Songs for Sensible People" In 2016, he once more joined The Shapes for the "We're Not Very Famous" tour of the UK, and to record new material, and in 2017 undertook tours of Japan and the UK with them. Gear Brian Helicopter uses Rickenbacker 4000 series basses exclusively. All of his basses are set up slightly differently so as to achieve different sounds live or in the studio. His main stage bass is a 1975 4001 model finished in jetglo. This model has been customized with checkerboard binding and a half inched spaced classic reissue toaster pickup in the neck position. His other basses are a 1979 fireglo 4001 which is customized with a one-inch spaced custom Sergio Silva hand wound toaster in the neck position and a Rickenbacker reissue horseshoe pickup in the bridge position. With the Ghosthookers, his main stage bass is a rare hand carved 4004LK bass, the Lemmy of Motörhead limited edition model. Less than 60 of these were produced, his personal bass is number 26 in that series. He also uses two mono basses, a highly customized azureglo 4001S with Rickenbacker reissue toaster and horseshoe pickups, and a 4001CS Chris Squire of Yes limited edition bass. He has number 270 in that series of 1000 produced. He also occasionally uses a lightly modified custom 4008 eight string bass. He also uses a 1995 mapleglo 4003 fretless bass, a 1973 jetglo 4001, and a single pickup 1972 4000 series bass. His amplification is by Trace Elliot. Currently he uses a GP12SMX dual compressor preamp with AH250 power stage, and a GP7 preamp with AH350 power stage. This gives him the option to run his 4001 series basses in stereo live and to EQ each pickup separately. He runs the amps through two 1048 dual ported 4x10 cabinets with high frequency horns, and two dual ported 1015 1x15 cabinets. References 1958 births Living people English rock bass guitarists Male bass guitarists English punk rock bass guitarists