Ian's gear

Rickenbacker 4003 in fireglo finish.

I bought this one when I was playing with a club / cabaret band doing 60's music, to try show willing and to try to fit in with the lead guitarist, who had a similar looking Rickenbacker 12-string guitar.

Great to play and gives a quite good variety of sounds. If the 4000 series basses were good enough for Paul McCartney and for The Jam's Bruce Foxton - two of the best bassists ever - they're certanly good enough for me!

Rickenbacker 4003 in Blue Boy finish.

This was an excellent and totally unexpected Christmas present from my wife. The Blue Boy colour at the time was a very limited edition run (although Rickenbacker later did it as a 'colour of the year' edition.

This one is a lot more rocky sounding than the fireglo. It has a lot more mid tone to it. I have no idea why, as I have set them both up pretty similarly. The neck feels a bit thicker than my first one, which may have something to do with it. The Blue Boy colour is known to eventually go green after exposure to lights, etc. Mine hasn't done that yet, five years on.

Rickenbacker 4003 in Midnight Blue.

This is the one of the three that I find that I go to the most. It just has that sound to it and it feels to me to be the most comfortable of the three to play... not that the others are hard to play at all!

The bass colour looks different under different lights and this spectacular result is a result of a special combination varnish. A number of the Midnight Blue guitars and basses that Rickenbacker released have been subject to an unfortunate 'bleeding' problem, where the blue goes into the white binding. Mine too.
Unfortunately, my warranty didn't cover this as my bass was imported. It is still my 'favourite' player of the three.

Burns Bison (reissue) bass.

This bass is great for the studio. It has just about every variety of tone built in that anyone could need. It's great for live use too and the only thing that could be considred a 'drawback' is the emormous body size. It weighs a ton!! The neck reach is the longest that I've ever had to use.

It sounds more like a Rickenbacker at times than my 3 Ric 4003's!!!

Aria ZZB deluxe bass:

At one time, I wanted to be John Entwistle. How would you guess?

Hamer B12S 12-string bass:

More here.

Dean Rhapsody 8-string bass:
If 12-String basses are quite unusual, then so are 8-string basses. They have never really caught on, despite being used by a few major stars at times. This one has a really big sound, coming from a pairing of regular bass strings and octave strings. I got this one from Gian (ex-Badger).

Danelectro Longhorn (reissue):
Steve Priest from The Sweet had one of these and so I always fancied one when I first started off playing. The company stopped production for many years, making them quite hard to find and then did a brief spell of production again.

This has to have the most primitive bridge in the bass world, using a piece of cork! .... and it also has quite cheap looking tuners. Despite indisputable low budget production values, this bass has a great, solid, growling sound.

Its short scale makes it very easy to play. The action is nice and low without having to fiddle with it. It also weighs nothing at all!

Epiphone Flying V bass:
I bought this because I watched too many Marc Bolan videos one day and sometimes I have a stupid passion for pointy guitars. The best thing about this bass is that it once literally gave a wuss I was playing in a band with a migraine as the look of it didn't fit in with the 60's look of the band, according to him. It's based on a 1958 Gibson Flying V, which dates it from around the period of the group's music.

The same people objected to a 5-string Fender Jazz bass, because it had 5 extra notes on it. Dullards.

John Birch SCDR stereo bass (1976):
It looks like a Rickenbacker, which I admit is more than a bit naughty. I couldn't turn down the chance to own a 1970's Birch bass, though, so I ended up getting this overly knob-some bass from a collector who decided to sell his collection of Birch guitars. This one has Magnum and Hyperflux pickups, both personally hand engraved with John Birch's signature.

Fender '60th Anniversary' Precision bass:

Fender Precision Lyte Bass (toffeeburst):

Fender Squier 50's style Precision Basses:
Cool as f***.

Fender '08 USA Jazz Bass in Candy Cola Red:
Bought in America and lost by British Airways in transit between London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Manchester. Fortunately, it turned up.... or I would have killed someone.

Fender Squier Precision Special Bass:
Bargain of the century?

Warwick Streamer 'Chrome Tone'

This bass hung unloved and unwanted on the wall in a Manchester shop for a fair old time. After seeing it there several times, I thought I'd ask to have a go on it. If it had been a regular wooden style Warwick, nice as they are, it wouldn't have got a second look from me. It's a very 'glam rock' type bass and that was what made me look at it.

All the Warwicks I've ever picked up have had thick necks like tree trunks and this one is no exception. Because of the rest of the attractions of this bass, I was prepared to give it a serious try and see if I could make myself love it.

Fortunately, the neck width was not such an insurmountable issue and it's nice and solid with every note clear and strong and really definite. While the band had to play as a three piece, this was my main stage bass.

Gibson SG supreme bass:
One of 400 made with this finish and simply gorgeous to play.

Hamer Chapparal 12-string bass :

More here.

Cort Violin bass:
I saw it standing there.

Warwick Thumb bass (gloss walnut) from the custom shop.

Gordy XR Custom fretless bass:
I spotted this one-off bass at the now-closed A1 Music shop in Manchester and I couldn't resist it. The lowest string action in all of the known Universe. Effortless to play. It's not used very often on stage, as the case is bigger than the group van (!) but I took it into the studio for use on our version of 'Need your love so bad' and it was just the right bass for the job.

Epiphone Firebird guitar:

Dean stage acoustic guitar

Gibson SGII guitar (1974)

My first decent guitar, bought on HP while I was doing my first proper job in a warehouse, while I was waiting to go to college.

Eastwood Classic 4 Bass / Gretsch White Falcon guitar:

I decided to round off my collection of guitars with the one I had always dreamed of - a Gretsch White Falcon - so I did. Later on I tracked down the matching Eastwood Classic 4 bass.

Tokai Breezy Sound guitar:

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