Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Steve, his most famous quote (I have it in 2 separate articles) is "on the other side of the frets", which really made me laugh. That's why I was asking; I have very low action, but thought John's may be even lower. However the pictures in his book suggest his action may be higher than I expected. Not as if it matters, just a trivia thing....

Simon, strangely, although I've been influenced by lots of punk players (my favourites being JJ Burnel and Mr Foxton I guess), I have very low action as stated above. In fact I'm a bit featherfingered. The world's least angry punk I guess.....mine's a Babycham .

I know you said that it was Paul Gray's blue Rick that you fell in love with. My reason for my love of azure (why oh why haven't I currently got one???) was Gaye Advert's. I seem to remember Lemmy saying she asked him for advice about Ricks, and he was less than impressed when she ended up with a blue one....I wanted azure as my first, but couldn't get one, and had to settle for jetglo....

I've got a great picture (from march 79 "international musician" mag) of Gaye, with Rickenbacker, sticking two fingers up at anyone and everyone - alas the article said the bass had just been stolen! I wonder if she ever saw it again? (its not in my stash!!!!! 3 replaced machines and a chipped scratchplate are the identifiers, apparently....)

I'd happily settle for that Simon! It must be one of the few that isn't in your stash!

I used to have some great pics of her and her bass in a "live performance" photo book mainly of artists from the "new wave" era (although there were others including the Who and Yes)...misplaced it somewhere along the line sadly. Great photos. If only I could remember who it was by or what it was called I'd get another copy...

Eee, International Musician. Whatever happened to that? I've got an old one with a brief article on Paul Gray, JJ Burnel and Steve Severin (is that what he's called? My aching memory!) of Siouxsie and the Banshees.....I treasure old mags like that as they remind me of what it felt like when I started playing bass. And I think I feel an azure of some description coming on.....tried to buy back my old 76 from a friend the other day....his e-mail said "let me think about it...........NO!!!!!!!" Oh well...

JJ Burnel! Fantastic bass player.

I got to see the Stranglers play live in June 1981...intense show. Mens Without Hats opened...poor guys.

MEN without Hats...not Mens...Mens Room...mens magazine...

There is not one Pro musician that still plays a Ric but Squire and Lemmy, they need to get back in the running.

OK... I'm way late in this thread... So if I'm repeating someone, my apologies!

But this isn't true at all. Off the top of my head I can think of Franz Ferdinand... their bass player plays a 4003.

I read Bass player all the time, and every now and then someone is using a Ric.

The problem isn't so much with Ric.. the problem is not that many bass players have any originality these days. Everyone and their mother is using a Jazz bass with an SVT. You hardly hear a different bass sound on songs anymore... just the same tone, over and over. No originality or imagination at all.

The other thing is the "boutique" bass market, and while it can be argued that Ric could fit into this market for the 4004 basses, they need to get more "modern" pickups (as in wider for the 5 strings) and hardware. And get rid of that mini toggle pickup selector... it's a bit dated!

OK, I'm Johnny-come-lately on this one, but here's my $0.02 anyway.

First of all, chasing down flavors-of-the-moment for endorsement deals won't do anything but drive up the cost of the instruments, since advertising costs are always passed on to the consumer. I'll bet Fender would be able to charge 50 bucks for their MIM standard basses if it weren't for the media blitz.

Another thing is that with so many blatantly sucky "bands" dominating the charts and airwaves, a premium is placed upon popularity of gear rather than on quality. There's nothing I hate worse than having a gear discussion with another musician who's all about dropping names of various pieces of equipment that he totes around to play small club gigs in front of 50 people. Being a musician is like being a golfer, or owning a boat. . .there's a lot of envy for the coolest gear out there. Resist that urge. It's you holding the instrument, remember.

I definitely agree that you don't see Ric basses too often - but they're out there. It's just a Ric thing, you don't make a big deal of it. Sally forth and be at peace that you are smart enough to use a great bass when you play.

Impressive first post! Welcome to the forum!

"The problem isn't so much with Ric.. the problem is not that many bass players have any originality these days. Everyone and their mother is using a Jazz bass with an SVT. You hardly hear a different bass sound on songs anymore... just the same tone, over and over. No originality or imagination at all"

Or it could be that a tried and true sound is what people want. It's no reflection on a player's imagination nor originality to go for classic sound.

I have a hard time with the assertion that "all you hear' is "J's and SVTs", btw.

There are as many different bass rigs as the stars in the sky . But what is the tone most emulated by these ? The classic SVT tone . Die hards new amp guys will deny it but the fact is all most do is try to copy the classic growl that ampeg achieved since the late 60's . Whether they set out to do it or not most good players shoot for this tone .growl of the fender or clanky growl of the rick . Both of these tones are the stuff of dreams and legends . Bottom line is . A classic is a classic ! Always timeless never tiring

"The problem isn't so much with Ric.. the problem is not that many bass players have any originality these days. Everyone and their mother is using a Jazz bass with an SVT. You hardly hear a different bass sound on songs anymore... just the same tone, over and over. No originality or imagination at all."

I disagree with this sentiment for one reason: it's not that the bass playing is unoriginal these days . . . you simply CAN'T HEAR THE F***ING BASS THESE DAYS!!!!!!! Everyone always goes on about the bass needing to be "felt rather than heard", so they have [expletive] tone that sinks in the mix into completely anonymity. There are very few bands these days who have distinctive or EVEN AUDIBLE BASSLINES not because of the basses they are using, or even the notes they are playing (except when all that people do is hit an open low B over and over and over and over . . . ARGH), but rather, because their mixing SUCKS BEYOND ALL BELIEF!!!! Most popular bands these days are mixed HORRIBLY.

Sorry for the rant, but it has to be said. Like, for example, I'm a fan of Yellowcard; everyone sees them as this generic emo-punk band that tops the charts. Really, though, you have to see them live to appreciate them . . . they play brilliantly and sound AMAZING live, but the mix on their albums is horrendous, so their studio stuff sounds mediocre at best. There are good bands and bad bands and great bands and terrible bands, but there is a NOTICEABLE wave of HORRIBLE MIXING lately, and I think it is killing more music than plastic top 40 bands.

I'm willing to bet nu-metal bands wouldn't all sound the same if they weren't all mixed the same. Mixing today is dominated by super-thunderous crunchy guitars that take up all the space, and then behind it, all you can hear is are continuous sixteenth notes on the kickdrum and a stupidly clashing snare and infinitely sustaining crash symbols on every other beat. I'm willing to bet that any decent player could play ANYTHING on the crappiest bass in existence and as long as the studio is set up properly and the sound is mixed right, it'll sound perfect in a band mix.

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Spit it out, Robert. Quit holding back.

I have the problem that our sound guy (who has been a permanent member of the band longer than I) obviously hears a traditional P bass sound in his head & tries to mix out all the definition of my Ricks!
He hates my 4000 because of the brightness, the same reason that the guitar player & drummer love it! They can HEAR it!
The sound guy actually does most of the harmonies (very well)& plays acoustic rhythm guitar, so booting him out isn't an option, besides, he's best buds with the singer & actually does a good job of mixing everything else.
Nothing I can really do about it.
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

You could kill him.

You could quietly donate his body to science.....
most of his body.