Skybone

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1449589562' post='2924922']Apropos of very little - Peart's retirement: awesome, inspirational, genre-defining drummer, Marmite lyricist, woeful writer. So, which one does he pack in? J. [/quote] You missed off R1200GS rider...

Don't The Creamery make replacement Ric pickups?

Evil Blizzard... 4 basses

Gutted, but expected. I was hopeful that they would just retire from touring, but still record new material as Rush. If Clockwork Angels is their final studio album, then they've left on a high note. Saw them on the "Hold Your Fire" tour, gutted I missed the Clockwork Angels tour.

FWIW: I'd hankered after a Ric for many, many years before I ever owned one, there was always something holding me back, either cost or condition of the used ones I tried, but I finally found one that I could afford, and was in very good condition. It turned out to be the one bass that I owned for the longest period through the time that I've been playing, and only sold it because I had no choice financially. Regret selling it? Yes. What put me off for so long? The neck profile was so different to the universal P or J style neck, but then trying one out felt so "right". Anyway, I think that if you're thinking of getting a Ric, then you should try out as many as you can, new or used. Use your hands and ears. The necks are "chunky", it's slightly wider than the Yam's, but also slightly thinner IIRC (was looking at the BB414 when I was replacing my old 4003, but bought a Jazz instead... a big mistake after the Ric! Ended up selling the Jazz & buying a Rockinbetter "replica" x2!). I'm not a big fan of the "S", for me a Ric has to have the binding & triangle board inlays, though I do like the 4004's.

So need to try one out now!

I thought the Laredo & Cheyenne's both had Walnut in the body, the Cheyenne has a Maple/Walnut/Maple sandwich, where the Laredo has a cap Maple over Walnut. didn't realse this until recently when I was looking at 4004's on eBay. Rickenbacker helpfully list the 4004L as having a "Hardwood" body, where the Cheyenne is listed as Maple & Walnut. No pictures etc Cheyenne:

Didn't Hooky play a Shaftesbury in Joy Division? From what know, the Shaftesbury's were on a par with the Ibanez/Cimar/CMI/etc copies, as Bassassin says. If it's in good overall nick and you can afford it, get it.

I never used to like the 4004's, but they are growing on me of late, I do wish they'd make one with the triangle inlays and 2 volume/1-2 tone pots though. Personally, I'd buy a 4003 over a 4004, because they have that "classic" look, where the 4004 is a modern take on a classic design. Plus the fact that 4004's are a fair bit more expensive than a 4003 too, though they are a lot more "exclusive" because of it. Guess I'll stick with my 'Fakers...

Bass strings especially are cheaper from Thomann than anywhere in the UK, including the £10 (or 10€) postage charge.

GAS means we are all victims of a capitalist society. Ooooh... shiny piece of new kit... must purchase.....

If you rip an audio CD from MP3's however, don't even think about using anything less than 320kbps. Anything less, and you will loose audio definition. I once reproduced a demo CD using 128kbps MP3's. It sounded really muddy compared to the MP3 used. I remixed the tracks and re-ripped them at 320kbps, and they sounded much brighter and defined when transferred to an audio CD.

Try: [url="http://www.shirtysomething.com/index.html"]http://www.shirtysomething.com/index.html[/url] I had a load of shirts made up a few yeas back for one band, and they've held up well. Run by a bass player as well (Frazer Craske from 80's UK thashers Sabbat).

Been looking into these for a little while, I managed to get the list down to either the Steinberg UR22 mkII, the Focusrite 2i2 or the M-Audio M-Track Plus 2. Both the Steinberg & the Focusrite get great reviews, and the M-Audio's got a good spec and a good price. All come with ether Ableton Live Lite or Cubase LE and are 2in/2out devices. Having had an M-Audio Delta soundcard on a desktop PC (and limited funds), the M-Audio won (£90 inc postage), where the UR22 & 2i2 came in at around £100 mark, especially when postage was factored in. How it fares, we'll have to wait & see...

I've not read the Pete Cornish piece, and I've never used one of Pete's products. I am pretty sure that they do sound superb... however I know that I can't afford one of Pete's pedals, and I don't know anyone who's ever even seen one, let alone tried one or owned one. Given the budgetary constraints and the kit available 10-15-odd years ago, everyone made do with what as available. If pedals were noisy while switched off, you either put up with it or moved it on to get something else that was hopefully quiet. Which is why True Bypass became so popular. Cable losses are also negligible these days too, due to far better quality leads being available at more affordable prices. The Buffered pedal experience I mentioned has been experienced by many musicians over the years, and it is really annoying.

If you right click on the "Quote" button, and "Open in New Tab", it works.

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1447807026' post='2910660']See, this is what annoys me. Because there's all these companies that regularly deliver all over the highlands, I see no excuse for not delivering ! I get stuff from all over, in record time and yet companies from dahn sath, or sometimes even east Scotland, will tell me, don't deliver to Scottish highlands ! Lost a sale then chums![/quote] Totally agree. The ironic thing was that both Charlie Kennedy & Danny Alexander were trying to raise the profile of this issue, and seemed to be making some headway before the last election, where they both lost their seats, and then Charlie's untimely death. Haven't heard any of the SNP MP's making any noise about this, or the fuel price issue yet.

Bought one a little while ago after seeing this thread, definitely worth the money IMO.

Don't forget that it's an 18v pre-amp, so you need 2 9v batteries! Nice.

Buffered pedals have been getting a "bad reputation" over the last few years, and the prevalence of "True Bypass" in pedals. When a true bypass pedal is switched off, the circuit is bypassed, and you hear the unaffected sound of the instrument. With a buffered circuit, the pedal isn't necessarily bypassed when it's switched off, and you can still hear "artefacts" of the effect. This is especially noticeable in modulation effects, like wah's, phasers, chorus, delay etc. Remember one band where the running joke was "I can still hear that bloody (effect name), are you sure it's off?". Remember another band where I had to replace my entire pedal board with true bypass versions, as the artefacts from my pedals were getting seriously annoying.

Instead of looking at a drive pedal, have you tried using reverb to fill out the sound? If you use it subtley, it can really fill out the sound, and give it a bit of "width".

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1447619763' post='2909024']Fine, but the thing is is that some people don't really care about music. [/quote] Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of people that this applies to, who are employed in the music industry.

Some of it is nostalgia, but also some of it is that they were actually good instruments. I seriously regret selling my old Thunder 1A, but don't regret selling my old Raider & Spectrum basses. I regretted selling my old Ibanez Artist 2619(s), 1978 Iceman, Aria SB Special II and a few other "classic" MIJ guitars. Compared to today's "entry level" instruments, they weren't that great. But compared to other "entry level" instruments at the time, they were serious bit of kit for the money.

The most used excuse is that because the populace is spread out over a greater distance in the Highlands, it costs them more to have an efficient delivery network, which is almost plausible, apart from the fact that they sub-contract all the work out to another company who has more vehicles. They have more vehicles, because they get sub-contracted by the major courier companies to do their deliveries for them. Thing is though, from prior experience of courier companies, I would much rather have this local company doing the deliveries anyway, they're far more reliable than the others!

Ebay?