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Prakash John's bass returned.

Paulabass

Paulabass

Sep 18, 2017
5,435
21,954
#1
My good friend, and frequently my boss (I do FOH for him) told me a great story last night at dinner.
His ancient Ricky 4003 that was used on countless records and tours with Alice Cooper, Parliament/Funkadelic, Lou Reed, James Brown..........and was stolen 30 years ago has been returned!!
The highly modified Ric 4003 was in Neil Moser's shop awaiting repairs. The shop was broken into, and Prakash's bass, among other cool stuff was taken.
A few weeks ago, a reader on a Rickenbacker forum notified Prakash that his bass was in a post. Prakash's lawyer got in touch with the new 'owner' (NOT the thief), and it's return was arranged. Last week his son Jordan flew down and picked up the bass.
After the theft, Prakash briefly used Spector basses until Bernie Rico, and Neil Moser built the basses he currently uses. The returned bass needs some parts and will go on the road with him again.
Couldn't lift a good pic of the bass, but it's in the top picture of this post from the Welcome to my nightmare tour. Link Removed

Here's some footage from Rock and Roll Animal. Prakash joined the band 2 days before this was recorded. Good shots of the bass at about 7:20


Sometimes good things just happen out of thin air.
 
Last edited:
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#4
Paulabass said:
The true trial by fire- George Clinton sent for Prakash, and asked him to join Parliament. He agreed. George said - You start tonite.
Click to expand...
Yes. But - I don't know that a recording was made and released of that P-Funk show.
To me, "recording some of the most brilliant live rock bass" in a jam that always stood out (to me) as a masterpiece of dynamics and build (much of which was coming from the way the rhythm section supported the soloist) is pretty darn remarkable under any circumstance. "2 days after joining the band" - holy guacamole.
 
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#7
Paulabass said:
My good friend, and frequently my boss (I do FOH for him) told me a great story last night at dinner.
His ancient Ricky 4003 that was used on countless records and tours with Alice Cooper, Parliament/Funkadelic, Lou Reed, James Brown..........and was stolen 30 years ago has been returned!!
The highly modified Ric 4003 was in Neil Moser's shop awaiting repairs. The shop was broken into, and Prakash's bass, among other cool stuff was taken.
A few weeks ago, a reader on a Rickenbacker forum notified Prakash that his bass was in a post. Prakash's lawyer got in touch with the new 'owner' (NOT the thief), and it's return was arranged. Last week his son Jordan flew down and picked up the bass.
After the theft, Prakash briefly used Spector basses until Bernie Rico, and Neil Moser built the basses he currently uses. The returned bass needs some parts and will go on the road with him again.
Couldn't lift a good pic of the bass, but it's in the top picture of this post from the Welcome to my nightmare tour. Link Removed

Here's some footage from Rock and Roll Animal. Prakash joined the band 2 days before this was recorded. Good shots of the bass at about 7:20


Sometimes good things just happen out of thin air.
Click to expand...



That version of Sweet Jane is the one I have in my regular rotation. Didn't know who played bass, but was always impressed by how good it sounded. The intro is busy, but such tasteful note choices.
Charles
 
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#11
Paulabass said:
My good friend, and frequently my boss (I do FOH for him) told me a great story last night at dinner.
His ancient Ricky 4003 that was used on countless records and tours with Alice Cooper, Parliament/Funkadelic, Lou Reed, James Brown..........and was stolen 30 years ago has been returned!!
The highly modified Ric 4003 was in Neil Moser's shop awaiting repairs. The shop was broken into, and Prakash's bass, among other cool stuff was taken.
A few weeks ago, a reader on a Rickenbacker forum notified Prakash that his bass was in a post. Prakash's lawyer got in touch with the new 'owner' (NOT the thief), and it's return was arranged. Last week his son Jordan flew down and picked up the bass.
After the theft, Prakash briefly used Spector basses until Bernie Rico, and Neil Moser built the basses he currently uses. The returned bass needs some parts and will go on the road with him again.
Couldn't lift a good pic of the bass, but it's in the top picture of this post from the Welcome to my nightmare tour. Link Removed

Here's some footage from Rock and Roll Animal. Prakash joined the band 2 days before this was recorded. Good shots of the bass at about 7:20


Sometimes good things just happen out of thin air.
Click to expand...

I wore out my first look of Rock and Roll Animal just trying to figure him out. Still is one of my favorite albums. This is good news! So glad he got it back. :hyper:
 
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#14
I first saw John playing with Bush at a High School around 68 and he played a Fender bass. Then when he was out in Vancouver playing with the original Lincoln’s playing his BC Rich. I can’t imagine his sound coming from a Rich. But, this is great news
 
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#15
Bass Viking said:
I wonder what happens to the current owner in these cases. Do they have to give it back and lose whatever money they paid to acquire it? Or does Prakash have to pay to get it back?
Click to expand...

The "current owner" looses. It was never his to begin with. I won't buy anything used without complete "chain of custody" documentation for this reason. I don't buy much expensive used gear.

Something similar happened to me. A three way horn loaded PA cab of mine that I parked in the back stage area during a show was stolen from the "Catalyst" in Santa Cruz, California. It was quite valuable considering it had JBL 2482 and 2420 compression drivers and a Cerwin Vega 15" woofer that was custom made for us. A decade later somebody brought it to our sound company warehouse / shop for repair. It stayed there.
 
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#20
Bass Viking said:
I wonder what happens to the current owner in these cases. Do they have to give it back and lose whatever money they paid to acquire it? Or does Prakash have to pay to get it back?
Click to expand...
It depends on whether the current owner was what is known as a "bona fide purchaser for value without notice" or the equivalent. Trust me, the details are boring, but the simple version is this: the current owner doesn't just lose what they paid IF they bought the bass in good faith for value (i.e., it wasn't given to them) and did not know or have reason to know that it was stolen.
 
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