When Did Chris First Go Stereo?

The genius of Chris Squire
miguelbass
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Re: When Did Chris First Go Stereo?

Post by miguelbass »

Thank you for your comments!

I was thinking about you, Michael, that you could have some good answers! Thank you! I wasn't really aware of Chris option to leave the HS tone always open. I do the same but in Chris' case it's even more understandable since he claimed that the HS had a really weak signal so there wouldn't be much to filter even further. On the jazz bass we still don't know but we have some clues.

As for Chris wiring his basses in stereo, as Michael said, it's a modification Chris might have made on all of his basses (with 2 pickups) since he routes specific effects on individual pickups. I looked back for my guitar world old issue of September 87 where Mike Tobias says the red five string has only one output jack because Chris always runs it in stereo.

Evidence for stereo on the jazz bass can be found on pictures of Chris playing live and two separate cables can be seen... I thing earlier in this thread is that photo.

But it's because I was studying "to be over" that this question appeared to me... It's quite audible in several sections of the song that Chris is splitting the signal with a more distorted "Ritual" kind of over drive on one channel and the cleaner sound on the other... Although the use of the jazz bass and the lower mixed bass makes the oval result considerably mellower than Ritual. Can you hear it too?

thanks everyone!
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Michael4bass
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Re: When Did Chris First Go Stereo?

Post by Michael4bass »

miguelbass wrote:Thank you for your comments!

I was thinking about you, Michael, that you could have some good answers! Thank you! I wasn't really aware of Chris option to leave the HS tone always open. I do the same but in Chris' case it's even more understandable since he claimed that the HS had a really weak signal so there wouldn't be much to filter even further. On the jazz bass we still don't know but we have some clues.

As for Chris wiring his basses in stereo, as Michael said, it's a modification Chris might have made on all of his basses (with 2 pickups) since he routes specific effects on individual pickups. I looked back for my guitar world old issue of September 87 where Mike Tobias says the red five string has only one output jack because Chris always runs it in stereo.

Evidence for stereo on the jazz bass can be found on pictures of Chris playing live and two separate cables can be seen... I thing earlier in this thread is that photo.

But it's because I was studying "to be over" that this question appeared to me... It's quite audible in several sections of the song that Chris is splitting the signal with a more distorted "Ritual" kind of over drive on one channel and the cleaner sound on the other... Although the use of the jazz bass and the lower mixed bass makes the oval result considerably mellower than Ritual. Can you hear it too?

thanks everyone!
Thanks Miguel.

Several years ago during one of those "Ask Yes" Fridays, I submitted the question to Chris if he wired all of his two pickup basses stereo or just the RM 1999. His reply was that yes, he wired all his two pickup basses in stereo.

My guess is that he wired the neck volume with the tone control to the ring of the output jack, and the bridge pickup to the volume pot, then to the tip of the output. I did this for a while back in the late 70's to one of my Jazz basses for a while. It was a fun experiment, but it didn't have any real practical use for me on gigs, so I rewired back to it's original configuration.

The only time I ever saw Chris use the HS tone control was during the section in CttE (starting around 8:00 on the studio version) where he and Steve are playing the same motif while Rick is playing the main melody on the organ. I distinctly remember watching Chris solo the HS and turning the tone off or near off for this section. I've never played a Rick with a real HS, so all you vintage owners out there will have to tell me if this sounds right to all of you. It may not be true, but it happened to me. ;-)

Bassically, Michael
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Re: When Did Chris First Go Stereo?

Post by 4001G63 »

In case anybody still checks this thread, I recently purchased an Electro-Harmonix "Switch Blade+" signal splitter. I ran my 4001V63 through the unit to my Fender Rumble 100 watt 1x15" solid state and my favorite amp, a Fender Bassman 10 4x12" 70 watt tube amp. It sounds glorious. Full bottom and an ultrabright grindy treble. It's a shame I don't have any opportunity to play Yes or progressive music live right now. It certainly has no application for the live acoustic music my brother and I play together!
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