The Last Bass Outpost

I'm putting some songs together and need to occasionally put some guitar chords in to test some ideas. Will the guitar do anything to my speakers? Volume would not be too loud.

I was recently trying our some of the new Rickenbacker, Shecter and Yamaha BB Series basses and a Fender Jazz. I just plugged into the nearest amp, it being a Fender Rumble 100. At first I thought well, these are pretty nice basses and all sounding good. I tried out some of the options on this rather small combo amp and was quite surprised how versatile it was. Impressed with the amp, there was a Rumble 200 next to it and that was that much more being 200 watts. I had my Gibson TBIV getting back from a setup and that sounded glorious on both as well. I remember the original Rumble series and not impressed. Could this new series have benefitted from the Genz Benz technology that Fender 'inherited'?

Walking through the park this afternoon i heard some music from afar. What caught my ear was the bass tone cutting through the dense trees and through the meadow. I followed my ears and came upon the shaggy group of guitars a keyboard and drums. The bass player plating an old frankenstein Fender etc. bass through a Peavey TKO 65... Wow..he put that amp through some hoops, then slowed down with some pure tone.  Afterwards I got talking and he let me have a go. Playing my own partcular style and beeing out in the open this combo covered a lot of ground. Gonna get me one

Stopped in the local GC last week for some strings and having a bit of time on my hands noticed that there was no one in the newly designed bass section. I was more interested in trying out a few combos so I just grabbed a bass off the wall that I was familiar with. Now I should say that I have had 3 Thunderbirds ( one from the 60's and 2 from the last 20 years). I sold them and have been TBird free for.... About 2 years now.  Anyhow i sat down with this bass and the first thing I noticed was how light and balanced it was. It was also set up properly and did have a bit more of a ...boutique feel to it. Plugged it in and of course noticed the exposed poles and 2 little switches under the nice simple vvt (i like simplicity and do not like  lots of switches). Playing it i was surprised at some of the varying tones available and not complicated to understand).  One of the things about my previous TBirds was that if you pretty much set the V & T full on you would have that famous sound ( of course noting the differences from the '60' s version and the TB+).  Now this new ' 15 version is somewhat another animal. i actually also like the bridge and there was a significant resonance just plucking it before I plugged it in. So for me this bass was pretty nice all around. I am not really hung up on what previous TBirds models were like, I just took it on what it played, sounded and felt like.  I was intigued enough to play it for about 20 minutes before I put it back on the rack. Yes , I did notice the price when putting it back and ...... Not sure they are going to sell many of these and Yes, I did wonder what Gibson was thinking once again as I think they could have produced this for the same price as before. Perhaps the extra quality control and care in putting  it together justifies it for them, which is actually too bad, as every instrument should be fully inspected and be proudly packed and set up when they leave the factory.  I do think Uwe needs one of these and would appreciate it. I am thinking myself as well. 

I have a Fiesta Red Fender Road Worn (fantastic bass by the way, I never liked the idea of artificial aging, but after playing it, it definitely felt like home. this was 4 years ago now). Well I never really cared for Fiesta Red, but as I said the bass itself feels great and sounds even better. Soo what I like to do is a basic finish strip and just keep it 'natural' for now. Is this a matter of just getting some fine sand paper and 'sanding away' or what would be an alternative? I might like to do a Tobacco burst finish in the future but for now the natural appeals to me. The neck is rosewood fingerboard.

I am setting up a practice room in my garage. However tone end of the garage the dear wife needs some overhead lighting for her projects. I thought some years back Inread here or somwhere about making sure not to use certain lighting that might effect the electrical ( noise) signals on shred circuits...  Any body have any experience or advice on this ? Thanks kindly.

Considering getting a 4001. Like most things about it except for the neck profile. I prefer a more jazz profile & width (1.5") at the nut. So i talked to a local luthier here in S.F. Who said he can get it close to there depending on a few things. The cost of the refret all said and done will be between $450-500. Not too bad considering I definitely cannot play comfortably with the stock Rick neck. Way too wide and beefy at the headstock. He actually did a nice job on a precision neck I had transformed into a jazz profile. Any one else done this on a Rick?

I've never had any inklings towards Rickenbacker basses except that I thought they looked cool and liked Chris Squier's tone. The other day while 'browsing' I tried out a new 4003 Jetglo. Actually it was not as heavy as I thought and well balanced. The neck profile at the nut area was a little wider or heftier than I like, but not unplayable. Soo are there any Rickes with a thinner profile similiar to the Jazz vs Precision? Also what is the difference between the toaster pups and the Pups on the 4003? Incan add here that if I was to seriously consider this bass, I might file/ sand down the neck up top.