Spock's Beard - Bay Area Rock Fest

pma · Post by **pma** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:17 am

In a somewhat self serving thread, I am curious on what the view is of Spock's Beard since their bassist plays a Rick. My band will be opening for them at a festival in San Francisco this coming May so it will be a night of Rickenbacker's.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:06 pm

I love them! They really need to come to Cleveland or Savannah . . .

byu · Post by **byu** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:15 pm

Dave's Ric tone sounds fantastic. If you talk to him, see what's going on with the Ric. I had the opportunity to talk to him about 8 months ago and he spoke of possibly switching to a different bass.

pma · Post by **pma** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:21 am

Bill, I hope he hasn't. I also really love his tone and saw them a few years ago where his Ric just cut through so well. We'll see.

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:42 am

Ah yes, the B.A.R.F.

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:34 am

I'm a huge fan of Dave's Rick tone and his playing. Although I doubt I'll ever see the Beard in person I do have this little token of Beard history:

Bill, I'm surprised that Dave would be thinking of changing; I thought his Rick tone was more pronounced on SB9 than it has been on their other non Neal CDs.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:40 pm

His best tone was with that White Ric you see above . . . "V", "The Light", "Beware of Darkness", etc. After "V", he sold it and got a different one which has FOUR Jazz pickups in it, two in Ric positions and two in J positions. It sounds good, but it's not comparable, I feel, to the White Ric. His best J-Ric tone, I thought, was on "Octane", which is the best so far of their albums without Neal.

I want him to switch basses . . . back to a regular 4001.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 5:48 pm

I'm a big Dave Meros fan too, very talented player. I think I saw an interview where he said when he's playing music other than the Beard that he uses different basses, he said he uses the rick because it fits the Beard music so well. I hope he keeps using it, he gets a nice crunchy sound out of his rick.(If he's thinking about changing due to no B string, I would loan him one of my 4004's, that would kick some serious ***)

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:58 am

Someone on another bass forum described Dave's playing style as "Chris Squire with booty", which I think nails it. His tone is fantastic IMO, which he says in the interviews I've read is attributed to the Rick and his Digitech stuff. I don't know, a lot is in the hands of the player. In addition to the bass I have the Digitech preamp he used on "Beware of Darkness", and I don't sound anywhere as good as he did when I use them.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:23 pm

Dave also does a VERY strategic balancing of pick and finger usage. He is primarily a fingers player, but uses pick quite a bit with Spock's Beard, and he switches back and forth several times in most songs. In addition to that, he also switches pickups quite a bit, I believe. He's just a tone-and-feel master. Definitely one of my bass idols.

pma · Post by **pma** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:13 pm

Hey Mark, if he wants a 5 string Ric, I'll let him use one of my 4004's the night of the show if he wants to try it! I have several 4-2-5's that Jeff Rath made for me.

davesbeard · Post by **davesbeard** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:43 am

Hi guys. Just accidentally found this thread while looking for something else, but it is a great site! Also, thanks for the nice words!!! I'm flattered, definitely. But I thought I'd hop in and and add something here to address the issue of the standard Ric vs. my black one on SB CD's.

The black one actually sounds extremely close to the white one through my rig, and actually a bit more Spock's Beard-ish, but the reason that it doesn't stand out the way it used to is because of different factors.

The last few CD's have been very production-dense, so the "tone" part of the bass is blended in with other stuff more than it used to be, particularly the guitar. Al's tone has gotten really beefy and the songs are more guitar oriented, which makes it a really hard balance to strike with my midrange bass tone, so what can ya do? It's all about the finished product in total, and I'm totally willing to give up a little tone glory for a better overall mix.

When Neal was in the band, the tracks were much sparser and thinner, so I really stuck out in the mix. Ah, the good old days.

But if you could hear the basic bass tracks when heard by themselves sound freakin' GNARLY. My tone got to basically what I wanted right after Beware Of Darkness, but it has steadily and slowly become a little more focused over the years. .. learning what works and what doesn't work in the mix.

I wouldn't abandon my trademark Ric tone ever. The main reason is because I really like it, but also because I remember that I was pretty disappointed when both Chris Squire and Geddy Lee went away from what they were known best for, so I always try to keep that in mind. But in my case, it's just a result of production and where the bass winds up in the mix, not the bass tone itself.

If you listen into the tracks and can pull the bass up in your own brain's mix and mentally peel away some of the other massiveness of some of the other instruments, you'll hear what I'm talking about.

Now, just to blab some more. . .my new bass was built to be pretty much a clone of my black Ric as far as tone. I originally wanted Rickenbacker to build it for me, but they kind of blew me off, so I went with a really cool independent guitar builder. (Ed Roman, Las Vegas)

I just wanted to try a little different look and also have a bass that was built more reliably and more in tune (Ric's are pretty funky in those two regards. ..I've never been able to get the low "G" on the "E" string to play perfectly in tune on any Ric that I've ever had, for example. . it is OK with guitars and even synths, but pure hell when playing with a piano).

Also, I wanted to combine the characteristics of what I like about Rick with what I like about Fender. Ric body shape, Fender body contouring, Rick style neck, Fender neck scale length, etc.

So anyway, I have it now, did the last tour with it. It plays wonderfully, but I think I might have to experiment with pickups a little. It's almost there. They put Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders in there, and I think they are a little too spiky in a couple frequencies. I'm gonna swap em out for something more vintage sounding, and then they'll sound more like a regular Ric pickup or a stock Jazz pickup.

So that's my life story. .. sorry about going so long, but it's rare that I talk about bass gear to someone who is interested in basses and bass tone.

Cheers! Dave

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:52 am

Welcome to the forum Dave!

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:57 am

Ditto, Dave, welcome! I for one would love to see a photo of your custom-built bass

Could you post one (or more!) here for all of us to drool over? If you need it resized and uploaded (the specs here are pretty specific, max of 500x500 pixels and under 36kB) then just email-attach it and I will be glad to resize and upload it for you <[email protected]>

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:47 pm

Wow, Dave Meros posting on the forum, cool stuff. I didn't discover the Beard until after Neal left but it was due to all the talk on this forum about how great Dave's rick sounded. I remember Lindsay buying Dave's bass off of ebay and how great it would have been to win that.

Dave have you ever tried any of the 4004 models? I know they're kind of hard to find on the ground but if you're ever in the Jax, FL area email me and you can test drive some of mine.