Pete Quaife's gear

[(wmcaneaney)]

Can anyone tell me what make of flatwound strings and amplification pete quaife used in conjunction with his 4001s...recording and live set up... if different?
and did he use flatwounds on "dead end street"..ace sound but i can hear a lot of finger slide on the recording typical with roundwounds could he have selected the treble pickup only?
any replies much appreciated
ta

[(admin)]

Wayne: The following was received in The Rickenbacker Forum mailbox.

Jeez, you guys! What is going on? Is there some secret society out there that meets in the middle of the night and devises impossible questions to ask sad, old pop stars? Ok, I'll do my best - but its going to take a couple of days to get all of the information.(Once again I'm being forced to listen to old Kinks recordings!) regards, PeteQ

[(dougp)]

Too cool! I'm also curious! Pete Q seems to be a pretty agreeable guy about answering annoying questions from fans (there are some good interviews with him on Kinks fan sites). And the recent Kinks' BBC release as lots of great pics of Pete with his 4001s ...

[(admin)]

Wayne and Doug. Pete Quaife's response to gear questions.

If I could remember that I would be a member of MENSA! I never used anything else but flatwounds - both in the studio and on stage. I had to take care of my delicate little fingertips! I much prefered the 'flatwound' sound. I could get a 'drone' effect by sliding my finger up the string without pressing down
on the fretboard. (dificult, but it can be done)

I always wanted to go 'fretless' but Ray decided that it "would not be in the best interests of the group". Also, flatwounds eliminated the 'buzz' when changing positions - something which I hated!

How astute of you! Yeup! I used every bit of treble that I could muster. Also I was going through the board and Mac (the engineer) had plenty of room to play around with the sound. I was after a 'bar room piano sound' and I couldn't get that using a deep, bassy setting. (one of the reasons was that I had fallen in love with the Danelectro bass. It was a cheap, yucky guitar but it did have that incredible twang sound to it. I really wanted to use that. The nearest I got was the first two or three takes on Dead End Street when -guess who!- Ray said he didn't like it. Back to the Ricky!) PeteQ

[(wmcaneaney)]

just got back from hols... thought i'd check to see if anyone replied....only peter Quaife??!!
(what's that all about then?!)
Massive thanks to Peter McCormack for badgering PQ with humdrum (albeit fascinating to me)questions. hugely tempting to lose the plot here and ask ten million further questions......... but i shall refrain (for now!)
maximum respect goes out to Peter Quaife!!!
God save PeteQ and his 4001s

[(rictified)]

Peter,
If you contact Pete Quaife again, tell him that not only was he one of the coolest players around back then, he also had one of the coolest playing positions I have ever seen, in my early days I tried to imitate it but couldn't do it. He would have the neck pointing toward the floor and hook his arm around the bass near the bridge when he played. I still unconsciously take that position sometimes between songs onstage.

[(admin)]

Here is some more information with regard to Pete Quaife and his Model 4001S.

[(rictified)]

well your pictures made a liar out of me(shattered my illusions, haha), but he still had a cool presence, and a great way of sitting the bass up high on his chest, thank you for the fotos, Peter.
Nope I wasn't lying, I just got out my LP of The Kinks Greatest Hits, and there he is on the left in that pose I described earlier.
What a beautiful Autumnglo he had huh?

[(iamthebassman)]

I have that LP(somewhere),and I remember that cover. Dave is playing a Flying V. Now there's an interesting playing position! I too thought Pete looked way cool when he played.
Nigel

[(rictified)]

yeah, they were definitely a cool looking and sounding band. I remember the first time I heard "You Really Got me" I love all of their stuff.

[(el_todd)]

Thought I'd pass along an interesting backstage shot from November, 1966. Based on some of Pete's comments regarding Mr. Davies being tight with the £'s and judging from the look on Ray's face, Pete is indeed lucky to still be in possession of his 4001S (1999). (!)

[(admin)]

El Todd: Welcome to The Rickenbacker Forum and thanks so much for this great photo.

[(wmcaneaney)]

Does Pete Quaife look the dogs nads or what?

[(rictified)]

yeah he was definitely cool, best stance I've ever seen

[(gpatt5762)]

What's up Ray's *ss?

Garry