Nick Riffed

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1382008088' post='2246592'] +1 Thomann are very good [/quote] I'd go with this. I have always found their service first rate including after sales. 30 day no quibble return policy and 3 years warranty on everything. Their policy is that the customer is always right, even if he's wrong. Not much cop if you don't want to use them though.

Thanks. Glad to be amongst like minded people.

Fantastic voice, an amazing technique with a solid tight band behind her, but what a boring song.

Hi, What can I say about me? I have been playing bass for about 13 years. Prior to that I bought a used bass and amp from a second hand "we sell anything vaguely music related and electrical" shop that smelled of weed and soldering and put it in a corner and left it for about 8 years. The bass is a Hohner B2A headless jobbie and the amp is a Custom sound Cub 30. I still use them both to practice. I am now the proud owner of 8 various cheapo basses, 3 x 6 strings, a 5 string fretless acoustic and 4 x 4 strings all of which get the reaction of " it's a what?" when people ask what they are. I reckon in total they wouldn't add up to a couple of grand. The most expensive cost me less than £250 and the cheapest cost me £20. I use them all at home, gig with 4 or 5 of them. I have an Ashdown ABM Evo II 300 1x15 combo for smaller venues. I have an Ashdown ABM Evo II 500 head which I run through a 4x10 and 1x15 Behringer Ultra bass cabs with Ali cones for the bigger places. I came to here to see if I could gain some futher info on my latest acquisition. I have long wanted a British built Bass and decided to go about finding one. Yes, I play 6 string basses but I like my 4 strings to have a fairly narrow neck. This has. I wanted to have hand wound British pickups. This has. I wanted something a lot less common than a Fender. This is. Laminate bodies seem to be gaining popularity with some big named makers. This has one. I wanted something with a bit of history to it. This Bass was built in 1963. I wanted something that would never be worth less than I paid for it. Fingers crossed. I am now the proud owner of a £100 Vox Bassmaster. Lol. I'm sure it will fit in very well with all the other cheap Basses. I am currently playing with a Blues band but tend to lean more towards rock. (Any Rock bands looking for an aged Bass player in South Hertfordshire, apply here.) Am I the only one that hates the term 'Bassist'?

I have seen bass players with amazing gear and not the slightest idea how to use it. I have seen bass players with relatively mediocre gear making it really work. Having the worlds best bass will not transform someone into the worlds best bass player. I can see it being a massive leap of faith to get someone to build you something wonderfully unique and special but not purely to say that so and so built this for me if it looks like every other J or P bass and sound fairly much the same too, especially if you have been charged an additional couple of grand for the priviledge. I think I would be a tad scared to take something rare, personal and unique to the sort of gigs I've played. If I would loose sleep if it was stolen, I won't gig it. If I couldn't take out my wonderful one off custom bass to show the to world, why would I bother getting one in the first place? I have never had a bass custom built or had to deal with a luthier but I have dealt with various types of tradesmen/craftsmen over the years. There seems to be very little mention of contracts of build schedules. Are you guys paying full whack up front? Are you putting up a deposit? What? I still have some doubts about whether a lot of these one offs aren't put together from bodies and necks that you can buy from various suppliers and slightly fettled with. You could be just forking out a load of dosh for someone to screw a neck on a body and bung some strings on it! If, like me, you tend to play pubs and clubs, when the punters are dancing on the tables I doubt the thought in their minds is how much your bass cost and who made it.

I can remember listening to a Nils Lofgren track back in the '70's and thinking 'One day I want to be able to play bass like that'. After some years I bought a bass and started playing along to stuff, as you do, and dug out the old Nils Lofgren album. Yep, there was that bass again, still there in all it's glory and me still thinking that one day I'll get there. It wasn't until some time down the line that I thought to check out who was actually playing bass on the track. Turns out to be a guy called Paul Stallworth who has played with practically everyone over the years ably assisted on a second bass by a certain Mr Chuck Rainey. One of them and I may have stood a chance but two of the best session and band bass players of all time........... Things are not always as they seem.

Hi Folks, I only have cheap and strange basses in my collection, 8 in total, that would probably add up to about 2 grand if I had to replace them all. I have played lots of the regular "named" stuff but the thing that surprised me most was a Rickenbacker 4003. Up until I saw the comments on here I thought it must've been me! I was left wondering where the additional £900.00 had gone between the Rick and my poor little Tanglewood Warrior. (Yeah, I know) That price gap has now extended to about £1300!!! Why? How? I was so disappointed as I had always wanted one based I on the look of it. I have tried several since, in the off chance that it was a dodgy one, and sadly my opinion hasn't changed.