Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

What is the most important requirement for you to sound like you? What is the most important elements of your sound?
There must be something that you cannot do without, Is it your ampeg or your 69 330? Your Vox wah with peeling chrome or your tube screamer with peeling paint and a broken knob? It is the TI flats?

As far as bass goes, for me to be me I cannot go without a Herco flex75 heavy plectrum, This is most important! Next on the bass list is one with a pickup near the neck, (Like our favorites, but a few other brands exist) There is something about the tone of a pickup in that position..

I play guitar as well, I really need my fingernails for guitars (I don't often use plectrums on guitars) and If I'm playing electric it has to be a P-90 pickup. Even a cheap P-90 still has the important bits of the sound for me..

So what is it that you can't play without?

Please discuss.......

For guitar: Fender heavy pick, strings good quality and not smaller than .11 for my sound. Small necks and low frets help my style. Good intonation and no buzzing. Anything further is liable to be what I have around me at any given time.
For bass: Oversize heavy pick, good quality clean strings, whatever's right for the instrument at hand. Flats help my style. Low action, good intonation, strings gotta sound good open.

My sound is pretty simple so I can muddle through with almost any rig. I do prefer Dunlop Tortex .50 picks. I like to trim them down and round off the end. The two major things I have found is that I've never been happy with my sound through a Marshall amp nor have I ever bonded with any guitar with humbuckers.

I must agree with clint, on the bass side of things. I like my bass tone crisp and clean. I don't use a pick, ever. But, I do need 10" speakers. I have never liked the tone I get from 15's. And, I do like the clean tone I get from Genz Benz and Eden amp heads, although there are probably others that will do nicely.

Can't use my 1997 without a Herco medium pick.

Electricity.

evidently i sound like me no matter what i do! this is not necessarily a good,or bad,thing. but for bass,i am happiest playing my ricks,usually with lighter gauge nickle rw strings,favoring the rear pup,fingerstyle back by the bridge. i seldom use effects,other than a limiter and a drive pedal with my markbass 1-12" combo. on my dano hodad,i have flatwound strings,and will pluck them with any ol' pick i can grab....and a bottle of yuengling black and tan doesn't seem to hurt....

Anyone use the Dava picks with the rubber? I love those and always use them as they suit my style. I would like them to make them a little slimmer at the tip (they might, but I havn't seen them), but still with the rubber.

I like the rubber!!

Haven't seen the Dava ones, Sarah. I tend to use the Jim Dunlop or George Dennis nylon 46s.

A bit of chorus is the essential me.

ozover50 wrote:Haven't seen the Dava ones, Sarah. I tend to use the Jim Dunlop or George Dennis nylon 46s.

A bit of chorus is the essential me.

Here is Aitch's chorus:

Ummmmm........ er........ gee......... er.......... ummmmm...........

That reminds me..... my rear view mirror needs adjusting!!

scotty wrote:Electricity.

ROFLMFAO!!!!

Beat me to it!

ozover50 wrote:Ummmmm........ er........ gee......... er.......... ummmmm...........

That reminds me..... my rear view mirror needs adjusting!!

On the forum at work again, eh Aitch?!

All I can comment.... Moooooo. All their talent is hanging out and shaking....

I am on the opposite end of the spectrum and prefer Fender Thin picks (not regular shape, not triangle shape, but the three-sided rounded edge types). Bigger size picks for more handling and control, and extra thin so that I can vary the sound and attack of my playing without having to really jam on the strings for more sound. Lets me play my acoustic and electric guitars with more "feeling" I guess. I only grab heavier picks (and only mediums at that) if I want to play lead. Normally, I am happy just turning up the volume knob if my picking style is cutting through enough, rather then playing harder to equal the same amount of sound.

Just my two cents...

weemac wrote:What is the most important requirement for you to sound like you?

There must be something that you cannot do without,

So what is it that you can't play without?

Please discuss.......

Hmm, I'd have to say it'd be pretty tough for me to get the sound I like without a bass, specifically a 4001 or 4003...