Sue Ryder basses - remember them?

[mcnach]

 

Just wondering how many still have/use theirs.

 

I defretted one of them, put a DiMarzio Model P and D'Addario tapewound strings... and this thing has seen other 'proper' fretless basses come and go, while the Sue Ryder stayed. Don't get me wrong, it won't compare to high end basses by any means, I'm sure, but it's compared very favourably to a couple of Squiers and a MIJ Fender (beautiful natural/maple unlined fingerboard). Those Model P with tapewounds are an amazing combination: roll tone off, and it's so round and thick, but not boomy... open tone, and you get a lot of the attack coming through. 

 

I'm not really a fretless player much, but I'll be playing it on Saturday so I have been 'befriending' the fretless again lately... and it's such a great sounding bass, and pretty light too, very comfy. 

 

Anybody still have theirs? 

 

 

 

[asingardenof]

Sue Ryder off of charity shops?

[Jakester]

12 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

Sue Ryder off of charity shops?

Yep, that's right.

 

There were a number of SR branded basses and guitars which popped up in their shops for a while, and they were apparently very decent instruments. Not played one meself, but they were very well thought of at the time. 

[Sibob]

They were the last Harley Benton's basically, before them it was SX (although mainly in the US).

And so the world turns

 

Si

[ead]

Yes I remember them well.  I was volunteering for the charity at the time and saw a few fly through the shops.  Foolishly, I never bought one.

[police squad]

as far as I know, the Sue Ryder basses were from JHS (John Hornby Skewes). I know the MD there and he told me about them. It upset a few people that they did it. Good luck to 'em, that's what I think

[casapete]

I had one, bought new from a local SR shop. Decent bass for not a lot of money,

although mine went in a ‘Last in / first out’ cull a year or so afterwards.

[Reggaebass]

There was one for sale in a local cash converters for £90, I offered £50 but they wouldn’t sell, I don’t know what they are worth but I would have given it a shot at 50 

[casapete]

Just now, Reggaebass said:

There was one for sale in a local cash converters for £90, I offered £50 but they wouldn’t sell, I don’t know what they are worth but I would have given it a shot at 50 

Think mine new was £79, maybe 10 years ago though. Was a rather nice dark blue with a white 

plate IIRC.

[lemmywinks]

Sold my P bass as I don't like P basses and bought it on a whim, kept hold of the Strat (spotted for £25 in the shop window) for a bit longer but eventually flogged it as I never play guitar. A mate of mine kept his tele and plays it regularly, nice little guitar after a setup and new strings, his brother does his setups so he hasn't spent much extra on it!

 

The basses had okayish pickups, I put an old EMG Select in mine and it was decent, the Strat soundedmore than good enough stock.

[TheGreek]

There was one on ebay/ gumtree recently for £100.

 

I thought the seller was extracting urine.

[mcnach]

22 hours ago, asingardenof said:

Sue Ryder off of charity shops?

 

 

Yes, they had a line of basses and guitars. I think there was some connection between the bass line and the bass player in The Shadows (forget his name now), I don't know. A few years back SR seemed to want to unload fast the instruments and the basses were for sale for £60. They were fine, nothing amazing, but fine. The weakest point was the pickup, sounded ok but were very microphonic (mine were!). 

 

I didn't like Precisions at the time (or so I thought), but at £60 I thought I'd get a couple to mess about with. I only kept this one in the end. I had a hard time deciding between it and the Fender I had bought from @AndyTravis but in the end the SR just felt nicer to me.

 

The Fender was beautiful 'though. I don't have any pictures right now, but it looked like this:

 

[mcnach]

Ha! It turns out I bought THREE of those, not two 

 

I bought them sometime in 2011. Two white ones with rosewood fingerboard and a trans-blue with maple fingerboard (that @tom1946 found near him and arranged to buy for me, thank you Tom!  )

 

The pickup was the only thing I didn't want to keep. Sounded good at home but in loud environments they were picking up a lot of handling noise and squeal on occasion. 

 

One of the white ones was the one to blame for my 'discovering' the joys of a Precision. I had a Wizard Thumper pickup on it and played a few gigs with it. Probably the instrument with the best money earned vs money spent ratio . I sold it in April 2015 [*]

 

I swapped the necks on the other two, and used the white/maple one to turn it into a fretless, which I still own and use.

 

The other was stripped and it was going to be a fun project with a couple of MM pickups... but got bored with it before I finished it and sold it in 2015 as a collection of parts.

 

[*] I have a file with this kind of info. Don't judge me, please 😝 

[gafbass02]

I had a blue one modded with a maple neck and a mm humbucker. I sold it on here simply because the neck was too fat for me.  Shame. It looked ace. 

[Owen]

I did the experiment I had always wanted to do with a P. I drilled the headstock, put an extra machine head on and replaced the bridge with a tight spaced 5 set up. For the record, the nut end was fine. The bridge end was not. It is just as well I resisted the temptation to do it with my Bravewood P the year before. 

[TorturedSaints]

I still have mine, a white one with rosewood fretboard. It’s the only P bass I own, but doesn’t get played much.  It’s still got the plastic on the scratch plate, never got around to taking that off.  It does record well though.  I think it was well worth the BC ‘hype’ at the time, £90 delivered as far as I can recall. There’s probably a P sized GAS itch to be scratched at some stage, but not now 😀.

[mcnach]

I think they were £60 + £12 delivery or so, back in 2011 when they were on sale.

[lemmywinks]

They went from £120, then briefly to £90 then got cleared out at £60 which is when most people on here bought them.

 

I paid £60 for the P and £25 for the Strat which appeared in the window of my local SR a fair bit after the BC gold rush had occurred! Cycled past it on my way to work, went to the cash point and was there waiting when the shop opened at 9am, thankfully my boss understood that a £25 Strat can't be missed and let me come in a bit late.

[lemmywinks]

Double post.

Edited November 29, 2022 by lemmywinks

[TorturedSaints]

2 hours ago, mcnach said:

I think they were £60 + £12 delivery or so, back in 2011 when they were on sale.

You’re probably right, it was a long time ago 😀.  

[nick]

I got one of the sonic blue ones back in the day. To be fair, I modded & pimped it up quite substantially.... Mighty Mite neck, pearloid pickguard, EMG's. I guess the only original thing left was the body 🙂

 

[lemmywinks]

Was quite fun seeing everybody tinkering around with their SR basses back then, some really cool stuff like the one with the veneer and gold leaf.

Edited November 29, 2022 by lemmywinks