Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

He is quoted as starting off with an Ibanez then "graduated" so to speak as the royalties started coming in. I've seen photos of him with various Ricks in different colours.
I paste some photo's up but the boss is floating about and if I get caught......

I stand corrected. I believe that fact was something I read on this forum some time ago. It seemed plausible I suppose. If you are not happy try another brand that looks much the same. So the Ibanez came 1st, oh well we live and learn. Thats the great thing about furums, there is always someone who knows. Foxtons sound when he was definitely using the Ric was great, I wonder why he thought the P was any better when it too sounded very Ric like. It certainly did on the Jam songs he played the other night. He used an Ampeg amp also. A more modern looking one (Im not up on them) with what looked to be an 8x10 cab.

Always wished I'd seen the Jam live.
I was seven when Weller walked....

I saw them on Wellers 21st birthday at Bridlington Spa theatre. His Dad brought a birthday cake on stage for him. It was a great gig. I was young myself...14 I think? I was just old enough to go to gigs.

Rory, I know how you feel. I was in my first band in '77 and they were unknown here in the States except thru Creem,etc. That's how I found out about them, got "This is the Modern World" when it came out, and I was hooked. Our band was inspired by hearing The Jam, and living in Texas during the late '70s/early '80s, we were very different from other bands around the area at the time.

Some cool pics:
http://www.newwavephotos.com/Jam.htm

Here's a couple of pics of Bruce:



This one is a modded Ric with P bass pups in the bridge position:

A Rickenbacker bass with a P-Bass pickup? Heresy! And I do seem to remember that on the rear cover of 'In The City' (correct me if I'm wrong) Bruce is shown playing an Ibañez or some such fake, not a real Rickenbacker bass. What are we supposed to make of all that?

That he's thankfully not an idealogue (sp?), at least when it comes to musical instruments.

Well at least this mod was done in tasteful creativity. Personally I think that shaving the horns is worse. And as for the P pickup, RIC themselves have placed the pickups on the 4002 in the Jazz Bass positions, so Foxton was not the first to integrate Fender influence into a Ric bass.

I think Bruce really liked the feel of Ric basses but was never happy with the puckups (Lemmy had the same feelings).

After experimenting with Mods he switched to P basses which I believe he still plays to this day.

The Rics he was playing were '70's models....I assume these Ric basses he was playing then had the capacitor in them and maybe he wasn't happy with the sound due to that, and also wondering whether he has tried a Ric bass without the capacitor or a more recent Ric with the hotter pups.

You make interesting points Martin. I wonder if he was ever aware of the cap mod, or bothered trying out a 4003 with high gains ? He seems to have owned a fair few Rics during the period he was using them so I would be fairly surprised if he hadnt been made aware of the possibilities. I think when it all comes down the Precision is probably just the preferable bass. My use is divided between the 2 models. It's always a close call for me.

I am led to believe that Foxton played an ibanez copy in the early days of his career but when things took off the record company sorted him the real deal.

Welcome, Tom.

Welcome to the forum Tom