The Kinks' Pete Quaife and his Model 1999

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 3:52 pm

I once played a whole gig with my bass that high! (the rick) its actually far easier on the fretting hand, i kinda enjoyed it but you look kinda....stiff and immobile. He got away with it tho!

miguel · Post by **miguel** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 10:35 pm

I remember Pete told me that he enjoyed playing with the bass that high because his RM 1999 was much lighter in weight than the white Fender bass he played before he bought the Rickenbacker, around autumm 1964. The Fender, Pete said, was heavy as a stone. It seems that Ray Davies was after a 'Fender sound', but Pete bought the Rick instead of keeping the Fender. When Ray Davies saw the new Rickenbacker he looked at it with suspicion... until he realized how good it sounded!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 12:19 pm

Yeah it is easier to fret like that, but I think 37 years of playing the same position is going to be hard to change. In fact i think it's all around easier to play like that, it just hurts my back for some reason, maybe because I'm a viejo.
I'm going to try it again tonight.
Ray Davies must have been some charactor, huh? Talented as hell though, I laugh now when I think of him and some of the things Pete has said about him. Reminds me of some of the tyrants I've played with.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 12:26 pm

I know what it is, the weight of my arm presses the bass down, the way I put it now my arm hangs so there is no weight on the bass. I guess maybe because he used a pick he could hook his arm around the bass, I put mine in the classic on top of the bass position to pluck with my fingers most of the time.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 12:56 pm

Bob your nuts, what you doing playing with fingers?

I used to play like that till recently - but i thought i looked stupid on stage, being in a three piece and all - just meant the singer looked all flash and i looked all still and moody!

I still play it quite high tho.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 1:05 pm

hardee har har! I think it looks cool like that, but maybe you gotta be Pete Quaife and wear a suit.

miguel · Post by **miguel** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 2:11 pm

Here are some more news concerning Pete Quaife´s Rickenbacker basses. I have just received his e-mail. The RM1999 that can be seen in the photos that Robert posted recently, is the second Pete bought, just after the first suffered an accident in a live show, in 1965. The Rick bass that is shown at the pictures taken in 1998, in Ontario, is not the RM1999, but a later model, a 70´s model that Pete bought after leaving The Kinks. In fact, it was his THIRD Rick bass! Ray Davies kept the RM1999 (he didn´t allow Pete to take his bass with him). Finally, the 70´s model was 'stolen' in Ontario and then sold to someone at the end of 2003.