Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Here,s a cute question, does any one here play country and soft rock with their 4003 rics.I know it may be a funny topic but i,m very curious Thanks for any replies!!!

I don't know what on earth "soft rock" is supposed to sound like (or feel like). I have played country gigs with my 4003FL; country is not my first choice but it is a lot of fun anyways, as a freelancer not committed to the project full-time. I am not talking about the country you hear on TV or radio as much as the country music of a couple generations ago which could often be more lively and did have audible and energetic--if simple--bass parts.

The country gigs I have played all paid really well so they gave my inner freelance bass player a bit of an ego boost anyways. A good break from the normal jazz and not-so-soft rock I was doing at the time.

Chris Brubeck [he plays a 4001FL] does a few songs with Peter "Madcat" Ruth that verges on early country music, definitely borrowing some of its stylings.

I've done Country gigs with an 8 string bass..
A 4003 will do country just fine, just select the neck pickup and let the volume knob do the rest. You will get that wooly warm sound with just a touch of grit that will support the band without getting in the way too much!

Eden.

I recorded a country flavoured song of mine a few weeks back and I used my 4003. It sounded like it belonged and IMO it does.

Joshua,a local radio station here calls stuff by Abba,Jackson Brown etc, soft rock.We all know how growly a Ric can be so i was just wondering.

If I had a 4003 I'd use it to play country. At least I guess that's what one would call stuff by groups like the Desert Rose Band (which I'm listening to great gobs of right now.)
JimK

jagdeluxe wrote:We all know how growly a Ric can be so i was just wondering.

All depends on how you play it.

jagdeluxe wrote:Joshua,a local radio station here calls stuff by Abba,Jackson Brown etc, soft rock.We all know how growly a Ric can be so i was just wondering.

Oh. That kind of music usually has "sit-in-the-mix" bass which a 4003 can certainly do. But I've never tried it. Closest I've come was working on similar tones for dedicated dance music like acid jazz/house sorts of things. I dabble in that but haven't done a lot.

Have rehearsal tomorrow and the gig on saturday so we,ll see thanks a bunch

Amongst other things, I have played in church bands and the likes.... and then there is the Bee Gees... I'd consider a lot of their stuff lighter type rock. The Ric works fine there as well. As Joey said - it all depends on how you play the instrument. I think the Ric basses are really some of the more versatile basses out there.

Your best bet is probably to use the neck pickup with tone only halfway up, adjust to taste. Should do fine.

I got some nice tones with the bridge pickup and the tone cut to almost nothing. Sometimes just a hint of the neck pickup blended in with the tone just about all the way up added a little needed presence to it.

jdogric12 wrote:Your best bet is probably to use the neck pickup with tone only halfway up, adjust to taste. Should do fine.

That was basically my formula and it did pretty well.

ram wrote:I got some nice tones with the bridge pickup and the tone cut to almost nothing. Sometimes just a hint of the neck pickup blended in with the tone just about all the way up added a little needed presence to it.

Toss in a bit of mute and you have a great doghouse-esque tone! Perfect for that good ol' country sound...

antipodean wrote:

ram wrote:I got some nice tones with the bridge pickup and the tone cut to almost nothing. Sometimes just a hint of the neck pickup blended in with the tone just about all the way up added a little needed presence to it.

Toss in a bit of mute and you have a great doghouse-esque tone! Perfect for that good ol' country sound...

yep and if you do it with a pick near the bridge (low to no mute) almost a Thunderbird flavor (of course with Ric steroids)!