...one for the Glenn Hughes fans

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Today I drove two hours one-way to pick up a recently recovered SVT cab I found on Craigslist. It was a neat experience, because the gentleman I bought it from is a radio engineer who used to double on bass and keys and quit playing bass because he found more demand as a keyboard player and was tired of hauling around big bass gear. He also had the coolest home studio setup I've ever seen in person, with an Allen & Heath GS3000 console and tons of outboard gear.  Anyway... the cab is beautiful and seemingly twice as heavy as my four other old Ampeg 8x10's, but it sounds the same, maybe better. I'm guessing this one has the slightly later ceramic magnet Eminence speakers instead of the alnico CTS's of my others; I won't be able to tell until I pull one and check the driver.

...by this point, I'm betting some of you are wondering what in the world this little tale has to do with the title of the thread; well, here it is: to try out the cab, he hauled out a very pretty natural finished Ric 4001. He told me that it was supposedly a payment for a drug debt that Glenn had made to a dealer in LA years ago and he got it from the guy the drug dealer sold it to.  I'll be blunt; I love the Ric sound, but before today, in all my time playing bass, I have only played two Ric's that made me want one of my own, and that includes a '72 with checkerboard binding I maintain for a co-worker of my wife that he bought brand new in 1972 and is in near mint condition. It's gorgeous, but plays like a football bat, even with a good setup. The one I played today would have been the best player by far, but it had low pick-player/chording setup. Of course, the Glenn Hughes connection is just a third-hand musician tale, but man did that Ric sound and play killer!

I got a laugh when he powered up the Mesa head, and I dug into the strings the way I'm used to playing. As I said before, the action was very low, and my technique is anything BUT finesse and light, so there was lots of popping and crackling from the strings bouncing off the polepieces. He got a very concerned look and began checking the cables and the amp until I looked up and smiled and said, "Don't worry about it; that's me." In less than five seconds, I knew the cab was fine, but the difference between my playing style and his was so pronounced, the racket I was making scared his young daughter! I might add, it was a pretty low volume demo by my standards. 

BTW, if any of you are local to Bristol, TN or will be by there, he is also selling a Mesa Impulse 600 and a matching 6x10. PM me for his contact info.

[SKATE RAT]

congrats on the new cab. i'll get an 8X10 someday

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Congratulations! So I guess you need an Ampeg head to go with that 8x10, huh?
I got mine together a coupla years ago--early 70s vintage!!

Gonna get that Hughes Ric? That would be AWESOME!!!
Have you seen my thread over in Bass Topics about Glenn?
He's in a new band called Black Country. Gonna ROCK!!!!!!  

[the mojo hobo]

Congratulations! So I guess you need an Ampeg head to go with that 8x10, huh?

I'm guess ing that he already has at least one:

the cab is beautiful and seemingly twice as heavy as my four other old Ampeg 8x10's,

[uwe]

Funnily enough, Hughes never really liked playing Rics. It was a thing forced on him to emulate his predecessor Roger Glover, but his Ric playing only laszed on tour before he was back to Fender, a P of all thing!

[nofi]

a p for every occasion. he is playing a fender mustang on the cover of 'we are the music...'

[rahock]

I had a Ric for a while and went back to a P myself.
Rick

[uwe]

The mix of the Ric he used on Burn is unfortunate - too little midrange, it's all presence and subwoof, you can hear that distinctly on the Burn remixes and remasters that came out a few years ago. Which is weird as they used their tried and trusted producer Martin Birch who had given Roger Glover such a prominent sound on Machine Head, Made in Japan and Who do you think we are. Glenn just didn't gel with the Ric even though he is such an upfront attack-happy player.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Congratulations! So I guess you need an Ampeg head to go with that 8x10, huh?

Please tell me you're being sarcastic. Trust me; I've got that covered in spades.  

Gonna get that Hughes Ric? That would be AWESOME!!!

It wasn't for sale, but I'm keeping in touch with him just because he's such a cool guy.

[clankenstein]

plays like a football bat,

thats got to be slightly safer than i vampire bat i guess