12stringbassist

New guitar sales in stores are mainly declining because a whole lot of people are going to Ebay to pick up 'as new' guitars. We are getting to the point where a lot of people's collections are coming back onto the market.

I have 4 Ric 4003's and can't think of a reason not to buy one. However, the original poster should spend a lot of time trying a Ric before buying one. Prices are now stupid. As to John Hall, he had me banned from the official Ric forum and I have had long email talks with him about the finish quality of a Midnight Blue bass with the finish bleeding into the binding. I have even spoken to him on the phone. He is a total twerp. He doesn't look after his customers. He makes their lives difficult. As to the protection of his brand and their designs, he is perfectly right.

There be fakers amongst these.... None of the fakers are re-badged as being Rics.

The only new feature in the top post is the neck finish. Ric don't do basses with a new look.

We get punters doing this with monotonous regularity. In certain cases, I will reply "I dont have a single recording by ****** in my house, as I detest them". Last week, some woman would not believe that I had never heard The Zoo by The Scorpions ever in my life. I still haven't heard it - or anything else by them - and I am none the poorer for it. If they really want to irritate me they can ask for something by Meatloaf, I will either give them "There are not 10 people and a load of backing tapes, like he has, in this trio" or if it's between sets, the real reason - the local Meatloaf impersonator that he sued big time. I am getting a shorter fuse with some of the dorks. I will not go through everything we do or show them a setlist before the gig, either.

These are my Rickenbacker-style basses. And Rickenbacker basses. NOT FOR SALE.

Macca is talking to the world and his dog about Pepper, at the moment, so if he'd had a call he would probably have obliged.

Excellent playing. He must have his action really nice and low to get that kind of speed and agility on his 12er. My two beasties. I have been trying to contact Waterstone recently about getting one of theirs and no response. I think they have ceased to trade.

[quote name='nash' timestamp='1491982186' post='3276861'] Can anyone enlighten me? I see it often, Squiers, bitsa, Nash, Lime Light and some that have a headstock shape that's not even close. I Squier rebadge for example. I think so what if it's a Squier, big deal. If it plays and sounds nice then that's all that matters and then credit where credit is due if it's a good bass. I just don't understand it. [/quote] There are two reasons to re-badge a bass: Snobbery. Fraud.

I run a jam night near Manchester every Sunday. We get paid. Not bad money for 6.30 - 9pm, either. We provide the backline, drums and PA, plus guitars for when people don't bring their own. I have to say I enjoy our jam night because it's a real mix of players, as well as some of the same-old, week in-week out. I may get a bass player, guitarist or drummer come in on his own - I'll find out what sort of stuff he does and pair him with some other people, or he can play with us and we'll do something he wants to do if we know it. Bands have formed at jam nights. Our setup for those who are curious: Fender Champion 100w / Hartke bass rig / Yamaha drum kit / Blackstar guitar amp. Our own guitars / basses, plus whatever guitars or basses we bring specifically for others to use.

I have factored that in. It will be adequate for the smaller gigs.

Japhet - Where's the like button when you need it?

I googled and found this - speaker ordered. It's my secondary rig for small gigs, so it's not imperative that my rig is mad loud.

I'd start off by going along to jam nights to keep your hand in. As to how many gigs you do, form another band with a strict remit. Let them know quite clearly that you're not going to exceed the stated number of gigs. It can be hard to get a band together that may rehearse more than it plays out though. My own situation is that I'm 58 and my health is not all it should be (Half of thyroid out the other year and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and had the thing whipped out last April - three all clears, thankfully, but I am left really exhausted a lot and mornings after the weekend involve a lie-in). I parted with my last band because I came back too early after my op and had a very short fuse for their foolishness and the workload. My Sunday jam night band now works as hard, if not harder (bearable as I am not with imbeciles now, but I retired early from my day job 18 months ago. Diaries CAN run away with you, but you have to hold firm about what you want to do gig-wise.

Last night I blew a 15" speaker in one of my two Trace Elliot 715 combos. I am looking at a replacement for the 4 ohm LSP-C1504 speaker. Would I be able to put an 8 ohm speaker in its place? The cabs have a splitter box handling the input signal so the ohmage shouldn't be affected. I'm just wary of the amp struggling - It says 'Min Load 4 ohms' on the rear. It wasn't the 12-er that took the speaker out. Thanks, guys.

I just use it as an excuse to buy a new bass, then sneakily clean the older ones.

My wife used to come to a lot of my gigs in the early days of us seeing each other, because weekends were our only time together and I was always gigging. Now we've been married for years on end, she has to be dragged into the pub next to us to watch me play. Everyone's different, but I imagine following you round 8 nights a month hearing the same stuff would get too much for anyone. It can be her 'me time'.

I always had trouble with singing and playing guitar. I became determined to sing a couple of songs while playing bass, my main instrument, or the songs didn't get into the set. First of all I learned a couple, bass first and then practised singing over them, when I didn't have to concentrate on bass. I would use a lyric cheat sheet to the side of the stage with the chords as a prop for my confidence. Eventually, singers went etc etc and if I wanted to play various songs, I had to sing them. I have always figured that if some of the uitter bananas I have seen on a stage can do it, so can I and that realisation was a big step. Another secret is not to pick songs that are too hard and to play them the same way consistently! If I f*** up, we laugh at it. I have been playing for about 40 years and the current band is the very first where I have done 95% of the lead vocals. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8e1KYVSbmI[/media]

I love this one. Had it since 1994 and it's my soulmate. Gold hardware.

Bands NEED to be able to advertise for the person they actually want. They should not have to audition someone they are not interested in. If they don't want a man or woman in their particular band, that doesn't bother me. If they don't want a black person or a woman in their serious Beatles tribute band (for example), I don't have a problem with that. Nor if they don't want a bloke with a bushy beard in a Bangles tribute band. I'm 58 and have played in aband recently with a 20 year old. It was disaster for me, as he wasn't really connected to the music we were playing and was just lazy and immature about learning any songs he didn't have an interest in and so he played stiffly and 'by numbers'. If it had been my choice we would have got a better, older player. In an advert, if they state an age range that they want, I find it helps. Once you get to the level of 'everyday, general bands', I think the wording of the advert - if done properly - should be enough to give people a clue as to whether they would fit in. It doesn't have to be done in a bigoted way.

[quote name='Bassbadger' timestamp='1474464124' post='3138202'] Hi there, Here are some Facebook comments by Ian Taylor who has been using his T-ROD for some months now. [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1161405247205516&set=o.165543703496598&type=3&theater"]https://www.facebook...&type=3[/url] [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1206725152673525&set=a.465667920112589.109788.100000081557258&type=3"]https://www.facebook...81557258&type=3[/url] [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1187384261274281&set=o.165543703496598&type=3&theater"]https://www.facebook...&type=3[/url] [/quote] Ah, my guitarist. He really DOES like the Retrovibe. It sounds like THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWpcfSnc6g

Video of the bass section in use... [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5MID0sjs8"]http://www.youtube....h?v=pU5MID0sjs8[/url]