Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hands down just a fantastic bass......my ex-Wal MKIII 5-er. Such a wonderful array of useable tones and an absolute joy to play. If it wasn't for how much $$$$$$ I had into it I never would have sold it to help finance our house purchase last year. I hope to score another someday and if I didn't have my Rics it would be a certainty.

Love the wood on that one...

Mosrite Ventures bass in red or blue!

Funny how many times the Ripper has come up in this thread. When I was in Jr High, a friend of mine had a Ripper that he let me borrow for a show we did on the front lawn of the school. Blast to the past time - this is me with the Ripper in 1979. Notice how I'm almost as tall as the bass is:

I normally shy away from Gibson, but as far as the Ripper goes, yeah, sign me up!

Nice pic...Oh and nice Kustom blue sparkle cabinet. I had a red sparkle head, but no cab.

Aren't those Kustom cabs awesome? That one in the picture also folder out into a twin bed.

As an all-rounder, a good MIJ J-bass is hard to beat, and durable. If the neck profile annoys you, you can always install a P-bass neck, and Fenders (or Fender clones) are so easy to hot-rod. I have a great '62 RI with CS pups that has been my mainstay non-Rick for the last three years.

Other than a Rick, just my Geddy Lee J-Bass: lacquered maple neck.

antipodean wrote:As an all-rounder, a good MIJ J-bass is hard to beat, and durable. If the neck profile annoys you, you can always install a P-bass neck, and Fenders (or Fender clones) are so easy to hot-rod. I have a great '62 RI with CS pups that has been my mainstay non-Rick for the last three years.

Good idea but I'd not only need a P Bass neck for the profile, I'd also need a P Bass body! I hate the way Jazzers look (call me a waffler, because I used to like 'em), especially the "bump" for the controls and the chrome plate. Maybe I could get a P Bass neck+body but rig the electronics up like a Jazz. Now that would be fun.

I'd waffle right there with you, except that I never liked them. I've got the same cosmetic hang-up with the J-Bass. Never liked the body design. Sound-wise, James Jamerson, John Paul Jones, and Jaco got some great sounds from it, but it otherwise has such a generic, uncharacteristic sound to my ear, which is probably why it's popular for recording sessions.

A friend of mine has a Precision Deluxe (I think it's called) which is a Precision bass with the jazz pickup added to the bridge position. I don't know if it's a jazz neck, but one could sure make it that way easily if they desired.

These days, I finally got my first P-Bass of my life and I love it. It's an ugly black MIM with terrible action and bowing when I got it but I loved the neck which has a nice narrow nut like a J and a slim neck profile. Well, I worked on the setup for some time, did it myself, and was it worth it when I finally got it dialed in! And it sounds like a P-Bass ought to. My friend didn't even take my money for it, the way it was, so I got it for the "price" of setting it up!

It's doing its best to hold me over until my next Rick comes along. And even then I'll keep it for variety.

Either my 1964 Hofner Violin bass or my Musicman SUB,one brand of bass which has not been mentioned that look and sound good is Peavey.

Alembic or Sei Bass. End of.