Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Does anyone know with certainty if the classic recorded Ric sounds - McCartney, Squire, Geddy Lee, Glover, Jon Camp - were with or without the capacitor?

Ilan, the original RM1999's had the cap so I think McCartney certainly had his in the Beatles years. I wonder if it was kept when the bass went back to the factory in the 70's. Squire's bass may have lost his when converted to stereo in the mid to late 60's but I wouldn't like to say for sure.

Ilan, Jon Camp's Great White had the cap IN when I got it 2 years ago. I was very surprised; expected cap removal was one of the first mods he would have had done.

Squire's and Lee's basses had the caps but they recorded and played live using the stereo output. I'm pretty sure Glover's (and Glenn Hughes' Rick on "Burn" too) had the cap too. I used to think he used the neck pickup only when I listened to Machine Head but then I didn't know anything about the cap.

I wonder who was the first to do "the surgery"? And how many people would have played with Rickenbacker basses longer if they had just known?

EDIT: I think Squire had saved the cap when converting his bass to stereo, would make perfect sense, wouldn't it?

"... And how many people would have played with Rickenbacker basses longer if they had just known? "

Me, for one... If only I had known about it when I had my original Jetglo '73! I replaced the bridge pickup twice in the poor bass, because I thought that the problem must be there, and then I sold the bass dirt cheap...

I really hate that cap, it's personal now It has deprived me of the joy of Rics for more than 10 years, until I found out where the problem really was.

Can you blame me for not guessing that someone put a bass-cut capacitor in a bass guitar? And if there was any logic behind it, then why wasn't it installed in the 4000 model? because then it wouldn't be a bass, that's why.

Sorry to hear that Ilan. I bought my first Rick brand new in 1991 and of course there was no cap around then but when I tried my friends '75 I thought it had a faulty pickup. He didn't know about the cap either but was of course used to the sound.

Pekka, I saw Glover play with Purple back in the day, and he had two Fender Jazz pickups in place of his neck pickup. They were angled so the poles would line up with the strings, and were about two inches apart. He still got that Rick sound though... what a friend of mine used to call "ginky bass"

I also saw Hughes during the Burn tour, and that looked like a stock 4001. Of course seeing the outside doesn't reveal the status of the cap.

Regarding Macca, on the White Album, he really gets that cap sound on Glass Onion (along with some extra foam under the strings for a mute) and on Helter Skelter too. Now many people say John played bass on Helter Skelter, but it sure sounds like a Rick, and unless they had a rightly bass, I doubt John could have played Paul's lefty bass.

I think Roger would have taken the cap out too if he just had known about it, ditto for Hughes. I think Hughes achieved a much better sound when he switched to Precision on post-Burn albums and tours.

"... I saw Glover play with Purple back in the day, and he had two Fender Jazz pickups in place of his neck pickup. They were angled so the poles would line up with the strings"

On Machine Head he still had the toaster-top. To me that's his quintessential sound.



I could be wrong but I thought that Glass Onion was the Bass VI... it has a "bass choke" 4th switch which is like the Ric cap. When I had a Bass VI (with LaBella flats) I could get that sound.

I saw Purple during the "Who Do We Think We Are" tour... It was a LONG time ago! Saw them at the Garden in NYC. That would be 1973. I also saw them on the Burn tour, but this was with the original lineup.

The Fender Bass VI also had a string mute, so that would make sense. Where did you hear it was a Bass VI on Onion? I know George played the Bass VI on Back in the USSR, and he's playing bass on Honey Pie, so that might be the Bass VI also.

I had the Ram song book back then, and there was a great shot of Paul with his Rick, now stripped to MG, with a piece of foam rubber under the strings close to the bridge... something I used to do myself.

Glass Onion sounds like a Rick with round wounds and the mute to me, so if Paul was only using flats, it might be the Bass VI, or some other bass. It also sounds like the same bass in Skelter... so who knows!

OK, here's a picture of him with the Jazz pickups... the caption says: "Roger Glover 1974 The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's..."

A better shot!

He had the bass modified for "Who Do We Think We Are" tour by John "Dawk" Stilwell. There's some info on his site:
http://www.dawksound.com/home.html
Go for the "Clients", then click Blackmore&Rainbow. There's three pics of Glovers Rick, one is a modified Fireglow and the pic is dated July 1974. I've seen a pic of Nazareth's Pete Agnew with a FG4001 with two Jazz PU's just like Roger's and Glover produced Nazareth...hmmm?

This Beatles site claims that Helter Skelter was played on a Fender Jazz and by Lennon and Glass Onion was also played on a Jazz by Macca.

http://www.beatlesgear.tk/

See that? You think you know what bass it was all these years and then the rug gets pulled out from under you!

Kind of how I thought Paul's bass lines were cool in Helter Skelter, and then of course I find out it's John... A Jazz heh? Wow...

There's no reason to believe beatlesgear knows anything more than anyone else. I for one have read in several publications over many years, that "HS" has 4001S(Paul) and BassVI(John), and most people(but who knows for sure)agree on Jazz on "GO".

"unless they had a righty bass"
They were given a righty Jazz at the same time Fender gave them the BassVI and the new amps.
Here's Pauly with a lefty Jazz: