4000

They were indeed, however the bridges on the Customs are mostly black.

I found my ‘One’ in 1993. It can exist. Wasn’t looking for it, didn’t expect anything of it when I picked it up and plugged it in.......and then my head exploded. Thing is, at the time I couldn’t even afford to buy it, so I was resigned to never having it. A year later I walked in the same shop having saved up for a new amp, and there it was on the wall, still there, and what’s more it was on sale. So I bought it. I’ve had many, many other basses before & since and enjoy the journey of buying new instruments a great deal, but nothing else has ever come close. I think there’s a danger in obsessing over the things you think you want, and another in thinking because you’ve tried/bought quite a few different instruments, one of them should surely be right? It doesn’t tend to work like that, although of course everyone is different. I spent a good deal of the past 40 years playing every instrument I could get my hands on, literally thousands of instruments. And I only found The One once.

We’re the same in that her money is free to do with as she chooses, she’d just sooner mine wasn’t spent on basses. 😂 I was in a guitar shop a few years back and the salesman was telling me about a regular customer who started out with a Squier Strat in a particular finish. After a while he upgraded to a Mexican in the same finish. Some time after, it was a US, same finish, and so on. When asked why it was always the same finish, he said “so the wife can’t tell”.😂

My missus hates me buying instruments as she thinks they clutter the place and are money that could have been spent elsewhere. Like many here I imagine, this has always made me wary of the new purchase, particularly since I’m now down to three electric basses, 2 Rics and a replica. This makes any non-Ric purchase a bit obvious, or so I thought. So I was somewhat amused recently when I showed her a picture of a bass in the For Sale section (Hellzero’s W&T Zoid, a very visually unusual and distinctive instrument) saying how I’d really like one (sadly can’t currently afford it). She responded saying “haven’t you already got one of those?” Puzzled, I replied no, I hadn’t got anything like that. Then the penny dropped. The Zoid has a natural maple top. My Ric replica is natural maple. Apparently, that makes them the same. So all I have to do is make sure I get another bass in the same finish as one I already have and I’m ok. 😉

Looks like the Cort bug has certainly bitten recently.🙂

Well I’ve only just stumbled across this thread. Fantastic! To be honest, having owned 2 Wals (one of which had a non-level fingerboard fitted from birth), I’d say you seem to be taking even more care than the ‘original’ Wal (i.e. Wal & Fish) did. One thing I’ve noticed with some busy luthiers - even the best ones - doing loads of repairs is sometimes they don’t (or can’t, due to timescales and workload) go that extra mile, which you appear to be doing.

Yep, means absolutely nothing to me.😂

And I still don’t know what it is..... 😂 EDIT - Googled it, but am not really the wiser as I have no idea what it means...

That makes sense, thanks for the response.

Yep. The way I always think of it is like this; the tension of the strings pulls the neck forward, thus creating more relief. Tightening the rod counteracts the pull of the strings, creating less relief. If there is insufficient relief, e.g. backbow, you would need to slacken the truss rod to add more relief. Just make sure you know which way your rods go, as it’s not always righty-tighty, left-loosey, even if that’s the case 99% of the time.😉

Care to elaborate?

The V2 Ric bridge seems to be going for around £259 in the UK. I’m not really sure I see the point of the Babicz being fitted to a tailpiece that could potentially suffer from tail lift, tbh, although if it fits the earlier aluminium tailpiece it could be useful. The V2 has a block that screws to the body that the strings go through, which will eliminate that; it has full intonation adjustment and roller saddles enabling you to alter string spacing.

Truss rod adjustment, not saddles. If the neck settles back the first thing you’ll notice is buzz at the nut end, which will be more obvious if your nut is very low. It sounds obvious, but your bridge is extremely unlikely to have suddenly moved across all your instruments. Any time there is any movement like that, the truss rod is the first place you should look. With regards to the action, if the neck has backbowed a bit the action is likely to have dropped a fraction; putting relief back in should just take it back to where it was before, as long as you don’t overdo it. Two other things; if it’s colder the neck will likely tend towards backbow, and the rod does most of its work in the first 2/3 or so of the neck. Ok, that’s weird! Sorry for the kind-of double post.

Truss rod adjustment, not saddles or nut. If the neck settles back the first thing you’ll notice is buzz at the nut end.

I think if you really analyse them, the tempo of most tracks that weren’t recorded with a click probably wandered to a degree. The fact that it’s mostly irrelevant probably speaks volumes.

We produce ourselves. Regardless of any other considerations, we can’t afford a producer. In fact this last year year we can’t afford anything as we’ve made precisely nothing. And yes, the clock was a serious consideration in letting the aforementioned issues slide.

You seriously underestimate how anal I am. 😂 And actually I’m in charge, when it comes down to it, but I have occasionally allowed for other opinions, as you should.The performances are perfectly acceptable to any normal person, and I understand that; they’re not actually wrong. They’re just not quite acceptable to me. I’ve recorded in many pro studios and have a habit of driving engineers a bit nuts because I’m more finicky than they are. For the most part I’ve had better ears too, which is a bit of a double-edged sword.

Just out of interest, if the fingerboard had fancy inlays, would you be better heating the tool that separates the fretboard rather than using an iron to heat the fretboard itself? For instance I seem to remember Roger Bucknall of Fylde guitars once telling me that the old Rickenbacker crushed pearl inlays (pre-73) explode when heated. I’ve never tried, just in case. 😂

Brilliant and fascinating. Well done that man!

Having been crippled by a slab body previously, I’m pretty glad to see it isn’t. 😉

Liking that butterscotch D5. Very nice.

I once had a Trace Elliot V type 4x8 combo. It was punchy (and weighed a ton) but is comfortably outperformed by my 2 x Barefaced One10s, which together weigh considerably less than half as much. Which doesn’t help you any at all. Sorry. 😁

One of the best finishes on anything, ever.

I love the Ray 34PB in flat black. In fact if I do buy a Ray, I’m pretty sure that’s the one I’ll buy. I also love the sparkle finishes, but I’d never pay anything like the new prices for one.

Because Bongos seem to be a lot less popular.😂