Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Never seen this photo before but unless I miss my guess it looks like Paul was using tapewounds on the Rickenbacker during the Abbey Road sessions. Of course he used em on the Hofner during Let It Be but never saw them on the Rick.

To paraphrase ....

Paul!
It looks like you busted a button on your trousers.
Don't wanna your trousers to fall down, now do ya?

Ya-ya's on the tapewounds.
I had no idea Paul used em.
I've been more than a little curious about tapewounds for my MapleGlo "S" as well.
But, I just discovered the Optimas.
Thanks to you ppl here who recommended them.
(You know who you are.)

Tapewound strings, and he has the bridge pickup soloed. I wonder if the bass block cap is in the circuit.

Isaac wrote:Tapewound strings, and he has the bridge pickup soloed. I wonder if the bass block cap is in the circuit.

it has not been definitely ascertained, but it is most likely that the harness is a RH one. so the down position of the switch is the toaster.

Aint no way to know.
He coulda had a friend say “try these” then he may have taken them off adter 5 minutes and tossed them. Picture doesn’t tell much.
One guy in Peppermint Rainbow said the reason they used Fenders in their TV appearances is that it was an NBC owned tv network and they were told they had to. He got to keep the blue flower tele though. Wasnt what he played on album. Bassist used a Gibson on LP too. Just no way to know much from pics.

lumgimfong wrote:Aint no way to know.
He coulda had a friend say “try these” then he may have taken them off adter 5 minutes and tossed them. Picture doesn’t tell much.
One guy in Peppermint Rainbow said the reason they used Fenders in their TV appearances is that it was an NBC owned tv network and they were told they had to. He got to keep the blue flower tele though. Wasnt what he played on album. Bassist used a Gibson on LP too. Just no way to know much from pics.

Wouldn't it be CBS that would have insisted on Fender instruments. What was NBC's connection to Fender?

From the Rotosound website.
http://www.rotosound.com/tru-bass-88/

It looks like at some point he used tapewounds on his Hofner also.

And all this time I've been thinking he used "long shiny ones."

I recall seeing nice long blacks ones on both basses over the years. Sometime you do these things when going for that certain sound for a song.

ram wrote:I recall seeing nice long blacks ones on both basses over the years. Sometime you do these things when going for that certain sound for a song.

So now, everyone needs to reevaluate what strings were used on what bass for each and every song he played on.

jps wrote:

ram wrote:I recall seeing nice long blacks ones on both basses over the years. Sometime you do these things when going for that certain sound for a song.

So now, everyone needs to reevaluate what strings were used on what bass for each and every song he played on.

Yep, and where he stuffed rags under the strings to mute them...... and where he used a Vox or Fender Bassman.... and... hahahhaahhahahahaa..!

jps wrote:

Isaac wrote:Tapewound strings, and he has the bridge pickup soloed. I wonder if the bass block cap is in the circuit.

it has not been definitely ascertained, but it is most likely that the harness is a RH one. so the down position of the switch is the toaster.

Ah. Hadn't thought of that.

I'm intrigued to see Sir Paul playing fingerstyle on the 4001S - a real rarity.

bluewhale wrote:And all this time I've been thinking he used "long shiny ones."

Yes, he did respond once with "the long shiny kind" when asked what strings he uses, and everybody understands it as saying he's not interested in the technical side. Well, I was fortunate enough to meet him and talk shop, and let me tell you, he knows exactly what he likes, and knows a lot about his Höfner and Ric. The way I understand it, by "the long, shiny kind" he simply meant, long scale flatwounds. The Höfner has a string afterlength, and standard short-scale strings (like a Fender set) are too short for it. It should be strung with either long or (preferably) medium scale strings. By the way, when I held the '63 Höfner (10 years ago) it had Pyramid flats (dark green silk) on it.