Beedster

Yes they do, as do I

Re-reading the O/P, my advice would be that if you want a Ric to sound like anything other than a Ric, you've bought the wrong bass. They absolutely have a core tone that, whilst they're extremely versatile around that tone, is in their DNA. It's like a clarinet and an oboe, same sonic range, and good players can create a huge array of tones from each, but whilst at extremes one can sound a but like another, they will never sound the same to the players. And the Ric tone is not just in the PUPs, you can change them but whilst it will sound different, it will do little more than you can do with the tone controls on your amp or Sansamp, it will still sound much like a Ric, and importantly will still play much like a Ric. This isn't to say that your average audience, or even band members are going to notice, although I worked with a singer years ago who begged me to play a Precision over a Ric because in his opinion the Ric sounded wrong for the music (I think he was blagging) - but you as a player need to feel that you're producing the tone that's in your head. A Ric with both PUPs open, strung with flatwounds, and played with a pic through a B-15 is one of the most glorious bass sounds I can imagine, with a beautiful pipey hollowness sitting on top of a powerful fundamental. It's a tone that just draws me in whenever I hear it - irrespective of genre - but a lot of people hate it

Not sure you're going to have much luck getting Warwick tone out of a Ric. Rics aren't very good impersonators of other basses, but the opposite is also true. Learn to love the Ric tone

Agree 100% Nik

Broom cupboard bass at BBC was a Telebass in those days

I was given my first DB by a music shop owner who, having seen us gig, thought we'd sound better with DB than electric (and biy, he was right). He used to provide them to schools and found that schools were asking him to take them back FOC because no-one wants to play them anymore, and they were simply too big to store (I passed it on to a guy on BC once I'd upgraded to my current 4/4). His shop is still going well, but perhaps only because he matches best internet prices, and we live in a town with two universities and a few public schools so there's a decent amount of disposable cash around. There are times when I want to say "mate, charge me full whack, much as I like the cheapness, I also like having a decent music shop in town". I bought all my daughters various instruments from there (including the World's loudest tambourine which was not clever), and send all my friends and colleagues there, because they can try the gear. I still worry that the shop won't be there much longer though

Frankly, I'd save yourself the legwork and hit BIN (or make a decent Best Offer) on this Walkabout 12", the best bass combo ever made by a long way https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mesa-Boogie-Walkabout-Combo/233164745491?hash=item3649b3ab13:g:00wAAOSw24hch9tj I'd be quick as well. If you buy it and don't like it, it will move pretty quickly on BC Good luck Chris

Having thought about this, I'm also remembering those times when combos make things safer, for example I've pulled a Speakon/Speakon cable out of my bag to find I've bought my 1x15 which needs a Speakon/Jack. Last week in fact

Agreed, I like combos for using at home for not for rehearsing or gigging. The only combos that have ever really worked live for me have been pretty bloody heavy and hard to move anyway, Walkabout Scout 15" being a case in point

Yep, that's my sense also

And that is what I has always assumed was the case, thank you WoT

That was indeed what I was asking, thank you Luke

Baby and bath water

And we won't realise what a seriously bad thing that is until it's too late.

Mmmm, that's not really what I was asking though is it? I love Mesa gear, but I worry that the very very high prices, plus the discontinuation of all-tube bass heads to compete in an already very overcrowded Class-D marketplace, is a very bad strategy (excuse the pun). I hope I'm wrong

This link is informative, if a little odd (not often one hears conspiracy theories about bass guitars after all) https://www.talkbass.com/threads/has-anybody-tried-bassurgery.189605/

Interesting that, for example, list price of a DB-751 here is £2,400 and in the USA it's $2,395 (£1,804). That's approx a 33% mark up on what is a bloody heavy and large unit to ship compared to the WD800. You also have to factor the higher VAT/import duty on account of the higher price into the DB-751 price here. That seems quite reasonable. However, the mark-up on the WD-800 is massive by comparison at around 75%, that with lower VAT/import duty to pay due to the lower unit cost? OK, crude analysis (if you can call it an analysis at all), but my argument has nothing to do with the quality of the amp per se, which I'm sure is amazing, just that despite what has been proposed above, we probably are not getting £1,300 of value if it sells for a little over half that in real terms in the US? I may have missed a few details here, my apologies if so.

Did we miss something John?

I don't disagree with either point, I think it's the differential between US and UK prices that's the issue, which appears to be an $800 mark-up on a $999 unit in this case. Mesa gear always appears disproportionately more expensive in this context?

Sorry, make that £7,000, missed the £999

It's something of a Prog Rock dream, 70's aesthetic with 6 strings, but it would have to be one hell of an instrument to justify the well-known luthier boutique price tag of £6,000. A a tenth of that I might have been interested

What's the score with the tuners? And the price?