Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

rickenbrother wrote: These would work just and well for me, maybe even better, but I have not seen them in any of my local music stores. Only in the conventional pick shape. 99% of the music stores where I live (believe it or not) in the So Cal area are NOT accessory friendly for bassists. Everything under the sun is available for guitarists, very little, almost nothing for bassists. The Tortex have more of a very fine sandpaper feel, where the Ultex have a smoother feel, but the type of plastic it's made from has a good co-efficiency of friction, so you still have a good grab on the pick.

I like the shape which gets into the heavier strings of bass guitars better. Works well for my 5% of playing time (at most) for pick use.

Thanks for the clarification. I agree with you that the bigger triangle shaped pick is much better for bass. I'm using the yellow triangle Tortex when I use a pick.

berth wrote: Is it really so difficult from finland to go to a german webshop like saitenkatalog.de and order several pick's to test?

No, not at all. I just don't want to pay postage (which is many times the value of the pick).

I was gonna send you about 7 or 8 different picks to try. Oh well I tried to be nice.

Lately Strings are D'Addario EXL 165
When I use pics they are either Dunlop Tortex 0.73mm or 0.60mm

On all my rickies I use DR Hi Beam:



...and Dunlop Tortex, these ones:

rotosound roundwound rs66/ long and mcquade swedish steel roundwounds and dunlop nylon .88 pics. the nylons help with snapping the strings and give great top end bite.

ken_j wrote: If I do use a pick I use the same ones I play guitar with. The blue area on these is rough like sandpaper so I can hang on to them without issues. I'm not sure who makes them. 0.8mm

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Nice to see that I'm not the only one using these Juratex picks. Not sure who makes them and they are hard to find. I started using them for bass about 1 year ago and they STILL have not worn out! The .8mm is close to a medium. I used regular Fender medium picks for decades until they started getting them made thinner by their manufacturer. This ruined them for me so I went on the hunt and found these Juratex. So far, they have been great. Expensive at about $1.25/pick but well worth it.

MaplegloMatt wrote:GHS Precision Flat light guage strings.

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

DR Hi-Beams with a metal pick !!!! That pick makes the bass really cuts through and provides a bright, thunderous tone !!,

I ABed some standard nickel rounds (D'Addario) versus my Circle Ks at the last two rehearsals and I'm so happy with the Circle Ks--I feel like they have a warmth but also a sizzle about them few other rounds adequately capture. They also just feel good.

As for flats, it's a great time to be playing them... Fender 9050s, D'Addario Chromes, LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats, and Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats are all solid choices depending on your style. I don't think flats were this diverse over a decade ago but I could be wrong.

My '76 4001 now gets D'Addario EXL-170s but it always had Rotosound 66 on it and I'm considering switching back. All my other basses - 4003 Blackstar, 4001V63, P-bass and J-bass have Rotosound 66. Picks - Jim Dunlop heavy gray type. I just found a place that sells Herco, but any heavy gray type seems do do the trick.

cassius987 wrote:I don't think flats were this diverse over a decade ago but I could be wrong.

They were, but in the 70's the popularity of flats was waning. By the 80s and 90's you hardly heard of anyone using flats. For the past several years, flats have regained popularity

I'd like to think I was an early (re)adopter as far as flats are concerned. I started using them around 10 years ago. My first set was a Rotosound set, either .040-.100 or .045-.105, I can't remember which.

Either way, I like to think I helped (with so many other bassists who think outside the box a little) to usher in the new era of flats! I've been using them almost exclusively since then, although my 4003 is getting a set of Circle K rounds put on this week.

Jonathan, I'd say you were pretty much "right there" at the resurgence of flats. I, on the other hand, kinda never left them although I did quit playing bass for a few years somewhere in the '90's. When I got my first Rick in '78 I loved the factory flats. In fact. I remember buying them in the red box from my local music store but I was in a cover band and only had my 4001 so I used GHS Brite Flats for a little more snap on the high end. All the other bass players at the time though I was crazy or missing the boat because rounds were where it was at but I saw first hand what the Rotosounds where doing to other basses frets and I didn't want that to happen to my Rick.
Now that I have the luxury of two basses I use GHS Pressure Wounds (fantastic string!) on my Yamaha BB and GHS flats on the Rick. There is nothing I love more than to surprise other musicians (with a pre-conceived notion of how a Rick is "supposed" to sound) with the fat, warm tone from the flats. Everyone expects the Chris Squire/Geddy Lee tone (not that there is anything wrong with that!) but are shocked when I get a thump and punch that is better than a Jazz! IMHO. I just had this experience the other day with my guitar teacher(yeah, I'm trying 6 string again). He gives lessons locally but his full time job is teaching at Berklee. So when he was raving about my bass before I plugged it in I thought that was cool but he couldn't get over the tone. I told him, "It's all about the flats!" We then had a long conversation about Jamerson....

Thoastik JF344'S
1998 4001 V63
2006 4001 C64
1977 4001
Curt Mangan Rickenbacker set
2006 4003
2008 4003
2010 4003
2008 4004 Larado
2009 4004 Cii
When I pick instead of pluck
Dunlop 1.0mm

I have 4 bass guitars, two of them being Ric's, they are all strung with D'Addario EXL70's 45 -100. As I am not a professional muso' I have found these strings are just good allrounders for price & quality. I tried the DA chromes, they seem to suit my Jazz bass best.
These days I play finger style all the time, with exeption of 1 song, the pick I use is a nylon Dunlop .73mm. It seems to have the perfect balance of flex/resistance for up & down strokes. The thicker smooth plastic ones just fly out of my hand part way thru a song.