KingBollock

Back in 1989 I was asked what my perfect bass would be. But the bass I described didn't exist at the time, not as I had described it. I believe BC Rich started making them in 1999 and stopped in 2009. I finally got mine in 2013.

I personally don't like it but I could see how someone could. The whole bass is quite dark, except for the headstock, and the cream pickup cover offers some balance. If you just want to see what a black one would look like, make a simple cover from some black card. Take a photo of it from a similar distance to the photo you posted and you can compare them side by side. Or even just photoshop that photo.

Diamanda Galas - Gloomy Sunday https://youtu.be/avXG4AVIZP8 Within Temptation - Jillian https://youtu.be/5vKyojR1LEI Sabaton - Wolfpack https://youtu.be/ZV-QF7VeSSA Cradle of Filth - Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids https://youtu.be/ltwJWQX9AVs

Steve Harris signature Fender P. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/296228-fender-steve-harris-signature-2012-stockholm-sweden/ I've been gassing for one of those for a few months now. I'm not sure why now, though. I was a huge Iron Maiden fan when I was a kid, and Steve Harris was one of the main reasons I took up bass, but I had never wanted to own his signature bass. I haven't been able to get into anything by Iron Maiden since Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, but now, after all these years, I want one.

All of them... A recent thread on BassChat got me to pick up the Penny Whistle again and the time of year demands that I go through Christmas songs. It could be said that I am a little rusty, well, I sound like an old rusty hinge... my wife looks like I have set about her fillings with some tin foil and a car battery. I think she'll be glad when it's all over for another year.

[quote name='Number6' timestamp='1481579768' post='3193506'] Aah the Torrington. Saw the Hamsters there a few times. Dumpys Rusty Nuts aswell i seem to remember. [/quote] I was trying to remember some of the bands that used to get mentioned a lot, and the only one I could remember as being particularly notorious was Dumpys Rusty Nuts.

I worked in a guitar shop in the (very) late eighties that had a very varied customer base, and there was always talk of support bands being stitched up by the headliners. It was just taken as being normal. Normally if a customer had been talking bollocks and was just bitter about something, someone in the shop would have piped up once the customer had left, but with the stitching up, everyone had experienced it themselves.

[quote name='ROConnell' timestamp='1481280203' post='3191125'] I've tried making a house track out of samples of kitchen drawers and cutlery noises, if that counts... [/quote] That reminds me! I started playing the spoons a couple of years ago, which is actually a lot of fun. For me anyway, not sure about people listening.

I got massively into Irish folk music going on twenty years ago, so I started learning a few things and still dabble with a couple of them. Five string banjo and the penny whistle I still love playing. I could never get the hang of the blues harp or the ocarina (I know it's not Irish, but I was intrigued after it was mentioned in a Robert Rankin novel). I wish I had kept up with the bodhran, but I worry too much about the amount of noise it makes. Actually I don't play any of the acoustic stuff nearly as much as I would like, simply because of the volume issue. One instrument I have always wanted to play is the glockenspiel or the xylophone, I loved playing them at school, but they're so bloomin' expensive. I've got a small bamboo one, but it's rubbish. I don't suppose any of them are particularly unusual.

My first proper amp, in around 1987/88, was a Laney Klipp, too. I blew it up, but that was just pure ignorance about tube amps on my part. My current guitar amp is an old Laney Linebacker 100R. I've had it for donkey's years, even used it for practising bass at home for a while. Other than having to have a lead between the effects loop out and the effects loop in, otherwise it tends to cut out, it works fine and I use it most days.

What? No Jo Bench? Obviously not a true fan of women bassists! And I'm sure you must have missed at least one other...

[quote name='CrackerJackLee' timestamp='1479650862' post='3178104'] And Canadians don't stand by while women get torn down by jealous men. We proved that in WWi and WWII. Canadians are not silent on justice. [/quote] So you're argument is that she can't be lying because she's a woman and only sexist men would accuse her? Do you believe that women are somehow mentally incapable of creative fabrication? That sounds rather sexist to me. Also, if you're going to play the role of Social Justice Warrior (something I have no problem with, if it's genuine), perhaps you should lay off the racism. The problem seems to be that you have no proof of a stance you hold very strongly, so your response is to attack in bizarre ways. As for your question as to why the OP started the thread, to someone that has only just come upon the story, it is quite interesting to learn about, and what better place to discuss it than a bass player's forum?

[quote name='theokbassman' timestamp='1478915686' post='3172744'] I have one of these bad boys. Lucite Body with a Bartolini active pickup. Active or passive. It's a Cort Greg Curbow 5 Plays awesome is not super heavy like the G&L L2500 and MIM 5 string Fender Jazz i had prior to it. [/quote] I adore those and I love that colour, too, and the fact that they use so little wood. One of the loveliest basses I ever saw was a piano white fretless one. I already have a Cort (T35) five string, I don't think my wife would understand the need to own another...

What are those pickups like? I have been considering getting some for my Warlock for a couple of years, just because I like the look of the bars instead of poles or blanks. I have read that the BC Rich own pickups aren't so good but I've never had a bass with decent enough pickups to compare (being £600 when they were new, and still being made, makes it by far my most expensive bass (though I bought it secondhand)). But having to get two sets is a bit of a pain in the pocket, especially as I've not actually heard them, and as I would also like to change the preamp. All really for the sake of tinkering. I keep telling myself that I'll definitely do it if I ever get into another band...

I only played in bands for a short time after I started playing bass. I started playing at 12, first proper (they were all much older than me and even had management) band at 13, last proper band at 18. I absolutely loved it. The last band was amazing, with very talented members who were some of the nicest blokes you could ever wish to meet. Unfortunately my personal life became too difficult and I had to leave town, which also meant leaving the band because I had no way to contact them (they had always contacted me and would pick me up to take me to rehearsals. They had just changed rehearsal space and I didn't know where it was) That was one of my biggest ever regrets, I absolutely believe that my life would have been very different if I had been able to keep going with them. But bass was a natural instrument for me, I still love playing it and have kept it up for all of those 23 bandless years. I would love to be in a band again, but not being in one will never stop me from paying.

My very favourite headstock is the BC Rich Widow. Pointy but symmetrical, with a pleasing, shapely buttock feel to it. Sort of like an evil bum. The Beast one is quite nice, too, but sans arse. I like pointyness and symmetry yet I prefer the Warlock body to the Widow body. My Warlock has the Widow headstock, best of both worlds. I can't stand the standard explorer shaped headstock, and most things with Hamer on them make me feel a bit ill.

I have talked about how much I regretted selling my first ever bass, a Westone Raider I, on BassChat as nauseam. I miss it so, so much. But, more recently, I have started regretting selling the second bass I ever owned. When I was sixteen I was given a Satellite P bass with a maple fretboard (I was originally going to buy it, but when he realised that it was going to someone that actually did play, he gave it to me for free). It played perfectly well and sounded fine. I don't suppose Satellite did a not quite so sh*tty line? Because the bloke that gave it to me was rather wealthy. It is still likely that he bought cheap to see if he would get into it (he didn't, which is how I ended up with it) but, like I say, there was nothing wrong with it. But, at the time, I couldn't imagine ever needing more than one bass so, a few months later, I sold it for £35. Anyway, the reason I have started regretting it is because I really fancy a Steve Harris signature bass (in blue) and that Satellite bass would have been ideal to convert. I wouldn't, in a million years, be able to justify buying a proper Harris signature bass, and I can't even afford a cheapo bass to convert. I had a look at those cheap kits, which I think would be loads of fun to do (and probably end up Trigger's brooming it), but I can't find one with a maple fretboard.

It is a cynical, nasty way to go about business. It's something that should be talked about and threads like this are important and would be even better if spread over Facebook and other popular social media. Seeing a conversation like this might encourage someone who is not so internet savvy to learn the skills needed to not get ripped off.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1476455192' post='3154501'] You may find you have to compromise. [/quote] Yeah, I should buy a rig small enough to carry on my bicycle!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1476452185' post='3154456'] I'm always slightly suspicious of musicians who say they can't find a suitable band or other musicians for them to play with. Unless you live out in the middle of nowhere it should be fairly straight forward? Certainly from my perspective, as a bassist of below average ability, who has very strict rules about what types of music I want to play and who lives in a place that while being a decent size has never really had a serious music scene of the likes of Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc. I have never had a problem finding bands or other musicians who want to play music that I like to standard worth bothering with and then get out and gig. [/quote] I must admit to struggling to find a symphonic, blackened death metal band in deepest, darkest Wales. Especially as I don't drive.

I was going to suggest the same as BassBunny, put a selector switch in the spare hole. Or... I have got a couple of basses that have the battery in the control cavity and it is indeed a pain in the bum. I am hoping, one day, to get around to replacing the covers with nice ones made of light steel with an ebony veneer. Then, instead of screws, I want to put little neodymium magnets where the screw holes are, which will hold the cover in place, which will be easy to remove to get at the battery. And they'll look nicer than cheap plastic.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1475570487' post='3146915'] But what else was there in the late 70s/early 80s when these were new? The only place I saw Ampeg rigs was on stage with bands who had a record contract. My local music shop in the 70s was an Acoustic amps dealer but the only person I ever saw saw using one was the bass player who worked there. For the rest of us HH and Carlsbro were pretty much the only real choices, and based on personal experience I'd have picked a Carlsbro amp every time. It was certainly way better than the no-name generic 100W transistor head I was using back then. [/quote] I believe my Laney Klipp was a sixties/seventies amp, though I got mine in 1988. It blew up (because I had no clue about tube amps), which is why I ended up with a Carlsboro Stingray which, other than having to replace the bridge rectifier, worked fine. It was just a toneless box of nothing and I hated it.

Over the last few months I have started gassing for a blue Steve Harris signature. So, one of them.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1475234057' post='3144229'] None of those really apply to my situation, or in a way bits of all of them do. Let me explain - this might be quite a long post... [/quote] I know what it's like to lack support for just about everything. I was lucky that I developed an interest that fitted an idea my dad had. He liked the idea of a musical family, which is why he bought instruments, he also liked the idea of a family that had books. He filled the house with books, but never read them, and I got the piss taken out of me for reading a lot... I was the first person in our family ever to go to college. Which he didn't like because I should have been going to work (though I had left school early and worked until the day I was officially supposed to leave school). He was far prouder of my brother who became quite an accomplished thief. My dad romanticised and was far too proud of his own nefarious background, including prison (well, he claimed to have gone to prison but I never knew whether to believe it or not), to ever have the kind of family he thought he wanted. People think I am cold or odd because I don't put much stock in family for family sake.

My parents listened to music, old 60s and 70s stuff and the top 40 on Sunday's. I used to spend hours listening to records with my mum. Somewhere around the early eighties, my dad, for some unknown reason, bought a nylon stringed guitar, that no one showed any interest in, other than me, and that only a little. He also bought himself quite an expensive harmonica, but never played it. Then, one day, when I was twelve, my dad decided that he wanted to manage a band and that his four sons would be that band. I desperately wanted a radio controlled monster truck (I still do...) but it was decided that I was to learn to play drums. I wasn't going to let him have it all his own way and, being a motorhead and Iron Maiden fan, I though bass would suit me better. My dad was actually quite pleased, because he hadn't thought of about bass. He paid for a few lessons, but he did a deal to get them as cheap as possible. So, once a week, for a few weeks, my brothers and I went to the teacher's house and I played walking bass lines, that I had learned at home from a book (he told me that my timing was natural and spot on. Which was nice), while he taught my brothers to play stuff over the top for half an hour. My brother Steven was a natural on guitar, but drugs and mental illness got the better of him and he didn't keep it up, which really was a shame. The other two were rubbish and soon gave it up. I actually own that nylon stringed guitar that my dad bought, and I still play it.