Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Last night I got a call do a sub gig with a country band at a small out door river festival. I usually do not take my Rics when I do outside gigs in the heat.... but last night I decided that it wasn't that hot and I wanted to take them so I took my 2010 MG 4003 and her 2012 FG 4003. I ran them through my medium rig consisting of a trace GP Preamp powered by a GK 700RBII into a Goliath Cab and we had full sound support with a more than adequate system. My basses sounded great as I thought they would and as the night went on and I got dialed into the front of the house I could hear my Ric cutting through the mix in glorious fashion. I am not normally a pick player but they surprised me with pretty rocking renditions of "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" and "Hard to Handle" so I grabbed the pick and dug in behind the bridge pup for that classic growl. Later we did "Turn The Page" and I played with the pick in between the neck and the neck pup and got a wonderful warm tone. When we were tearing down the sound guys made a point to come and tell me how amazing my basses sounded... that is always nice to hear.

I was not surprised that the basses performed so well but I have always viewed Ric's as somewhat fragile with a need to be babied. Well last night my Rics changed my opinion of that. I was hot and humid and and I was sweating all over them and they responded like champions under the duress of the battle. Love my Rics.

OUTSTANDING!!! Just reading your report got me geeked!! Congrats!!!

Sepp

Don't worry, Ricks can take the heat. I did an outdoor gig last night in Canyon Country, CA. It had to be about 100°F there. My '73 4001 and 4001V63 were fine.

I played my '74 4000 for about 4 hours worth of sets last night,and it performed great. I didn't take a backup,and used it the whole evening. I am amazed at how a one pickup bass can sound so versatile just going from fingerstyle to pick playing and small adjustments to the tone control. I mostly go for a complete clank sound ,but a couple of songs that i play fingerstyle i get a really nice smooth jazz bass rear pickup kind of tone.

I'm amazed at the amount of Rickenbacker owners who 'baby' their instruments.

These gorgeous instruments NEED to played... HARD!!! I only ever take my Ricky 4003 to a gig. It never misses a beat, never breaks a string, rarely goes out of tune.
These are real players' instruments.....