Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Oh, you can get loads of treble from flats, I just don't like the kind of treble you get! If I had to use flats all the time I'd give up bass and become a full time guitarist.... it's each to their own though. I quite like Jamerson's sound (marvellous player obviously) but it's not a sound I would wish to use. And you couldn't pay me to use Joe Osborne's sound, no matter how good a player he is. I'm much more in the Entwistle/Squire camp. In fact currently I'm heading for early Jean Jacques Burnel...none of my favourite sounding bassists use flats, so I guess that's a decent yardstick. Whereas I suspect most of Bob's do.....surely it's a good thing we're all different though?

I obviously love flats, Jamerson, Dunn, etc. but have listened to many different bass players in my life. When I live in Lima, Peru I buy my CD's in a building that has many little music shops all crammed together that all specialize in a certain type of music, you name it, it is there somewhere. (I even found Real Kids CD's who were and are still sometimes a punk band from Boston there) One day I walked by a certain shop that specialized in prog rock and heard this unbelievable unmistakably Ric sounding bass coming out of the door. I stopped in and inquired in my best lousy Spanish who was making that unbelievable bass sound and he told me it was a live Yes album from sometime in the 70's. That to me was the ultimate Ric bass sound, Chris Squire should be the Ambassador for the RW Ric bass sound. That sound I heard that day touched me right down to the bottom of my bass playing soul. I think there's a little bit of Chris Squire in every bass player, even me.

To me, that's the holy grail of Rick sounds (Squire, Camp, Meros, Geddy). I've given up on getting close, so I figured I'd try for the 'better than a P-bass' sound with Pyramids, which seems more attainable. I also feel that Jamerson's sound is another holy grail, followed by McCartney. I'm sure I'll be back to rounds when the mood strikes.

Jean Jacket Burnel...Takes me back to the summer of 77, just barely a teenager with "Peaches" and the sound that first made me want to pick up a bass.
That stayed with me until I heard Squire grinding out on "Yours Is No Disgrace" a year or so later.
That first Stranglers album is still one of my faves though...

Slap bass in two words, never mind 500. Mark King.

I'm really into John Wetton King Crimson sound and Squire and Geddy ...

Squire slaps!

Thanks again guys!