Paul's Magical Mystery Bass

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:39 am

RE the toggle position--Some food for thought here, since I recently re-wired a 4001...

I doubt if Electro-String used a harness that was just 'laying around' for Paul's bass...For a start, the wire lengths in the harness are pre-cut and soldered for either a right handed bass, or a left-handed bass----everything has to be laid out in advance to maintain a proper fit. This is why RIC offers righty and lefty harnesses for basses, the pots are oriented differently from each other.

It's possible that it may have been created right on the 'guard..if it really IS the first lefty Rickenbacker bass, who knows...

I won't say it's impossible, but you'd have to do a mighty bit of bending around in order for a righty harness to fit on a lefty 'guard. I know this 'cause I mistakenly ordered a righty harness once and it wouldnt fit. Got the correct one from Kenny, and all was/is well.

Paul used the bridge mute alot and very little tone-tweaking on his 4001-S, like the Hofner 'thunk' but a smoother, more even sound. With a V63, a good set of flats and proper muting, that sound can be brought out. I did it last night at home on my PMC.

wints · Post by **wints** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:51 am

I'm in the school of thought that down IS the toaster. A capped horseshoe and flats still doesn't sound like that period bass to these ears.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:33 am

Could be, Andy. My thoughts are that if the toaster was activated on the down postion on the switch, then they used a righty harness and just bent it in there....Or, it was just wired up that way--someone who was at the bench just got it backward....I agree, most of Paul's Beatle-era Rickenbacker tone sounds like both p/ups on or the toaster being the dominant p/up. Maybe the shoes were weak early on, they wouldn't recharge according to Arnquist...and so it goes!

wints · Post by **wints** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:44 am

John, IIRC correctly, one of the down under RH RM1999 basses has reverse harness wiring with the toaster in the down.

It looks like it came that way from the factory.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:28 am

Cool. I wonder how many others are like that..?

maplered · Post by **maplered** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:24 pm

I've seen shots of Paul w/ the switch in the middle. I tend to think thats he recorded w/ it for the most part. It really doesn't sound like a treble pick-up.

karl_teten · Post by **karl_teten** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:52 am

I have spoken with Mark Arnquist on several occasions regarding all the old parts from McCartney's bass. There has never been any mention of finding any strange wiring design.

Paul desperately wanted to get bass sounds like he heard on old Tamala-Mowtown records. In his quest he was stuck with low wattage tube amps for the most part (100 watts max) with 15" speakers. After heavy mix down compression, his tones were bottom heavy but muddy at times.

As for those old bass parts......they are somewhere deep in a California landfill.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:00 am

If you have an approximate idea, or the address of the landfill, I'm sure a few Forumites will commence to excavating right away.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:01 am

Paul's repaired 4001 sounded great with Wings he ran it into an Acoustic 360 or 301 for awhile ...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:59 am

I believe it was JH's father along with JH who went to England, not sure but I think I remember reading that somewhere, I believe it was his father who presented them with the guitars. It's probably in the Ric book which is buried somewhere right now from my recent move.
I also don't believe he could have gotten that sound with a capped horseshoe, actually a capped anything. Although I did get a good sound out of an SVT with a a capped 4001 with mostly the bridge pickup, bass run stereo, could have been decapped though but I don't think so. It took quite a bit of tweaking to get bottom though. I played Everybody's got Something to hide 'cept Me and My Monkee like that with a pick and it sounded just like the record although people say that record was predominantly the J bass which I have reservations about.
I hate to disagree but I thought his bass sound went out the window along with George Martin, it was also usually too loud in the mix in Wings. Acoustic 360's are great for that tuba sound, they are like playing through subwoofers.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:12 am

McCartney received the bass on The Beatles US tour in 1965 on the Los Angeles stop.

teeder · Post by **teeder** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:14 am

@ Burt Lancaster's house around the time of the Hollywood Bowl show. IIRC

simer4001 · Post by **simer4001** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:51 am

I think John and Kevin have it right.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:16 pm

I was talking about the guitars not Mac's bass, but I have no idea, justs something I thought I had read.

rickfan63 · Post by **rickfan63** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:17 am

I had read that they were presented the guitars in New York City before their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance. F.C. Hall had rented a suite in a hotel there to showcase the guitars. Especially the 360/12 guitar that George got.