Toby B

I had a Warwick Rockbass 5-string Streamer which seemed a good value second-hand instrument for a few hundred quid ... it felt OK ... I like my thin-necked Ibanez SR 4-string... but I never really warmed to it. Just not at all inspiring... Then I got to play ... and ended up trading for ... a German one. Night and Day! It's fantastic. But ... what I now realise having read around ... is that my Rockbass was the early big-sticker from 2003 ... and they weren't so good. But I believe the more recent Rockbass's are very much better. So ... one of those might be worth considering if you find one in budget because the neck's good ... but make sure it's a 2nd generation...

I saw this thread with hope and regret ... two years ago I thought this tech seemed like a brilliant idea ... and put down a deposit for a 6-string. In the last year there was an apparently dead website and no replies to emails ... and I was left thinking it was a risk or a gamble that hadn't paid off ... I contacted Darren & Peter here ... followed a trail of advice ... discovering that James Chick has left the company, and a direct email for Steve Chick ... and got a reply! Apparently Covid and rosewood debacles has meant they've lost their factory but Steve is still keeping their operation going ... he's got parts like necks and bodies from Warmoth and hopes to be getting things painted and presumably then assembled in the new year ... maybe my deposit isn't lost ... and perhaps the same for those hoping for a bass too?

I think a lot of the properties of wood relevant to a luthier building acoustic instruments are of little relevance to electric instruments, where pickups and their positioning dominate the sound. However, with a bass (more so than a 6-string, let alone a mandolin, because of the mass of the strings), the stiffness and density of the wood will have an effect on the absorption of vibration ... potentially changing the characteristics of the attack and more significantly the sustain. Ash is often denser, similar to the fruit woods, than alder, and is stiffer

I am pleasantly surprised by the range of tones, much more than a number of passive basses I have played ... I know they a represented by Lemmy & McCartney... but it's far more versatile than their 6 strings which sound great, but very often sound "like a Rickenbacker" rather than like whoever is playing them.

Hee hee! I'm an occasional bass player, and graduated from a beginners Yamaha TRBX to a very nice sounding and playable Ibanez SR. But I have often wondered about a Rick ... tried them in a shop but never sure ... Then an opportunity for a fireglow 4003 came up ... and it's BRILLIANT! Sounds significantly different to the Ibanez playing it straight, terrific bark from playing the bridge behind the pick guard, and a rich thump from both infront. But even more exciting is the Rico-sound option ... I know loads of players never touch it ... but a simple Y-cable, plug the neck into my bass amp, the bridge into a Marshal guitar amp with dome distortion... and it's not growling, it's a full-throated snarl! Fabulous. And the opportunity to try out Fx pedals on each channel, or record both seperately and really mess about ... what an instrument! Very glad I didn't go gor a 4003S on a couple of occasions ... B)