Sparky Mark

I've owned and gigged my Warwick Thumb NT for over 30 years. Admitted, I'm not a three gigs a week player, and I've always looked after my gear very carefully, so mine is as good as new having replaced the barrel jack a little while ago.

Most Markbass amplifiers have a similar tone by virtue of a common preamplifier. The LM250 is unusual in that it is now the only class AB amplifier offered by Markbass. Some players state that they can hear a difference between the Markbass class AB and class D amplifiers. If you need a physically smaller amp then the Nano will probably be so similar you won't really notice a difference without comparing side by side.

5 minutes ago, Clint said:

These are awesome basses! A very rare gem from Gibson as I recall they only made a total of 400 of these in 2013 in 3 colours (Black, Red, Sunburst) before they do what they always do and discontinue good stuff. 

 

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a couple which have become my go to bass as they are easily one of the best basses I have ever played and I love the power and versatility.... plus they look cool and are standard scale unlike the EBs of the 60's.   

 

Someone will be very happy with this! GLWS

I agree completely, it's an exceptional instrument. I imagine Gibson discontinued these simply because the vast majority of bassists won't pay for the Gibson Custom Shop build standard, so it makes the 6 string ES-335 guitars which start around £5k. 

3 hours ago, Bassybert said:

Ooooh that’s beautiful 😍 

I got hooked on that kind of aesthetic after seeing the super cool Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

2013 Gibson Memphis Custom Shop ES-335 bass in Vintage Sunburst.

Pretty rare, they were made in 2013 and I'm not sure any more have been made since. I've owned this from new and it's unmarked other than ageing of the bridge and pickups nickel plating. Comes with certificate of authenticity, QC checklist, truss rod tool and original case.

Weight: 9lbs 8oz.

Price £3,250 or near offer collected from Hertford or local-ish meet up. 

Review with sound clips here:-

https://en.audiofanzine.com/electric-fretted-bass/gibson/es-335-bass/editorial/reviews/all-ears.html

Thank you for looking. 

7 hours ago, GuyR said:

It was advertised previously on the fretboard as a 63. I remember it clearly as I messaged the seller to say it was a 62 slab and potentially more valuable. IIRC it was advertised around £6k.

looks a nice bass. Maybe towards 20k if it was original. Very difficult to judge the right price currently as there are a good number of vintage Jazz basses languishing unsold on the hallowed pages of Messrs Baxter, ATB etc

It's possible that the pots are dated 1963 which might explain the previous advertisement. The neck date isn't the only reference point.

2 minutes ago, Simon C said:

Thanks. Maybe re the truss rod. I adjusted it a week or so ago (tightened it) as the action felt high to the point that it was somewhat painful to play. I think it was probably due to the seasons changing. It's better now, but there may be further to go. It did feel very tight to adjust though, so I'm a little concerned about going much further without a tech setting it. Alternatively if I can find a max torque setting from Rickenbacker I could see if my torque wrench will fit in there. 

 

I've looked more closely and edited my response above re the nut.

28 minutes ago, Simon C said:

Hi everyone.  This is a question before my Ric 4003 goes to the guitar tech.

 

Since I bought the bass in early January, I’ve been slowly adjusting the set up.  I’d like the action a little lower than it is.  It is ok over most of the neck (I’d like it a little lower), but it’s too high on the E string on the 1st 5 frets.  The bridge saddle on the E string is bottomed out.  There is room to drop the other strings further,  but if I did drop the action further on those strings the E string would feel oddly high.

 

So with my limited set-up knowledge it would seem that if I want a lower action, I need to drop the E string at the nut.  The nut seems to  be highest at the E string and lowest at the G string, with a more pronounced gradient than on my other 3 (non Ric) basses.  The E string may also have a shallow cut nut slot.

 

Pics attached, which hopefully illustrate what I’m describing.

 

Is what I describe above relatively common?  
 

What’s the recommended way to go?  I guess either remove the nut, file it at the bottom and reset (this sounds like a way to introduce problems that aren’t currently there), or file the nut slot lower? Or is there something else to consider?

 

Any other comments?

 

Thanks in advance for the thoughts.

 

 

Edit: does your nut look taller on the E side than mine? Maybe the nut needs some attention as well?

Here's mine. Looks very similar but I have no issues with string height over frets 1 to 5. Bridge still has room for adjustment either way. Could mean your 4003 truss rod(s) need adjustment?

2 minutes ago, wintoid said:

Interesting, yours has the tug bar/finger rest thingy or whatever you call it.  Mine does not, albeit mine was newer, but I always found it interesting that it has the holes drilled for one, even if it's missing.

I can answer that quite easily; I added the relic tugbar myself. 

Bargain bump!

1 minute ago, Reggaebass said:

Really nice mark 👌

Cheers, it took me quite a few years to find one of these. Now, after 10 years ownership it's time to let someone else own the ultimate (IMO) Fender CS Precision.

Immaculate (Relic) 2010 Fender Custom Shop Pino Palladino Signature Precision bass with original G&G tweed case, all unopened case candy, certificate, hang tag, CS toolkit and new Thomastik-Infeld flats. Weight 8.5lbs.

Price £4,250 or near offer collected from Hertford or local-ish meet up.

Thank you for looking.

5 minutes ago, dodgnofski said:

If the recent Reverb sales graphs are accurate, why are 60’s Fenders still so expensive - am I missing something?

Do those graphs represent 60's basses only, or all vintage (30+ years old) basses?

On 17/03/2024 at 19:27, tvickey said:

 

This is certainly true on my Warwicks, but has not been my experience at all with this recent Rickenbacker 4003.  When the nut breaks loose, the string tension tends to pull it away from the fretboard (you can see what I mean in the photo).

Glad to hear that the nut is now staying glued in place. It seems that the friction between the strings and nut was high enough when tuning up, to break the nut away. The strings need to slide through the nut slots when tuning. I'd look in the nut slots for any rough bits grabbing one or more strings, then carefully smooth them away. Applying graphite dust (lead pencil) in all the slots will also reduce friction. 

Final price reduction for Easter.

Could you confirm where this was made and its weight please? Cheers. 

That decal is really interesting. I cannot find another like it anywhere online or in my various books. It doesn't make sense to me that anyone would create a fake that was different to a genuine decal. 

3 hours ago, Owen said:

Isn't it weird how taste changes? When those were a thing and being sold new I would have said "eurgh, no thanks". Now I look at it and think "tasty".

Totally agree. I wouldn't have looked for one then or even now based on aesthetics alone.

Not knowing it was active, I was expecting it to sound like any other generic passive single muddy pup bass. However, once I'd heard its full, punchy growl and chatted to the player, GAS had me (again).

This is also the first time I've touched Sperzel machineheads. I think they're more of a thing for guitarists but they are brilliant! Took me a couple of minutes to work them out (instructions are for ignoring aren't they?) but they lock the strings into the post without any possibility of slipping. Downside is that the rear locking head/knob might get lost.

The New York bolt on neck range of guitars and this bass were introduced to compete in a lower priced marketplace. However, I think they had a distinctive cool 50s/60s retro look, in contrast to the more typical 90s designs of the higher priced set neck offerings.

59 minutes ago, Dov65 said:

There’s a matte black Ric in the for sale section….🤭. I read a while ago about using glue that’s used for bicycle inner tubes/puncture repair does the trick 🤷‍♂️

I would be wary of using a rubber glue to secure a nut as it may have a damping effect, I.e., reducing string vibration transmission through the nut to the neck. It might be less of an issue for instruments with a zero fret.

11 minutes ago, geofio said:

been playing Rics for 40 plus years never had a Nut come off ever.

Maybe, in an attempt to increase production output, the variable Rickenbacker quality control missed a few issues? 

3 hours ago, tvickey said:

Okay, I have a complaint about the 2023 4003 Rickenbackers (and maybe earlier versions too):  The nut keeps popping off!  This happens basically every time that I change the strings.  Is this a known issue?  Has anyone else encountered this?

 

The first time it popped off, I noticed some glue residue on the SIDE of the nut that faces the fretboard, in addition to the bottom of the nut that face the neck.  However, when I re-glued it I only used a small amount of CA glue on the BOTTOM of the nut.  That seemed to work well, or so I thought.  The next time I went to change the strings the nut popped off again! 

 

I've glued many a nut on my Warwicks (e.g., replacing plastic tedur with brass) and as far as I can recall I only had one pop off.

 

This evening I glued the nut back on the Ric but now with CA glue on both the BOTTOM and the SIDE.  Hopefully that does it... I also used slightly larger dabs of CA.  I'm supposed to hit the studio tomorrow with the bass(!).  Argh!

CA, or super glues are rather brittle in my experience. When I want a glue to really stick, permanently, I use a quality two part epoxy resin such as Araldite. 

8 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

Lovely. I always wanted to try one of the Milan basses. I have one of the very short lived Tony Iommi signature guitars from that era, based on the Vienna model, a fantastic thing. I managed to visit the facotry in Coventry around 1996, a dream factory, for sure. They knew what they were doing, so I'm sure that bass is superb.

 

Beautiful guitar. I hadn't realised the Tony Iommi signature models link between Patrick Eggle and John Diggins (Jaydee) until I received the 95/96 PEG catalogue with this bass. (There's a bolt on Milan bass for sale on ebay at the moment for what looks like a very reasonable price - not mine I hasten to add!). 

8 years ago I was smitten by a Patrick Eggle New York IV being played at a mate's birthday bash. I was so impressed by it's tone, compact attractive aesthetics and high quality build/hardware that I've been trying to get one since then.

The only example I knew of in my home town got sold before I was aware and went to Nottinghamshire a few years ago .

Anyhow, last week I spotted it on ebay and amazingly it's now back in Hertford . There's so little information on the Internet about this 1995/96 bass that I can't imagine too many were made or have survived?

Anyone else had or still own one?