Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

cassius987 wrote:

walker wrote:J-Bass. Never liked the body design. Sound-wise, James Jamerson ... got some great sounds from it

Nah... Jamerson was a Precision man

Yep, the Funk Machine was a sunburst Precision Bass with a rosewood fingerboard.

FretlessOnly wrote:Joshua, you yourself recommended the Audere to me and my Jazz sounds deep, growly and crisp. At my last show, several bass players commented that they couldn't believe I could get those sounds from a Jazz bass, let alone a fretless.

I stand by the recommendation (I was familiar with the preamp when I told you about it), but a Jazz is not for me any longer. May change my mind some day but I doubt it'll be any time soon! Maybe on one of my regular trips to GC to sample what's new I'll find one I like for real, instead of just talking myself into liking it like the first time around.

sloop_john_b wrote:

cassius987 wrote: I agree that Jazzes can sound generic sometimes. I would call sometimes even call them "thin"-sounding

Let me guess - you had rounds on it.

No, I actually went back and forth from rounds to flats to rounds several times. All sorts of brands. I did sell it with rounds on. Most of my recordings I did with flats. I did one recording with the rounds and absolutely hated it. It never gave me 100% of what I wanted no matter what I did. It went through so many hot rod efforts and string changes and I just got sick of it.

But let me reiterate: if a Jazz floats your boat, I respect that.

sloop_john_b wrote:

cassius987 wrote: I agree that Jazzes can sound generic sometimes. I would call sometimes even call them "thin"-sounding[/quot

I totally disagree, I currently have flats on all my jazz basses but did have rounds on one I no longer have with a maple neck, and never had a thin sound nor got drowned out, always got a great tone growl and purr and always got many compliments on the way my bass filled the room , same for the precisions too, which I also string with flats, but I'll take it further, I play many different basses and have always have, and never had a problen getting good tone and had a problem being drowned out, its all a matter of knowing what makes the bass shine and finding its sweet spots and eq's...

In a Rickless world, a P-bass, a J-bass, and maybe a Thunderbird. Oh, and adding a J pickup to a Precision ruins the P sound. IMHO. It changes the loading and the tones of the P pickup enough it is like now not a P and not a J.

kiramdear wrote:Ta, Mark, for that blast from the past. Will you look at that getup?!!!

That's a later version of the Ripper. My old one had the older black pickups and a burst finish. The Varitone switch made those basses amazingly versatile.

That's actually a pre-production prototype of some sort. It's got the earlier style rounded horns, and dual mudbuckers which never made it on to a Ripper. They all had those black pickups which were also used on the early 80s medium scale Flying V basses.

And to answer the question - a Gibson with Thunderbird pickups.

johnallg wrote:Oh, and adding a J pickup to a Precision ruins the P sound. IMHO. It changes the loading and the tones of the P pickup enough it is like now not a P and not a J.

Then why would so many guitar manufacturers offer a bass guitar model with a P/J pickup configuraton?

johnallg wrote:In a Rickless world, a P-bass, a J-bass, and maybe a Thunderbird. Oh, and adding a J pickup to a Precision ruins the P sound. IMHO. It changes the loading and the tones of the P pickup enough it is like now not a P and not a J.

Interesting... I briefly owned a Fender California P-Bass Special (P body, J neck, PJ pickups), and I was disappointed that it didn't seem to scream "P BASS!" when I soloed the split pickup. Then again, when my old alumi-Kramer had the stock Schaller PJ pups, it got a great P bass sound. Hmm.... Any more insight on this? I was thinking of replacing the neck pup on a Geddy Lee Jazz I just bought with a P style.

Well, it seems like an obvious match made in heaven - the P "thump" and the J "burp". But IMO part of the sound and mystique of the Precision is the simple controls and single pickup. One sound, and a damn good one at that.

That being said, I have had my Jazz Bass strung up with big old GHS flats for a few years now. They are well worn-in at this point. The middle pickup soloed is an absolute dead-ringer for a P-Bass, specifically that Jamerson sound. Not a sound I typically associate with a Jazz. I can't stand the "all knobs on 10" JB sound with roundwounds that a lot of players with a Jazz seem to be content with. For you guitar players 'round these parts, to me it's akin to the "2" and "4" positions on a Strat. Cringe-worthy.

sloop_john_b wrote:Well, it seems like an obvious match made in heaven - the P "thump" and the J "burp". But IMO part of the sound and mystique of the Precision is the simple controls and single pickup. One sound, and a damn good one at that.

And a big +1 to that.

ricaddic wrote:

cassius987 wrote: I agree that Jazzes can sound generic sometimes. I would call sometimes even call them "thin"-sounding

I totally disagree...

No prob Angelo, it's all "just my opinion" as you're aware. Keep on groovin'.

vintage-60's thunderbirds,one each of reverse and nonreverse body styles. love the pickups in those. i wouldn't mind having my 66 epiphone embassy back,one of the best sounding basses i have owned. and the little gibson violin body bass might be fun to try out. i have a put-together jazz bass made of parts from 70's and 80's with new pickups that i really enjoy-it has a great sound with dr sunbeams. the neck profile is somewhere between a jazz and p,which is perfect for me,and i have always loved the bridge pickup placement on a jazz bass for its tone,and for it being where my plucking hand falls naturally. just to check one out,a status,altho i already have owned a couple of modulus basses in the past,and decided graphite necks were not "me".

I definitely have a soft spot for Gibsons:



And Alembics:



All of these basses sound very different, I use whichever one the music calls for at the moment, though the most versatile is definitely the Stanley Clarke 5-string. But for rock I reach for my 4001!

love that turquoise sg-type bass,there,harry! mudbuckers are pretty cool sounding pickups,especially if yer playin' bluesey type stuff.....i got a chance to check out an alembic elan while i was on vacation in orlando,very very nice bass,it made me wish my cii's fretboard were ebony....

antipodean wrote:

rikk wrote:

plasticman_88 wrote:An Ovation Magnum.

Is this the model where you can move the pickup position?

No - the big metal frame is a thumb-rest and cosmetic feature. The later Magnums (III and IV) have a more conventional body shape and no metal frame.

These are so sharp! The Ovation Magnum I was a stereo bass and the Magnum II had a parametric equalizer. Odd-looking late '70s basses (but in a cool way!) I think if I went with an Ovation, I'd want one of the hollowbody Typhoons from the late '60s Storm Series.

Gibson EB0-F:

I don't really know why, the fuzz unit could even be cheap and terrible...I just want one bad!

badeggs wrote:Gibson EB0-F:

I don't really know why, the fuzz unit could even be cheap and terrible...I just want one bad!

+1! Fuzz and mudbuckers go hand-in-hand - I rarely play my Melody Maker (the green one above, though originally it was "Pelham Blue" - they all changed color) clean... (there's one over there!)