Happy Jack

Fake. Hofners that carry the 'Genuine Hofner Made In Germany' transfer always have the traditional teacup control knobs. That's supposed to be a Cavern '62 RI model and Hofner would never turn one of those out with a cheapo Chinese control panel. The fact that someone has applied a fraudulent transfer makes it clear that someone is trying to con someone else. Don't let that person be you.

Have you tried I'msocleverthatIdon'tneedothermusicians.com? 😉

I beg to differ. Once Macca became famous (even iconic) playing one, they became one of the best-selling and therefore most widely-used basses for several years. Even after the big switch to Rickenbacker, there were so many Hofner Violin basses and copies thereof out there that they continued to be used extensively, and not just in pop music. Two really obvious examples (for me, anyway) are Aston 'Family Man' Barrett passing his 500/1 on to Robbie Shakespeare, and the 500/1 used by Dennis Dunaway with The Alice Cooper Band.

If memory serves, the beauty of dealing with Germans is their efficiency ... one of the advantages was that they charged NO extra for a lefty, and that also contributed to Macca's decision. I wasn't there, you understand, so how much of this is true I couldn't tell you, but Macca has been interviewed enough times on this subject . 🙄

Looking at the bright side @Bassassin, you'd get first dibs on all fakers people tried to list on Basschat. Just saying ... 😂

That new neck is an absolute delight. Fantastically easy to play, far more comfortable than the original Mike Lull profile (I've been playing this bass very happily for 10 years), and looks as cool as {expletive deleted}. Craftsmanship of the highest order. 🧐

My money is elsewhere ...

Macca's memory on this subject is not necessarily unreliable. Here's what he has actually said: "I remember going along there, and there was this bass which was quite cheap. I couldn't afford a Fender. Fenders even then seemed to be about £100. All I could really afford was about £30 ... so for about £30, I found this Hofner violin bass. And to me, it seemed like, because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical. Didn't look as bad as a cutaway which was the wrong way. So I got into that." The 500/1 was never as cheap as £30 in the UK and the 500/5 famously played badly by Stuart Sutcliffe cost him the thick end of £65 from Hessey's in Liverpool a year or two earlier. On the other hand, do bear in mind that Macca bought his bass in Germany, without import taxes etc. In fairness to Macca, I can't remember how much I paid for basses 15 years ago, so I can't see any reason why we should all expect him to remember details of a single transaction from 60 years ago! As to context, in April 1962 a full-time manual worker in the UK earned an average weekly wage of 312s 10d. For those not old enough to remember pre-decimal coinage, that's just over £15. It follows that Macca's bass cost him either two weeks' wages (by his own £30 account) or four weeks' wages (by the Selmer catalogue). As at December 2021 the direct equivalent figure - and that's a pretty sweeping generalisation - was £548, so a like for like comparison might be somewhere between £1100 and £2200 for his bass. The higher of those two numbers is pretty much exactly what a brand new Hofner 500/1 '62 RI will cost you today.

That looks like a really lovely bass. Will you be playing any doubling gigs with that combo?

And around we go again with the urban myths. Mike, do you have a single example of Rickenbacker ever doing this? Even once? Successful or otherwise? I'm not claiming some God-like omniscience here; if there is evidence that this sort of thing has ever happened then I'll shut up sharpish. There are many, many more signs warning you of Speed Cameras Ahead than there are actual speed cameras, because a sign is way cheaper to install and maintain than a speed camera, right? But at least real speed cameras actually exist. Don't ask me how I know. It costs Rickenbacker (or any other company) very little to threaten legal action, in fact it is virtually free these days since any clown with a keyboard can do it by email. Actually initiating legal action is another matter entirely. Suing people on behalf of my firm was part of my job for over 20 years. Number of threats issues = dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more. Number of legal actions initiated = zero. I have actually sued (and won) three times as an individual, but never once out there in the corporate world. The game is hardly ever worth the candle.

Happy to wait to hear Colin's take on this, and I fully appreciate that you have other problems on your mind just now (although that hospital suite looks jolly nice 🙄) but just to pick up on this comment. The question is not whether or not the level of risk is changing - maybe it is and maybe it isn't. The question is what exactly is the risk? I was asking this question ten years ago and got no answer. Seeing as others have raised the subject again I have no problem is asking the same question again. I repeat ... Precisely what action, or type of action, could Rickenbacker bring against Basschat? And what redress would they be seeking? If the answer is, "It's my website and I'll do what I want" then I have no problem at all with that answer. It's not the answer I would give in your position but so what? You and @ped set up Basschat, not me. 😎

Absolutely - no argument there. But a Basschatter wishing to sell a Kasuga copy that was made 40 years ago in Japan, and which he himself bought (in good faith) 15 years ago is not failing to respect anyone's rights, and the website where he chooses to list it (whether that be eBay or Reverb or Basschat) is even less showing disrespect. Precisely what action, or type of action, could Rickenbacker bring against Basschat? And what redress would they be seeking?

This website is a classic example of how these myths continue to propagate and echo through the Internet: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/guitar_wars_8_times_guitar_companies_freaked_out_about_trademark_infringement-84300 Written three years ago, it's a piece of lazy clickbait journalism which gives the impression that Rickenbacker have issued countless law suits while somehow avoiding mentioning ANY actual instances. Instead we get "Rickenbacker has no tolerance when it comes to copycats, and the company has been militantly litigious with any and all companies that have made anything that bites Rickenbacker's style" and "Rickenbacker has also threatened legal action over certain guitar pieces that look like theirs" and "Rickenbacker has had a history with claiming trademark infringement as the reason to take down listings of Rickenbacker bass guitar clones from second-hand equipment sites" and "seeing as the company will go to these lengths in order to suppress any clones ...". Not only is this all complete guff and bullpoop, it's not even convincing guff and bullpoop. Citing a single example where Rickenbacker had actually sued someone would be far more persuasive, while citing a single example of a successful legal action would be even better.

I found that while searching for any evidence at all the Rickenbacker actually go to Court in the manner threatened. A simple bunch of Google searches established that the firm have an ENORMOUS reputation for doing this, but that there is little evidence that any such cases have ever come to Court in the USA (where Basschat is not) and none at all that they have come to Court in UK or the rest of Europe (where Basschat actually is). This was always a huge bluff, and we seem to still be living in a land of stereotypes where Big Bad John comes creeping into your music studio while you sleep and leaves a Writ on your Rick.

Remember this? I'm on p.3 BTW.

Yes, really. When @Silvia Bluejay and I interviewed him for Bass Guitar Magazine at NAMM 2019 in Anaheim, he had just retired and his new wife was on the Rick stand. She's Welsh and they'd decided to set up home on her side of the Atlantic. They were a very nice couple.

Being (unnecessarily?) policed on Basschat is pretty much what I mean. Why is anyone still doing this? What's the point?

My point ... I'm not sure that they still exist, what with John Hall having retired to rural Wales (srsly) several years ago. If you really have nothing better to do, you could trawl back to the original Ric controversy back in Basschat's early days. You'll see that even then I was saying that Hall's threats were empty posturing which couldn't possibly be enforced in British courts, and that I'd be happy to contribute to a Fighting Fund to face him down were he stupid enough to reach for his lawyers. I'm pretty sure that Hall was simply doing what @Bassassin described at the time: Taking obvious, visible steps (no matter how pointless) to protect his intellectual property. I seem to recall that there was a distinction between trademark and copyright that was significant, but the key point was that Fender et al had never 'protected' their designs which is why they were copied with impunity around the planet. Despite the famous (and largely non-existent) "Lawsuit Copies" of Gibsons.

Guitarist in my covers band (The Junkyard Dogs) plays loads of slide, plus he uses lots of non-standard tunings, so he plays three different guitars at each and every gig. He's not showing off, he actually needs them. After several years of suggesting that there might be mileage in grouping together songs played on each guitar, eventually I had to bite the bullet and just take away from him the Set List preparation. Result? Being very frank about it, much better thought-out Set Lists and far less time spent standing around in front of a bored audience while he changes guitars yet gain or re-tunes yet again.

Is the R*********** ban still a thing? If so, is it really still necessary?

Something new every day ... I had no idea.

My point.

Can I just interject at this point that Mike is in no way exaggerating about Mr. Venom ... his performance at an obscure mediaeval venue off Denmark Street (I'm absolutely serious about that BTW) remains one of the most memorable things I've ever seen.

Quite surprised to see that this has reached p.2 without anyone mentioning Vince Furnier ...

Which one's Pink?