I've had a bunch of basses and amps over the years, some good and some
not so good (and some that were pretty much crap). Here's a list of
my gear, past and present...

Current Basses

Rickenbacker 4003 (left)
This is my favorite piece of musical equipment I've ever owned. It's a
1986 Rickenbacker 4003 bass. What makes it cool, other than that
it's a Ric (which automatically means it's cool), is that it's silver.
Silver is one of the rarer colors according to the Rickenbacker Registry
with only .23% (yes, two-tenths of one percent) of all registered Ric's
having a silver finish. Mine is registry number 1915.

I'd wanted a Ric since I started playing bass, and I found this one on eBay.
Sadly, the previous owner didn't care for it, and the finish is in bad shape.
It's all cracked and peeling, but it still sounds cool, and while I'd rather it
not be so beat up, I guess it adds some character. It's to the point where I
don't like the sound or feel of anything else, and I play it more than anything.

1997 Fender American Standard Jazz (middle)
In the middle is my 1997 Fender American Standard Jazz Bass.It was my main instrument
until I bought the Ric. This one is special because I had Eclipse Music in West St. Paul
order it special from the Fender factory. It's Lake Placid Blue with maple fretboard, and it was the only
one Fender had in stock at the time. I'll never sell it, and even had a motorcycle painted to match it.

Ibanez AEB-45 Acoustic Electric (right)
On the right is my acoustic-electric Ibanez. I bought this dirt cheap from Encore music in
Minneapolis - under $200. I don't know why they were selling it for so little - it's in
brand new condition. At the time, I thought we might record or play some acoustic stuff,
but it never came to pass. It's the main bass I use for practicing at home. The problem
with acoustic-electrics is that they feedback at stage volumes. Still, it's
a nice bass for what I use it for.

Current amps

My current amp is an Ashdown Engineering ABM-C115-500 Combo.
It's a 500 watt 1x15 combo that I purchased used in 2005 from
Willies American Guitars in St. Paul. I'd wanted an Ashdown since I'd
first read about them and played through one, but at the time I'd just purchased
new equipment, and couldn't justify it. By this time though, I was looking to downsize
and this came up at the perfect time. It has a really cool vintage look and sound.
For specs, click here (Acrobat Reader required)

Previous Guitars

Note - neither of these two was my actual guitar, but I did have
one of each of these models.

Epiphone EA-260 Semi-acoustic bass (left)
This was a really cool guitar that I wish I hadn't sold. They're not very
common, and there's little information on them. They date back to
the late 60's - early 70's and were made in Japan. I used it when we
recorded the bipolar expedition CD, but it had a lot of feedback issues
on stage. I sold it to help pay for the Ric, and I regret it.

Fender Mexican Squier Jazz Bass (right)
Also purchased at Eclipse in West St. Paul, This was my first decent
bass (see below for my first bass). It played well, sounded well and I really
liked it. I sold it after buying the blue Jazz Bass because we needed money
to buy a small PA for practice, and neither Dave or I had the money
on our own to pay for it.

Was I really that fat back then?

Kay P-Bass (left)
This was a mistake. I bought this for $100 because it had a really cool vintage look,
with a chrome bridge cover. I even replaced the pickups with some Fender Vintage
P-Bass pickups, but the bass never felt right. It sounded okay, but it was so heavy
my back hurt from playing it more than about five minutes, and the neck was so wide,
my small hands couldn't do much with it. I sold it on eBay.

Premier Bass (right)
On the right, held by a much fatter me in the Vicious Innuendo days,
is the worst piece of crap ever to pass as a musical instrument.
It was my first bass, and I bought it in 1995 for $99 BRAND NEW
at B-Sharp music in Minneapolis. B-sharp has a less than stellar
reputation and there's a reason for that. It blew up within two months
and I was picking up AM radio stations. Very Spinal Tap.

Previous Amps

Peavey 410TXF cabinet and Firebass 700 watt head
This was my main rig through the glory years of shoot lucy.
It's an excellent sounding setup at about 2/3 the cost of most top
end rigs like SWR or Ampeg. I still love the way it sounds and it
can keep up with any big stack guitar rig. It was just too much of a pain
to haul around at 200 lbs., so I sold it in May of 2005.

Park 25 Watt (left)
This was my first amp. Park was Marshall's Korean budget amp line.
Nothing special about it. It worked fine, but was too small to play shows with.

Peavey TNT 150 (middle)
This was my second amp. It was a 150 watt Peavey 115 Combo I bought used.
It weighed a ton, and had strange electrical issues. I think there was a short
somewhere. It was loud though.

Hartke 210 and 115 TP (right)
I bought these brand new at Eclipse in West St. Paul, along with
a Crate 200 watt head (not pictured). I thought they were really cool
at first, but I grew to dislike the aluminum cone speakers. They were
just too tinny sounding (no pun intended). I sold them back to Eclipse after
a year, and bought the big Peavey rig.