Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'll put my two cents in..

A while back I became obsessed with building a hybrid Ric/Precision sounding bass, after listening to one of Jeff Rath's 2030 basses on his page(the Red "Van Halen" one). I stopped playing my Ric for a couple years, and was just getting into John Wetton and King Crimson, so I wanted something like that, but a bit brighter, like Squire's tone.

I built this bass from a maple Warmoth body, and a maple Allparts neck. The wood was the same, but I think it was too thick(and heavy) for the same resonance as a Ric. I thought it sounded great, though, and the project came out awesome, for only putting together 2 basses and just starting out:


Before putting that together, I also put together a Saga P bass, for practice. It has a basswood body:



I wound up giving the Saga bass to my sis as a Christmas present, and while she was over my house, I played all the different basses I had for her, an old Squier P bass w/Dimarzio Model P, a Fender Jazz, her Saga bass, my Ric, and my beloved Warmoth.

When it came to the Ric's turn, she said "Wow, that one sounds beautiful!"

I messed around with other basses for the next few months, and one day I went back to some old recordings I had done with a few friends, playing the Ric. It was going through my Mesa amp, and sounded perfect, like the tone I was still chasing...

I wondered why I had ever stopped playing it in the first place.

clankchris wrote:I'll put my two cents in..
.............I wondered why I had ever stopped playing it in the first place.

Hindsight is a great thing isn't it?

But then - it's all about the journey isn't it?
I like that I've had a few basses that didn't quite turn me on, cos it makes the ones I love that more of a keeper.

antipodean wrote:

IvanMunoz wrote: SOUND
Fender: Sounds like anyother bass IMO...

That's actually the wrong way round - the vast majority of basses sound like a Fender. Leo beat everyone else to it and created the benchmark sound as a result.

Very true, what I mean is Rick has a sound that can't be beat!

I have had both side by side. With that said, most of the Fenders I have had sounded mushy compared to the bright piano twang of the Rick. Obviously, you can figure out which one I have stuck with. I don't mind a well worn Fender but I will always go to the Rick and have plenty of recordings to back that up with where I used a Rick...

Gang,

Here is my Fender P and Rickenbacker side by side! Guess which one is my favorite? Hint, it's the one on the right! Don't get me wrong, I like my 1981 built Fender Precision but I like the neck more on the Ric, I like the reduced weight of the Ric, and I think it sounds better as well. As for looks, yeah, the Ric has the fender beat, hands down.

Sepp

jaymi wrote:I have had both side by side. With that said, most of the Fenders I have had sounded mushy compared to the bright piano twang of the Rick

Interesting, as I have compared a few Jazz Basses and my G&L JB-2 to my Ricks and find the former two varierties to have a brighter top end, although the Ricks have greater upper midrange detail.

What about the low mids? For me, low mids can make or break an overall bass tone.
So what d'you fella's think of a Fender P VS Rick for those low mids?

Really depends. I mean, we're just comparing ideas here... I don't think my Rics are exactly like anyone else's based on how I set them up and mod them, and neither are most Fenders. Case in point, my 4003 tuned CGDA with an HB-1 in the bridge position, probably sits in a mix better than most P Basses. But in my experience low mids are easily had on a Fender--too easily sometimes--and in the case of a Ric they are better channeled (somewhat ironically) by the bridge pickup. Technically the neck pickup has more low mids in the signal but they are drowned out a little by the huge flood of fundamental, that no Fender I've ever played has. To get the neck pickup to sound as good as it can, you really need good amplification. That's why I like it best through my TC Classic 450 and fEarful 15/6.

I agree with Jeff that a Jazz Bass often has more highs than a Ric with less detail in the upper mids. I would add though that Rics have a much bigger low end sound than the vast majority of its competition. Neck pickup = king for this. Whether you like how it sounds or not depends on your setup, your rig, and how good you are at balancing it with the bridge pickup. A lot of the reason for builders putting pickups closer and closer to the bridge is they are a heck of a lot easier to tame, and easier to amplify. But you lose fundamental.

cassius987 wrote:
I agree with Jeff that a Jazz Bass often has more highs than a Ric with less detail in the upper mids. I would add though that Rics have a much bigger low end sound than the vast majority of its competition. Neck pickup = king for this. Whether you like how it sounds or not depends on your setup, your rig, and how good you are at balancing it with the bridge pickup. A lot of the reason for builders putting pickups closer and closer to the bridge is they are a heck of a lot easier to tame, and easier to amplify. But you lose fundamental.

Although Ric's do have a decent low end and im not disagreeing with that, I feel I get much more lower end with my Gibson Thunderbird studio, Gibson SG Bass, Hofner Club bass, and my Jazzes are right there swith the Ricks with both high end and low end the Rics do have alittle more lower end than my precisions, but with eq adlustments get a monsterous low end with my precisions but in order to get the sounds out of my Rics that I like take some good eqing too plus the use of a aphex bass xciter and or my ME 50B , as far as neck pick ups, the neck pick ups on my Thunderbird studio, SG, Hofner ar second to none for low end sound, hell even my Danelectro longhorn has a very sweet high and low end and tone which always blows my mind because those basses are made out of plywood..

cassius987 wrote:my TC Classic 450 and fEarful 15/6.

Who built your fEarful 15/6?

When I first got my Ric, I was a bit disappointed.

My Fender Jazz bass seemed to have more high end - this was at low "bedroom" volume, through my practice amp. I thought the Ric would have much more "clank" than that. It just sounded too smooth to me, and warmer than the Jazz.

I remember the first time I turned the volume up, and played them both live, with a pick.

The J bass seemed to go from "clicky" highs to being really present in the mids somehow - it sounded good and sat nicely in the mix.

The first time I played the Rick at high volume through my Mesa though - that totally surprised me! There, all the harmonics, high mids and presence came out in spades. It also had plenty of lows to match those stinging harmonics.

I had a hard time not smiling that night.

I was looking into a P Bass, but there are too many options....MIM,CIJ.MIA, std, special, Road worn, Hwy 1, RI, , that, I got confused. I've decided to get another 4003.

surfinmars wrote:I was looking into a P Bass, but there are too many options....MIM,CIJ.MIA, std, special, Road worn, Hwy 1, RI, , that, I got confused. I've decided to get another 4003.

Yep, fender does have too many options and too much overlap!
And Rickenbacker have narrowed it to two models, 4003 and 4004. A vintage pickup option would be nice though!

emac.

surfinmars wrote:I was looking into a P Bass, but there are too many options....MIM,CIJ.MIA, std, special, Road worn, Hwy 1, RI, , that, I got confused. I've decided to get another 4003.

Perfect precision decision!

Thanks for the info guys.
Being a big fan of flats myself, fundemental is where it's at..... with a nice amp too (SVT)