What made it even MORE fun was getting to meet fellow forumite Mike Chrisom, who brought his 4001CS for me to have a look at.
He brought it in and opened the case and my first reaction was "WOW." I mean, I've played a few Rics in my day, but this one was awesome to see in person. I took it out of the case, gingerly of course, and gave it a look over, it was in great shape, I was looking for some kind of flaw, but couldn't see anything!
He then asked me if I wanted to play it for our set, I was like, "Are you serious? Um....yeah!" after thinking it over for like .001 seconds.
It did not have straplocks on it, like all of my basses do, so I was a little nervous about dropping it (much less breathing on it).
I plugged it into the Ampeg 8x10 setup they supplied for the gig, and was blown away immediately by how LOUD it was. The bassist in the band before us, using some active Ibanez thingy, was barely audible in the mix, but this beast was twice as loud as his, at the same volume!
And the tone? Oh my....great sound, I had the pickup selector in the middle (I usually go heavy on the bridge pickup but no need with this one) and it just had great bite.
Playability-wise, this bass had the nicest neck I had played on a Ric. It was so slim that my hand almost wrapped all the way around it!
I was worried that the horseshoe would get in my way when picking, but it didn't, it felt tremendous to play and I was shocked when he said that he had played it for 5 years in his church band. I told him it looked like it had been under a bed for 5 years!
He had all the 'candy' in the case as well, the cert, signed by JH, number 536 or thereabouts, it was just an awesome bass. Thanks so much, Mike, for coming out and bringing that bass, and for letting me play it! I hope I didn't make you nervous!!
Here are some photos of Mike and I and the bass...
I seriously wanted to take it home with me!!
This one is out of focus, the lead singer took it.
