Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I thought so to, til I played with a drummer who used to be in the Gene Krupa band, a stellar item on a resume. He liked the pick on fast stuff as there is no give with a thick pick. There is "some" give with fingers. He says it is a much tighter sound with a pick. I still use fingers for everything else. We are talking milli or microseconds.....something really short!

Van Halen's music doen't hold my interest very well but I do like his stripe jobs on his guitar ... poor Michael Anthony ... most Van Halen songs you can't here him much at all ... Eddie mixed the bass out of many of his songs ...

'Hot For Teacher' is a good example of that fast playing. Hard to keep up using fingerstyle.
Those 'solos' were just odd, though!

It's been questioned whether he actually played on any of the recordings or if Eddie did it all. I'm not an expert since I'm not much of a fan of VH.

I'm not bashing the guy BTW. Any things I've read about him indicates he's an OK chap. I've just never heard much interesting in his playing.

My piezo project may be on hold for a few. The wiring harness and preamp plus the piezo bridge is gonna run around $650. I'm not sure it is worth the expense right now. I originally figured around $300 for the project but to do it that cheap I think I'd be sacrificing the tone I'm looking for. I'll update when I decide what I'm doing.

How about getting one of those Line 6 Variax basses & placing the piezo and it's guts in the Rick?

No offense to those who like their Line6 products BUT anything I have tried from them completely strips the natural character from the tone. I have really wanted to like some of their stuff too. I played a Variax right after they came out. It was a neat toy (IMO) but sounded thin and "fake" so I'm not sure all of the effort would be worth it for what I'm after.

Interesting idea though.