The US Trade Deficit and what am I doing about it ... (political thread!)

[uwe]

Were they the guys that also offered the hacked up Ripper for ages? And always had those horrendous mulit-color descriptions? In that case I retract my statement!!!

[uwe]

I retract my favorable statement for them, these are indeed the guys with the colorful font and the chopped up Ripper, I mistook them with another Cologne outfit. I never bought anything from them, the whole presentation turned me off and a lot of stuff was vastly overpriced (like a Gibson IV they offered for ages). That is not saying that they are crooks, but I'm certainly not endorsing them.

Uwe

[PhilT]

The correct order of the universe is restored. Phew.

My theory was that they used the hacked up Ripper and other horrors as cheap advertising for their parts business.

[mc2NY]

Jon, it has arrived. And what a lovely bass it is. All those among us who believe sixties and Bicentennial TBirds to be the be and end all of all things Donnervogel should spend a couple of hours with this bass and be converted. It is beautifully responsive, great timbre, lovely growl and plays like buddah - after getting the action to a more manly height that is as good Jon obviously prefers a girlie/JAE action that gives new meaning to the word Buzz-ard!  

The three pups are set up unexpectedly: You can either hear neck alone, neck and middle together or bridge alone - not exactly the most sensible choice IMHO but easily rectified should I ever want to change it. But I probably won't as the front/middle combo gives the bass a slightly phased out, gnarly, yet subbassy sound which for lack of anything closer reminds me of a WAL and sounds like no other Bird I've heard. Hurray, the Fusionbird!!! Neck alone is beautifully throaty and bridge alone piano stringy without being too brittle.

What a wonderful Bird, je suis deeply satisfied, danke for selling it to me!

Uwe....

Yeah, it is a great TBird. I felt it HAD to go to you. I'm particular where my great ones go. BTW...I am shipping off another Hamer TBird tomorrow to a pal of Nikki Sixx's, at his recommendation. Second one I've sold to this guy.

And yes....I DO set up my basses with crazy low "girlie" action. BUT that bass is a great example of just how good you can get a three-point bridge playing if you know how to set it up right.

I'm glad it arrived safely and is in good company

[uwe]

I just read in a Lee Sklar interview (he likes his action doublebass high on electrics) how he and JAE once exchanged basses for the heck of it and both were unable to emit anything meaningful from the other guy's bass. Sklar was unable to hear any tone above the fret noise and JAE's typewriter technique bounced back without even getting the strings on the Sklar bass to create a tone. 

[mc2NY]

Something similar happened to me once. My band was asked to show up to play a few songs for some big benefit at My Father's Place on Long Island near NYC. I forget exactly the cause but I had just gotten my first Kubicki ExFactor bass (SN#153) and no one had really ever seen such a thing.

So, I was backstage and fellow NYC bassist Bonnie Parker was there and she was asking me about it. I was raving how great it was and we were talking bass shop. The last thing she said as my band was about to go on was "I can't wait to hear it...I'm going out front to watch."  So, I plug into my tuner to check myself before going on....tweak my low E and head a "snap"...and the E string goes limp?!?!? AAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!

So, I yell "Who has a bass I can borrow for the set?"  and some guy in a cowboy hat hands me a PBass as they are announcing our band to take the stage. As I am throwing the strap over my shoulder, I'm realizing the action is like a mile high on the PBass and it's got a baseball bat neck. Besides that, I normally do some bass parts that are up past where the PBass frets end, plus the action makes my hammer-on/slap-pop fills impossible. I play the absolute worst that I ever have in my life, for those few tunes and the set feels like hours not minutes. Talk about "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished." It was like having to play a friggin' washtub bass.

The only thing that took my mind off the sheer embarrassment was that my ex-GF showed up and got in a cat fight with my new GF, who was screaming in her Aussie accent. Geez, what a horrid night. The last benefit I ever played where we used gear other than our own.

BTW....The problem with my Kubicki turned out to be a steel "U" clip that hold each string's ratchet tuning wheel in place as the teeth advance. The E string "U" snapped. To this day, Phil swears he never had anyone else tell him this ever happened to their Kubicki. I ordered and still keep a half-dozen spare "U" clips in my gig bag to this day

[uwe]

LOL, as a Kubicki player too, I can relate! I had to change the ratchet wheels on mine because they were no longer gripping with the "U" clips. Plus the electronics went dead after a year's stay in the case when the bass was about 10 years old, Phil exchanged them for free though.

So that is where you got the girlie action from, playing Kubickis!  Those basses spoil you with low action. I still have mine (bought by a young Uwe in the summer of 1988 at Sam Ash in NYC while being seconded to our office there and living in Brooklyn), but try as I might I have outgrown its sound though it served me well for all of the late eighties and early nineties and was my favorite bass then. People would love its "Jefferson Starship - We built this city" sound back then, I 'd always use the mid enhanced active pos too with full treble and full bass. I then moved on to a 5er Status Shark that was already a lot growlier, then to a 5 string Ric until I got my hands on a 97 TBird the first time in the late nineties ... the rest, as they say, is history.

[mc2NY]

LOL, as a Kubicki player too, I can relate! I had to change the ratchet wheels on mine because they were no longer gripping with the "U" clips. Plus the electronics went dead after a year's stay in the case when the bass was about 10 years old, Phil exchanged them for free though.

So that is where you got the girlie action from, playing Kubickis!  Those basses spoil you with low action. I still have mine (bought by a young Uwe in the summer of 1988 at Sam Ash in NYC while being seconded to our office there and living in Brooklyn), but try as I might I have outgrown its sound though it served me well for all of the late eighties and early nineties and was my favorite bass then. People would love its "Jefferson Starship - We built this city" sound back then, I 'd always use the mid enhanced active pos too with full treble and full bass. I then moved on to a 5er Status Shark that was already a lot growlier, then to a 5 string Ric until I got my hands on a 97 TBird the first time in the late nineties ... the rest, as they say, is history.

The Kubickis DID spoil me with low action but I also set up my root-octave basses like that too....I like a slight fret rattle when I play hard on my 8- and 12-string but clean when I play light.

Hey Uwe, I should send you some pics of my Kubickis. I have some rare ones....even Stu Hamm's black one with the Oakland Raiders graphic.