Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I like to know what kind of fretless he uses on "Ghosts", and if he had recorded any fretless tracks previously.

Did he enjoy producing the Vapors and how did that come about.

PM sent!

fireglo67 wrote:PM sent!

now you got me curious

wim wrote:

fireglo67 wrote:PM sent!

now you got me curious

Top secret mate. All will be revealed in the coming months.

I got the PM... very inappropriate! This is a bass forum!!!! Please don't do that again

He told me, it was because the Rickenbacker did not have enough bass end live with the Amplifiers at that time and when he became accustomed with the precision he was too settled to go back.
We are pre-4003 and the 4001 were a bit low on sound filling bass, amps were not that clever and there was only so much bass end you could get.
He still owns Ricks.

vax2002 wrote:He told me, it was because the Rickenbacker did not have enough bass end live with the Amplifiers at that time and when he became accustomed with the precision he was too settled to go back.
We are pre-4003 and the 4001 were a bit low on sound filling bass, amps were not that clever and there was only so much bass end you could get.
He still owns Ricks.

Also, 4001 basses had this awful capacitor that cut out bass from the bridge pickup.

The bass filter caps were required in those days, with a Rick 4003 when you roll up the tone the bass stays on, unlike precisions that roll it off.
Wind back 40+ years and you had a bass that made very short work of speakers and amps in those days, they had to filter it out to lose the reputation that Ricks blew your amp, so in went a bass filter .
In the 80's amps and speaker technology began to catch up and cap should have gone then but hung around, so you had other basses that produced more bass.

This sent Ricks in to a a bit of a no mans land until the second edition of the 4003 hit the shops.
No bass has bottom end like a 4003 other than active basses and none certainly as clear with open tone pots.


Think bruce just needed a deeper more rounded sound live as we hear the Ricks on many late recordings, also the precisions needed less maintenance on the necks with roundwounds, had the 4003 been out, he may well have switched back.

If they had cut the cap sooner, things might have been different.

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..........with a Rick 4003 when you roll up the tone the bass stays on, unlike precisions that roll it off.

Interesting. I've never noticed it, or indeed heard of it before.

Now I'm going to have to get my Precision out and see if I can hear it!

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..........with a Rick 4003 when you roll up the tone the bass stays on, unlike precisions that roll it off.

Interesting. I've never noticed it, or indeed heard of it before.
Now I'm going to have to get my Precision out and see if I can hear it!

Wow, you're right!
I did a back-to-back against my 4001 and I can definitely hear a drop in lower frequencies when I dial the tone up on the Precision.

It is one of the best characteristics of Rickenbackers, you get to keep the bottom end with the tone clean.
However in the old days the sub frequencies destroyed bass cabs like no tommorow so in went a cap to protect the inferior amplifiers.
The design of the 4001 was too perfect for its time and had to be castrated until amps and cabs caught up.

Foxy likes his precisions now, but the tone of his Rick recordings is the thing of legends.
Just wish he would record with a Rick again, as ricks have a fan club who would buy his stuff just to hear the bass.
When you use a precision, it's just a bass that sounds like other basses and nobody really cares what you played.
Put a Rick on and up go the ears of all bass players.

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..........with a Rick 4003 when you roll up the tone the bass stays on, unlike precisions that roll it off.

(Apologies for hijacking the thread.)

What's the difference in the wiring that causes this?
I'm guessing the location of the tone capacitor somehow?

.... ulterior motive: I'd like to mod my P-Bass if I can so the bass stays on when I roll the tone up!

/Marc, I 'm not convinced by your theory!
The caps were placed on the pu's that actually are quite similar to other basses pu's.
The neck pu, which delivers that deep ground tone was left 'unharmed' and could still have blown a speaker.