three

Very classy look - really cool '70s aesthetic. The cats couldn't look much less interested but beautiful in their own right - as Mokl suggests, nicely coordinated.

I had a Quest years ago - sublime. Even the knobs were a thing of beauty (turned aluminium if memory serves)

Yes, things got quite badly out of hand for a while. I sort of went stereo. A bit of order restored now, though the sight of a lovely rack pre makes me go a bit weak.

Oooh, those look nice and not a ridiculous price second hand. I agree entirely on channel strips for pure and uncoloured - I like a nice compressor too!

I prefer rack pres to stomp/floor units (though I do sometimes use the latter, notably an Agi Tonehammer). After some really exhaustive testing (genuinely, a lot of money lost!), I worked out that I tend to prefer SS rack pres. My favourite is the Warwick Hellborg, for me it's a stellar, ultra-clean and forensic pre. I also use an Alembic SF2 - a strange but brilliant device indeed and one for which there's quite a learning process. Another favourite - somewhere between a floor-box and rack device is the Millennia TD-1. Superb in every respect and mastering quality EQ. It also has a valve path should one wish to use it. An honourable mention also to the Warm Audio Pultec clone - the only all valve rack pre that I really got on with. I've had a Noble and that was lovely but not really what I wanted (as with the DB680). As I said, quite a journey, and an expensive one.

I wouldn't be too concerned about rapid wear with roundwounds, though avoidance of some brands/types of roundwounds may help. I was told by a very high-profile tech many years ago that Rotosound swing bass (steel) rounds can be hard on frets - I then experienced this phenomenon myself. I've used nickel or nickel plated rounds for a very long time without any appreciable problems.

I simply didn't need it as I have more than adequate 'practice' solutions in pretty much every room that I'd need them. I'd still maintain it's a brilliant little amp (if anybody has the need for one).

Wow, very similar - almost identical colour - I hadn't seen these previously and a pity they're a Japan only release

Thanks for the video links - I enjoyed those! Mike's bass does look a lot darker but it is a lot older and has probably seen a great deal of light (and stage lights) and these may have affected the colour to some extent. I'm not an expert in Spector colours but is yours Ultra Amber of Cherry Burst? Mine's the former and it too is pretty bright, though maybe not as bright as yours - I've attached a pic here, though colour reproduction is always really problematic on computer monitors. On the strings issue, I have DR Pure Blues on my NS2 - 40-95 - I'm really impressed with them.

You know, the more I look at this bass, the more I like it. It would be good to see some more images (if the bass isn't packed-up). Oh, and the thread made me have a listen to Alice in Chains - there's some material on YouTube from 2019 in which Mike Inez appears to be playing the Spector that inspired the one above. Inez' bass sounds huge but there's an awful lot of processing going on in the video.

I very recently sold one but they’re brilliant little amps - very impressive preamp and really surprisingly capable in terms of poke

I loved these when I was about 15 and really wanted one. I managed to borrow a sunburst Jedson and learned on that ‘til I was very generously loaned a CAR Fender Mustang (late ‘60s with comp stripes I think). There’s still a cool quirkiness to these Jedsons Tele types and I’m still a fan of the colour. That I learned on a Jedson possibly explains a lot.

I'm sorry to see this but I think that I'd be feeling the same way - I'm not sure that the red is much darker on the reverse side of the bass, it may just be that the body wood (walnut?) is itself much darker than the maple on the front. I kind of find the front a little too 'bright' red too, and for my tastes, I'm not sure it works too well with the figuring in the maple. I don't know much about Mike Inez or his basses, but does the Spector he's pictured with have solid maple wings?

Another superb transaction with Owen - everything exactly as described - the case arrived quickly, well-packed and in very good condition (actually better than I'd expected). Owen's reputation for probity and honesty is well-established - a star in our firmament!

Any high street locksmith would get into this in seconds and probably for pennies. I lost a flight case key years ago (the lock was a bit more sophisticated than the Fender-type case locks) - the local locksmith got into the case very easily and produced a new bespoke/hand-made key for about a fiver.

That looks lovely - a really good buy and a pretty accurate copy in many respects. As Shaggy notes, Kimbara were at the higher-end in the copy market back in the '70s (I was discussing this with a guitarist mate just the other evening). In my experience, Rippers tend to be pretty light - mine (I think) is one of the earlier Alder production. The body is large but fairly slender compared to a Fender. Unfortunately, mine arrived (second hand in around '79) without its TRC, though somebody in the shop found me a Grabber TRC - no idea where that got to. I didn't know about the dark tort on the earliest Rippers and mine came with a black plate. The latter was replaced when the bass went through some fairly dramatic customisation in the early '80s. More recently (last ten years or so), I've noticed that something seems to be gassing in the flight case - the finish (as beautiful a spray job as it is) appears to be coated in a form of sticky white dust - removing the stuff is quite a challenge. Here's picture for reference (next to the old Status I used to play back in the '80s) - you can see that the body is fairly thin. I'd go with the rear string load option too if possible - mine was pre rear string plate and just has the holes for insertion of strings. If you zoom the image below, you'll see the little string ferrules on the front of the bass - probably a good idea to include these, though those on my Ripper were already cracked and slightly distorted by the time I received the bass. The re-spray worked around the cracking.