Stacker

...and let's not forget the weak output on the E string. If I was you, mate, I'd go looking for an old 4001 V63.

Try them first, by all means, but watch out for the ones with 'fat necks'. I had a Blue Boy a few years back and it had a clubby neck which I grew to dislike as it was radically fatter than my 4001s. The 4003 now sports the pull-pot where u can re-engage the cap on the rear pup. Again, go try, but also try an old 4001, too. RIC QC is hit & miss, IMO.

sterling : adj 2 authentic; genuine. bawbag: Scots vernacular for testicles; also used as an insult. Couldn't resist it.

The days of strolling through H'row with a '57 LP Gold Top in a battered case are long gone. EX MI industry men have been employed by Customs (or UKBA as they are now known) for many years. You have to be a clever, well-prepared fella and have all kinds of false documentation/provenance to hand if you get pulled. I have also heard of baggage-handlers (in the carousel back-rooms) opening up guitar cases and having a wee go on them. Bear that in mind if you bring one through without it being locked/secured properly.

Wasn't as bad as I expected. But that last dig from BP - not good form for a boss.

[quote name='paul h' post='926830' date='Aug 16 2010, 07:51 PM']If I wasn't so skint I would buy www.sterlingballsack.com and point it to that forum.[/quote] Go for it, anyway! ...going to read both those links now. Coffee on!

My T-bass has them. They're meant to cut down on string cross-talk. I'd rather have this system than those awful Badass things.

I tried one of the special edition '64 relics with the Brazilian rosewood 'board about a year back. It cost around £2.2K and when I left the shop, thought about it and decided to buy it, it had gone. They got me an identical replacement and it wasn't the same. Felt totally different and the electrics didn't cut it. Picking up the Mexi Roadworn (which I was biased against), this guitar felt better, played better and sounded better that it's £2K+ brother. That said. I've just gotten a CS stackpot JAzz and it's one of the best things I've ever played. odd, how they differ.........

[quote name='Delberthot' post='924978' date='Aug 14 2010, 04:13 PM']I was nearly burned at the stake on the Rickresource for suggesting that Lemmy's Rick was a copy and having a Rick signature model made for him wouldn't make sense as he's never played a real one. Just like posting on Talkbs that Jaco was pish I like a larf[/quote] Rickresource = Nazis, esp 'BangleJangle' or whatever he's called. He sparks up bigstyle and is frightfully rude. And, yeh, I got it in the neck there, too, for stating that the LK looked like cuckoo clock leftovers! But that SB carry on - maybe it's a Yank thing, cos JH at RIC is kinda cutting, too!

[quote name='martthebass' post='924373' date='Aug 13 2010, 08:57 PM']Sorry I've not tacked this into the existing thread regarding the new (very pretty) MM roasted neck 'specials' but I'm old and couldn't find it. Anyhow I was just dwelling in the underworld that is the EBMM forum and came across this: [url="http://www.ernieball.com/forums/music-man-basses/45716-roasted-maple-necks-12.html"]http://www.ernieball.com/forums/music-man-...e-necks-12.html[/url] Felt really sorry for the poor guy who very politely questioned the credibility of the claims made regarding the stability etc of the roasted necks saying that unless the claims could be backed up or substantiated in some way then the claims fell into the category of marketing. The poor guy was lambasted by Big Pillock himself and accused of calling him a liar yadda yadda yadda. I guess this is no surprise to any of us that have frequented that forum but it just goes to show how some people can treat customers (this poor guy had stated he had been a customer since 1984 - I suppose that might not be the case for much longer). I wouldn't expect the same treatment from the likes of Rob Green, Chris May or John Shuker if I posed a question (even if it was dumb). Well I will probably always own an MM, and will probably buy another one but that is despite Sterling Ball rather than because of him. Then again maybe it's time to sell the 30th and buy a pre-EB out of spite. Rant over........ No small creatures were harmed during the making of this missive.[/quote] You should also have a look a John Hall's comments when he chimes in on RIC forums! I'd never buy a new Rick again on the grounds of them!

Get a grip the lot of you! You're nothing but sheep if you think that wreck is a 'prototype'!

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='918356' date='Aug 7 2010, 09:27 PM']Its definitely pre production and thats all that matters. Herbie gets a bit irritated by pedants talking about his bass. He know what it is and doesn't have anything else to prove.[/quote] So that's all right then ? Thank God that's all cleared up! And thanks for letting Herbie speak through you, Kiwi!

'Why are some people such pedants?' I quite agree; I'm surrounded by them on this thread.

[quote name='51m0n' post='917955' date='Aug 7 2010, 01:45 PM']OK, what you seem to have missed is that it may be a prototype for a variation on the Jazz bass that never made it. So no, its not the prototype to the Jazz bass as you know it, but that does not make it any less of a prototype. Face it, Fender, Herbie and everyone else who has read this pretty much disagrees with you. If the Jazz bass that we know had tuned out to be a copy of Herbs you would then denounce any other variation that Fender call a prototype as not one. Clearly that is not how prototyping works![/quote] [i]'Face it, Fender, Herbie and everyone else who has read this pretty much disagrees with you.'[/i] Really? Tell you what: let me take this up with Fender. And I'll get back to you and Herbie with the result. Is that ok? Or Not?

[quote name='51m0n' post='917605' date='Aug 7 2010, 01:01 AM']Right back at you:- [url="http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?query=prototype&title=21st"]prototype[/url] prototype noun 1 an original model [b]from which later forms are copied, developed or derived[/b]. 2 a first working version, eg of a vehicle or aircraft. 3 someone or something that exemplifies a type. [b]4 a primitive or ancestral form of something[/b]. prototypal adj. prototypic adj. prototypical adj. prototypically adverb. ETYMOLOGY: 17c: from Greek prototypos primitive or original. It is not absolutely necesarily the first working version that is a prototype, since later copies can be derived or developed, and further copies may be derived and developed from those, all before a manufacturer reaches a final version for production. [url="http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/dyson.htm"]Just ask Mr Dyson how many prototype vacuum cleaners he went through![/url][/quote] It's not the prototype, man! How can it be?? You'er telling me a stack knob bass with a FUZZ CIRCUIT is the first ever Jazz bass?? Your lift at b from Chambers above states '..from which laters forms are copied', ergo, Hebies bass ain't a 'prototype' of any kind! Some people will believe anything!

[quote name='chris_b' post='917600' date='Aug 7 2010, 12:43 AM']Eh? There can be as many prototypes as a manufacturer wants to make! Another Herbie fact: He used to stick a fat wad of foam under the strings for recording.[/quote] What do you mean 'EH'? Try this:- [url="http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main?query=archetype&title=21st&sourceid=Mozilla-search"]Dictionary[/url] You've just contradicted yourself. And why would Herbie do that with the foam on that bass when, if it WAS a prototype, you can still see where the string mutes were screwed into the body behind the rear pup??

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='917395' date='Aug 6 2010, 08:44 PM']I'm not sure what you mean by 'true sense of the word' but some of the prototypes also had Jazzmaster style soap bar pickups, 4-pole at the bridge and 5-pole at the neck: The one in the picture does appear to have the VVT control setup. But I would have thought that if Fender were building various prototypes then it would not be impossible that they built Flowers' bass as a prototype. With Fender, never say never.[/quote] There can only be [i]one[/i] prototype. A [i]prototype[/i] is the first and original design of what all other designs follow on from. There cannot possibly be two. I have, a very long time ago, seen a photo of that model to which you refer to. That's not a prototype: it's a hotchpotch of a P-bass, a Jazz body and Jazzmaster pups and who knows what kind of circuit. If so, it's not an orginal model or archetype or whatever you want to call it. I, personally, think that was a Friday afternoon on the Corona knock-up. The first prototype has to be the Jazz bass as we know if its got the Jazz neck and nut width, the 2 kit-kat single coils, the Jazz body shape and the VVT layout. Anything else is bastardized and is not a prototype/archetype. However, I'll agree with your last statement 100%, though admitting the possibilty that Fender - even then - would shove in a fuzz box circuit into a prototype.

if it was a 1959 prototype in the true sense of the word it would have had the VVT circuit, as opposed to the stacks.