Guilty Conscience?

[marc61]

I went to see a band last night featuring the ex-singer/songwriter/guitarist from my band the Cyclones. Hadn't seen her in over 20 years...Quite a strole down memory lane.

One of our topics of conversation revolved around her insistance around 1981/2 that I switch from Rickenbacker to Fender, which I did, selling my 4001, and getting a Jazz Bass (a 74 for $200, where's THAT bass now )

She says now she wishes I had never done it as she lives and dies to hear the sound of the Rickenbacker bass guitar...NOW she tells me lol!

[j_gary]

I'm impressed she even noticed the bass. Seems many band members wouldn't notice a Rick from a stick.

Any idea where the Fender fascination came from Marc?

Oh, and her current bass players weapon of choice?

[johnallg]

She was hittin' on you Marc!

Bet you wish you had that 4001 back too.

[marc61]

Gary, What happened was we were playing a show supporting the Bongos(ironic because guitarist Richard Barone is famous for his love of Ric guitars). My string broke during the set, and with no backup, I had to borrow Rob Norris P-Bass. Her and the drummer loved the sound.

Her current bassist uses a Hofner club through a fuzz effects box. Sounds really cool. However, he will be graduating to Ric soon

John, possibly so, but there's a history there(shhh...my wife reads these boards.

Don't really wish for the bass back except for sentimentality. It was a 79 which are fairly common, I swapped out the bridge for a badass, installed myself a brass nut, and magic markered in all the dents and scratches.

[rictified]

This may have nothing to do with your situation in 1981 Marc, but my take on that period of time is that most people were sick of the "Rickenbacker" sound at that time. A lot of engineers would complain if you brought one into the studio (get a proper P bass etc.) What is ironic is that I believe it was really a combination of the cap and Rotosound strings which did them in. Rics became synonymous with Rotosound and most people thought that that sound was the natural sound of a Rickenbacker. Many people were really just sick of the tinny no bottom sound of the combination of cap and Rotosound. I bought my first 4001 in 1977 and before I bought it the drummer of my band told me I hope you don't get a Ric because the sound of those things get really sickening after a while. This was the general attitude of many musicians (especially non-bassplayers). People either loved them or hated them after a while. I think if Ric had taken out the cap sooner than it did (1984) sales wouldn't have dropped off so rapidly and they wouldn't have the gotten the bad rep they got. I got rid of mine because of the cap and didn't know it, I just though there was something really strange going on with the bridge pickup. My bass had all sorts of bottom and treble but no mids, so to get definition you had to play trebly. Rotosound were the only game in town for roundwounds for a long time and were designed to sound like a piano which they do and as you probably all know a piano's low notes are virtually all overtones, maybe good for a piano but for a bass guitar? This is just my opinion and my experience but it was a widely held opinion around Boston back then, it took them a long time to live down the "tinny, no bottom" label, some people still have it, amongst the older musicians who were around then.

[jwr2]

yep ... the old 70s 4001 bass is an excellent bass with the cap removed ... and even better with 250k ohm tone pots ... and these days there are strings that sound better than rotosounds ...

[rickboy88]

Glad you posted Marc! Martin Gordon (Kimomo My House, Sparks) noted a similar thing. I think it was the producer who had him use a Fender on one track. On the others he used his 4001 (with Rotosounds and his H&H combo) and those tracks sound much better to me.

Agree with Bob that many think that the Chris Squire sound was all the 4001, rather than the new Rotosound strings for each gig and additional effects was well.

I got a 2nd Ric bass this spring off ebay and was happy to find out that the bass output was much higher than my '82 4001S. To get a "bassier" '82 4001S vintage sound, I ended up adding (2) series .0047 uF caps to the late 90's 4003. I'm just a "vintage tone" guy I guess, and I was disappointed by the bland (to me) initial sound and tone adjust range on the 4003 till I made it "super" vintage tone. I can still get lots of bass from the neck pickup on the 4003, so to me it is the best of both worlds. The pickups were so different between the basses that one cap didn't quite do it for me.

There is something special though about the more "crystaline" sound of the older pickups, especially in the bridge location.

[ram]

I have never understood that thin sound rap. A listen to Sgt Pepper or Mystery Tour shows that there isn’t a thin sound issue – nor was there a muddy sound. I didn’t know about the cap either back in those days (mid 70s) and just adjusted by using a bass boost on my amp. Also, I was using flats until the early eighties. Mostly due to the fact that I was ignorant as to how to set up for the rounds and I didn’t want to hurt the bass. I’m not even sure the piano analogy works – different brands of pianos don’t sound alike. And even the same piano played by two different people will sound different. I think there may have been a lot of ignorance about RICs back then due to folks just being more familiar with other brands. I, for one, was always a fan of the wide versatility of the sound possibilities from RICs. But viva la difference!

[rickenbrother]

I've never understood the thin sound rap either, Tom.

[rickaddict]

I understand the "thin sound rap." As much as I loved my Rick bass in the 80's, I was always frustrated with the sound. Not enough to abandon my Rick though, thank goodness. HUGE improvement when the cap was removed. Now there's no chance of me ever leaving my Ricks.

Nice pix, Marc! Looks like your fretting hand is just too darned fast to capture on film!

[jaymi]

this is one of the reasons why I have had so many....even taking the caps out of some didn't get me what I was looking for...

[marc61]

Jeff - lol - actually...I probably didn't know which frets to play...besides flats weren't so happening then, so wear and tear was a concern

[edski]

I don't disagree with the technical description of the cap issue, but I am just mystified about the "one trick pony" rap. I'm also left a little confused why so many are so gushing about the cap bypass, when the time I saw it demonstrated I was left a little less moved.

The only uncapped bass I've played is one of Andy Winters' - not sure which one, maybe he'd remember? - and it did make a huge difference in the bridge PU tone. IMHO it made it too much like the neck. But that's probably because I am used to using the neck PU as my major tone source, so I tended to blend in various amounts of the thin bridge PU to brighten the sound.

I think I am different from most players in that I usually drive my tone with the volume and tone pots "in the middle". The capped 4001 allowed me to tweak the tone a lot as the songs moved along.

As for the "Rick" clank, I found that playing with the tone cut all the way usually made for a deep rich tone, and especially with flats on it I felt my 4001 could "out P-Bass a P-Bass"...

Obviously my mileage varies significantly from most. I just never felt it necessary to uncap my 4001.

[hieronymous]

Those are great pictures Marc! Post more if you've got 'em!