My main bass, my Fireglo ‘72 Rick. Sometime in ‘92 I went with my then girlfriend to Manchester, and as usual We went in A1 Music for a browse. They had an old-looking Rick in, crushed pearl inlays, chequered binding, neck toaster, walnut headstock wings, no skunk stripe etc. At the time I knew a lot less about them than I do now - pre-internet! - and I thought it was maybe a late ‘60s one (it’s actually Feb ‘72). Obviously I love Rics; my first bass was a Ric, and the bass I was playing at the time was an Azure ‘76. So I picked it up and plugged it in and my head exploded. I loved the neck, which felt wider and flatter than all the others I’d owned/played, and the sound was unreal, everything I’d heard in my head. It was, by a vast margin, my favourite bass that I’d ever played. It was on the wall for £680. Unfortunately I didn’t have any money at the time so went away thinking “well that was the best bass I’m ever likely to play, what a shame I’ll never own it”.
A year later I’d been saving up for a new amp and took a trip to A1 with a friend, this time bringing my ‘76 along for testing the amps. I walked in and the ‘72 was still on the wall, rather incredibly on sale for £490. I plugged it in next to my ‘76, expecting my previous experience to have all been in my head. Nope. It was absolute night and day, so I put the deposit on it there and then and went back a week later to pick it up. I still have it, it’s still my favourite bass that I’ve ever played (many thousands of basses later), and it’s worth a rather large amount more than I paid. But I wouldn’t swap it for a genuine ‘59 Les Paul. It’s more like one of my limbs than a bass guitar.
I later sold my ‘76 and subsequently spent 17 or so years tracking down a ‘72 in Azure, the other bass in the picture.