Action on Paul's 4001

fireglo · Post by **fireglo** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 1:58 pm

While watching the anthology, I hit the pause button right as Paul holds up his bass. This is during the Hello Goodbye clip. I took a picture of it with my digital camera. You can see that the strings are very high. I was surprised to see the action was so high. I couldn't stand the strings that high on my bass.

philco · Post by **philco** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 2:40 pm

I ran onto an interview with Paul where he admitted to knowing next to nothing about music gear. Unlike today, where musicians have a mind boggling variety, the Beatles got their first Hofner bass because they looked around Hamburg and found a music store that actually had one in stock at a price they could afford. The Beatles were not exactly gear snobs. He said his Hofner Beatle bass had only recently been set up by The Mandolin Brothers in New York to where it played correctly. All those years throughout the Beatle days he had played on a bass that was sharp on the G when the open E string was in tune. Some guys like high action because it gives clear notes and never frets out. Maybe the neck is taking a dive after all those years. Maybe Paul never owned a truss rod adjustment tool. Who knows?

Is this a Hofner or Rickenbacker neck? The high action seems to be more from neck curvature than high saddles. Notice that halfway between his hand and the bottom of the photo, the string height is almost the same as at the bottom, which is a sign of excessive neck relief.

I just watched my video of SRV at the El Mocambo again today, and I noticed that the action on old #1 that he uses throughout most of the video was higher than the action on the other strat he used for his much softer version of "Lenny" late in the show.

A guitarist can stand much higher action in the recording studio for a couple of takes than he can for hours on end in a live gig scenario, which is how some guitarists setup their studio axes for better tone.

Paul should like my 4004L setup just fine.

bear · Post by **bear** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 7:35 am

Then again, is it possible that the viewable action on Sir Paul's 4001, for anyone who has thrust the neck upwards while anchoring the body down low, is a result of the force being applied in order to fret with, what appears to be, the first finger, and push the neck up?

Just a thought, but if the 4001C64s basses that are shipping are set up to the Specs of the legendary bass as it left the factory way back when, I'll let you know tomorrow evening when mine arrives. Mike Parks said it "plays great" so I can't imagine it being set up as high as the photo implies.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:47 am

guys it might just be the photo - many things look weird on camera - i dont have high action but my bass would kinda look that way if photoed at that angle!

wints · Post by **wints** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:41 pm

Back in the day I used to bend the neck on my 64 RM1999 towards and away to get different sounds. The action certainly did change!!....Now I know better...Pete Townshend speaks of the same thing in Smith,s book, but sometimes he went too far, and the necks would almost break off in his hands...Kinda like that 4005 on the bay at present!!...It,s more than likely that Paul,s bass was not properly set up. Very few basses from this period were once they had been away from the factory for a period of time. The combination of this, the super slim necks, headstock angle and string tension are the reasons that the RM1999,s are so rare today...

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:48 pm

Scary...

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 1:43 pm

...yes very scary !

headbanger · Post by **headbanger** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 3:23 am

Here's a shot(hopefully) of Pauls 4001s AFTER it went back to Ric in '76(?) for repair. It sports a replacement post '73 bridge. Notice how deep the saddles have been cut to help get a better action.

headbanger · Post by **headbanger** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 3:27 am

http://www.westnet.net.au/ranime/images/da23mcca4001s.jpg

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:39 am

Gerry- thats pretty severe! especially the G saddle.

sneakers · Post by **sneakers** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:52 am

Wow. That's what I call paying attention to detail. Great!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 9:03 am

Many players had high action back then, they liked the deep tones you could get. I also think that that is partly the angle of the photo. I have high action on a 4001 with TI's on it, and it sounds great, like a bass, not a bass guitar, many guys liked that tone back then, they used to put flats on a bass in a closet with vaseline on them for a year to properly condition the springs before using them.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:07 am

Maybe the photo of Paul was taken mid-pluck. He might have been plucking hard.

admin · Post by **admin** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:23 am

Fair point Jerry. All too often, "action" photos mislead us due to a variety of factors including, movement, lighting and clarity.

philco · Post by **philco** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 2:52 pm

I think Bob is right. Paul is probably just one helluva good bass player that saw no reason to worship at the altar of low action. He may be using nylon wrapped Rotosound strings (if they existed then) that give a deep double bass tone and still fret rather easily with a high action.