
 

Some of the early Warwicks had Seymours in, the ones with the small switches on them. 

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

I'm lucky in that I've owned some amazing basses in my life - many "perfect" in their own way....however I was always too precious with them.

 

What I can say is that owning a "perfect" bass can be scary thing - what happens if it is dropped? What if it gets scratched/etc? 

 

I'm not unhappy about the continued search.

Mine’s got loads of scratches, minor dings etc. It’s not in perfect condition by any means. But that’s not what a perfect instrument is to me. Condition has nothing to do with it. Look at Jaco’s main Jazz, or Rory Gallagher’s Strat, or Greeny when Gary Moore had it. 

I once tore a muscle in the front of my neck putting on my extremely neck-heavy Alembic Stanley Clarke while I was very, very cold. I sold it soon after and I still have problems with that muscle to this day; that was probably 20 years ago.
 

Not an injury to me, but to one of the guys in my band many years ago when we were in a funk band together. We were both leaping about the stage, him going one way, me another, until - in slow motion - we both realised his nose was just in range of the headstock of my Jaydee and connection was unavoidable. I saw his eyes go wide just before impact. There certainly was blood. 😂  

On 13/01/2022 at 17:03, r16ktx said:

After some years of exploring Basschats Basses for Sale Mr Steinberger released the Radius, bought the WAV version, loved it, sold all my other basses and bought a CR...

I upgraded the WAV to fretless and other stuff to bring it closer to the CR. Still have a hankering to try Status and ACG though...

 

That fretless is way cool….😎

7 minutes ago, Vanheusen77 said:

Me too but I believe the pickups are in the wrong positions, especially the neck pickup.

Obviously they’re not in exactly the same positions, but a comparison would great anyway. 

2 hours ago, drTStingray said:

Having found out recently Leon Silvers 111 played a Rickenbacker with flats on all those famous Shalamar/Whispers songs, I’m inclined to think they’re great for that post disco, Boogie type of R and B.

 

 

 

Also, the correct comparison should involve an HH Stingray and an HH Wal. 

 Maurice Gibb used a Ric with flats too, on the Bee Gees stuff. Sounds great. Obviously how a bass works solo-d and in the mix are potentially two entirely different things. The Ric in the video doesn’t sound like any Ric I’ve ever played though. 
 

I’d love to hear a comparison between a HH Stingray and a Wal. Somebody set that up! 😁 

I’ll be interested to see how this pans out. 
 

Just out of interest, how heavy is too heavy? Both of my ‘72s, while admittedly extremely expensive nowadays, are probably under 9lbs. And the walnut 4003 and the 4004 basses are probably lighter still. 

35 minutes ago, matski said:

Quite a good sound comparison vid here, the Stingray and Thumb are featured. And you get to hear what slapping a Rickenbacker sounds like...

 

 

 

Well I know what slapping a Ric sounds like. 😉 However that Ric sounds nothing like any of the many Rics I’ve owned. It sounds like he’s either got the deadest strings in the world……or flats. 😂 Sounds a bit pants, tbh. 

39 minutes ago, Misdee said:

Fretless Thumb Basses are indeed very special. I'm sure the combination of woods contributes a great deal to that. 

 

I remember when Thumbs first came out and ( as the name implies) everyone commented on the phenomenal slap sound, which is also probably in no small part due to the  use of wenge and bubinga ect( I know Thumb Basses have ebony boards now, but didn't they have wenge fretboards back in the 80s?). Anyhow, back in those days a good slap sound was a major consideration! The natural compression from that wood combination really delivered the goods.

I think all the ones I’ve played, even the earlier ones, have had ebony boards, but they possibly did both. 
 

Wenge and bubinga seem to be a huge part of the Thumb tone. The Ovangkol-necked ones don’t sound the same IME, although do do still have a not-dissimilar quality (in fact that applies across the board with Warwicks). 

I didn’t like the neck - huge compared to all my other basses at the time - didn’t like the scale length, didn't get on with the ergonomics, and wasn’t keen on the sound. It had punch but (IMO - YMMV obviously) wasn’t a very musical-sounding instrument. Typically I like quite hollow-sounding instruments like Rics and Alembics. It looked nice though! I bought it because it was a bargain, cost me £700 new after some serious haggling. 

9 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Out of the three listed, I've only owned a Stingray (5). It was definitely capable to deliver an agressive tone (especially in series mode) but it never quite did it for me for punch and pressure. I have played a Thumb NT5 only once but it left a lasting impression. The punch and attack were phenomenal, in a gnarly and clanky way but with a massive low mid bump that really kicked. Definitely on my wishlist! I have to make do with two Streamer LX's for now, so I could do worse. 

I too need to scratch my early Thumb itch one day. The only issue is that I’m not sure I’d get on with the ergonomics - particularly the small body - anymore. Last time I played a couple, only last year, I struggled. 
 

One other thing, wenge-necked fretless Thumbs are also tremendous things IME. They really sing, IMO.

5 minutes ago, Misdee said:

I remember that era so well and a Rickenbacker bass was an object of religious reverence for aspiring bass players of the rock/prog persuasion. And plenty of other genres too, for that matter.

For me they still are, hence why I’ve only got Rics left! 😂 Sadly my first, s/n TC915, was stolen in Hendon in ‘86.