Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

And PM'd back!

sloop_john_b wrote:Guys, I don't think it's against the rules to at least post what he wrote here. It's bringing on some interesting discussion.

The discussion is fine. It's just the link that had to be removed.

I've found his actual post now - am I allowed to post the text here? There'll be no linky stuff attached or shenanigans like that.

Go for it Rory. I'll distract Joey.

sloop_john_b wrote:Go for it Rory. I'll distract Joey.

You've already been doing that with your Mr. Mets avatar!

Ok..........

I'm not a hardcore Sebadoh fan but have seen them and liked them a lot. That said, I and many others of a certain age'll always have a place in our hearts for Dinosaur Jr.

He plays (oops, played) what, by most accounts appears to be a modded '73 with Chequered binding, and toaster in the neck. Treble Pickup cover is gone but there appears to be a white treble bezel cover surrounding the PU. This might be home made but can't honestly tell from the photos I've seem. Original bridge is gone too and replaced with a Fender-type. Again, can't tell if it's a Badass or something else. Bass was plastered in Gaffa tape on top horn and at the real strap pin. I have no idea whether any of the mods are recent but I suspect they were probably there when he bought it sometime in the late '80's.

The pickguard is an interesting fit as the back end of the portion where the controls are appears to obscure the binding around the area of the jackplate.

Anyway, The man himself has this to say about acquiring the bass:

we used to drive to any promising music store in a 100 mile radius.. i think we found the rick in connecticut (this is the kind of detail j will remember ) ..i think i paid $500 for it which seemed outrageous...but it was really beautiful , i loved it right away..never picked up the gibson grabber again.. i wonder if i traded in?? (j would know this too)..
grabbers have a unique mid range-y sound too.. boing-y..that's what i played on the recordings of 'raisans' 'in a jar' 'lose' ..the whole first record..
i bought the rick halfway into he recording of 'you're living all over me'..

As regards his move away to Fender:

stolen ..other ricks i tried suck..it's that simple..even the 4001, though it had a distinctive sound, lacked dynamics..
any quality ricks i saw were in 3-4k range.. i was too heartbroken and too skeptical to just buy a replacement and assume it would work.. new ricks are mediocre at best.. buying one offa e-bay is not an option..
if i'm feeling rich i'd love to buy another one and maybe put precision style pick ups in it.. in my opinion most of the rick fetish comes from the look of the instrument..very few of them are really great..my 4001 was great but it's gone ..i opted for consistency over aesthetics.. the fender has better low end, hi end ..sustain etc.. it lacks the mid range growl but so do alot of ricks...
not being a collector i didn't care enough to turn the world upside down trying to find a replacement..

Can't make any comment about new versus old ricks as I've never played an old Rick (Ricks are not common here so if you bump in someone with one, chances are it's a 4003 made in the last ten years or so. Still, doesn't stop me chatting away to the owner about them for a half hour) but I suspect I'd probably disagree with him!

He goes on to say:

also..i lost the rick in the middle of recording 'beyond'..it was difficult getting a good sound out of it , it was weird..
though the rick is on over half the songs on that record you can't hear it , partly because the sound i was getting wasn't so hot..
it seemed like losing the rick was a sign..the beginning of the new era ..the reunion 'greatest hits' part over.. on to new things on a new bass..
but....i think i'm going to start looking for a good rick when i get back to the states.. maybe do some shopping on tour.. i am starting to miss aspects of the sound and design ..(you can play higher up the neck on a rick)

Pickup problems, maybe?

Well done Rory!

For those who wish to read the full discussion, please vist my myspace page, where it can be traced through the blog.

I saw Dinosaur Jr at the Heidelberg in Ann Arbor in the late 80s. I was looking for information about that gig and found this photo of Lou with his Ric at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor many years earlier.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkytreetown/4404369086/

This is definetely no '73 4001 the horns are too big and the inlays are not FW. I also don't see any CBB!? Finally the pick guard has the knob's position of the late 70ies, seems to be a replacement.

Len wrote:I saw Dinosaur Jr at the Heidelberg in Ann Arbor in the late 80s. I was looking for information about that gig and found this photo of Lou with his Ric at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor many years earlier.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkytreetown/4404369086/

I think he needs a 4004L.

I am a commercial photographer by profession. I also participate on numerous photo related user forums as a result. Same thing happens over there. Is the $5000 Leica 15/2.8 lens better than the Nikkor $1200 14~24 zoom lens? Is the Contax 85/1.2 better than the Canon 85/1.2? He likes the tones Nikkor gives him, so Canons suck. She likes Canon's, Nikkors look flat to her. He prefers the drawing style of a Leica over a Zeiss. She thinks Zeiss's are sharper. Yada Yada Yada.

The best 'whatever' is the one you have access to right now.

Come on Luke, we all know that Quantaray makes the best lenses!

heinpete wrote:This is definetely no '73 4001 the horns are too big and the inlays are not FW. I also don't see any CBB!? Finally the pick guard has the knob's position of the late 70ies, seems to be a replacement.

I dunno, Peter...The photo I see there only shows a little bit of the lower horn, so it's tough to judge it's size. It has definitely had some parts swapped though. That looks like a V63 pick guard as the gap between the bridge pickup surround and the pick guard are too small. The tuners have been swapped out (probably wavy Grovers that exploded), bridge/tail has obviously been swapped out...TRC appears to be molded (probably swapped out). While I can't make out any checkers in the photo, that binding looks very thick, so I think it might be checkered. And by mid-1973 RIC had changed over to the smaller "floating" inlays.

It might be a late '73.

Whatever it is, I think Mr. Barlow wouldn't have much problem finding a replacement 4001 if he looked for one.

jbrando wrote:

cassius987 wrote: It's not important, and it's not even correct, because it suggests that his [Geddy's] assessment and use of Rics should somehow affect ours. I totally disagree with that.

I disagree with that because Geddy Lee was the reason I wanted a Ric (I'm certain I'm not the only one), and I bought my first one in 1997 which was well after he went through his "Ric phase." Even though he's used Fender, Steinberger and Wal basses throughout his career, he will always, like it or not, be associated with Rickenbacker. You have to give the guy credit (along with McCartney, Squire, etc.) for bringing A LOT of people to Rickenbacker. Whether or not he picks one up again is of no consequence, but you can't discredit the influence he's had on folks' perception of Ric basses just by being associated with them.

The reason I wanted a Rickenbacker was because Maurice Gibb played one in the BeeGees. Also, the guy in Ween, Dave Drewitz, apparently digs his Ric a lot as well, looks like he's used it at like every show for the last 4 years. If you've never heard of them look them up on youtube, his Rick is a nice late 70's mapleglow, but he doesn't go for a clanky tone but rather a real, nice, defined bass tone!

dricard wrote:

jbrando wrote:

cassius987 wrote: The reason I wanted a Rickenbacker was because Maurice Gibb played one in the BeeGees.

I think forumite Pete Greenwood actually owned Maurice's bass for a bit. Pete, where are you chappy?