chriswareham

Hi Roger! I think you bought my Rockinbetter from eBay - certainly think so from your username and post. I guess your preference for a real Rick just goes to show how subjective bass guitars can be - I found the real thing to have a really awful neck and much preferred the width of the one on the copy. The Rockinbetter's also much bigger and heavier than a real Rick, but I'm six foot four tall so that may explain my preference for something little more substantial. I did have to take the bridge pickup cover off as it got in the way of where I typically play with a pick. Chris

How on earth do people actually play those six and seven string monsters? I've got big hands (and you know what they say about men with big hands[1]), but no way could I see myself playing that width of neck in comfort or with a decent technique. [1] they take a large size in gloves

Didn't he play a copy of one of the instruments made THEY WHO SHALL JOT BE MENTIONED? Personally, I always associated him with those Matsumoko made neck through body basses (Aria branded I think).

Just sold my Rockinbetter on eBay to maintain my three bass rule, and the guy that bought it 'fessed up to owning 136 guitars!!! I suspect he's a forum member, seemed well clued up on the Rickenfaker legal shenanigans with RIC.

I think the string tree thingies are original, as I'm pretty sure the one I used had them. The headstock actually looks well proportioned when you see one of these "in the flesh", particularly since the body is a hefty slab of wood. They also have some weird kind of stereo output which I seem to recall splits the pick up output so you could have something like chorus on just the top two strings.

Had one of these in white as a loaner back when I was at college. Chunky neck and great sound from what I remember.

No way I could part with my Eko semi-acoustic. Bought for me by my parents as a 21st birthday present, and played regularly ever since. The body developed a nasty split a couple of years back but the guys at the Gallery did a great job restoring it. I think it was an early example of the Brandoni built Eko guitars, sold in Macaris on Charing Cross Road while I ewas a student at nearby London University.

That was the trouble with FM synthesis - it was so much a science rather than an artistically appealing way of programming sounds. As a result most people used the same handful of presets, and the sample based synths of the late 80s only made it worse (the likes of the Korg M1 for instance). At least nowadays there's plenty of patch libraries out there so even though most DAW users never program a patch, they can at least choose from a wider selection of sounds

The Korg MS-20 was 1970s vintage, and coincidently I swapped a Roland MC-202 for my first bass guitar. By the late 1980s horrible FM synthesis bass sounds were the staple of pop records, but on the plus side analogue synth fans like me could pick up great instruments dirt cheap (Yamaha CS-40m, Korg Mono/Poly and the 202 in my case).

[quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1378754964' post='2204341'] It's become quite popular to complain about later.., but it's still the only show I know of on mainstream TV where you can watch a woman with 4 synths and a third eye painted on her head sing dream pop over programmed drum loops, and then watch a bluesgrass orchestra play a traditional American folk song. There's still loads of small slightly off-kilter acts on, they just don't advertise them in the press releases because, well, why would they? They had a poet on last series for christ sakes, how much more unusual do you want for a music show? Maybe he'll have a mime on this series. [/quote]Hey, you're talking about the time they had Grimes on there! I'm not a big fan of her stuff, but it says something about how smug and bland Later... is that she's the most exciting thing I've seen on there. Funnily enough, the Grauniad ran a piece on The Tube the other day. It as fronted by Jools Holland amongst others, and was simply the best music TV show I've ever seen. Anarchic and chaotic, with a long enough show each week to feature some long established acts as well as a huge amount of small or even unsigned ones. A personal favourite was seeing Play Dead on there, as well as Killing Joke, Lords of the New Church (including a full frontal nude shot of Stiv Bators - live TV at its best) and The Damned doing a jaw dropping rendition of Eloise.

Westones were everywhere in the late 1980s, the nice ones with the brass hardware and earlier logo seemed to have fallen out of favour with the more well heeled players and could be picked up relatively cheap. There were also the cheaper Westone Thunders and Thunderjets with the later logo as well. Sounded great, and had nice necks but often got badly treated and ended up being binned. Much better than the catalogue Marlin Precision copies that most of my schoolfriend bass players had, or the chipboard body Aria that I started out with.

That's just insanely overpriced. A decent clone could be knocked up by any half competent soldering iron wielder in an afternoon.

Don't think it's a Rockinbetter, as the headstock doesn't look quite right and I don't think they did them in anything other than red, black and natural. Looks like one of the Chinese copies from the trading websites in the far East, although it probably shares a number of components with other copies.

Played one that belonged to a session player from Sweden. It felt well made and had a moderately slim neck that was very nice to play, despite being strung with the heaviest four strings from a 5 string Power Slinky set (it was tuned to drop C).

I've had my SVT fail twice at gigs. First time was OK, since there was a DI between my bass and the amp, and I put it down to the notoriously lousy power at a certain venue in Camden. Second time was in Stoke on Trent, ridiculously hot stage, and the Ampeg overheated. No DI so the sound guy had to frantically set one up. The amp was fine the next night, apart from a "ticking" sound that the repair guy I took it to couldn't sort out ...

A Lord of the Rings themed bass? Now you're Tolkien.

Rule of thumb - if something's for sale in Macaris then you can find it much cheaper elsewhere. They were trying to flog a solid state echo, one of those that were sold under various names like Melos and Stage, for about four times what they sell for on eBay. They also had a tatty Melos tape echo that they wanted over twice what they go for online.

Surprised to hear that some people have had bad experiences at The Gallery. I've been going there for just over ten years, having bought two Stingrays from them along with several Ampeg cabs. They've also serviced my Ampeg head, restored my semi acoustic and done setups on all my basses. Always found them pleasant and helpful, with good prices (for example, a full setup is half what my nearest music shop charges). Disappointed that the cat now lives at Martins home now - it always amused me to see him sleeping amongst the guitars in the window on sunny days! Compare that to Denmark Street where everything is still overpriced and service quality is still based on how large the staff guess your wallet is. At least if Wunjos have taken over the bass shop the obnoxious staff there are hopefully seeking employment elsewhere - last time I was in there one of the staff got all sneery because I asked if they had the Behringer BDI pedal...

[quote name='martthebass' timestamp='1378467922' post='2200729'] Shadow Play Joy Division.......I miss those old tunes [/quote] One of the first things I worked out by ear! Eventually got to the point where I could play just about everything JD ever did, even doing a cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart with a drum machine and my brother on vocals.

Two years for my first Stingray, which was a two band EQ model with black body and maple fretboard. Then I had a contract job where the employer didn't pay me the last month - took her to the small claims court and won, but I had to sell my bass to pay the mortgage in the meantime. Made do with a surprisingly good Squire Jazz, until I bought another Stingray with the money my grandfather left me when passed away in 2002.

The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. I'm not a fan, but it was the first exercise in the learn to play book I had.

As a few others have said - a Stingray. Versatile, great neck and not too heavy.

I bought my Stingray from The Gallery, as well as my Ampeg speakers. They also did an incredible job of restoring my fragile old Eko semi-acoustic. Despite having moved a fair distance away from the area they're in, I still try to take my basses to them for setups since I trust them and their prices are good. Not sure if they still have their cat, but as a moggy lover it did amuse me when he used to sleep in the shop window!

Late 80s it was Carlsbro if you could afford a decent starter amp new, otherwise a tatty H|H or similar. Then graduating to Peavey heads (Mark III or IV typically) and cabs. Junk shop valve amp if you couldn't afford a Peavey, not knowing that something like a Simms-Watts would be highly desirable one day!

Do Trace Elliot amps still sound trebly and soulless? They were all the rage amongst the finger style and slapping brigade in the early 1990's, but sounded awful if you wanted to get some bottom end and growl. Might explain why rehearsal studios were full of them in the late 1990's, presumably sold off cheap once everyone got bored of trying to be Flea from RHCP.