Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Back in April my drummer friend, Greg DeGuglielmo, came out here to CA for a visit. Through work I found out about someone local with a studio in his house, so we went over there and did some recording. It's my '76 4001 ATG on all of them, I'm pretty sure all played with pick, with the signal split, one side clean, the other distorted. Here's a shot of the signal chain:



The Space Echo didn't end up getting used. But a big part of these recordings is the Moog Little Phatty synth, which I controlled with MIDI pedals.

So anyway, here are the tunes:

23 1/3 - basic bass/drums jam, the synth doesn't come in until later.

taurus 4001 - a slow jam, based on something I came up with several years ago, though that time I was changing the notes on the synth with my right hand in between picking phrases on the bass! I love bass pedals...

kappa highway - I have mixed feelings about this one. My bass playing is kind of sloppy - I think it's the first track we recorded. Also, I'm not playing the synth part with my feet, the original part was really sloppy so I overdubbed a new part, though it's based on what I improvised on the original.

So there you have it. Writing credits are Bridge/DeGuglielmo for "23 1/3" & "kappa highway," and Bridge for "taurus 4001." The drumming on these tunes is what makes it for me. Enjoy!

harry you rock!!! every song I've ever heard you play is awesome, keep it up!

Nice work. I bought a Little Phatty a few months ago, it's a great synth. I have no pedals, so I know how tricky it is to play by hand whilst trying to play bass at the same time. I'm not so good at it, yet. You've inspired me to try harder. Thanks for sharing.

Harry, can you tell me about the Fulltone Bass Drive settings you used and on which recordings? I just bought one of these that I expect to get next week. Seems like a nice little unit.

Hey Matt, I remember you - you're the guy with the Union Jack bass, right?

Alan, I really like the MIDI pedals. I've fantasized about using them for a long time. I used to have a Moog Rogue, and tried to find Taurus II pedals (minus the "brain") to hook up to it, but the Rogue was old and the scaling was off so I got rid of it and got the Phatty. I haven't been disappointed. Between CV and MIDI you have a lot of control. I've got the Roland PK-5 pedals - not ideal, but they do the job. It's so great to have the added harmonic options, especially for drums/bass only jams. Now I need to get me some pointy-toed shoes so I don't step on the wrong notes!

Greg, mine's an older one - it has the push-pull volume pot, no toggle switch. Is yours one of the new ones? I think the most recent one has three positions. You can just barely see my settings in the picture - volume: noon, tone: noon, gain: 3:00, not sure about the boost. I tend not to use the boost - gets just a bit too saturated for me. To tell you the truth, I think that's the setting on all three of the tunes I posted here.

I think that "taurus 4001" is just distorted bass - I'll have to go back to the ProTools file and double check. Oh, and I forgot to mention, it's my first time experimenting with digital delay on the bass (a little too clean for my tastes, but the stereo effect is neat). On "kappa highway" and "23 1/3" the bass is split in two - distorted in the left, clean on the right. Now that I listen, I think "kappa highway" might have been played with fingers, which would explain why it's such a sloppy performance - I tend to play with a pick these days, so my fingers were sticking to the strings!

Anyway, enjoy the Bass Drive! It's a great pedal. Basically adjust the gain and EQ to your taste - I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Thanks Harry. Mine is the new MOSFET type.

I enjoyed your music. Nice job!

Thanks. I want to hear what you think about the Bass Drive and the different settings.

Had this idea today, since I haven't posted pics of the bass this time - 3 vertical pics of an autumnglo in different lighting conditions:



The first picture is hanging in the window of Cambridge Music in Porter Sq., Cambridge MA, before I bought it. The next is in the hallway of my old house with indirect lighting, and the third is onstage at Harper's Ferry in Allston MA with stage lighting.

"Hey Matt, I remember you - you're the guy with the Union Jack bass, right?"

Yup that's me...and here's some pics of it

Played the 4001 in (Buddhist) church yesterday. Not a very high quality video and very short, but I'm stoked because it's the first thing I've ever posted on YouTube:

4001 video


Unfortunately, the video doesn't capture the full musical phrase of the song (a piece called "The Nembutsu" and credited as an "ancient chant"), so here's a recording of it done with my Gibson Melody Maker:

the Nembutsu

Very cool! I like the full song, great buzzy tone and a really cruisey song. Thanks for sharing!

New video, different version of one of the tunes I linked to in my first post:

TAURUS 4001

Very nice, Harry. Your drummer Greg really feels and sticks with you - or is he leading you!

When you played the higher notes on the Taurus pedals, it was harder to hear it in the mix. Still, I likey!

Thanks John, for this and your earlier comments.

At the beginning, you can see me looking over to the left - we had started jamming and I realized that the Moog wasn't set the way I like it, so I was considering going over to modify the settings, but we were already playing so I just went with it...

Greg is a very musical and supportive drummer - I know that whenever we play together we'll come up with something!

Another one! Short, but I like the sound of the bass:

lotus throne

You really have to listen to it on good speakers - computer speakers leave out too much low end so the bass can be almost inaudible. I also realized that, depending on what cymbal Greg is playing, it can be hard to hear other stuff.