Happy Jack

I play mine at every gig with https://www.lemonrock.com/junkyarddogs. We're not nearly as busy these days as my other band (https://www.lemonrock.com/damoandthedynamites) or as we were pre-Covid, but we still average two gigs a month. I bought the bass for a number of reasons - extensively documented elsewhere on Basschat if you're interested - but always with the intention of using it with this band. We're a 3-piece without a recognised lead guitarist, so I'm alternating between filling out the sound with my bassline and playing 'lead bass' on a number of songs. The Rick does both jobs perfectly, especially when paired with a Sansamp BDDI. Other fuzzy pedals are available. The 4003.s5 is on the heavy side, like all Rics IME, but I play with a twin-shoulder strap which distributes the weight nicely. A younger me probably wouldn't have noticed the weight. Any 4-string Rick would fit the description in the last paragraph. I have the 4003.s5 because in this band I need to play a 5-string bass on perhaps a third of the songs. Switching between 4-string and 5-string basses within a set was leading to too many cockups ("No you fool, you come in on the C, not the G!") so if I wanted a Rick at all then it had to be a 5-string Rick, and there's only one such bass out there. The styling is (IMHO) a very nice update of the classic Rick design, and I've had a couple of those too. Body edges are more comfortable, the pickup arrangement is WAY more user-friendly than the 60s/70s basses, and the stealth black finish looks great just as soon as you ditch the appalling cheapo cheapo white p/g and trc and replace them with after-market parts in black. The neck is classic Rick too, and one I find easy to play. I've had mine for nearly two years now, storing it in a very dry atmosphere, and I'm just starting to get a bit of fret-sprout which I'll be dealing with next week. Like most Ricks it responds very well to being played with a pick (something I do on maybe half a dozen songs at a 3-hour gig), and on a boomy floor or stage it sounds better with the Low rolled off than most of my other high-end basses. I'm known for being an advocate of flats, but it would never occur to me to fit them to my Rick. The original-fitment rounds are just fine. As to the Low B itself, I'm a huge fan of 35" scale 5-string basses and my two favourites are both Mike Lulls, partly for that reason. I've always found 34" scale Low Bs to be frankly rather flobbadob and under-whelming, although I know that plenty of Basschatters believe that neck construction is far more important than scale length in determining this. And of course the 4003.s5 is a mere 33.25" so must be utterly hopeless? Actually no, it compares just fine with various 34" scale 5-strings I've had in the past, as also with the Status Streamline sitting by my right elbow as I type. I still prefer the Lulls for the Low B, but I have no problem with the Rick's Low B at gigs.

Mine is sitting on the corner of my desk, running through a Crazy 8 cab. It's WAY over the top for home practice (what with me having converted the garage into a studio an' all) but it's a delight to have it right there when I need it. And now for today's edition of SPOT THAT AMP!!!

https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/bass-guitar-combo-amp/trace-elliot-elf-1x8-combo-bass-guitar-amplifier-160-w?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=Cj0KCQiAubmPBhCyARIsAJWNpiMdTaT5damGhVE-Q94BycHOe89tg9TrYD2A7DFiIF-ye2Q66Ou0qPwaAqw2EALw_wcB

Why should I worry what she might catch? 😉 I was a bit taken aback myself (as you can probably see in the video), but show a drunken woman a microphone and sure as night follows day ... In fairness to those of the female persuasion, what the video doesn't show is the completely blotto guy to my left who started the gig by insisting on getting a selfie with me using the banner as backdrop ("for my blog, yeh?"), then spent set #1 asking if he could play my bass and set #2 asking if he could "have a go on the drums".

GIBSON G2 CUSTUM ELECTRIC BASS GUITAR, 4 STRINGS, RIGHT-HANDED IN GOOD CONDITIONS. I buy and sell, doesn't know much about guitar. While it doesn't actually say Millennium hand and shrimp, you feel it should really.

We can't have closure without some footage of the new neck's debut (and also its first appearance). If you're expecting a Pino Palladino-fest then best look away now - that ain't what I do. 🧐 But if you like this sort of thing, this video is worth staying to the end for ...

In truth, service like that deserves to be recognised. Which shop was it? Do tell ...

And in comes a lovely EA Doubler in as-new condition, combined with several pints in a pub near Denmark Street and a wildly entertaining afternoon swapping yarns about gigging and yoga. Move along, nothing to see here. 😎

Pah! Amateur! I write out my setlists using coloured oxygen-free gold-plated tone ink mixed with pixy dust ... people often come up to me at gigs and tell me how good my setlist sounds. Then I start playing and ruin it all. 😉

Outstanding! Have a great time. 🙂

Fake. Hofners that carry the 'Genuine Hofner Made In Germany' transfer always have the traditional teacup control knobs. That's supposed to be a Cavern '62 RI model and Hofner would never turn one of those out with a cheapo Chinese control panel. The fact that someone has applied a fraudulent transfer makes it clear that someone is trying to con someone else. Don't let that person be you.

Have you tried I'msocleverthatIdon'tneedothermusicians.com? 😉

I beg to differ. Once Macca became famous (even iconic) playing one, they became one of the best-selling and therefore most widely-used basses for several years. Even after the big switch to Rickenbacker, there were so many Hofner Violin basses and copies thereof out there that they continued to be used extensively, and not just in pop music. Two really obvious examples (for me, anyway) are Aston 'Family Man' Barrett passing his 500/1 on to Robbie Shakespeare, and the 500/1 used by Dennis Dunaway with The Alice Cooper Band.

If memory serves, the beauty of dealing with Germans is their efficiency ... one of the advantages was that they charged NO extra for a lefty, and that also contributed to Macca's decision. I wasn't there, you understand, so how much of this is true I couldn't tell you, but Macca has been interviewed enough times on this subject . 🙄

Looking at the bright side @Bassassin, you'd get first dibs on all fakers people tried to list on Basschat. Just saying ... 😂

That new neck is an absolute delight. Fantastically easy to play, far more comfortable than the original Mike Lull profile (I've been playing this bass very happily for 10 years), and looks as cool as {expletive deleted}. Craftsmanship of the highest order. 🧐

My money is elsewhere ...

Macca's memory on this subject is not necessarily unreliable. Here's what he has actually said: "I remember going along there, and there was this bass which was quite cheap. I couldn't afford a Fender. Fenders even then seemed to be about £100. All I could really afford was about £30 ... so for about £30, I found this Hofner violin bass. And to me, it seemed like, because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical. Didn't look as bad as a cutaway which was the wrong way. So I got into that." The 500/1 was never as cheap as £30 in the UK and the 500/5 famously played badly by Stuart Sutcliffe cost him the thick end of £65 from Hessey's in Liverpool a year or two earlier. On the other hand, do bear in mind that Macca bought his bass in Germany, without import taxes etc. In fairness to Macca, I can't remember how much I paid for basses 15 years ago, so I can't see any reason why we should all expect him to remember details of a single transaction from 60 years ago! As to context, in April 1962 a full-time manual worker in the UK earned an average weekly wage of 312s 10d. For those not old enough to remember pre-decimal coinage, that's just over £15. It follows that Macca's bass cost him either two weeks' wages (by his own £30 account) or four weeks' wages (by the Selmer catalogue). As at December 2021 the direct equivalent figure - and that's a pretty sweeping generalisation - was £548, so a like for like comparison might be somewhere between £1100 and £2200 for his bass. The higher of those two numbers is pretty much exactly what a brand new Hofner 500/1 '62 RI will cost you today.

That looks like a really lovely bass. Will you be playing any doubling gigs with that combo?

And around we go again with the urban myths. Mike, do you have a single example of Rickenbacker ever doing this? Even once? Successful or otherwise? I'm not claiming some God-like omniscience here; if there is evidence that this sort of thing has ever happened then I'll shut up sharpish. There are many, many more signs warning you of Speed Cameras Ahead than there are actual speed cameras, because a sign is way cheaper to install and maintain than a speed camera, right? But at least real speed cameras actually exist. Don't ask me how I know. It costs Rickenbacker (or any other company) very little to threaten legal action, in fact it is virtually free these days since any clown with a keyboard can do it by email. Actually initiating legal action is another matter entirely. Suing people on behalf of my firm was part of my job for over 20 years. Number of threats issues = dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more. Number of legal actions initiated = zero. I have actually sued (and won) three times as an individual, but never once out there in the corporate world. The game is hardly ever worth the candle.

Happy to wait to hear Colin's take on this, and I fully appreciate that you have other problems on your mind just now (although that hospital suite looks jolly nice 🙄) but just to pick up on this comment. The question is not whether or not the level of risk is changing - maybe it is and maybe it isn't. The question is what exactly is the risk? I was asking this question ten years ago and got no answer. Seeing as others have raised the subject again I have no problem is asking the same question again. I repeat ... Precisely what action, or type of action, could Rickenbacker bring against Basschat? And what redress would they be seeking? If the answer is, "It's my website and I'll do what I want" then I have no problem at all with that answer. It's not the answer I would give in your position but so what? You and @ped set up Basschat, not me. 😎

Absolutely - no argument there. But a Basschatter wishing to sell a Kasuga copy that was made 40 years ago in Japan, and which he himself bought (in good faith) 15 years ago is not failing to respect anyone's rights, and the website where he chooses to list it (whether that be eBay or Reverb or Basschat) is even less showing disrespect. Precisely what action, or type of action, could Rickenbacker bring against Basschat? And what redress would they be seeking?

This website is a classic example of how these myths continue to propagate and echo through the Internet: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/guitar_wars_8_times_guitar_companies_freaked_out_about_trademark_infringement-84300 Written three years ago, it's a piece of lazy clickbait journalism which gives the impression that Rickenbacker have issued countless law suits while somehow avoiding mentioning ANY actual instances. Instead we get "Rickenbacker has no tolerance when it comes to copycats, and the company has been militantly litigious with any and all companies that have made anything that bites Rickenbacker's style" and "Rickenbacker has also threatened legal action over certain guitar pieces that look like theirs" and "Rickenbacker has had a history with claiming trademark infringement as the reason to take down listings of Rickenbacker bass guitar clones from second-hand equipment sites" and "seeing as the company will go to these lengths in order to suppress any clones ...". Not only is this all complete guff and bullpoop, it's not even convincing guff and bullpoop. Citing a single example where Rickenbacker had actually sued someone would be far more persuasive, while citing a single example of a successful legal action would be even better.