Beedster

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1334692291' post='1619940'] 'Home' is the right word, Chris. I've just listened to a recording from a gig this weekend, and the tone is absolutely on-the-button - everything I've been looking for over the years. These amps do mids like no other. [/quote] The semi-para is so well voiced, it's really hard to get a bad tone out of it. For its size and rating it is a phenomenal piece of kit. Good decision, and one that i'm sure will immediately impact on the selling price of used Mesa gear on BC

Love the stories of his Southern childhood also, he's a genuine link between the old and the new (well, newish) in American music

And mine, despite all the crap about the filming/manipulation of it, his performance in The Last Waltz still inspires. And he's a drummer!

About time you came home dude. Nice one Chris

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1334685725' post='1619798'] Personally I don't like the 'clean' sounds I've heard from a Rickenbacker bass. But when a bit of grind is added (usually SVT flavoured) there's nothing like it! They look the business aswell! I would love to own one purely because of the look! [/quote] Both mine have beautiful fat, full and sweet clean tones, no distortion needed (a little USA valvey warmth doesn't do any harm though)

[quote name='sprocket123' timestamp='1334666157' post='1619345'] Hey Beedster , did I write they were inexperienced , & naive ! read the post again , by the way it wasn a rant at all , I always wanted a Ric , it was written Some , as it can be said of most other instrument makers by the way , i didn t put Rics down , you might have misinterpreted it wrong , it s what I think [/quote] And i was calling my words a rant, not yours..........

[quote name='sprocket123' timestamp='1334666157' post='1619345'] Hey Beedster , did I write they were inexperienced , & naive ! read the post again , by the way it wasn a rant at all , I always wanted a Ric , it was written Some , as it can be said of most other instrument makers by the way , i didn t put Rics down , you might have misinterpreted it wrong , it s what I think [/quote] Dude, given i'm the second person on here to misinterpret the post in question causing you to come back in an attempt to defend it, what do you think? My post was intended as humour, poor quality humour yes, but humour all the same. Don't get too serious, it's a thread about bass guitars

Seems as good a time as any to re-post the below rant in response to a previous Ric-bash [quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1330337754' post='1555746'] Probably worth countering one man's opinion with another's here. I started playing bass in the late 70's and until late 2009 had never played a Ric. This was because everything I've heard both of them and about them put me off (in fact, a lot of what I heard was similar to the post quoted above). As most on here know, I was a Leo kinda guy; Precisions were my mainstay with the occasional flirtation with Jazzes and Stingrays. I moved from gigging fretted to fretless in early 2009 (not because I'm any good at fretless per se, but because I've always struggled to get decent tone without fret buzz on fretted instruments), and having spent the summer gigging a lovely old fretless Jazz and occasionally a fretless Precision, felt I wasn't getting the oomph I wanted from either. So, I bought, on a whim, a 2005 fretless Ric body/neck and built it up. The first rehearsal in September 2009 was an absolute revelation, both in terms of the sound and the playability. The sound was the sound I'd always had in my head, fat lows and clear sweet highs, and the playability - despite a far fatter neck than either my Jazz or Precision - was substantially better; it sat better, my right hand seemed to sit naturally at the sweet spot (I always had to move my hand to an uncomfortable place to find this with Precisions and Jazzes. In short, it just worked. OK, I play flats and go for a far more retro tone than many players, so direct comparisons with what a lot of guys refer to as 'good tone' probably aren't applicable. However, I now don't have a Precision, and it's a long time since I could say that! I also have a fretted Ric-alike, mainly as back up but also for recording when things need to be slightly more in tune). The above of course proves nothing, it's a horses for courses world and when talking about music, instruments etc, only an idiot makes categorical statements about one thing being definitively better than another. However, I will say that a lot of people give Rics a very hard time on the basis of having played a badly set up instrument through a crap amp in a store (or having heard about someone who did), or through assuming that Squire or Lee's tone is the only thing Rics do, without ever going to the effort of giving one a real go, as was the case with me for 30 odd years. Whilst I accept the Precision orthodoxy alluded to above, I can put my hand on my heart and say that i've played far more crap Precisions than I have crap Rics! C [/quote]

[quote name='sprocket123' timestamp='1334615425' post='1618761'] Well , have you noticed that some of these bass players where playing kind of real busy too , some Rics had not much sustain . Listen to Geddy Lee , Chris Squire , Paul McCartney ( as well as his Hofner ) as stated beforehand , so I guess they had to compensate for this . [/quote] So [i]some[/i] Ric players were kind of busy, and [i]some[/i] Rics have no sustain. Now you've pointed it out i realise that the two are causal;ly connected and those players - inexperienced and naive musicians as they were - chose poor examples of the brand in question and then spent years developing their respective playing styles to compensate for those inadequacies. It's all clear to me now, thanks for explaining

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1334614343' post='1618734'] Most Rickenbacker clips on Youtube do sound pretty drab. They are eccentric basses and need to be tamed and understood. If you're looking for that classic Rush/Yes clanky growl we all love (except Beedster ) then amplification has a lot to do with it. The tones are there, but often need to be coaxed out. They're not like a P bass, which still sounds like a P bass no matter what it's plugged into. [/quote] LOL, but you're right Prof. Valdemar

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1334614513' post='1618740'] My PC goes through some decent monitors. A search for 4001 produced one or two better sounding instruments. But they did have the gain cranked a bit. Still some others sound no better than a F*****. May be it's just a case of the hands that are playing them. As I said the big name players do get great sounds from them. [/quote] Try listening to some of the fretless Wal playing on YT. Does that in any way lessen the quality of the instrument?

4001 strung with Ric 4445 tapewounds through Mesa tubes and 2x15 is bass heaven. You've probably been listening to those rock dudes cranking up the highs and the gain through an 8x10. Widen the search

Have you posted a 'Wanted: lefty 4003' ad on BC......?

Too risky to buy that bass from the US, take the advice above and either source or have one built in the UK

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1334226436' post='1612732'] Shaker, my Gherson faker is now for sale if you fancy a low cost/low risk flirtation with a Ric-like instrument. I'm just down the road from you after all [/quote] Discrete link (given recent undiplomatic US corporate intervention) at [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/173293-late-70searly-80s-gherson-copy-of-a-famous-brand-bass-for-sale/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/173293-late-70searly-80s-gherson-copy-of-a-famous-brand-bass-for-sale/[/url]

Shaker, my Gherson faker is now for sale if you fancy a low cost/low risk flirtation with a Ric-like instrument. I'm just down the road from you after all