12stringbassist

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)

Apparently appearing at NAMM...

That's my wife's idea.

£2300 plus in PMT last week. A joke... Good job I bought mine before the prices went stratospheric (or before they reached the partway point they are at now.

As Midge said in his rather good autobiography, he 'had a relationship with Jack Daniels' for some time and that may have done him no good. He seems to be quite sober these days. Being unfairly 'in the shadow ' of the more media-savvy Geldof, who bumped Ultravox to a different spot on the bill at Live Aid, so that The Boomtown Rats could play before Charles and Di buggered off elsewhere, hasn't helped either. Midge had enormous involvement in that and it distracted from his career at the time.

If you fancy the fortnight's work and possibly some more to follow, take the rules as read, but ask another band member when on board. If someone was paying me good money to play bass on a cruise ship, I'd go on the lemonade for the duration.

My mate has a Dean R12. Looks aside (and I didn't mind it), it was really VERY playable.

Ha! Your wish, etc, etc.. From GIRLFRIENDS on ITV last night. If you watch it on catch up, the bass I played on the actual live recording of the song was a Ric 4003W

Adding chorus to an 8 string bass will not give you a 12 string bass sound. It will sound like a 'confused' 8-string bass, with the output signal rather messed up. I have a Dean Rhapsody 8-string bass and can attest that it is one of the best basses for all over intonation of its type. My two Hamer 12er's are also excellent for intonation (both are different scales). The sound is 'bigger than the 8-string, especially if you do not tune totally precisely. They are both active. They sound pretty thunderous through my Hartke rig.

This other one of mine is a bit better than the first for bass tone...

Try this one...

CT in Manchester last year... My favourite band. Tom is totally to blame for me getting into using 12-string basses.

Excalibur..

Here are mine... Recently, I ventured up to the excellent Promenade Music store way up North in Morecambe to try and then buy this Vintage Midge Ure signature guitar. I'd never visited the shop before. They have a huge and stunning stock of instruments of all types. I was quite amazed by the place. As for the MU, it's a Les Paul styled guitar, obviously. After a quick remedial setup in the shop, which worked a treat, I parted with my sheckels for this lovely instrument. The story behind me going miles and miles for this particular guitar? It's quite simple. I went to see Ultravox on their reunion tours in 2010 and 2012 and Midge Ure used two Vintage Les Paul type guitars on the latter tour. They sounded unbelievable. He is an absolutely impressive guitarist and as a result of the second show, I convinced myself I needed a Vintage Les Paul type guitar. The signature model wasn't available at that point. Not too long after the gig, I went to Reidys in Blackburn and found that guitars they had in stock were nearly unplayable. I then went to PMT in Salford and spent comparatively silly money (about four times as much as the eventual cost of the Vintage signature model) on my genuine Gibson Les Paul Traditional guitar. It turned out to be a fantastic investment and it really made me take my guitar playing a lot more seriously. More recently I bought a Radiotone LP goldtop replica guitar at a guitar show and I thought I was 'there' as far as Les Paul guitars went. Then, the inevitable happened... Ian - the guitarist in my band, the Three, turned up at a recent gig with a standard Vintage LP goldtop and handed it to me to try out. It felt great and I started to get the bee in my bonnet again. This guitar plays wonderfully. The pickups sound great and once I have played it in a bit, I am quite sure that I will use it regularly. It is a convincingly weighty guitar, compared to the standard Vintage LP-type goldtop model, which I also tried at the store (and which Midge Ure also used on the tour). It is fitted with P90 pickups and a Vibrola arm. It really looks The Business and has a great sound. I have told my long-suffering wife - many times - that each guitar I have gone out and bought was the last one, sometimes even believing it myself. Then the next thing has come along. This brings my guitar and bass total to 50 and I REALLY don't want any more. It's the end of a glorious and expensive era.

The answer to the initial question (I haven't read the whole topic yet) is that a good guitar is a good guitar. Older ones can have a higher resale value, according to make / scarcity / condition. And of course they can all sound pretty much the same. There's a Flying V from 1969 on the front of this month's guitar magazine going for £30k. Would I pay that? No, it's way way out of my league money-wise. If I spent a big chunk of our savings on that, I imagine Mrs 12String would speak to me even less. Someone else will be able to easily afford it and relish having a historic guitar. I'd be as happy with whatever recent Gibson, or similar, that I could afford. Horses for courses. Dealers set these somewhat excessive prices and they only matter when someone actually pays that asking price.