Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well, not exactly, but my band, The Rampant Carnivores (.com) played in a little pub in Dawlish, which is about 2 miles from my home town of Teignmouth. (normaly my gigs are 60-80 miles away) It was the first gig that my bass player used his 4004. We both spent a lot of the night talking to interested musicians about our Rics!

nice pix! and wow... I guess the amps were big enough for that "little pub"!

http://www.therampantcarnivores.com/

Love the name of the band. Nice web site too.

Cheyenne. . . drool.

Anthony,

Blasphemy...

Marshalls??????

Where are the Voxes????

Glad you like the site Kent, still in progress, but coming along nicely. The 4004 was really great John, much different to my 4003, but just as unique in sound.

Joe...I'm a Marshall man. Vox is OK, but not for me. A Ric through my Marshall stack really does have to be heard.....

That 1997 is a real stunner, Tony, one of the nicest Rics I've ever seen. The Cheyenne looks great, too; the wood looks almost quilted.

I don't see any pints, though.

club? It looks like a living room.

Tony, very nice indeed. Beautifull '97 and the one you are playing; is that a v64 and is it a 12-string? It looks so cool!

It's not a club Bob, it's a good old fashioned English pub! It's actually a lot bigger than it looks, even though only the drums & stacks could fit on the stage. The bigger venues are great, but these little ones are the salt of the earth & great fun.

Lindsay, my 1997 is a lovely gtr & it gets a lot of use. It has the really hot toasters in it, which I love & sounds amazing through the Marshall. Don't worry, pints were downed in sufficient quantities (Spitfire on draught)....

Bill, it is a V64-12 (1991). I actually use it for two thirds of the Carnivores sets. As a three piece, it REALLY does the business & I only really need a 6 string so as I can let loose on a couple of wilder solos (it keeps me happy). I do solo with the 12 very nicely, but sometimes, you just have to get it out of your system with a 6 string!

Tony... being a 3-piece band... dont you miss the second guitar? I know there has been a lot of successful one-guitar bands, but to me the combo of a rhythm and lead guitar just seems so natural and there always seems to be something missing when I hear a one guitar - bass - drums lineup. (Just my amature 2 cents)

I like playing small places Tony and love three piece bands, 99% of my bands are three piece with one guitar. It looks like a very comfortable place.

You've hit on something here that raises some questions for me. As you may know, I play a lot of traditional folk music, primarily Celtic stuff. Over the years, I have been mostly gig active with one other musician, a guy who plays uilleann pipes, tin whistles, recorders, concertinas, etc. I am now also playing with another two guys I grew up with and we do a wide range of stuff, original and cover. The cover stuff -from Bob Dylan, to Joni Mitchell to Cold Play to Johnny Cash to CSN to Leonard Cohen, etc. - is all over the map and we do pretty different arrangements because of our musical complement (we have 6 and 12 acoustics, bouzouki, mandolin, dulcimer, bodhran, banjo, and one guy on electric). The point is, I've never played in any extended way with bass and full drum kits. So to my question.

Because of the kind of music and musicians I have played with over the years, my guitar style is a little different from many other acoustic players-I've always had to fill in low end and have a percussive feel to my playing-lots of right hand palm banging/muting and incorporating bass runs/low fills in my playing. How will my Ric (when it gets here) respond or probably more to the point, will I have to change my style a great deal? How responsive are Ric's to this kind of approach? I have, of course, seen lots of 1 guitar rock bands but the "fill" from these bands seems to come more from effects, and band arrangements than they do from playing style like the folkies do. How tough an adjustment so you think it'll be for me?

I think the first thing you'll want to do is take off the bridge cover. That will allow unrestricted palm muting and such.

Are you buying a guitar or a bass Stubby?

To answer Kents question & to touch on Bills....the Rampant Carnivores were formed to promote an album that I recorded. On the album, there were as many as 9 gtrs on any one song, so when it came to the band, I worked out a main & second gtr part, which would render the songs reasonably faithfully. Two 2nd guitarists later, it became apparent that I wasn't going to find a guitarist that was suitable, so we went three piece. As the guitarist I had to (& still am) make some changes to what I was playing. The 12 string helps fantastically, a lot of solos were changed to become more arpeggiated & yes Bill, I do use a bit of delay to fill up some solo space.

The result is, that EVERYONE who saw us as a 4 piece agrees that we are better as a 3 piece & that the other guitarist is not missed. As a musician, the new arrangements offer much more interest, with more dynamics & the opportunity to 'explore' more often, as well as being able to use some FX (octave, wah etc) & not have them lost in the general noise created by another member.

I fought against going three piece, but I am VERY glad that I lost this particular fight!

BTW Bob, it was VERY comfortable....we got free beer....