Chris' bass repair timeline

[pacealot]

For those anoraks still interested in finding out exactly what repairs where done to Chris' RM and when/why/by whom, etc., I just found this little excerpt at Notes From The Edge, from March 4th, 1998:

"MOT: Let's talk about your famous Rickenbacker. It sure has held up over the years. It's seems it's still your main instrument.

CS: Yeah.

MOT: Have you had any accidents or major repairs to it over the years?

CS: Yeah, quite a few, actually. In fact it's in the shop right now [laughs]. It's being refretted right now...the truss rods are actually unadjustable on that guitar at the moment because at one point somebody reglued the head. The head got broken once and Mike Tobias fixed it. But somehow or other he got too much glue on the truss rods or something so they're unadjustable so at some point that's going to have to be dealt with.

MOT: How long ago did that happen?

CS: Oh, God, Richard Davis would be better at remembering the exact dates and times. But that was about ten years ago, I guess, that he did that, that he repaired it. But it had been broken for about five years but it wasn't totally broken, it had a crack in it and when you took the strings off of it you could move the head around a bit, it was in a precarious position for quite a while but it was still fine when you put the strings back on, so eventually we got it repaired by Mike Tobias.

MOT: Once you strung it, it was playable.

CS: Exactly, once the strings were on it it pulled the thing into place and everything was solid, it was a weird kind of fracture that when you took the strings off you could move the head around a little bit. It looked worse than it was, I guess, but eventually we got it fixed."

Since the bass is at the factory at the time of the interview, that helps pin down the time frame for that repair (early 1998), which fits with what John Hall has told us in the past. Interestingly, he notes that the headstock had been cracked for "about five years" before Tobias' repair, which he places at "about ten years ago." So it would seem that either the original 1970 break broke again in the early '80s, or perhaps there was a whole new break at that time. In any event, I don't imagine Chris would be off by over a decade as to when the initial headstock damage was done!

Hmm - the mystery continues....

[just_bassics]

Good excerpt, Paul. Even I haven't had time to read all of those NFTE interviews, and there are many. Chris does not seem to care, in general, when it comes to remembering many specific details about repairs, refinishings, or what year this bass or that bass came into or left the fold. When he does relate details about some of the things his RM1999 has been through, it makes me wonder how it survived at all! In my limited conversation with him about his guitars, I could tell that some questions he enjoyed answering and others he didn't really care about, like those details so many of us live for are not real important to him. Vincent Gallo made the comment on this forum about the day Chris let him rummage through his old parts box, where Chris said something about "never seeing someone so happy to be looking at a box of old junk".

Vincent, hope you are still working on that book!

[ajish4]

Good excerpt, Paul. Even I haven't had time to read all of those NFTE interviews, and there are many. Chris does not seem to care, in general, when it comes to remembering many specific details about repairs, refinishings, or what year this bass or that bass came into or left the fold. When he does relate details about some of the things his RM1999 has been through, it makes me wonder how it survived at all! In my limited conversation with him about his guitars, I could tell that some questions he enjoyed answering and others he didn't really care about, like those details so many of us live for are not real important to him. Vincent Gallo made the comment on this forum about the day Chris let him rummage through his old parts box, where Chris said something about "never seeing someone so happy to be looking at a box of old junk".

Vincent, hope you are still working on that book!

LoL, yeah, I love that story about Vincent rummaging through that box....like a kid in a candy store no doubt!

[johnallg]

Good excerpt, Paul. Even I haven't had time to read all of those NFTE interviews, and there are many. Chris does not seem to care, in general, when it comes to remembering many specific details about repairs, refinishings, or what year this bass or that bass came into or left the fold. When he does relate details about some of the things his RM1999 has been through, it makes me wonder how it survived at all! In my limited conversation with him about his guitars, I could tell that some questions he enjoyed answering and others he didn't really care about, like those details so many of us live for are not real important to him. Vincent Gallo made the comment on this forum about the day Chris let him rummage through his old parts box, where Chris said something about "never seeing someone so happy to be looking at a box of old junk".

Vincent, hope you are still working on that book!

LoL, yeah, I love that story about Vincent rummaging through that box....like a kid in a candy store no doubt!

Can you imagine? It would be really interesting. That post of Vincents had me daydreaming on the fact Chris has a toolbox and I could just see him patching a few cracks with spackling so he could grab a roller and paint the room. I believe I was in the middle of painting the house at the time.

[2112]

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll21 ... 030884.jpg

Here's a photo from 3/8/84 (90125 tour) where you can see that the headstock is at a forward angle and there are two string holders attached to the face of the headstock.

I'm still adding more YES photos and I have more Rush photos to add as well. It takes a lot of time to do, so i add a little here and there. You can see all of the photos that I have added here:
http://photobucket.com/TP2112
Just click on "view all" it's easier that way.

Enjoy.

[just_bassics]

Great pictures, Tom! Thanks for posting them. I especially like the first three, Chris and Steve with their most famous axes.

[2112]

Thanks.
They are in the order of date, but in order of posting. So, the older pics (back to 1984) are farther in the pile.
I'm adding more YES photos that will take them to my last YES concert 5/4/04.

[2112]

Perhaps I should have done a seperate thread for these. So everyone has a better chance at seeing them.
OK, I will.

Sorry, I was talking to myself.

[woodyng]

your concert photos are great! love the '91 tour multi-yes conglomerate shots---i missed out on that tour,would loved to have seen that combination of musicians.....and i think both chris and macca just play their instruments and leave the maintenance issues to those that know what to do with them.....i tend to be that way myself,not lazy so much as mechanically inept....

[2112]

Thanks woody!

Yeah, I think I read somewhere that Sir Paul dosen't even know what kind of strings are on his basses.
I have trouble believing that, but who knows??

I think Paul is a genius. Great compositions, and great bass parts to the songs. Oh, and a good singer as well.
Kind of like Chris Squire.

[just_bassics]

Paul gave that famous answer "long, shiny ones" when asked about his brand of strings, possibly for the humor, but others have suggested that he was aware of the marketing power in his comments and didn't want to give a free endorsement. I always just thought it was typical Macca humor.

I like to tinker a little with my instruments but leave the real work to my luthier. Keeps me from getting into trouble that I can't back out of!

Woody, I missed that tour as well. They didn't come to Pittsburgh. That is why, these days, I just make a road trip out of it. That worked out quite well for me on the last tour.

[JakeK]

I know he uses/used Pyramids and Rotosounds (for short scales) on his Höfner and La Bellas and Rotosounds for his Rick, all are flats...I wonder if Paul ever used rounds before?

[johnallg]

According to JH back on 08/19/2005 Paul used RIckenbacker #4440 flats (Maxima) strings.

http://www.rickenbacker.com/forum_view_ ... ?&p=p#1175

Not sure how this all relates to what strings Chris uses....

[JakeK]

This is about the strings Chris uses:
http://rickresource.com/forum/viewtopic ... 0&t=388179

[seyesbass]

With reference to the fracture that Chris mentions he noticed but it was ok with the strings on,it was probably identical to the one I had on RM DA24.
When I was checking the truss rods one time to see if they would loosen up if I needed to make any adjustments,I started to try and loosen the nuts.
They had never been moved since the guitar was at the factory from what I could see so with a bit of trepidation I used gradually more pressure to turn the first nut.
The nuts wouldnt move at all so I gave up as the neck was set perfectly anyway but whilst holding the headstock to replace the truss rod cover I noticed that the fretboard was coming away from the neck behind the nut.
The split was at least 5cm long and you could bend the headstock back quite a bit to see the bare maple under the fretboard, but much the same as Chris said,once re-strung there was no apparent problem and you couldnt even see a crack.
I left it like that for about a year and gigged all over the country with a 60s band called the Casuals with no problem from the fracture.
Eventually it bugged me so much in the back of my mind that I managed to gently persuade some Superglue into the crack and fix the thing permenantly.
I think you guys in the US call it Crazyglue and its like water from the tube so capilary action sucks it inside the crack. Whoever owns it now will have no idea!
If the headstock on Chris's RM looks a bit like its bent forward it should be remembered that the old headstocks were dead straight from the nut and there was hardly any noticeable tilt back if any and its natural for it to look that way even though there isnt a bend.
Another thing is that Chris gets quite physical with the RM and from my experience the thin necks are easy to bend (intentionally) from behind.
I might have mentioned it before somewhere but when I owned Wints RM, I used to bend the neck to give the note a bit of vibrato every now and then.
When I was really playing hard the A string sometimes jumped out of the nut too. The sure sign of a bent RM neck is any photo of rubber bands or wire etc. wrapped around the headstock behind the nut.
Chris mentioned breaking the neck around 1970 I think and that is probably why he was usung the 21 fretter for a while.
One other thing with the RMs I have owned is truss rod rattle.
You can hear it when its quiet and you arent plugged in and you can feel the vibration but once you plug you cant hear it so my way of thinking is just leave well alone if the bass is set up ok and sings well.
Good thread by the way and it might be an idea to link to the bass threads about RMs if we get a bit more info about the repair history.