Great Rick Tone!

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:00 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAQUldHPgRk&search=spock%27s%20beard

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:05 am

Look familiar?

levykev · Post by **levykev** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:36 am

yeah, i never really heard those guys before, but i just picked up the 'live in america' by Transatlantic, and it lead me to Spock's Beard. really good stuff and YES, great tone from Dave Meros.

love the white Rick with tortoise pickguard.

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:50 am

Dave has wonderful tone. The white bass above is the one he used in the video John linked to and on the Beard's first five CDs.

red_rob · Post by **red_rob** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:01 am

Love the Spinal Tap style keyboard player

"Have... a good time... all the time."

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:01 am

How'd you wind up with it, Lindsay?

s4001 · Post by **s4001** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:53 am

My boss turned me on to Spock's Beard. Turns out he's a neighbor and good friend of the guitarist.

Great Ric tone!

alanz · Post by **alanz** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 12:20 pm

They kinda ruined that song, though.

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:02 pm

He put it on ebay a few years ago; two of us from the forum went after it and it ended up here. He just had too many basses. I also have the DigiTech preamp Dave used to record the studio version of BOD. He still plays a Rick, a heavily modified 4001 JG, although his sound seems a bit more mellow these days.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:28 pm

Dave Meros is one of my inspirations and all-time favorite bassists . . . and Spock's Beard rule!

How'd they ruin the song, might I ask?

alanz · Post by **alanz** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:39 pm

They took a perfectly good spiritually positive song and then broke it down and reassembled it into some sort of prog-rocky wank fest with tweedly tweedly guitar solos and a weird bass line and keyboards (lots and lots of keyboards) where the words are secondary to "Hey guys look at me I'm playing complicated and fast and stuff! Oh wait I have to brush my hair out of my face and play this chord on my keyboard!"

So yeah, I didn't like it much.

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:54 pm

Dave is a bass monster IMO and a very nice man as well. He included his hand written bass charts for their first CD "The Light" with the bass, along with other oddments, so it was a great thing for a Beard fan to open that case for the first time.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:38 pm

"So yeah, I didn't like it much."

I could say the same about all of George Harrison's solo stuff.

If find this version of the song very spiritually uplifting, personally . . . and pretty much 9/10 of the song is very slow and reserved, it's only the intro, an incredibly short solo break near the middle, and like the 3-measure ending that are "proggy". I wouldn't qualify having an organ playing whole notes in the background as "lots of keyboards". Also, they all have short hair now; does that make the song better?

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:24 pm

I think it was a creative and interesting interpretation of George's song. Obviously they like the tune and message or they wouldn't have bothered. Along the lines of Yes's America - an S & G song.

espidog · Post by **espidog** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:15 am

I'm with Alanz on this one. The guy's tone was pleasant, certainly. Very, er...civilised, shall we say? But O Lordy! I didn't realise there were still bands around doing the sort of self-indulgent twaddle I hated when I was 17.

Yes I know, I'm just a curmudgeonly old Brit Punk, but really: if you want an object lesson in Ric tone, just play The Jam's first album - LOUD. Foxton Rules OK!!!