12stringbassist

Just spotted this on the net. Sums it all up really....

Epiphone might be in danger too? http://www.epiphone.com/News/Features/Features/2013/Epiphone-Celebrates-56-Years-Part-of-Gibson-Family.aspx

This doesn't give me an excuse to nip out and buy a new Les Paul for under the bed... PMT in Manchester can't get any new Gibson stock at present as the CITES certification for Gibsons is being an issue at the moment.

We did three gigs this weekend (handing our regular Sunday jam night over to friends for the night). The first gig was a rock night at a club in Ashton-in-Makerfield where we went down a storm with the crowd, which was slightly depleted, due to a load of them apparently going to watch Livewire in St Helens. We were asked to keep it down slightly to stop the mad woman from next door but three turning up in her nightie again and doing her fruit about the noise. No mad woman and our regular drummer was unwell, so we got a stand-in that we have had play with us for a while last year and it was a fairly solid showing. The crowd loved us, but when I went back to the venue today for a re-booking, their diary is full for the rest of the year, but we are good for next year... The second gig was a pub near Rochdale. After securing some quite difficult parking outside to unload, we carted our gear down a long narrow room down to a quite narrow but deep stage area, with a wall in front of us up to our waists. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the amount of room we had to set up in at first, but it sounded surprisingly good in that small boxy area. The crowd were into it, though we had to stop for the boxing. Our regular drummer had shaken off his lurgy and we played well. Last night (Sunday) we took a night off from our regular jam night and played at the Talbot in Burnley. Sundays there are usually 6 til 9 and you do three sets, rather than our usual two. Some friends turned up to watch us and the gig turned out to seem to be effortless to play and we got a lot of compliments afterwards. This video is from the gig..

I don't think that John Deacon did a lead vocal on anything and he was quoted as saying his voice was not that great for backing vocals either and that he felt awkward miming them in videos.

My beloved B12.

The back is unusual, too. Inlaid logo - one of their limited runs.

This is not the correct forum to tell any of my stories about Dave Hill from Slade II. Bloody prat.

Waterstone are re-stocking their 12ers.

The SG on the left has had the chrome pickup covers when my mate had it. I'll try to find a bit more out about it from him. The SGII had a brass nut fitted, at my request, when it had its refinish.

I could have done it when I had two identical Hartke setups for a while up to last year. The two rigs wouldn't balance tonally. If I combine all the rigs, I get a really full range sound at low volume.

My old band were so well-drilled in our painfully static set list, that we didn't have to even look at each other. That's nearly two years of my life that I won't get back...

I think that advert would suit a 'retired gentleman of a certain age' who really only wanted to gig a minimum number of times to prove he can still do it, but is not up to regular gigging. They are straight up about what they want, including a large degree of exclusivity (well, that's how it reads to me). I have another 10 years to go before I am old and infirm enough to answer an ad like that or read it all the way through.

Reads as nobody notices, but more insulting to the buggers.

Here we have my normal bass rig - a Hartke HA3500 power amp, coupled with a 2x10 and 4x10 cabinet. This being taken at our Sunday jam night, my Fender Champion 100w guitar amp is also pictured. The view forward at jam night - Laney monitor, my guitar FX board, PA desk on bass bin, lyrics for the songs all the mortals do, a couple of basses and a guitar. My frightening 'Geddy Lee' set-up of bass effects (not). Flanger and tuner. Alternative bass rig, which sometimes gets coupled with the Hartke rig at big venues. Two Trace Elliot 715 combos. Basses: 'Active evenings': Fender P deluxe or Precision Lyte Hamer B12 12string bass Warwick Streamer CT NT bass or Thumb Passive evenings: Fender Jazz A couple of Rickenbackers Fender 60th P or something else Guitars Gibson LP Gretsch White Falcon Strat Vintage Midge Ure signature LP type or something else

My band The Three do the song and I'm a BIG John / Who fan. I swap the line over, too. No bugger notices...

I've got 4 4003's and the only issue i have ever had with mine is with the Midnight Blue finish bleeding into the binding. It stank of paint when I opened the case and while the paint felt fine at the time, it obviously wasn't and I got sticky hands a lot from it. The discoloured binding wasn't the issue as much as the utter sh*t I got from John Hall for asking about it on forums, including his. The bleed was a known problem. The bass was a total keeper, though and the bleed is just a bit of mojo, I suppose. I have never had tail lift, bad frets, poor action or anything. The neck pickup is normally set weaker on a 4003 and I wish it wasn't but them's the breaks. I always play with both on and everything set to 10 on the Rics and they just sound great. I'm not a snivelling Ric fanboy. They have made some right dogs, but fortunately, I haven't ever played one.

These are prototypes (which they will sell for big $, I guess). I think they will see the feedback on the pickup shape and revert to a normal shape, then the world will be happy. Thank God they have sorted the bridge out. They need to start offering it on 4 strings, too. It does amuse me though, when so many people say that Ric don't ever change anything.... and then when they actually DO...

Any Ric 5-string users / owners have got used to playing them, I'm sure.

I have the Mex P deluxe and just leave it active all the time.

I really doubt they would invest money in tooling up to make a more suitable neck width. This is about making money, not spending it....

No doubt there are online reports of why Ric stopped producing them some years ago. I have read that there were issues with them that made them give up. I wonder if anything is actually different now. It looks like enough people have shouted that they would buy one, so they have responded. They just need to sort out their bridges and pickups now and make the bridge cover detachable without the need for a bezel.

The imposters are : Retrovibe black 5-string. retrovibe Rickenbastard (was a Vantage) John Birch SCDR bass (1976, greenburst)