Which Celebrity Bassist Influenced You To Buy A Ric?

[cassius987]

I'm curious about this because a lot of people say Geddy Lee and Chris Squire. That is not the case for me.

Let me know if I need to add more to the list.

There are a bunch of honorable mentions I'd like to add but realistically few would say yes. Such as... Chris Brubeck. Fantastic player but I don't think he gets associated with his great-sounding fretless Ric very much. Also, there are lots of players who only stayed on Rics a short time.

[Tarrbot]

Interesting that you asked this.

I was wondering this last night myself about why people picked a Rick over something else here.

In my case, I had never really paid much attention to what people played and went into my local music store and saw a Rick bass that I ended up purchasing because it sounded so awesome.

Only after that did I start noticing what people were playing.

[cjj]

Well, I can't vote for any of them. While a number of them contributed to my interest in playing bass, I never really knew the particular brand of bass they played until after I was already a dedicated fan of RIC basses.

I actually got my first 4001 somewhat by accident. I wasn't really happy with the bass I was playing and one of the members in our band said I should check out this Rickenbacker bass that was in the newspaper classifieds. We went over to the guys house, me not expecting to buy it since it was $450, a HUGE amount of money for a used bass and a poor college student. Anyway, after trying it out and playing it for a few minutes, I knew it was going home with me. That was around 1978. It's been a Rick love affair ever since.

[iamthebassman]

I didn't see Bruce Foxton on the list.

[atomic_punk]

I was having lunch with Ged one day and he was telling me about how great these basses were, and how could I be seen in public playing an Ibanez? So we went over to the music store....

(OK, a little kidding there...)

[bassduke49]

What? No Rick James?

[woodyng]

chris, most definitely, others may have used a rick bass some times,but he was associated quite strongly with it from the earliest days. i didn't even know macca played a rick when i first heard the records he used it on. nick st nicklaus,because steppenwolf was an early favorite,not so much for his bass playing,tho-it just looked cool. i thought his replacement was a much better bass player,and i believe used a fender bass of some sort. (but i digress) early mike mills for sure. jon camp,altho a great bassist on his own,seemed to be just following the sonic trail that chris blazed. i am sure there are others,i have actually no experience whatsoever of lemmy's playing,and tend to think of geddy as also being influenced by chris to pick up the rick as well. i was sure joe macre used a rick on the studio version of"ice",but when i saw crack the sky live,he was playing it on an alembic...and getting a similar sound....entwhistle was a huge favorite,but i didn't associate him so much with the rick as the fenderbirds.....

[kiramdear]

Pauly. And that's just one of a few things he inspired me to do.

[qwezirider]

Ged was the big one for me, but I also recall an early photo of Cliff Williams (AC/DC) using one back then. So that kind of assisted in solidifying that for me.

[Mr. Meaty]

Doug Stegmire from Billy Joels band in the seventys was also an avid Ricky 4001 player.And a great one i might add.

[sloop_john_b]

No Cliff Burton?

[paologregorio]

I didn't see Bruce Foxton on the list.

+1! I bought my first JG 4001 because of Bruce Foxton, as did a fellow classmate at school.

[dog]

I think that through the years, many have thought that if they had celebrity type gear, they would play or at least sound like their idol. I bought a Ric because I like the way it looks. Of course the great sound is unmistakable.

[cassius987]

Sorry guys, it turns out only 10 people can be fit on the list.

In any case Paul d'Amour was my link up to Rics... his tone on Undertow is THE reason why I began to consider the brand.

[sloop_john_b]

Sorry guys, it turns out only 10 people can be fit on the list.

Take out Andre 3000 and put "Other"?