Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'd put the date at 1988. EC had him playing the hofner on "veronica" and some other tunes from "spike".

I would be willing to bet that "I want You" was the Hofner, sounds exactly like one and the tone on that song is very different from the rest of the album. You can always tell a short scale bass, they sound out of tune when plucked hard and I don't think Mac was a light plucker. The Hofner sounded great sometimes too, how about The Ballad of John and Yoko? That is a great sound although not real solid and it's supposed to be Lennon supposedly playing bass. Some engineers can make a piece of plywood with strings sound great, others couldn't make a good Ric sound good, I also agree that amps and settings can have a big impact on the recorded sound. Hofners are not hard to intonate, you just move the little piece of metal back if it's playing sharp. They usually sound sharp because they are played too hard and/or the action's too high, they are very delicate little things, I owned one for a short time during the late 60's.

A hofner can be intonated obviously, but it doesn't seem like the beatles had a guitar tech besides mal evans. Would he know how to intonate it? Would Paul? Most pics show the bridge of the hofner shoved up against the pickups, though I'd have to see a Let it Be era pic to be sure.

It could be the hofner for sure, but even McCartney said it had tuing issues.

I don't think the Hofner was fully intonated until it had a neck reset at Mandolin Bros. in 1995. I could be wrong about that though.

Personally I don't think I Want You is anything but the RIC. It doesn't sound at all like the Hofner to my ears. Listen to the Hofner in the Let It Be video when Macca is doing Maxwell's Silver Hammer and it sounds tubby and nothing like I Want You. The sound difference plus the intonation issue decides it for me but of course the sound can be changed on the mixing desk quite a bit so there is always the possibility I guess. Regardless the playing on that song is some of the best bass playing of the 60's on anything IMHO.