chriswareham

Best bass amp I've ever played was an Acoustic Control Corporation 140 into an Ampeg fridge - phenomenally loud, definitely more than the 100W or so it was supposedly meant to be. It was very clean sounding and had only the most basic controls of volume, treble, bass (plus a completely useless bright switch that cut all the bass out). If I needed grit then I just put a distortion pedal in front of it. It was eventually paired with an Acoustic 370 with a splitter box so effects (chorus or distortion) went to the 140 and a clean, bass heavy signal went to the 370. Foolishly sold the two amps to buy an Ampeg SVT CL, but I now own the combo version of the 140 thanks to a seller on this here forum.

I've actually used a Hofner Violin bass (one of the cheap Ignition ones) for metal. It was OK, but the novelty quickly wore off and I went back to a Stingray. Talking of unlikely genres for particular makes or models of bass guitar, Peter Steele used an Alembic Spoiler as his main bass in his thrash band Carnivore. He only retired it from live use with his later band Type O Negative because it had got a bit fragile from all the abuse it had suffered. He still used it for Type O studio recordings though.

First gig was aged nineteen in 1991 at a venue in the hellhole that is Aldershot, home of the British Army. I'd only been playing bass for a few months and I recall having an A3 pad of paper on the floor with the song structures written on them in marker pen. I really wanted to be a keyboard player, but very few bands in the area wanted one since they were mostly trying to emulate local heroes Mega City 4. I really liked Peter Hook's bass playing though, so I traded my Roland MC-202 synth/sequencer for a terrible Aria bass (one of the later Korean made ones rather than a decent Matsumoku one). It was actually a good thing when the headstock snapped off the Aria a year or so later, as my next bass was a Westone Thunder which was a totally wonderful instrument.

I bought Chris's Acoustic 136 amplifier. Fantastic bit of kit, and Chris carefully packaged it for collection by a courier.

Google are removing the ability for Ublock Origin and similar extensions to function in a future version of Chrome. They've postponed the change a couple of times but the change is inevitable - after all, Google make the overwhelming majority of their revenue from adverts, so it's in their best interests to prevent people blocking them.

Running a bit of software at home called "Pi Hole" (it was originally intended to run on a cheap Raspberry Pi computer, but happily runs on any Linux based computer). It acts as a DNS service that blocks known advert sources. I also run the Ublock Origin extension in the Firefox web browser, and see virtually no adverts. If you use Google's Chrome browser, any of Microsoft's browsers (Internet Explorer, Edge, etc) or Safari then just stop and install Firefox with Ublock Origin. I'm always amused by how terrible other people's web browsing experiences are when I get to see what it's like without at least an ad blocker extension.

I used to tune as low as drop A. The thing I found that made a difference was using strings from a company called Circle K in the US. They're now using the brand name of Kalium, and sell custom sets that maintain a consistent tension for various tunings. Before that I would use the heaviest four strings from a five string set of Ernie Ball "Power Slinkys" (135, 105, 85, 70). They were great when I was doing drop C, but the lowest string became horribly slack and flabby sounding when used for drop A. Edited to add that these strings and tunings were on a Musicman Stringray, so similar neck to a Precision. I also had a similar set on an old Hondo Precision copy from the 1970s, and even with a traditional passive P bass pickup they sounded great.

Suicide - Ghost Rider. Three notes cycling in an utterly hypnotic and disturbing way. Fehlfarben - Militürk. Another late 1970's example of "less is more". (The version by DAF is even more spartan).

One of the few bands in my Dad's music collection that I actually liked. He had the Manifesto and Avalon albums, and I was delighted to discover their earlier stuff thanks to local second hand stores. Then in the YouTube age it was great to see videos of them on shows like Old Grey Whistle Test. Andy Mackay's impossibly tight strides and "crotch bulge" are a little unsettling though...

This reminds me of how disappointed I was to discover that the "brown note" wasn't really true.

Strings now on their way to a new home!

Another set of strings I've found in a clear out. These were part of a special order I made from Kalium in the US, and I think the lowest string is 0.142 gauge. They're 34" scale (I used these kind of strings on a Musicman Stringray with some filing to the nut). Free to a new home for the cost of shipping.

Having a clear out, and found a set of spare strings for a Hagstrom HB-8 bass I no longer own. These are 30.75" scale strings, and fit the current H8-II bass as well as the now discontinued HB-8 model. Free to a new home for the cost of shipping.

Wow, that's a crazy elevation on the bridge saddles! I like the "checkerboard" binding on the body - my Greco RB700 faker had that.

Oh, and a word on the finish to the body, rear of neck and headstock. The Chickenbacker has a far glossier and thicker finish. The finish on the Rickenbacker is incredibly thin and brittle, which surprised me as I was under the impression they were known for thick finishes that took a lot of coats and buffing to produce.

Rickenbacker : 4.2Kg Chickenbacker : 4.3Kg Both basses are well balanced with no neck dive. There is certainly a lot more material to the Chickenbacker's body, so it must be a far less dense wood than on the Rickenbacker.

So I have these two bad boys to compare: On the left is what was a typical AliExpress "Chickenbacker", and on the right is a Rickenbacker 4003 from 2018. The Chickenbacker has been upgraded with Retrovibe pickups, treble mount and knobs. The cheeky Rickenbacker logo printed onto the truss rod cover has also been sanded off. I thought it interesting to compare the two basses, so here's some stats: Rickenbacker Chickenbacker Scale Length 33 1/4" 34" Nut Width 42mm 40mm String Width (nut) 34mm 33mm String Width (bridge) 52mm 55mm Frets 20 22 Body Depth 32mm 43mm Truss Rod Dual Single Ric O Sound Yes No The neck on the Chickenbacker feels chunkier, but not in an unpleasant way. It's just more like a Fender Precision or Musicman Stringray than the Rickenbacker. The bridges on both basses are terrible designs, and I notice that Rickenbacker have recently introduced a more practical design as well as a single truss rod on current production 4003 basses. The worst aspect of the Chickenbacker bridge is that there's no height adjustment for individual strings, and the bar that the saddles sit on is flat so it doesn't allow for the radius of the fretboard. I solved this by having the little metal pieces that sit under the E and G strings ground down. In terms of build quality, the Chickenbacker's only production flaw is a sightly uneven binding at one point on the neck. Meanwhile, the Rickenbacker suffers a common issue - the treble pickup is not straight. This is a common problem, which I assume is left unaddressed because as the bass leaves the factory it has the plastic cover over it, but it becomes an issue if you want to fit a plastic "treble bezel". Sound wise, they are very similar despite the difference in scale length and the treble pickup being closer to the bridge on the Chickenbacker. As for price - the Rickenbacker is around £3,200 to £3,800 if you can find one and this particular Chickenbacker was £320 shipped from China (plus £150 for the Retrovibe upgrades).

A very belated update on this thread. I raised a complaint with the vendor and they offered to send new packaging for a return at a cost to me of £15. No complaints there, since I recycled the original packaging before checking the instrument out. Meanwhile, I checked it out a little more thoroughly. As I suspected, the first two frets were high on the bass side, hence the buzzing. A few days after the return packaging was delivered, a replacement instrument arrived with the same courier that then took the original one away. The setup on the replacement was fine, no buzzing and for a ham fisted player like me it needed no additional adjustment. So, I'll name the vendor - Andertons. I'd still prefer that they perform a decent pre-shipping check on all instruments they sell, but fair play to them as they replaced the bass at what would have been no additional cost to me if I hadn't chucked the original packaging away.

I can tweak a set up that's already in the ball park, but removing the nut on this bass looks a bit of an effort as they clearly applied a final finish once the nut was installed. Removing it would likely need considerable care, and I've never had to prepare a new nut before - I assume they either come unslotted or need a fair bit of work.

I've played in two tribute bands - one tour with a Cure tribute, and for several years in a Joy Division one. Do you have to be a fan of the original artist, or maybe you become one? I'm a big fan of the Cure, and a bit of a Joy Division obsessive. I couldn't see myself playing in a tribute to an act I'm not pretty passionate about. How important is it to be visually/musically identical? How much latitude are you allowed? With the Joy Division tribute, we went out of our way to use the same equipment they did (including the plywood Rickenbacker copy and Yamaha BB in my case). We also dressed like them, and I would grow stubble for a few days before shows to get the authentic, scruffy Peter Hook look. The other two JD tributes that are doing the rounds don't use equipment remotely like the original band, and in one case have a completely different line up with a female keyboard player - which was more like New Order! Do you ‘get into character’ or is it just a gig? Beyond dressing like the original bad, no I don't. However, in the Cure tribute the singer would talk to the audience in a voice like Robert Smith's, which I found a bit cringe inducing, but not as weird as the people in one audience who would call me "Simon" when asking for particular songs. Does it feel musically limiting, or is it fulfilling your needs? (Maybe you have a side band?) Playing songs I love is actually quite fulfilling, bit I do also play in bands playing original music. Do you have any qualms about tributes ‘stifling original music’? My experience of speaking with typical tribute act audiences is that they are big gig goers generally and see a lot of original acts as well. Have you ever met or been seen by a member of the ‘originals’? What did they say? The singer in the JD tribute has met Peter Hook and was actually encouraged by him to form a tribute since he looks uncannily like Ian Curtis. He has also sung for the show that plays orchestral versions of JD songs, which I think has had some participation from Peter Hook. What is the overriding thing being in a tribute act has taught you? Other tribute acts can be just as bitchy, back stabbing b*stards as they are in the world of bands playing original music. That's why I prefer playing shows with no support, since I can avoid the egos and general nastiness of other people in other bands. Having done it once, would you do it again? If so, would the musical angle be very different? I'd still be happy playing in the JD tribute - sadly the singer moved away during the lockdown and now has a new line up. If the original line up was still going, I don't think I'd really change anything since it was a nice bunch of people and we got some very nice compliments from people, including those who had seen the real JD and had sometimes been a little sceptical about the experience before seeing us play.

Bass parts on the early Depeche Mode stuff was the responsibility of Andy Fletcher, who owned a Moog Prodigy at that point in their career. Any simple analogue monosynth would get the sound though, so something like an Arturia Minibrute or Microbrute would be a cheap second hand option.

Foolishly I recycled the packaging before actually trying the bass, and I'm not sure if they'll accept a return if it's not in the original packaging. I have raised a support ticket with them, and I'm hoping I can persuade them to refund me the cost of a basic set up. Although if it needs a new nut then that's going to be more than a basic set up...

OK, it's "only" a Squier Precision Classic Vibe, but surely any new bass should arrive with a reasonably playable set up. In this case, it's impossible to play a note at the first fret on the E and A strings - they just buzz. It looks like the nut slots have been cut too low, and the bridge saddles are cranked up so high to compensate that the action at body end of the neck is ridiculous. That string height also means the pickup is way too far from the strings to be optimal. Checking the website of the vendor (not naming names, but they're UK based and big), they state they only do a pre-shipping set up "on request". Surely that should be standard practice without needing someone to dig through support pages to find out. They claim they do "quality control" before shipping, but clearly no one actually tried playing the bass, so I assume that's a quick visual inspection.

And this is the backup rig. Two of Acoustic Control Corporation's finest into an Ampeg fridge. The ACC 140 is simply the loudest amp I've ever heard, it must put out more than it's rated to.