12stringbassist

I can't claim any moral high ground at all, as I have the Retrovibe and a John Birch. I have had personal email rows with John Hall, because I criticised a Ric finish issue that I once asked for basic help and advice on. His attitude to me absolutely stank. That said, while I think the man can be ignorant and petty (I agree someone selling their own bass SHOULD be left alone), Ric should be able to stop further copies being made.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1363304286' post='2011482'] Nope, all the better and worse versions exist just the same but Rick haven't made any money from the copies where fender/squier Gibson/epiphone have. [/quote] Ric just want to make their own product without other people ripping their design off. Which is fair enough. They don't want or need to start off a 'budget range'. The only people who ever talk about the idea of a Ric 'budget range' are the people who think Rickenbackers are too expensive [i](I think they are a bit too expensive these days too)[/i] and therefore complain because they now have trouble finding copies on EBay, as the ads get pulled. These are of course the ones that people are selling on because they have realised they bear such a slight resemblance sound-wise to a real Ric.

People know I do it, but I don't make a fuss about it anymore. Why? Early January, a couple of years ago, I had the misfortune to be off sick for a couple of days, midweek. The band had nothing booked on the weekend either side, so it didn't affect the band at all and I wasn't going to work while off sick - a sacking offence. Some ugly fat ball of lard took it upon herself to go round the floor I worked on, waving a band giglist, saying how could I do all these gigs if I was off sick? Pure spiteful bile. Someone could actually have taken her seriously. I've learned to keep it quiet, because there's always some jealous and talentless f---er who is more than willing to spoil it for you and is cheesed off when they know you always do a tax return so there's no point in bubbling you.

Ric have done the thing Fender and Gibson couldn't do, which is protect their ideas. Hence all the arguably sh*t / better copies out there, cluttering the world up, because some companies don't have the wits to come up with their own design... Fender and Gibson didn't see it coming. Rickenbacker did. However, Ric copyright certain bits of their design, as they are perfectly entitled to do and yet people are up in arms about John Hall setting his team looking for copies on sale? If you want an instrument that looks like a Ric... buy a Ric (says he with a Retrovibe 5er and a John Birch, which I just couldn't turn down at the price), but 4 Rics.

There are two answers. Both are right. 1) It's your bass, so do what you want to it. 2) Why pass a decent enough bass off as something it's not? Either decal doesn't make it any better (or worse) a bass. All it does is alter something about the player. If you want a Fender, buy a Fender. If you pass it on, of course, I'm sure you would remove the fake decal.

The music industry is in the sorry state that it's in for two reasons. 1) Simon Cowell has too big a hand in selling us identikit / CouldBeAnybody rubbish. 2) The record companies thought that the CD was the best way to extort bigger money out of us all. Unfortunately, with it being a digital medium, it only took hours to work out how to rip and share exact copies of it. From that point on - one copy went a very long way. The companies only have themselves to blame. They should have made it uncopyable. This is what is making record shops die out (as well as online retail like amazon). I generally like to see what I'm buying first, but rarely get the chance these days. I order new things in advance.

Good bass players add to songs by playing what the song needs and not imposing their own style at its expense, don't stick out like sore thumbs and play in the right register on the bass as the song requires. They turn up on time and are reliable and consistent and don't have ego or alcohol problems. They are the ones who get the work that's out there.

There's also a John Birch that should get played more instead of me taking the same old favourites out.

I have a Gordy XR custom fretless Explorer style bass that possibly hasn't been out of its case for three years. Must rectify that situation!

Very glad to hear all is now well.

Oh yes I would add that there is always time to have a couple AFTER the show. It is no fun trying to think straight when playing.

Last year I was in a band with a borderline alcoholic singer. It was utterly miserable. There is nothing like having a structured and agreed set list ignored because the singer has nearly drunk your fee by the second half and sets off in autopilot doing exactly what he has done for the last five years, followed by pissed up nonsensical arguments in the van on the way home. The last show I did with them was such a debacle that I lost it and yelled at the singer outside for 10 minutes afterwards about it. He said it was great cos people clapped. The rest of us thought it was utter w*** and half the band are no longer there. Now the singer has nobody to drive the van he has had to sober up. If only he had done that at the time.

If setting everything flat is how you want your bass to be then that is your sound. Flat is the default start point for tone setting. Adding more top or bottom doesn't necessarily mean you are any less or more adept at making your bass sound right. As long as you and your band think it sounds good you're winning.

Bassist seeks working band. Gear experience vocals transport. 50ish. 70's rock, glam, melodic rock a speciality. No dreary blues or Arctic Monkeys please! Have played most venues in northwest - know which are the good and crap ones. [url="http://www.ianedmundson.co.uk"]http://www.ianedmundson.co.uk[/url]

See 'Bassists available'.

Went to see him at the Lowry on his farewell tour (which is still running in the USA). Apart from a few inappropriate notes in the solo of Galveston, he was spot on. They were dealing with a really weird monitoring system and couldn't hear themselves properly, which may explain that.

I've been told Ian has moved onto bass and they got another guitarist in.

This has been 'associated' with Lemmy (there are pics of him holding it). Don't think it's ever made it to a stage, though, if he owns it.

Thinking about getting a tribute together to one of the best bands ever - Cheap Trick. Finding an excellent RZ vocals and guitar is going to be hard - are you out there?

I think Hamer's desirability suffered when they brought out the budget non-USA guitars. These two are not for sale!

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XTC

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1355066064' post='1893552'] Which one was it that you were referring to as one of the best bassists of all time? CB [/quote] I was referring to the replacement of John Entwistle (in The Who) with Pino Palladino as being laughable.

Having tried one, I'm inclined to stick with my old faithfull.

Tokai make a couple of brands that aren't labelled Tokai, so they don't get on their website. Rockinbetter is one of them.