prowla

Well, yes and no... If you run Rick-O-Sound then you can control each pickup separately. If you want to play anything Chris Squire, pull the Treble pickup tone and then go "Oh!". The bypass pot is an easy fit which does unlock some variations.

Rics are the best basses money can buy.

There's a current trend for reissues/remixes/remasters and some can be great whilst others just plain aren't as good as the original releases. The Giles Martin Beatles ones and Steven Wilson's reworking of Deep Purple Made In Japan are standouts which demonstrate what can be achieved in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing; Led Zeppelin's Houses Of The Holy is also surprisingly good. Others seem to be geared towards boosting the treble for someone who's played their system so loud they've blown the tweeters and as a result can sound pretty awful on a decent system (Dio's Last In Line and Alex Lifeson's Victor are examples). I've not heard The Lamb Lies Down, so can't comment on that; however, my general comment is these reissues/remixes/remasters can be quite variable.

Ok - I just think of them as a headless.

Erm, Status Graphite and Steinberger... I'm not sure what date mine is.

I like the look of them; a headless 5-string could be a goer for me. I'm not sure about locking jacks - I thought they'd been and had their day in the 80s.

Slowly and difficult! You have top play the stick through an amp; it doesn't really work not plugged in. (But plugged in it sounds really impressive.) I'm finding the fattest bass string gets in the way of the next one, which is a hindrance. I have done various bits of tapping on the bass, so I'm either really impressive doing those things I have muscle memory for or really useless searching around for notes. I play guitar, but fretting notes with my right hand and playing scales seems to go against the direction my fingers want to go. All-in-all, it's interesting...

...and you could do your back in bending down? 🙂

Note: if you do a stacked tone pot and connect the caps to the blend pickup-side connections you could have independent tone controls.

So, Gibson & Rickenbacker basses have "non-standard" scale lengths. And most other basses are derived from Fenders. 🙂

Those ones have the V2 bridge, which has been stock for 3 years now.

You missed my comment about "spots" earlier!

I don't think I'll be playing one.

As per my comment: you can use the neck, but need a new fretboard (& frets). They missed a trick: they could've done it as a fretless!

I think the 4001/4003 are the best basses ever made; best looking, best playing, best sound. But this short scale is an eyesore. I prefer my Kay (still needs a pickguard) short scale!

The "standard" wasn't a standard when Rickenbacker made the 4001 series in the 1950's and they've had no reason to change. I think the 1960's long-scale Gibson EB0 was 34.5" (as was the Ampeg bass). The answer to people complaining that Rics aren't Fenders is to just say stop moaning and go and buy a Fender or one of the multifarious Fender-a-likes on the market. Next people are going to complain that Rics have a 2+2 tuner layout instead of the "standard" 4 in a line.

Well spotted... ...or not!

Probably, and a different fretboard.

They don't work for me; ugly & stupid IMHO. I don't see the point of having a short scale full-sized instrument with the bridge half-way up the body.

I think that particular model Fujigen (Greco and the other brands it was sold as) is the top of the tree for Japanese fakers. I'd place the Chushion (Shafty and other brands thereof) as just below. One issue I've seen with the Chushins is the binding can soften (or is it tighten?) and detach around the inner edge of the upper horn.

That one is off the rails!

It depends which model of Greco (mostly Fujigen made, but some Matsumoku) you have; some were OK and some were really good. Maybe post a picture? The Grecos tended to have nicer tuners, but some had the wrong pickups and some were bolt-ons.

I think Ric's plasticware (and shinyware in general) is the best in the business.

They made semi-acoustic models.

A tell for the Shaftys (and other Chushin Gakki ones, I think) is the slightly translucent pickguards.