chriswareham

That Hondo is identical to mine. As Jon says, they were clearly a budget instrument but with a good setup they are surprisingly decent. The pickups are particularly good, and another member of Basschat transplanted the electrics from a Hondo into a modern Rick copy. The Hondo Rick copy in this colour was also Peter Hook's main bass throughout most of the time Joy Division existed, although in his autobiography he says it wasn't a great bass - the first gig he played with it the E string kept popping out of the nut!

Not sure which one qualifies as worst: 1) Fell off stage at the Moonlight Club, West Hampstead - my first gig in London, over excited at being the same stage that had once been graced by Joy Division. 2) Going into a catatonic state for an entire chorus thanks to a strobe light. I black out whenever I'm exposed to fast strobes, and then I get an appalling migraine roughly an hour later. 3) Knocking a sequencer off stage in Liverpool. Thankfully the drummer didn't miss a beat, despite the sudden loss of his click track, and the on stage sound was so appalling that none of the other band members noticed the absence of keyboard parts. 4) Watching from the side of the stage when some tit in a support band managed to careen into my Ampeg stack and knock it over. Thankfully it was a solid state SVT 350 head and it still worked, albeit with a few dents. 5) And finally, a gig in my college days where the singer had taken LSD. He just about managed the original songs, but his rendition of Rock Lobster was ... odd.

I tried one of those, and it was frankly awful. Tracking was all over the place, even on a bass with light gauge strings and a high action - which is what you'll need, since the slightest mix of notes or harmonics will confuse the hell out of this kind of device. You also need near superhuman accuracy to ensure you play in a staccato fashion to prevent notes overlapping. I was suckered into thinking this might be something that could be used live, but I think most people would struggle to get a clean take with one in the studio!

I use a Novation Super Bass Station (rack mounted module) and an obscure thing called a Firstman SQ-01, which has a built in sequencer. I have used them in the past along with bass guitar, but more often on completely electronic tracks where both modules are often playing different bass parts simulataneously. Some of my electronic stuff is up on [url="https://soundcloud.com/namesinmarble"]Soundcloud[/url]. I've always loved the way that New Order combined synth bass and bass guitar, as well as various industrial rock bands that also did interesting things along these lines. In particular, Stabbing Westward whose songs featured excellent bass guitar and synth parts.

Have a look on eBay for a good condition Boss DR550. Cheap, with good presets, but also programmable and it's very intuitive unlike the Alexis SR-16.

The skill of the guy with the band saw is amazing. In the comments on YouTube, someone says that their parents are in the video and that he thinks there is more footage of a similar nature. Would love to see that as well, particularly if it shows basses being made!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1409780501' post='2543403'] [i]Only musicians with video submissions will be considered. Thank you.[/i] Sounds like code for [i]"Are you cool enough to be in our band?"[/i] There are other ways to screen for the cool factor if that's important to a band. [/quote] My interpretation of that part was that they'd like to see you playing, not that they'd necessarily be looking how "cool" you are. After all a band doing rock, pop and country aren't exactly going to be looking for a boy band member.

Worst bass I've played was a Marlin from a mail order catalogue. It was a loaner from a friend, weighed a ton, tree trunk neck, high action and rusty strings.

Worst bass I owned was a Korean(?) made Aria with pointy headstock. Eventually snapped the neck, and as I dismantled the body for the hardware I discovered it was made from chipboard with a thick plasticky coating on it.

I used to use the heaviest four strings from a Power Slinky five string set for a drop tuned C. The tension was great, and I'm sure it would handle C without the drop tuning.

Quite a nice looking Jazz copy by Avon / Rose Morris: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251603124044 Neck looks straight (I wish all eBay listings would include a good neck shot that shows the frets are parallel) and I suspect it wouldn't take much to remove the light corrosion on the metal work.

Ayse Hassan from The Savages (my current favourite band).

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1406580844' post='2512784'] Yep I totally get you and like I said im contradicting myself too as a five string player rather than drop tuning, but I can also see/hear when the flappy E sounds killer, queens of the stone age as mentioned earlier for example. [/quote] If you want to drop tune and not have the E string go flappy, then I can recommend Circle K strings. Took me a few minutes to get my head around the table of string guages on the on the Circle K website, but they make strings for all manner of tunings that maintain an even tension across the set.

The one I least regret selling is a 5 string Squier Precision. A good instrument, but I quickly realised that drop tuning a 4 string was much better for what I do. The one I regret selling is an Aria semi-acoustic. Not sure of the model, but a band I auditioned for said I should use something more "metal" so I foolishly traded it to get a Squier Jazz.

Probably "inherited" it from Glen Matlock, who was allegedly inspired to get a Rick because he was a big fan of Paul McCartney.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1406124315' post='2508554'] I have - they totally screwed my prosebass - the box looked like it had been machine gunned and they managed to smash the nut off despite it being more heavily packed then you describe Not their fault of course so no payout ... [/quote] Same experience here with Parcelforce. Sent a very well packaged bass away for some work, but it arrived at the luthier severely damaged with signs of both impact and pressure damage.

[quote name='Number6' timestamp='1406162326' post='2509002'] All of the above are great for identifying the bass if it does get pinched but are they a deterrent as the OP states? Are there any real deterrents for an opportunist thief? [/quote] I think Linear's stream of urine approach has the added benefit of being a deterrent.

[quote name='wotsy' timestamp='1406215593' post='2509415'] It says hac 54 on the plate, not sure what that's about. [/quote] Says "Built by Brian Eastwood". I had mistakenly assumed they were built by Chris Eccleshall, the guy responsible for Hooky's black semi-acoustic bass.

[quote name='theyellowcar' timestamp='1406114405' post='2508414'] I've use Parcelforce to ship a bass without any problems before. It cost about £20 insured. [/quote] It wasn't insured. Check the small print, and you'll find that Parcelfarce wont honour claims for musical instruments. They'll still sell you the insurance though, and wont refund it. EDIT: hadn't read on to see that ambient had already said the same thing ...

"There is no moral obligation and I haven't broken any ebay rules, I sent a 'cancel sale' request via ebay (why would they give you this option if it was against their rules??)" There's a legal obligation - you are breaking a contract. The cancel sale request is supposed to be for items that are lost or broken.

That's the [url="http://cheesyguitars.com/tonika_bass.html"]first electric bass made in the Soviet Union[/url]. A quote from elsewhere on that site describes the Tonika: [quote]What they've made is an unplayable super-heavy guitar with sick body shape, thickest neck you'll ever find and sound suitable for anything but music.[/quote] It all suggests that the best it's good for is hanging on the wall as a conversation piece.

You could make the payment via PayPal, and then insist he concludes the deal.

I was under the impression that Pino was already well known and admired as a session player at this point, although the Paul Young stuff is what projected him into the big time. Would love to have heard Mick Karn playing on Music For Chameleons, as I always find his playing to be more "liquid" sounding than anyone else in that style. I'm not actually a fan of fretless playing in general, but absolutely love both Japan and Karn's collaboration with Pete Murphy of Bauhaus (Dali's Car).

Numan rates this as one of two low points in his career (the other being the Machine + Soul era). He subsequently stated that he wanted to compensate for his lack of confidence in his own technical abilities by getting in great session players, but that the result wasn't very satisfying. Personally, I love the "Music For Chameleons" single from this era, but find the rest of the "I Assassin" album to be a turgid mess.

His music is not something that's normally my cup of tea, but the OGWT performance of Jumpin Jack Flash is phenomenal. Great musicianship and showmanship.