Bassassin

Over the decades Glastonbury has gradually transitioned from awful hippy dismalness to trendy hipster dismalness. Aside from the fact I despise festivals, I've never been remotely tempted either by the lineups or the event itself. Although I understand French brutalists Gojira are on this year - possibly the only band I'd actually bother watching since Tool played it in '94.

This, in theory, is of course true. However it's interesting how uncommon it actually is to see such bespoke bridges. And, thinking about it, curious that Leo Fender (whose entire ethos was about simple mass-production of electric guitars) specified fully adjustable bridges on the majority of his designs. You'd think a radius-matched tune-o-matic type would have been perfectly practical & more economical.

It might quell the author's conscience a little to remember that purchasing a vintage 4001 such as this is a Hall-guilt free undertaking. Back when checkerboard 4001s (with crushed pearl FWIs & gap tooth bridge, of course!) were being made, little Johnny Hall would've still been in the back yard with his GI Joes, & half a gallon of gas siphoned out of Papa F.C's Studebaker, playing My Lai.

Depending on the component & how much physical contact it has, you can get decent results from rattlecan paint: This got cleaned up to remove the corrosion & the pitting from the plating, surface roughened to key it, coat of grey metal primer then satin black: Did this 8 or 9 years ago, still looks as good now - although if I played with a pick & rested my hand on it, I don't think it would be too durable.

Got a Hipshot on my Kasuga Faker - does everything right that the Rick unit does wrong. Intonation, individual string height, string spacing, no rattly mutes (ironically meaning you can palm-mute while using a pick) - and as a bonus it doesn't bend! Only downside - mine is the brass version and it weighs six metric tonnes. If I was buying another I'd go for an ally one.

Well that's exactly what I said at first, but when you think about it, that's a practical way to cheddar few pounds from a heavy bass.

Prefer lefty for the same reasons as most everyone else, but not too bothered in practice. Although all a bit academic for the last few years, our drummer emigrated to the Carribbean to get away from us...

I'm completely confident that's not the case with any bargain I've ever had. You'd be amazed how many people assume that dirty old guitar that's been in the loft or standing in the corner for 25 years must be worth sod-all. The guy who sold me the £90 Ibanez Roadster had owned it from new. Turned out he was an ex-bandmate of my band's guitarist.

This is an oddity and I'd be inclined to think its not a UK-market model. I remember the early '00s SB models, certainly don't recall a bolt-on 6er with SB-R inlays though. Although Aria slipped in popularity & quality in their export markets, in Japan the range has always been varied, with lots of mid & high-end models that never made it over here. Unfortunately I can't find any Aria catalogues later than '96, at which point there were still "proper" SBs in their Japan-market range. Will keep digging though. Oh, and the seller's definitely a deluded loony!

The trashy-looking Chinese knockoffs, which are sold badged as Rickenbacker through outlets like AliExpress. They're crap counterfeits, but counterfeits nonetheless.

I've had one or two... SQ serial MIJ Squier Precision, Ebay, £130. A-serial MIJ Squier Precision, Gumtree, £30. E-serial MIJ Squier Strat - £70, local car boot. Ibanez RS924 Roadster, 1983, absolutely mint, with original hard case - £90, Gumtree. 1961 Watkins Rapier 3 guitar - £6.50, local car boot. Antoria 2354B MIJ EB3 copy - £30, local car boot. Aria pro SB-Elite Black & Gold - trade for a bitsa Jazz bass that probably cost about £40 in parts. Westone Thunder 1 guitar - £5, local car boot. Westbury Track 2 bass - £50, Ebay. Westbury Standard guitar, £60, local charity shop. This isn't everything, by a long way - ten or so years ago I was making a living of sorts by finding bargains like these, tidying them up and selling them on - and in fairness many of them were serious projects when I got hold of them & required a lot of work to put right.

In part though that's the point I was making. A counterfeit is, by legal definition, an imitation item which is knowingly being passed off as genuine. None of the vintage or current copies pretended they were actual Rickenbackers, ergo they are not, and cannot be considered to be, counterfeit, regardless of infringing RIC's copyrights. I'm very familiar (as you know!) with the various grey areas in RIC's trademark situation but I expect their approach regarding actual legally-defined counterfeits involves other areas of law beyond the cease & desist letters that copy makers/sellers get.

Well, I have (which is where my understanding of RIC's position on all copies comes from) and I don't.

Point of order here - but an important one I think. I've not visited TB for a very long time so I haven't seen the threads, but legally a "counterfeit" is a very different thing to a copy. No vintage Rickenfaker was ever manufactured or retailed as a counterfeit, and neither were any of the recent branded copies like Rockinbetter or Retrovibe. The only counterfeiting I'm aware of is the Rickenbacker-logo'd trash available through AliBaba, Tradetang or similar. I'm unsure why TB would have removed discussions about Fakers from their site - RIC has no legal right to intervene or have any involvement in simply talking about these instruments. JH, and RIC in general's crusade against all copies, is their legal obligation under US law to be seen to challenge unauthorised use of their registered trade dress designs. If they don't, they lose the exclusive right to use these designs, in the way Fender & Gibson did in the 70s. From that perspective it's understandable they'd move to attempt to stop the sale of Fakers through BC & TB - regardless of how little weight legal threats - particularly outside of the US - would have. It's all about being seen to be doing something.

Apropos of nothing - apparently Mr Hall is, or at least was, at some point, a bass player. A very long time ago I had correspondence with him which started as hostile and borderline litigious (it stemmed from an innocent inquiry regarding Fakers, on the old Rickenbacker official forum), but actually ended up being disconcertingly cordial. He mentioned his own musical dabblings at some point, I can't remember why. Regardless, the sum total of his input regarding the design of the 4000 series basses amounts to absolutely sweet bugger-all.

Stuart Adamson. I was a massive fan and he was a huge influence on me as a musician & composer - to me he was an inspirational guitar player and an incredibly gifted songwriter. Also he was the only musician I'd call myself a fan of who I had the pleasure of meeting - a genuinely humble, friendly and sweet man who seemed very grounded. I had no idea he was as troubled as he must have been and his death was a huge shock.

I keep having inexplicable T-Bird GAS pangs, and that ain't helping at all. Oh, and it's blurple, obviously!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOX-FRETLESS-BASS-GUITAR/254212898342 Seller is oddly under the impression it's a Vox (AFAIK these were never sold badged Vox) and it's had some undisclosed mod/repair done to the headstock. 99.9% sure pickups will be DiMarzio Model P & Model J. Looks like a nice example of an increasingly scarce late-period Recanati classic, sensible £100 start so could be a bargain. Not for me as it's pick-up only & I need cheat lines on my fretlesses, but always had GAS for a BX7, or preferably the even more exotic-looking Camac rebrand for the German market... Bit of stuff about them for anyone who's curious.

I think it's an actual Schaller 3D on the Rick 5 - they've used Schaller tuners & hardware on a few models. That's one of the things that made me wonder if the roller saddle bridge on the new Cisneros was a collaborative design.

That's a bit unfair, @NancyJohnson - there were various different suggestions, many of which were exactly the sort of thing that Eastwood knock off make, and the Serek-alike was pretty much killed off on page 1: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/328839-eastwood-custom-basschat-edition-bass/ I still like the idea, and in theory might be up for it - it's inevitably going to be hard to find a consensus though. Clearly one bassist's Nobbly Ned isn't going to be another's Hagstrom Coronado. Or Maton Ibis.

I'm fairly confident the round-end J pickups were used by different manufacturers, having owned 4 or 5 different basses fitted with these. Despite years of research the vintage MIJ community has found very little info on different electronics & hardware suppliers during the 70s / 80s era. We're pretty much limited to Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) and Goto/Gotoh for pickups - simply because these have brands marked on them. There's a vague assumption that Matsumoku wound their own pickups because many late Mat instruments have MMK-stamped pickups - but that's not exacty conclusive. Hardware's the same - we know Chushin & Gotoh made tuners, bridges & other fittings only because they put their brands on the parts. Chushin was also a major instrument manufacturer in its own right so it's possible they produced in-house electronics too. I think it's beyond doubt there were numerous other, smaller manufacturers of components, just as there were numerous instrument builders that are now gone with little or no record.

Black nylon 1mm Dunlops - they have a textured grip area (don't think I've ever dropped one mid-gig) and the flexible material provides more feel & expression than a rigid pick. Might just be my ears but I'd say the sound they produce seems a bit fuller & less brittle than tortex or other rigid materials.

They're the wrong way round to match full inlays. I quite like the design, shame they didn't bother to do anything about that hideous afterthought scratchplate as well while they were at it. In addition to being part of the pickup, the horseshoe, and the subsequent chrome cover serve the same purpose as the pickup covers on Precisions, Jazzes & various other basses that originate in the 50s/60s - it's a handrest. The original idea is that you'd pluck the strings with your thumb, with the side of your hand on the cover and your fingers on the "tug bar" beneath the strings. Obviously most manufacturers discontinued, or made such features optional as playing techniques evolved over the years. Most manufacturers...

I'm pretty confident it's a modified standard Fender shape. The "binding" is 99.9% likely some white paint.

Other than the weirdy triangular pickups in the new one? Did wonder if that was the final straw that drove JH to run away screaming.