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foolycooly
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Post by foolycooly »

Well, after three days and 5 hours of sleep I finally had the chance to record with my 4003S. Damn it sounded good. I had a very warm, very smooth tone ala McCartney (Sgt. Pepper's, Magical Mystery Tour era) and Andy Bell. Scored many compliments. Its been a good three days for me.
"There is nothing conceptually better than rock and roll"
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iamthebassman
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Post by iamthebassman »

I THINK Peter's bass is actually silver.
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iamthebassman
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Post by iamthebassman »

Nolan, tell us about your signal chain and bass set-up used for your recording session.
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foolycooly
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Post by foolycooly »

Ronn I'll be as informative as a 22 year old Recording newbie can be ;)

During my three day power session, three songs were recorded, 2 of which featured my Rickenbacker 4003S. The other was a Fender Precision Bass strung with standard guage Rotosound roundwound strings. All were run through an Ampeg SVT Classic, and an Ampeg 410 cabinet. The first track dubbed by me (cause I wrote it) "Lysergic Lullaby" has my 4003S strung with D'Addario "Chromes" Flatwound strings guage 50-105, Bass and Trebble Volume all the way, Bass tone set to 3 o'clock, Trebble tone set to 6 o'clock, and a Jim Dunlop .73MM pick metting the strings just above the vintage bass pickup.

The Amp settings for this particular song were as follows:

Gain set to 5(at least I think it was)

Bass set to 7

Mid set to 8

Frequency set to 3

Trebble set to 6

Volume set to 2

The whole Rig was Mic'd

The second track went more along the lines of John Entwistle meets Mick Quinn of Supergrass.
The bass on this track was overdriven and very panging sounding. I was going for a Supergrass: In It For the Money kind of sound and it worked out really well. I used a Dunlop Ultex 1.0 pik. The one with the Rhino on it. Picking was done towards the bridge to add the agressive tone.

Fender Precision Bass set all the way

The Amp settings were as follows:

Gain set to 8

Bass set to 7

Mid max'd out

Frequency set to 3

Trebble set to 8

Volume set to 1 (to keep it from exploding)

Mic'd again

The last track on the "Demo"/Single (not completely mastered yet ya'see) was dubbed by me "Hope Filled Morning". This song features my 4003S again with the exact same settings as the first track. The idea I was going for with this song was a Beatles:Day In the Life / Baby You're a Rich Man / Oasis: Go Let It Out bass line, but with McCartney tone. Maybe it was the extremely overtiredness (three days, 5 hours of sleep between them, and it was now 3am Wednesday morning the final recording day), and sheer happiness of actually recording this track that made my bass line work perfectly. I dunno. What I do know, is that it was the longest of the three songs but it didn't take up half as many tracks as the first one did.(Lysergic Lullaby-24 monster tracks, 13+ hours of record time) This song is definately my favorite. It was picked with a Jim Dunlop .88MM pick just above the vintage bass pickup. Bass and Trebble Volume all the way, Bass tone set to 3 o'clock, Trebble tone set to 6 o'clock.

The Amp settings were as follows:

Gain set to 5(at least I think it was)

Bass set to 7

Mid set to 8

Frequency set to 1

Trebble set to 5

Volume set to 3 (to drop some of the high end out)

Mic'd once again

Recorded with Reverb

And there you have it. I hope it wasn't too informative for you all, and if so, sorry this post was so bloody long.
"There is nothing conceptually better than rock and roll"
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charlyg
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Post by charlyg »

I once had a friend who plugged his Pedulla right into the board. He mentioned you couldn't do this with many basses. I have a feeling a Ric could be plugged straight in to good effect??
foolycooly
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Post by foolycooly »

I've plugged right into a board before, but I didn't really care for the tone. I'll probably continue to record the way I just did because my 4003S sounds best this way. The Demo/single only has two people playing on it. Myself and a very close friend of mine (who's late brother-in-law drummed for John Lennon. In fact, the same drums were used in the making of this project my friend (who became the owner of the kit) and I have started. This same friend owns the 04 4003FGVP I've mentioned before a few times. I entertained the thought of using that bass instead of mine, but opted out at the last minute. The tone of that 4003 was still slightly too modern in sound in my opinion. The only reason I didn't want to use mine was because for some reason the magnet under the E string of my horseshoe pickup doesn't really work that well, in fact the horseshoe pickup in my bass is very weak sounding to begin with, and the vintage bass pick up covers it. I decided I didn't care, and put some faith into it, and it worked out awesome.
"There is nothing conceptually better than rock and roll"
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Post by carlaz »

Frode Leidland wrote:
Hi Anderson. Your name sounds Swedesh:-) Am I right?
Image Jag har svensk förfader, bara jag är född i USA. Please forgive my bad Swedish -- I learned in University and haven't been to Sweden to practice for 7 or 8 years!

Sérgio Silva wrote:
Hey Carl, the tuners and the neck pickup on your 4001 look unusual for a Rick bass, or is it my eyes? I take it they are replacement parts?
Yup, though there when I got the bass (I'm not the original owner, it being about only 5 years younger than me). The tuners are Schaller, I think, as are the strap locks. The neck pickup is actually a *********** SD Tele Quarter Pounder made by Jim Mouradian (based, at the time at least, in Porter Square, Cambridge, MA, USA). Actually, the bridge PU is also a replacement: a little Bartolini Rick humbucker, I believe.

I was thinking of getting the Bartolini rewound by this cool pickup company in the UK (I'm in the UK) called Bare Knuckle Pickups, but I think the Bartolini is potted in epoxy, so that wouldn't work very well! I might get some stock Rick 4004 humbuckers (same size as the 4001/4003 pickups, I think) and have them rewound to better sit in my 4001 (I hear the 4004 HBs would probably be boomy unless I change my 4001's pots from 250 ohms to 500 ohms or something like that).
rictified
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Post by rictified »

I also record with an SVT but a 70's head usually with a 4ohm B-15T cab, or even an 8x10 70's SVT cab. I also recorded once with an old V4-B and a half an SVT cab (4 x 10) before they made them. Very warm sound, plugged direct into the board you get a dry sterile tone no matter what kind of bass you are using IMHO. I won't use direct boxes live either for that same reason, I use a mic. Another reason is is that when you go direct you are at the mercy of the soundman and their tone controls aren't tailored to a bass like they are on a bass amp. If you are mic'ed there is less chance they can really screw up your sound than if they get a dry signal direct from your bass. I usually get compliments from engineers when I go this way BTW live or studio.
foolycooly
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Post by foolycooly »

I used to have a V4B head it was my first tube amp before I got my Hiwatt Bass 100 head. The Hiwatt sounds awesome but I've run into a very big problem. I blew all 4 12inch speakers in my cab. The head itself has a splitter to run at either 8ohms or 16ohms and its a 100watt head. I need to get replacement speakers but I don't know what to get. I want to be able to maintain the warm tone I have. Anyone have any ideas?
"There is nothing conceptually better than rock and roll"
rictified
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Post by rictified »

What are you using a guitar cab? There are not a lot of raw 12" bass guitar speakers around, I use Eminence 10" and 15" speakers which are great speakers.
V4-B's run at 2,4, and 8 ohms, more practical. But most English amps including Marshalls will not run at 2 ohms for some reason, and most of those 4 x 12 cabs are 16 ohms.
foolycooly
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Post by foolycooly »

Bob:

Its a bass cab. a vintage one 75 I think. It has a black tolex surround, but a silverish blue face. Inside, it had Fender 12inch Green label speakers. I run the Hiwatt at 8. Bit now I need replacement speakers, and have no idea what to get. I spoke to a few people at VOX USA and I was going to put 4 of the 12 inch speakers that they put in the T-60 combo amp, but that speaker is only a 15 watt speaker. I'm stuck here. Any ideas?
"There is nothing conceptually better than rock and roll"
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bear
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Post by bear »

Nolan you can try:

U.S. Speakers

JBL, Fane, EV etc.
You should be able to find a bass 12" speaker to fit your budget there.

You can also contact Bag End for their, in house manufactured, raw drivers as well.
foolycooly
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Post by foolycooly »

Will they maintain the sound I've obtained or give me a more modern tone? It took along time to get the sound I've got now. I don't really want to reinvent my tone again
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jps
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Post by jps »

I believe that Bag End speakers are really Eminence!
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jps
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Post by jps »

I just put Eminence Deltalite 15s in my two Traynor YS-15 cabinets; they sound very warm but with a nice top end to them. You might consider the 12 version for your cabinet.
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