chriswareham

I play a short scale semi-acoustic bass and have gigged with it on rare occasions. The only reason I don't gig it more is that it's very fragile and I can't find a case to fit it properly. I used to own a Gretsch Electromatic, which is a beautiful short scale bass for not a lot of money. It had a great "boingy" tone, and I still regret selling it. So in summary, I'd thoroughly recommend you enjoy being a little bit different, and if a six foot four bloke who looks like Lurch from the Munsters can get appreciative comments for how he looks with a short scale then I'm damn sure you can!

Still don't know what Santa has brought me, but the wife and I had an agreement that we'd not buy presents worth more than £20 for each other. Did buy myself a Kay Rickenfaker bass though ...

At the tail end of the 1990's I played in a band supporting Christian Death, who had a big underground following back in the 1980's. During our soundcheck I was absent mindedly playing the bassline to This Is Heresy, their highest charting song (banned by the BBC for blasphemous content no less). The singer came up to the front of the stage and in an incredibly whiny voice told me I shouldn't play his song. Later in the evening I inadvertently urinated in his make up box (honestly, it was an accident) and our chance of a full supporting tour completely disappeared when almost all the audience left after we'd played since they were there to us rather than Christian Death ...

Can't see the linked video on this device, but if it's key changes you're after rather than key(board)s then check out The Cardiacs. They invented what has been termed "prog-punk" or "pronk", amazingly fun music with a degree of complexity that's astounding but secondary to how good it sounds. Sadly their front man Tim Smith has been in ill health, and it's possible that he won't be able to play guitar again.

I guess that my home town was quite lucky, since we had a decent selection of bass guitars in nearby Kingfisher Music. Not sure if they've downsized lately, as they moved premises a while ago. The problem was the staff though - the older guys tend to be utterly miserable and the younger ones think they're better than you just because they work in a music shop. As an example, I asked about Speakon cables and the spotty assistant sneeringly told me that they were a waste of time as he didn't use them with his GK rig. I told him I didn't give a rats toss what he used or what he thought and that he'd lost a sale as I had intended to buy a practice amp and Alesis drum machine as well as the cables.

[quote name='Guinness21' timestamp='1387123964' post='2308408'] The b3k and lomenzo are on my gas list! What are they like in comparison? [/quote] Not sure about the Lomenzo, but I tried a lot of overdrive and distortion pedals before settling on the Darkglass. It's quite fliexible, but excels at the harsher end of distortion sounds. What I particularly like about it is that it doesn't have much sustain, which is what I need for the fast and riffy detuned metal that I use it on. I'd go as far as saying that is sounds "gated", and it doesn't blur the attack of each note.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1387141583' post='2308705'] I had the Micro Rack Reverb. It was pretty poor. [/quote] I love mine. I use it across the mix when I'm writing stuff, and also use it for things like gated reverbs on individual instruments when recording demos. Certainly not professional quality, but far more flexible than the awful preset Alesis stuff that was around at the same time.

[quote name='steviedee' timestamp='1387103475' post='2308157'] A lot of original house innovators quite liked prog rock and kraut rock as well [/quote] Many were former punks, applying the same ethos to synthesisers and drum machines. For example my all time favourite house track, Jesus Loves The Acid, was by a former punk musician. Some of the proggie folk seem to have been quite influential in what became the trance music scene though, which if you think about it makes a lot more sense!

Circle K strings (http://www.circlekstrings.com/) are probably your best bet to get that low. I play a four string in drop A♯, for which I use the heaviest four strings from a five string set. That works OK, but I could do with a bit more tension in the detuned B string, which is exactly what the Circle K strings are intended for as they provide an even tension across all the strings.

Always been a bit bemused by the "clubs" on Bass Talk and similar forums. It just seems to be an attempt at elitism that's only one step away from the snobbery of the awful Rick Resource forum. Which reminds me of something I find a bit ironic - one of the best websites for Rickenfaker fans is the "spotting a faker" one run by a Rick fanatic who hates anything but Mr Hall's often iffy originals.

My first bass was a loaned Marlin Precision copy, the kind you would find in your Mum's mail order catalogue back in the 1980's. Awful action that no amount of fiddling with bridge and truss rod would fix, nowadays I'd get the neck joint shimmed. The width and depth of the neck made it feel like the proverbial tree trunk as well. Then had a bottom of the range Aria, with naff pointy headstock. When I broke the neck I took the electronics from the body, and discovered it was chipboard with some plastic coating on top. Not owned a bad bass since thankfully, even had a few surprises such as my Hondo II Rick copy that I only bought because Hooky had one. Expected it to be crap, but after a setup at the Gallery it plays really well.

London Dungeon - The Misfits, two bands I've been in have covered this Run To You - Bryan Adams, slowed down to a dirge like pace and switching to Type O Negative's I Know You're F*cking Someone Else for the last chorus In Her Nirvana - Death in June, scares the beejezus out of people, particularly the weird repetitive sound in the intro that we did with a delay pedal that had an infinite repeat mode

Weren't Gang Star the first hip hop outfit to play Reading festival back in the early 1990s? I saw them there, but they made the mistake of saying they were in the country to "bang the hos". Cue a barrage of bottles and other debris...

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1386324645' post='2298699'] It needs the pickup replaced with a single coil Tele style pickup set off centre in the hole, so you can see the wires [/quote] I think I know a former microlight pilot who could sort it out.

My brother has all of my Dad's old vinyl. It contains most of the 1970s output of Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis and a few other prog outfits. The earlier stuff includes the first albums by the Stones, Who and Beatles, although most of his 7" vinyl from that era got left at parties, which is a shame. The odd thing is that my Dad gave up listening to music almost entirely in the late 1970s, as his record collection pretty much stops in 1979. Made me worry when I was younger that maybe it was normal to lose interest in music. Hasn't happened yet though :-)

One of those was my gigging amp for most of the 1990s. Coupled with a Peavey 1820 cab it was the mutts nuts. At least it was until the guitarists from my band accidentally dropped it down a flight of stairs at Nottingham Rock City :-(

Roland TR-77 analogue drum machine (with MIDI retrofit) Roland Jupiter JP-4 analogue synthesiser (with MIDI retrofit) Oberheim OB-X analogue synthesiser (with MIDI retrofit) ARP Omni II string synthesiser Solina String Ensemble string synthesiser Powertran Transcendent 2000 analogue synthesiser Synare 3 analogue drum synthesiser clone Coron DS8 analogue drum synthesiser clone Novation Super Bass Station analogue synthesiser module Novation Drum Station digital / analogue drum module Roland MC-50 sequencer (with HxC floppy drive emulator) (the x0xb0x has since been sold) Tascam eight track digital recorder Boss DR-55 drum machine Musicaid Clap Trap Frontline X-8 stereo mixer Frontline X-4 analogue effects Behringer mixer (about to be replaced by a Mackie with more channels) Demeter Compulator compressor pedal Darkglass B3K distortion pedal Electro Harmonix Clone Theory chorus pedal Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger pedal (now powered by a Voodoo Labs PSU, including the EH pedals which have been converted to run from DC) Melos Echo Chamber tape echo Melos DE-1 analogue echo Not Pictured: Hondo II bass guitar (Rickenbacker copy) Musicman Stingray Stealth Eko semi-acoustic bass Ampeg SVT CL with 410 and 115 cabs Hammond Organ (Japanese made transistor one, not an American made tonewheel one unfortunately) Hohner K2 String Vox keyboard Movement Sequence Memory Rhythm analogue drum machine Dynacord EC 280 analogue chorus, echo and reverb Melos Mini Fazer phaser pedal Melos Mini Comp compressor pedal

I only lend if it's by prior arrangement and the band sound professional. I've had too many bad experiences to lend to just anyone, including a bloiwn Ampeg SVT CL thanks to a bloke who used my amp without even asking. When told that he would be paying for the damage he whined that he was on the dole. Ever since I've taken the fuse out of my amp when not in use - just removing the kettle lead is not enough, as there's normally a spare that a determined amp ponce can rustle up.

Actually owned this for a couple of months, but I was under the impression that Rickenfakers were off limits. Rereading the moderator posts, I understand it's just the selling of real or fake Ricks that's verboten. So, seeing as I definitely wont be parting with this, here's my latest acquisition: It's a Czech made Jolana bass from the mid 1980s. The model name was "D Bass", which would have originally been engraved on the truss rod cover. Sadly someone has "anonymised" this one with a TRC made from what looks and smells like a piece of plastic from the lid of a fertiliser container! The bridge strap lock unscrews to reveal a screwdriver that can be used to completely disassemble the bass - quite a neat touch, and something that appears to have been standard for Jolana guitars. The neck is through body, and sadly the truss rod seems to be beyond adjustment, so the bass is currently having a new truss rod fitted along with replacement black-white-black three ply pickguard and truss rod cover. The pickups have separate tone and volume controls with a three way selector switch, and the pickup poles can be adjusted with the screwdriver. The neck is moderately wide, but very shallow. Despite the high action from the duff truss rod, I found it very comfy to play. The nut is aluminium, which is something I'd not seen before. If the neck will take it, then it's going to be strung for drop Bb with the heaviest four strings from a five string set, allowing it to be my main gigging bass. So I'm wondering, have any other Basschatters owned one of these?

I've been in touch with Jaime at the Creamery, and he's come across as very professional. He's going to be either reconditioning the existing pickups or making replacements in the same style for a Jolana D Bass: It's a thirty year old Czech made Rickenfaker, currently having a new truss rod fitted by Jack's Instrument Services.

[quote name='spongebob' timestamp='1385056567' post='2283982'] I agree with JH about not producing a budget line. A Ric is a Ric [/quote] I think a major reason RIC wont produce a budget bass is that they don't have much they differentiate it on from the current, full price range. The last real Rick 4003 I played, in Barnets' Soundgarden earlier this year, looked cheap and had a neck that felt almost unplayable. I don't think it was the proportions of the neck and unfamiliarity that made it uncomfortable either, since I alternate between a Stingray with its widish neck and a medium scale Eko with a very narrow neck, I just think the Rick was badly made. This repeated my previous experiences with new Ricks, and I plumped for a copy instead since I still love the look but can't justify more than a couple of hundred quid on a bass bought for aesthetic reasons alone.

I think it's down to people thinking they know how to get a bargain. I just sold my last mobile phone on EBay, having decided to take the upgrade from my phone company. I checked the price the same model was listed for, and put it up for about ten percent less for a quick sale. Days after it sold, I'm still getting messages from numpties who had been watching it offering half the Buy It Now price by EBay message.

"The sound man's hungover from last night, so no soundcheck. Oh, and someone stole all the DI boxes while he was wasted last night so your drum machine is going to sound sh*t." A certain venue in London named after a colourful sea reptile. The night got worse as the first band on deliberately overran, the headline band turned up after the doors opened - minus any back line - and my band had the plug pulled on us without warning as our slot was cut short to allow the headliners to play a full set, even though the largest part of the audience was our fans.

John Hall and his acolytes seem to be slacking, as I've seen several Rick copies run to the completion of their auctions on eBay recently. This has been UK auctions, so maybe someone at eBay has finally wised up to them not being in violation of trading laws for private sellers ...

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1384447754' post='2276855'] Your dad looks a bit like Ross Kemp, and that photo is crying out to be used in a caption competition .[/quote]Could be worse. My Dad looks like Regan from the Sweeney and has no interests in common with me, in fact I'd go as far as saying he despises musicians :-(