Happy Jack

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.

I found that while searching for any evidence at all the Rickenbacker actually go to Court in the manner threatened. A simple bunch of Google searches established that the firm have an ENORMOUS reputation for doing this, but that there is little evidence that any such cases have ever come to Court in the USA (where Basschat is not) and none at all that they have come to Court in UK or the rest of Europe (where Basschat actually is). This was always a huge bluff, and we seem to still be living in a land of stereotypes where Big Bad John comes creeping into your music studio while you sleep and leaves a Writ on your Rick.

Remember this? I'm on p.3 BTW.

Yes, really. When @Silvia Bluejay and I interviewed him for Bass Guitar Magazine at NAMM 2019 in Anaheim, he had just retired and his new wife was on the Rick stand. She's Welsh and they'd decided to set up home on her side of the Atlantic. They were a very nice couple.

Being (unnecessarily?) policed on Basschat is pretty much what I mean. Why is anyone still doing this? What's the point?

My point ... I'm not sure that they still exist, what with John Hall having retired to rural Wales (srsly) several years ago. If you really have nothing better to do, you could trawl back to the original Ric controversy back in Basschat's early days. You'll see that even then I was saying that Hall's threats were empty posturing which couldn't possibly be enforced in British courts, and that I'd be happy to contribute to a Fighting Fund to face him down were he stupid enough to reach for his lawyers. I'm pretty sure that Hall was simply doing what @Bassassin described at the time: Taking obvious, visible steps (no matter how pointless) to protect his intellectual property. I seem to recall that there was a distinction between trademark and copyright that was significant, but the key point was that Fender et al had never 'protected' their designs which is why they were copied with impunity around the planet. Despite the famous (and largely non-existent) "Lawsuit Copies" of Gibsons.

Guitarist in my covers band (The Junkyard Dogs) plays loads of slide, plus he uses lots of non-standard tunings, so he plays three different guitars at each and every gig. He's not showing off, he actually needs them. After several years of suggesting that there might be mileage in grouping together songs played on each guitar, eventually I had to bite the bullet and just take away from him the Set List preparation. Result? Being very frank about it, much better thought-out Set Lists and far less time spent standing around in front of a bored audience while he changes guitars yet gain or re-tunes yet again.

Is the R*********** ban still a thing? If so, is it really still necessary?

Something new every day ... I had no idea.

My point.

Can I just interject at this point that Mike is in no way exaggerating about Mr. Venom ... his performance at an obscure mediaeval venue off Denmark Street (I'm absolutely serious about that BTW) remains one of the most memorable things I've ever seen.

Quite surprised to see that this has reached p.2 without anyone mentioning Vince Furnier ...

Which one's Pink?

My main band these days is a rock'n'roll 3-piece called Damo & The Dynamites. Apart from the fact that the name is 'authentic' and period-correct (so works well for the punters), the reality is that Damo is the frontman, singer, and guitarist. I have no problem at all with the name, whereas a band named either The Dynamites or (much, much worse) Jack & The Dynamites would just be wrong. I should mention that the band probably wouldn't exist at all, and certainly would be nowhere as successful, without @Silvia Bluejay and me. Nowt to do with my God-like bass playing, more a matter of us providing ALL the gigs, plus the PA & lights, and the sound engineer, and the photos and video, and the social media presence etc. etc. etc. But so what? People don't come to see the band because Silvie and I will be there. They come (whether or not they realise it) to see Damo.

I'm old enough to remember the scandal about Mr. Inlandi Revenoo ...

*** WARNING WARNING!!! DANGER DANGER!!! HUMOUR ALERT!!! *** Having now received a serious application for this amazing job opportunity, I feel I should point out that this was a JoinMyBand listing by a delusional guitarist. I posted it here because I thought it was so funny. Anyway, back to the show ... ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Need a bassist for a serious trio project First, we will finish and record our originals, which I will be a producer of and then with those combined, we'll start playing live. Please don't contact me if you are insecure about how you play or in life in general. I'm here to change the course of history, and if you think I'm bullshitting, contact me to see my vocals and demos. Not trying to be a jerk here; however, I'm sick of dealing with non-musical bullsh*t.

You'll never take me alive, copper!

We went into our NYE gig being well aware that it's the sort of pub where people pay almost entirely by card. The pub was always going to make a mint that night, but there was real doubt that they'd have the cash to pay us. Solution? https://sumup.co.uk/air-contactless-card-reader-gsuk/?gclid=CjwKCAiA24SPBhB0EiwAjBgkhq95mN_UOrEEEaF5xxpsYd3DZwokgBqHMXy-iLsWwvqmfPFgJ4uI2BoCzzYQAvD_BwE For a one-off payment of £35 I can now accept payments by card for any band I play in. The only on-going charge is their 2% transaction fee. For £300 gigs we now charge £306 if the venue wishes to pay by card.

Pah! The ergonomics of the headstock are all wrong ...

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! And that's why I have never joined the MU.

The whole 'hours worked' thing has always left me somewhat bemused. I love playing bass. In fact, the only thing I love better than playing bass is playing bass for a genuine reason. I love learning new material. In fact, the only thing I love better than learning new material is learning new material for a gig. The idea of totting up how many hours I've 'invested' in playing bass, and then calculating the return on my investment, seems to miss the point rather. YMMV

I absolutely LOVE the run of the strings from the tuners through the wrong end of a BBOT. 45-degree angle through a tiny, rough hole ... what could possibly go wrong?

First there was the proper enforcement of drink/drive laws, then there was the banning of smoking. Both measures are entirely to be applauded and supported, but there's no ducking that they came damned near to killing off live music in pubs. We've all fought back, of course, and live music is still out there, but it's way harder to get an audience to hit the bar at 8pm, drink & smoke steadily until chucking-out time, before stumbling into their Allegros and Cortinas ... it's only a short drive, I'll be fine, hic!

And don't forget that a 4" wood screw can solve most problems. 😉