Monkey Steve

I haven't noticed any neck dive, and it's noticeably lighter (and thinner) than my other fivers (a Wal and a Warwick) but outside of that I have nothing to gauge it against, so YMMV Keep your fingers crossed that the soon to be arriving nameplate fits properly, Here's the look I'm going for - from my 4001 Mapleglo BT From the days when they had the plexiglass nameplate, which was much nicer than the moulder plastic version they use these days. There is a plexi replica for sale on eBay, but having ,made contact they won;t confirm the dimensions, they just say it's a match for the old plexi nameplates...but I could measure the old nameplate myself...

I pulled the trigger on this on Friday and it arrived today. Have to say, I had no previous experience of Promenade Music, and had they not been the cheapest online sellers of the Mapleglo version, I might still not know them, but they have been superb. Hours after placing the order Gary from Promenade, their bass specialist, rang me to discuss the set up, we swapped a few stories, and he threw in an allen key because he couldn't see that Rickenbacker had provided any (in fact the have, buried in the case candy). This is how it arrived: And this is how it looks now: 50% more gorgeous, I trust you'll agree Black scratchplate thanks to Rickysounds (it arrived about an hour after the bass) Half way there to recreating the BT (black trim) option that I have on my 1975 4001 I contacted Rosetti about organising a swap of the nameplate for a genuine Rickenbacker black one, and they told me that this is not something that Rickenbacker will agree to. So having tried to source a genuine replacement, I'm now awaiting a knock off from our friends in the East. If that isn't a good fit then I did see that somebody on another forum has done something similar by sanding the paint off the plate to take it back to white, then painting the rest of the of it black. I'm reluctant to do that as it would lose the "Made in USA" but I'll keep it in mind. I've also stuck on Dunlop straplocks - the very first change I made to any bass when I got the 4001 over 30 years ago. And I had to do the same thing this time, put some rawlplug into the screw holes. First impressions: The maple is much lighter than my 4001, possibly/probably due to ageing of the varnish (?). The maple isn't highly figured, but it is what it is. The finish feels quite thick and plastic-y. I'd have preferred a satin finish, but it's a minor point. For tradition's sake I'd also have loved to have a skunk stripe, again, as per my 4001, although I do like the dark brown headstock wings which aren't on my old bass. But it would have made the thru neck more obvious - easily seen if you are close up, but lost in the bright maple a few feet away. Strings feel lighter than my usual choice, but I'll keep them for now until the new zinginess runs out. As a consequence it feels a bit floppier that I like, but not by too much Still has the Rickenbacker clank - responds well to aggressive playing, but cleans up nicely when I want it to The neck feels very different to the 4001, which has a narrow U feel to it. Wider (not just because of the extra string, the spacing feels wider) and shallower. Oddly feels a little clubbier below the 5th fret and slimmer as you get up the neck, but still a real pleasure to play over the whole length. Very fast, great access to the dusty end, but noticeably a few frets short compared to my other 5 strings which both have 24 frets. Still, I don't get that far up the neck very often I'm missing the 4001's bridge pickup surround, which is where I anchor my thumb. the top of the bridge pickup doesn't feel to be in quite the right position Also slightly missing the non-S features - bound body, neck inlays. But I'm happy to concede that these are even more cosmetic than the BT stuff, and that actually the rounded body makes it easier to play than the bound version. But still...and I can't help missing the 4001/3 bridge that they managed to put on the last attempt at a five string 4003, although there's nothing wrong with the bridge it has from a functional point of view So Day 1, about an hour of playing and half an hour of tinkering, with a full set up to be done when I change the strings, it's definitely a keeper. For all my (minor, mostly cosmetic) niggles, it's a great bass. And it'll be 25% greater once I get the black nameplate...

I love my old 4001 but rarely play four strings these days, so have been gassing for a five string since they announced them. If only they'd do a non-S version with binding and inlays...

Yeah, those Mk Anything's are real shockers - you dodged a bullet there mate! Better luck next time

Just pulled the trigger on a Rickenbacker 4003s 5 string I am assured that Monday will be NBD...I have scheduled something in my work diary so that my boss will be under the impression that I am working on a project and should not be disturbed all day

In the Metallica vs Megadeth debate I've always thought that Megadeth have maintained a higher standard across their career than Metallica. As a teenager I saw Metallica a couple of times with Cliff, and I saw Megadeth's first UK gig - thrash metal was new and exciting and it was everything you wanted when getting into music, something that is completely yours. But for Metallica, much as I love them, I only really rate their first three albums, with a special mention for the $5.98 EP and the fourth album, but it's been pretty bland since then. Though they have always been superb live Megadeth's first two albums are utterly brilliant, right up there with Metallica's first three, tailed off a bit for the third, but there have been very, very good albums since then. And some average ones, but a higher hit rate than Metallica. A bit mixed live - I've seen them mainly at festivals over the last couple of decades, and there have been some excellent performances, and some less than excellent ones There's no doubt that Metallica have made a much bigger impact on the world at large, but for the thrash obsessed teenager in me, it feels like Megadeth have stuck to their guns.

Zombie by the Cranberries cracking track, but everything else I’ve heard of theirs (inflicted on me by my girlfriend at the time) was fey indy pop

Yeah - ears. I used to get the same thing at practices, not helped by me never using earplugs. All of the treble disappeared before the end of rehearsal,and until I worked out it was my ears the eq got the blame and my tone was less than great by the end

I think there are too many variables to point at just the string gauge - for instance, my favourite set are D'Addario EPS300-5, which ruins 43 - 107 for G to E, and the B is 127. No tension problems, in fact a really good balance across the neck and the strings keep the zingy tone but with plenty of aggression when I need it. I've never liked the tone of heavier B's, and it's the same on 7 string guitars, the heavier gauges seem to lose definition and give a booming, unbalanced tone in comparison to the other strings YMMV There could be other factors, to consider like scale length and even playing technique

Almost The band I was depping with had recorded their first few albums on 6 string guitars (and 4 string bass) down-tuned to C, so it was easy enough for me to tune everything on my five string up by a semi tone, and was playing C F A# D# G# However, their latest album was recorded in E, so they would swap guitars and I would tune down by a semitone. Didn't take that long, but it was annoying enough that I ended up bringing a four string tuned to E and just swapped between songs I did try to persuade them of the benefits of going that extra half step down to a B, but they weren't having it. Have to say, I didn't see any particular benefit in going up to a C, although after years of playing in a band which de-tuned half a step, where I really much preferred everything tuned to E rather than D#, and thus A# on my five strings, the extra half step up to C/F didn't seem like any sort of improvement from standard tuning As for the OP, I echo what @TheLowDown says about it not feeling natural to tune the B string to a C but leave the others as E-G. I also like having that extra note to go down to, and will regularly play a low B, so it's not for me

Well, if you haven't already checked them out, have a listen to The Hanson Brothers (NOT Hanson) - No Means No playing Ice Hockey themed songs (The Hanson Brothers are from the film Slap Shot) in the Ramones style. Brilliant stuff, and they made a couple of albums doing it Here's a cover of the theme from Slap Shot

oh, I forgot one that I was involved in! A mate of a mate who is something dull in the music biz (like, accounts) was leaving his job for pastures greener, and was thinking about setting up as a promoter/manager/whatever as a sideline. He thought he had all the contacts, but he certainly had none of the experience, so I was roped in to help him set up a gig in a pub in London, on the promise that two of my bands could play (for one it was a good opportunity for a laugh, and for the other it was an early gig, in London no less) and we added a third band which had members from both of mine. In practice I ended up doing all the technical stuff and was effectively running the gig A fourth band was then added to the bill, a lad from the organiser's office was in a band and they have never played a gig, so could they open? Fine, they can have half an hour and need to be there on time for the soundcheck. The other bands all soundcheck, the sound guy who has come with the PA does a good job, it's all running well. Then the openers arrive. Late. Despite having been told just to bring instruments and breakables, and that they will use everybody else's amps (mostly mine as i was playing bass in one band and guitar in another) and would get a line check, they insisted on playing through their own gear. They then insisted on turning everything to ten to get "their sound". And they insisted on playing three songs, in full, for their soundcheck. I made the point that their set was finishing on time regardless of when they started so they were only wasting their own set by insisting on playing more than what was needed for the soundcheck. Kids just won't listen. Sadly they turned out to be more rockstar attitude than actual rockstars. The gig was in a smallish cellar bar, so I left the soundman to it and went up to the main pub for a beer. I came back down five or ten minutes into their set, and it was unbearably loud. I looked at the soundman who shrugged and explained that only the vocals were coming through the PA so there was nothing he could do about it. He'd told them, but they wouldn't listen. I watched as a steady stream of people came in, winced, and left, and other than a small, dedicated table of WAGs the venue was empty. Quite a feat given that the organiser was charging a tenner a ticket and it was sold out (and in the end they didn't bother checking tickets so it was rammed to way over capacity when the other bands played)

There's really only one live album that I listen to regularly Beatsteaks - Kanon Auf Spatzen The band at their absolute best Beyond that, the most listed to live stuff would be an assortment of live B-sides: Mordred - Esse Quan Videri has two live tracks on the B-side, including a killer version of Everyday's A Holiday Cult - Wildflower has my favourite of their songs on the B-side, a live version of Horse Nation (Horse Nation not being my favourite Cult song, but the live version is my favourite track, if that makes sense) That said, I have recently bought the deluxe reissue of Strangers In The Night, with the full recordings of the six gigs that the album was taken from, so technically the live stuff I have mostly been listening to of late is UFO Honourable mentions for (and judged purely on the albums I've listened to most often over the last decade): Motorhead - the two live albums with Brian Robertson - the King Biscuit Flower Hour and the bonus disc for the deluxe reissue of Another Perfect Day New Model Army - BBC Radio One & the live half of Between Wine & Blood Budgie - Live At Reading, either on We Came, We Saw, or spread across assorted BBC and radio session albums

I had something very similar once, some time in the '90's. My lot were playing thrash metal in some pub...er...somewhere in London, I genuinely can't remember where it was. We were supporting a band we didn't know and who were a more glammy type of metal, and as we were playing their bass player kept shaking his head and shouting to me from the crowd that the bass was too loud, and that I should turn down. And I kept pointing out to him that he was stood next to the soundman and that everything was going through the PA so perhaps he should speak to the bloke he was stood next to rather than shouting at me. I failed to rise above it and didn't play brilliantly, although we did finish the set. I wondered at the time whether that was his game, to put me off so that I/we looked bad in comparison to him/his lot. It certainly didn't feel like constructive criticism at the time, and he avoided us as we were packing down c#nt

A couple that were painfully loud, as opposed to just leaving my ears ringing for a day or two afterwards (pretty standard for any heavy metal gig in the '80's & '90's) Super Furry Animals at Guildford Civic - couldn't tell you what tour or exactly how long ago, but something like 15-20 years. It was unpleasantly loud throughout the gig, and towards the end the volume slider got pushed even higher. Seemed to be some sort of attempt to make a psychedelic swirling maelstrom of sound. Completely failed. People were genuinely hiding behind columns - the worst view in the place suddenly became the best place to be. I stuck it out, but they'd cleared out half the punters by the end. Airborne at the Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo/whatever - must have been 2009 as it was the No Guts No Glory tour. We'd all seen them at the Astoria on the previous tour and loved them, but at Hammersmith a few months later it was just way too loud to be enjoyable. It seemed to be macho posturing - you like metal so just see how loud we can go! Really put me off them...as did the album they were promoting, a step down from their debut. Never really been that fussed about them since

I'm going to rule out any support bands that I have checked out and decided to go back to the bar instead of listening to them, and similarly anybody at a festival where I've left after a couple of songs to go and drink or watch something else (although...I've yet to make it through more than about three songs of any Cradle of Filth set, and I've really tried). If I didn't specifically pay to see the band or have them on my "must see" list then walking out isn't really noteworthy I've also seem a few of the gigs that others have left, sometimes with different opinions (f'rinstance, in complete opposition to one previous post, I saw Clutch supporting Corrosion of Conformity, never heard of Clutch, thought they were monumentally dull, still do, and I'd only gone to see CoC and thought they were brilliant. One man's meat, etc) and sometimes because I've wanted to stick around to see the whole set out of loyalty to the band, but can understand why other left early - Sabbath at Download in 2016 was hard to take, especially after they'd been so brilliant there in 2012, and it was part of their farewell tour...but for those of us that did stick around, Ozzy rewarded us by managing to sing in tune for a good third of the gig in the middle of the set. Slayer at Bloodstock in 2016 was a low point too, not least because of how good they have been on every other occasion I've seen them, just flat and dull. So, with those criteria in mind, I have three: Smashing Pumpkins at Wembley Arena in 2000. their farewell tour, I'd never been a particular fan but figured I might as well see them live if it was going to be my last chance, and I wanted to see the support band, Catherine Wheel, who I liked. Missed Catherine Wheel because the mate I went with is an utter c#nt (the sort who is late for everything, and doesn't understand that it's f#cking rude, and that when people call him a c#nt for doing stuff like this, that we all aren't joking), but we got there in time for SP's set to start. A couple of fairly bland, quietish numbers, and then into ear splittingly loud noise that seemed entirely free of melody and structure. Convinced me that I was never going to be a fan of them so why waste any more of my time, and I joined the steady stream of people who were also leaving. I chatted to a couple who were actually fans of the band and told me that they had seen them a few times before and they'd never been that bad. Lucky me Iron Maiden at Sonisphere in 2010. I'd seen them at Twickenham a year or two beforehand, having previously lost interest since seeing them a couple of times in the 1980s, and then grown out of them. But a girlfriend dragged me to Twickenham and I'd loved it - playing the whole set from one of the tours I'd previously seen them on. Great - stick to the songs from when they were good. Sadly at Sonisphere, after playing a couple of oldies, Bruce Dickinson announced that in response to all the people who complain to him that they never play any of their songs from the albums they've released in the last ten years, they were going to concentrate on those. Cue mass exodus, me included, although I did listen to a couple of the newer songs, to satisfy myself that they were awful. I don't believe that "the people" Bruce has been listening to actually exist Tool at Download in 2019. Difficult one here - I've tried to like Tool, I really have. I own a few of their albums, I don't dislike them, but none of it sticks, I think it's all OK, but I've never really got into it, despite knowing how good it is musically and it's stuff that i should enjoy. I admire them more than I actually enjoy them. But I'd never seen them live, and they hadn't played here for ages so this was my chance, at a festival I was going to be at anyway. But after drinking all day, seeing Slayer's blistering set (which happily took place while Smashing Pumpkins were on the main stage), and this being the last band on the third day when I was all festivalled out...it was all a bit sterile and detached. Great light show, well played, but it could have been a CD. Watched two songs and headed for the exit

I did a gig a few years ago supporting Splodgenessabounds, which was basically Max Splodge and some hired hands, one of which was Dave Tregunna. It was right at the rime that he was speaking to Jimmy Pursey about reforming the band, after spending the previous however many years telling the "new lot" that he wasn't interested in playing with them. I won't repeat his actual comments, lets just say they weren't complimentary Really good guy to have a pint and a natter with

One other idea to consider is to get someone to use a 3d printer to make casings to fit an existing pickup A mate of mine did it for someone who was doing a custom build. Apparently it took a few goes to get it right, but in my experience people with 3d printers love any excuse to muck about on them and try new things

I had, well, not exactly a similar experience, but definitely a moment where it all clicked I got my first five string just before the millennium, and it instantly felt "right" - it may have helped that it was a Wal! Took a couple of weeks to get used to having the extra string and not getting lost mid-song, but it didn't take long before my existing 4 string was getting left at home. I haven't bought anything other than a five string since. It seems best to have that extra string if you need to play those extra notes, and I've never had any issue with accessing the string or adapting my technique. It annoys me when manufacturers don't offer a five string option as standard, as it seems such an obvious thing to do However...other than playing the odd low D, I didn't actually use the B string for very much. Partly because of being in bands with six string guitarists, there didn't seem to be any need for a lot of playing on that string, and dropping an octave seemed to leave a hole. I rarely ventured above the fifth fret on it. And partly because I never spent any serious time getting the tone sorted out - the low B seemed to boom in comparison to the tone of the E string, and it didn't seem that well matched to the gauges of the rest of the set. Better on some basses than others - I once had an ESP LTD with EMGs on it and while I don't like their tone (or the bass, it's long gone) they were, certainly at that time, the best pickups I'd heard for a consistent tone across all the strings. Then a few years ago I helped out some of my mates who are in a death/black metal band for a couple of gigs - not entirely my sort of thing, but within the venn diagram of my musical tastes. Everything they played was on guitars that were tuned down. And having spent the first rehearsal hammering out riffs on the B string, suddenly it all fell in to place - the tone was excellent, and my technique seemed to have adapted to manage the sound much better. Since then I now use the B string for a lot more that the odd low D, and it feels much more joined up. I now often start with the assumption that I'll be playing whatever notes are required as low as possible, since that's the bass' job As an aside, I spent the spare time I had in the first lockdown playing a 7 string guitar that I've had for a few years but don't regularly play - getting used to the extra string and what my options are across the fretboard, just as I had done with my first five string bass. I hadn't found adapting as simple as I had assumed when switching to another instrument with a low B, but a couple of weeks of playing nothing else and it's sorted

I was talking to a mate in Jersey last night and whether I'll be able to have a trip over this year, and if so, whether any of the planned festivals and gigs over there are likely to actually happen, and there is a gig listing for the Jersey Opera House in September for a performance by Clearwater Creedence Revival. I was saying to myself "I didn't know they'd reformed" for about five minutes before the penny dropped that I'd misread it

back to the OP... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55763694 Very mixed views. Looks like the end of March is likely to be the crunch time for festivals to decide whether they are pulling the plug

well, it's a lot easier when there's only 85,000 people to worry about

The IoM is a special case. they shut the borders very early on, you can't go to the island unless you are a resident, and even then you have to quarantine, and if you don't it's not a £200 fine, you go to jail. A mate of mine lives over there and until recently they've had very few restrictions since the first UK lockdown - he's been gigging all year, pubs are open, etc. Then the kids came home from Uni for Christmas and they've been on lockdown since then because covid came back, but it should be lifted in the next couple of weeks, and is being relaxed a little from this weekend. They recognised that the tourism industry would be decimated by closing the borders, but they have a low tax rate and a maximum amount of tax that anybody has to pay because they simply don't need more money to run the island! So they have been able to be very generous in supporting businesses that have been affected, which will have given the TT organisers confidence that they can afford to make a longer term decision because the financial impact is much more limited than for festival organisers on the mainland

I see the sense in cancelling this early - there would otherwise be a lot of time, effort and expense spend on organising a festival that is unlikely to happen, outside of any deposits and third party costs. With the prediction that vaccinating the nation will not be complete until late Summer, it's difficult to see how any large festival can operate before then. There's no way to enforce social distancing, and if there was, the restriction in the number of punters would make it impossible to cover costs They cancelled quite early last year too - in March, whereas a lot of other festivals clung on for a few week or months longer. I read an interview with, I think, Festival Republic, saying that they could weather the 2020 cancellations, but if it happened again in 2021 then they'd be in real trouble. I'm not sure to read this as Glastonbury being very cautious and some might still happen, or simply them dealing with the reality as early as possible, and others will cling on for a bit longer but will follow in due course. I have tickets for a couple - Download in June and Bloodstock in August, and was due to go to one of the assorted Camden festivals in, I think, May. I'm not confident in any of them, but Bloodstock probably stands the best chance. And I rolled over my tickets from last year to help them out rather than taking a refund - it's not much but it may help

ah yes, the Rickenbacker argument! Supposedly the reason that Rickenbacker relentlessly pursue fakes is that other manufacturers have lost copyright claims because they had left it too long and there were so many similar designs on the market that they had seemed unconcerned with to that point https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/fender-loses-guitar-copyright-case-201886 Even the lawsuit that gave us "lawsuit era guitars" only concerned Ibanez copying Gibson's the headstock design, not the fact that it was on a Les Paul copy