Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Okay, I guess we all know which highly profillic players use Ricks But most of them DON'T use their basses in stock configuration.

Chris Squire's 4001S for example has a lot of wood shaven from it's body prior to being refinished in cream, resulting in a really brittle sound. The "Concrete mixer" rumble he's known for.
http://www.nndb.com/people/966/000043837/squire04.jpg

Paul MacCartney's 4001S was stripped, at one time had a zero fret installed and while on an overhaul at the Rickenbacker Factory was fitted with the then current High Gain pickup to replace the dying Horse shoe.
http://www.rickbeat.com/beatles/11085192.jpg

Mike Rutherford of Genesis had a luthier marry a 600 series twelve string solidbody to a 4001 bass resulting in a double neck which differs very much from the official Rickenbacker 4080 double neck.
http://www.nndb.com/people/395/000035290/rutherford03.jpg

Geddy Lee had all his Rickies refitted with Badass bridges for improved intonation. And he had the pickups of the guitar half of his 4080 double necks replaced with Gibson full sized humbuckers.
http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/wallpaper/AF2Ktourgeddy.jpg

Finally, Lemmy. Every single rickenbacker bass he owns has been modified, most often with more powerful pickups, I don't think that he owns a single rickie that hasn't been tampered with.
http://www.positiverage.com/Images/FuryFest/Lemmy-motorhead1.jpg

So with all that in mind, can somebody name a profillic rickenbacker player who plays a bone stock Ricky bass?

Roger Glover's 4001 was supposedly stock when he recorded Machine Head, though it was later modified of course!

Glenn Hughes? Jon Camp (early days)? Paul Gray? Mike Rutherford (RM1999)? Roger Waters (ditto)? The bassist from the Sweet (whose name I forget)? Graham Gouldman (10cc)? Geezer Butler (briefly)?

Anybody else want to chime in? I'm sure Sergio could come up with a few, although maybe not as high profile.

Not sure I'd personally call Chris's sound "brittle", Wouter! Although "concrete mixer" maybe isn't far off!

When Paul was recording the best basslines of his career, his Rick was bone stock.

Lemmy uses the LK 4004 unmolested as far as I know. It has stock Ric PUPs.

I am reminded of an earlier posting of Stanley Clarke playing a Rickenbacker 4000. When I watched the video attached to the posting the 4000 appeared stock to me.

Odd examples, yes, but Greg Lake with ELP in 1974?

John Lodge, Moody Blues, rare that he isn't seen with his P bass, but here you go..

Squire's Rick has not been shaved down nearly as far as he says it was. The claims of 1/3 of the thickness having been removed is patently absurd.

The evidence:



Doesn't look thinned out much to me.

George Harrison didn't make any changes to his 360/12 did he?

Keep in mind McCartney has several Rick's. He hasn't changed them all has he?

It's the same with Fenders. Jaco yanked the frets, finished the fingerboard in boat varnish, and removed the pickguard from his Jazz. Geddy shaved down the neck of his Jazz and installed a BadAss II bridge. Marcus miller added active circuitry to his Jazz. Berry Oakley added pickups to his Jazz. Duck Dunn married a Jazz neck and a P body. John Entwistle grafted Fender necks on Gibson T-birds. Jeff Berlin heavily modded his P bass. The list goes on and on. When we see hack jobs like these on eBay we say the bass was molested. When high profile artists do it, we call it signature models.

`Keep in mind McCartney has several Rick's. He hasn't changed them all has he?`

I was referring to the famous one, the one he used on Sgt Pepper and on Band on the run. He stripped his 4001S, had a zero fret installed, had the bridge pickup and the bridge saddle replaced. He changed a LOT on that bass.

Allthough a lot LESS than Joey De Maio of Manowar did with his 4001.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/incubus2432/rick1.jpg

some of the mods on Paul's Ric were because the bridge pickup failed ... I always thought it sounded better after Ric put a high gain in the bridge ...

Paul D'Amour actually de-modified his 4001CS by putting a Hi-Gain in the bridge position, yet he still got a very nice top-end crunch with great bottom-end.

Awesome sound. Definitely one of the reasons I like their stuff.