Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The bits with the horseshoe are much older and not from the same tour (see Henry McCullough on guitar).

Greg, try Pyramid Golds, those are the ones McCartney used and they completely nail the sound. I liked his sound with The Beatles much better than his sound with Wings.

I believe JH has stated that reports of McCartney using Pyramids are false.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0879308842/ref=nosim/002-0481421-0189627?n=283155

I assume it's in that book? Oh well it must be the bass or the player then, haha!

Paul had tapewounds on his Hofner for Abbey Road, so it's logical to assume he had them on the Ric at one point as well. Si?

Those things are as wide as rope. They are absolutely the worst strings I have ever tried, they have light gauge Rots round wounds in the middle surrounded by layers of tape and are so wide they won't fit in the nut of a Ric at all.
Incidentally I just wrote Pyramid in the official Rickenbacker web site and it came out as Tetrahedron. Maybe someone there, ahemm, has a beef with them as SVT comes out as SVT. I don't think Pyramid could advertise them as having been used by McCartney if it weren't true, Mac doesn't seem to be the type who would let his name be used for something that was not true.

If you search the RIC forums you can read all about the "tetrahedron" reasoning - JH has stated why a couple times.

"Paul had tapewounds on his Hofner for Abbey Road, so it's logical to assume he had them on the Ric at one point as well. Si?"

No it's not.

Well, Paul did once decribe the strings he used as "long shiny ones." Tapewounds ain't shiny. Tha's fer sure.

I went to my local music store and asked for flatwounds. All they had were Fender 9050s (stainless; .045, .060, .080, .095) so I got them. They really don't sound very good. I didn't put them on my Ric but on my old Seiwa bass (Ibanez Japanese P-Bass spinoff from the early 80's). The E-string sounds very strange.

Are these strings ususally OK? Maybe it's just my bass?

They are long & shiny though!!

Tried Fender flats, once.

TI Flats get my vote.

"They really don't sound very good. I didn't put them on my Ric but on my old Seiwa bass (Ibanez Japanese P-Bass spinoff from the early 80's). The E-string sounds very strange.

Are these strings ususally OK? Maybe it's just my bass?"

Greg - I bought two sets of those Fender flats (closeout for $11) and both E strings were that way - flabby, or atonal, or just had a waver to the open string. Both on my 4003 and my $20 special - Austin P-J copy (which sounds really good with Rotos).

Get the med lights, they're definitely not flabby and they sound good if you like thump, they will stay bright for a few months. I used to use them a lot. I did a demo CD with a 78 uncapped 4001 played through an old SVT head and a B-15 cab mic'ed, everyone that heard it thought it was a Fender bass. They are very high tension though but great for finger plucking because of that.
I don't know why Pyramids are not allowed on the Ric site but others are as far as I can see, so I deduce there is a problem somewhere and I repeat I don't think Pyramid could advertise them as being used by McCartney if they weren't

I believe Hofner claims Pryamids have been standard on their guitars since the beginning of time, and they somehow morphed that or implied that they were on every bass (that would be the Rick) Mac played as a Beatle. I could have this wrong, but without going back through all the posts, I think that's the gist of it.

BTW, do you think Mac's next CD will be all blues ("...Heather, you gots me under the weather, you take all my money and my baby too...")