That McCartney Rockshow "Wings Over America" tone...

[KOLAD]

True that brother.

[ilan]

Not a big fan of his sound in that era (although his bass parts were at their best IMHO), but it always sounded to me like the bridge pickup solo'ed, with the tone at least halfway rolled off. Yes I see the pickup switch in the middle position, but that can mean anything - he could have the neck pickup volume turned down to 0, so that even if he accidentally hits the switch while playing, this does not affect the sound.

[FabGearHead]

I was about 20 feet away from him at the Wings concert on May 16, 1976 at the Capitol Center in Maryland. It was general admission and I literally ran as soon as the doors opened so I could stand right in front of the stage. I watched a roadie doing signal checks on all the instruments. He would walk by and strum the strings while the guitars were still in the stands. He came to the the Rick which I was crazy about, strummed the strings and... "Bbbllluuffttzzitt" The guy looked panicky, I was panicky because I didn't come to see Paul McCartney play a mere left-handed Fender Jazz bass!!

The roadie gets on his knees on the darkened stage, pulls out a flashlight, a screwdriver, and takes off the pickguard, remember, I'm 20 feet away watching, he then carefully checks connections and wiggles the switch, pokes around the jack a bit, plucks a string and "Pong", "pong", "pong", it was okay! I could not see a bass amp though I was very familiar with Acoustic amps. I traced the bass cord as best I could see and it went over to a bass bin. It appeared to be the wood type, as in Altec style with a wire screen over the opening. No name that I could see. I assumed that there was an amp behind the bin, again, I did not see one.

When Paul played the Rick with the Horseshoes on it, his hand ended up right over the neck pickup and he is seen in many photos playing right at the end of the fingerboard.
With the custom wound high-gain pickup, Paul would pick right over the treble pickup. There will be a difference in sound for sure if you do the same.

Jim

[KOLAD]

Not a big fan of his sound in that era (although his bass parts were at their best IMHO), but it always sounded to me like the bridge pickup solo'ed, with the tone at least halfway rolled off. Yes I see the pickup switch in the middle position, but that can mean anything - he could have the neck pickup volume turned down to 0, so that even if he accidentally hits the switch while playing, this does not affect the sound.

Yes, man I always thought that too, but in every single pic from those shows you can clearly see that all knobs are up full. And there's a a few times in the show "Rock Show" film where when he takes the bass off to go play piano he turns down every knob 1 by 1. (I actually thought it was cute that he even turned down each tone knob). heheh

[KOLAD]

I was about 20 feet away from him at the Wings concert on May 16, 1976 at the Capitol Center in Maryland. It was general admission and I literally ran as soon as the doors opened so I could stand right in front of the stage. I watched a roadie doing signal checks on all the instruments. He would walk by and strum the strings while the guitars were still in the stands. He came to the the Rick which I was crazy about, strummed the strings and... "Bbbllluuffttzzitt" The guy looked panicky, I was panicky because I didn't come to see Paul McCartney play a mere left-handed Fender Jazz bass!!

The roadie gets on his knees on the darkened stage, pulls out a flashlight, a screwdriver, and takes off the pickguard, remember, I'm 20 feet away watching, he then carefully checks connections and wiggles the switch, pokes around the jack a bit, plucks a string and "Pong", "pong", "pong", it was okay! I could not see a bass amp though I was very familiar with Acoustic amps. I traced the bass cord as best I could see and it went over to a bass bin. It appeared to be the wood type, as in Altec style with a wire screen over the opening. No name that I could see. I assumed that there was an amp behind the bin, again, I did not see one.

When Paul played the Rick with the Horseshoes on it, his hand ended up right over the neck pickup and he is seen in many photos playing right at the end of the fingerboard.
With the custom wound high-gain pickup, Paul would pick right over the treble pickup. There will be a difference in sound for sure if you do the same.

Jim

So awesome you saw these historical nerd tech things in person that we love to hear about! ...And got to see Wings of course.
That is interesting in deed about the pickup switch.

As far as the amp goes, I have scoured the stage of many a pic and every **** on the concert film to see that. All I can come up with is that the Silverface Bassman on the 2 Marshall cabs (I figure it to be Paul's Rooftop Bassman he always had), next to the 2 Blonde Bassman setups, was being used for bass. Either by Paul always, or by Denny and Jimmy, or then there's the chance it was Denny's guitar amp? Now, maybe that was why it was so clear and burpy as it was through a guitar type setup. I say this because the variable is that I also noticed the cord was plugged into the middle input on the amp in all pics and shots, which is the guitar input, not the left side, which is the dedicated bass side to the Silverface Bassman. Right about now is when I go crazy! haha

And yes, that behind the PU, near the bridge plucked sound makes everything sound that way, even on a Fender it has that snark.

[jps]

...the 2 Blonde Bassman setups...

Hmm, I have been trying to sell this but now that I think I can get Paul's tone from it maybe not! Same circuit just with harmonic vibrato added.

In light of this newfound info I'll start the bidding at $5000 OBO.

Several members here can testify as to how good this sounds with bass.

[fireglo]

In this video from the 1975 Australia tour, you can see that he already has the high gain pickup installed. And, it looks like he has his bass plugged into a little mixer. You can see him walk over to it and make what I guess is an adjustment to his volume. It happens at ten minutes into the show just as they are beginning "Let Me Roll It".

In the film "Rockshow", he still has the same mixer except it is back next to the drum set sitting on the floor. You can also see a mixer just like it sitting on top of one of the Marshall cabs between Denny and Jimmy's amps. I assume this is what they play bass through when Paul is playing piano.

[KOLAD]

In this video from the 1975 Australia tour, you can see that he already has the high gain pickup installed. And, it looks like he has his bass plugged into a little mixer. You can see him walk over to it and make what I guess is an adjustment to his volume. It happens at ten minutes into the show just as they are beginning "Let Me Roll It".

In the film "Rockshow", he still has the same mixer except it is back next to the drum set sitting on the floor. You can also see a mixer just like it sitting on top of one of the Marshall cabs between Denny and Jimmy's amps. I assume this is what they play bass through when Paul is playing piano.

I never thought that to be a mixer, I always thought they were extra Moog Synths for some reason, or like an EMS synth.
Great, now we got a new variable, figure out what those are too!

[bluewhale]

...There somewhere are posts by Ted Staberow covering the history of the pickups. Used to be a sticky but I can't find them now.

This page provides links to all nine installments:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=388361

[jps]

Slightly OT, here is a print I made that is in the NPG in London.

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/searc ... sit&rNo=24

This thumbnail was taken from the original 16x20 fiberbase print I made for Janet. I have done a lot of printing for Janet over the years; much of it is in the R&RHoF&M.

[henry5]

I think the tone has a lot to do with picking the stings closer to the bridge.

I've also been told that the action on that bass was super low, about .115" to .120" at the last fret.

Hm..? What I’ve read (don’t remember were) is that the action was very high on his bass, and that they (RIC) was told not to touch the action when they got it in.

I'm sure everyone here has read this before -
http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html

And this
viewtopic.php?p=983#p983

Now to find the chappy that did the zero fret and anything else AFTER Mark and the guys at RIC had it, and ask them what the heck those strings were on the Wing Over America tour!

They zero fret and white nut was done before Arnquist and the guys got it.

I read an interview with Graham Gouldman (10cc) once where he said he'd played Paul's Ric and the action was so high he didn't know how he played it at all.

[KOLAD]

I've heard that now a few times. My guess is neither him or any roadies ever tweaked his truss rod.