Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've been long obsessed with trying to get a tone between the "booooooing" rubberyness of older funky stuff and even the thumpy-ness on Sgt. Peppers & Magical Mystery Tour...BUT I've also been obsessed with that middley mid, cut through the mix flatwound tone of the live Wings Rockshow/Wings Over America album.
Honestly, I've always thought Paul's tone there was the flatwound equivalent to Chris Squire's roundwound sound, they both are mostly middle position setups, w" 1/2" spaced toasters at the neck and playing (picking) behind the bridge pickup (heck that makes a big difference as it is!), and frankly both are very mid heavy to the point that they get those sweet nasty mid harmonics that work in a mix better than treble and bass ever could.
What strings will do it for me ya think? All I ever hear is Thomastik Infeld's for the McCartney tone, but what was he using in the 1975-76 LIVE Wings Over America era? Maxima's?
I have an 03 4003VP w/ a toaster at the neck that I have been planning on moving to the 1/2" position for 12 years! It's finally happening by summers end and I want to get the strings right here as well and make it my dream finally.

My quest has been ongoing for years and years now to get that Live Wings tone, that cut through the mix, but in a not bright way "Wings Over America" sound. How about string action? Wonder what it was like on that bass in that live period. Was John Hamel with him back then? These are the things a fella thinks about as he tries to fall asleep at night and doesn't drink anymore!! :laugh: I know have so many tones in my head to blend together and they haven't mixed well on this bass as of late. The mute gets close, but almost mutes too much, it becomes a level above my P-Bass w/ mute and covers, but such is the sound I guess. So anyways, yeah strings??

He was known to have used Rotosound strings for a period in his career...yes, I know the black tapewounds for Let It Be on his Hofner, but maybe he was using some sort of Rotosound on his Ric?

Always wondered about that too buddy. Still though, the RS77 sound on a RIC is quite different than the Live 1975-76 tone.
The Rotosound RS77's scream Roger Waters no matter what I ever put them on, RIC included.

I guess the question is - what besides Fender had green silk ends then? Look in this pic...


Click here for the Big version -http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... -_1976.jpg

I'm surprised less nobody else has any ideas here?

Also remember that, and the source for this information is somewhere on either this forum or the RIC forum, that when Sir Macca came to California on the Wings tour, the original horseshoe pickup had died, and the bass was sent to the RIC factory, and an overwound (for the time) high gain was installed. That might have something to do with the change in tone from the horseshoe recordings earlier, including the Beatle days.

It would be my speculation that a current issue 4003 with current light gauge Fender, Ernie Ball, or La Bella flats would get really close.

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about the hi-gain.

http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html

iiipopes wrote:Also remember that, and the source for this information is somewhere on either this forum or the RIC forum, that when Sir Macca came to California on the Wings tour, the original horseshoe pickup had died, and the bass was sent to the RIC factory, and an overwound (for the time) high gain was installed. That might have something to do with the change in tone from the horseshoe recordings earlier, including the Beatle days.

It would be my speculation that a current issue 4003 with current light gauge Fender, Ernie Ball, or La Bella flats would get really close.

Yes sir, it's a "custom wound" hot bridge pickup in fact. The good chap that did it told me actually, yesterday.
It wasn't an "off the rack" bridge pickup, they carefully wound it up just for that bass when it came in to RIC. (Jake beat me to it here ^ haha) http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html So, who knows exactly just what it's specs are. (I haven't asked him that much, but will). I do wonder if there was a cap on it pre or post that replacement too? Bridge PU caps were not stock until the 70's 4001 models yes?

There's something about that in between both pickups on, sound at that time that he had. It was very snarky, and a kinda out of phasey type of middle position tone. I've played so many RIC's, C64's 4001's, 4003's etc, and never have got that snarkey, burpy sound on a middle position w/ both PU's.

Bridge caps were stock up until the mid 80s. There somewhere are posts by Ted Staberow covering the history of the pickups. Used to be a sticky but I can't find them now.

Last night I was told by the nice guy that did the work on his bass before the Wings Over America tour that he removed the cap for Paul, and soldered it to the back of the bridge PU's tone control (in case he ever wanted it in again, there it was). Clever.
He also told me the neck toaster was a 7k and the custom wound bridge PU they made him was 9k.
I've also been told that the action on that bass was super low, about .115" to .120" at the last fret.
Mark Arnquist is a good guy! I'm glad I connected with him to set the record straight about the internal workings of Macca's RIC mid Wings era.
I'm sure everyone here has read this before -
http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html

Now to find the chappy that did the zero fret and anything else AFTER Mark and the guys at RIC had it, and ask them what the heck those strings were on the Wing Over America tour!

Perhaps he was looking for a very different tone to his Beatles days. Sir Paul was using Acoustic bass amps live in the mid '70s which may have influenced the treatment of his bass in the studio. There is definitely a '70s solid-state sound to a lot of his output at the time.

I think the tone has a lot to do with picking the stings closer to the bridge.

KOLAD wrote:I've also been told that the action on that bass was super low, about .115" to .120" at the last fret.

Hm..? What I’ve read (don’t remember were) is that the action was very high on his bass, and that they (RIC) was told not to touch the action when they got it in.

KOLAD wrote:I'm sure everyone here has read this before -
http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html

And this
viewtopic.php?p=983#p983

KOLAD wrote:Now to find the chappy that did the zero fret and anything else AFTER Mark and the guys at RIC had it, and ask them what the heck those strings were on the Wing Over America tour!

They zero fret and white nut was done before Arnquist and the guys got it.

Wiker wrote:I think the tone has a lot to do with picking the stings closer to the bridge.

KOLAD wrote:I've also been told that the action on that bass was super low, about .115" to .120" at the last fret.

Hm..? What I’ve read (don’t remember were) is that the action was very high on his bass, and that they (RIC) was told not to touch the action when they got it in.

KOLAD wrote:I'm sure everyone here has read this before -
http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html

And this
viewtopic.php?p=983#p983

KOLAD wrote:Now to find the chappy that did the zero fret and anything else AFTER Mark and the guys at RIC had it, and ask them what the heck those strings were on the Wing Over America tour!

They zero fret and white nut was done before Arnquist and the guys got it.

As for the action, hey, I'm just repeating what I was told when we talked, 3 days ago.
And for the zero fret, he told me it didn't have it till after they did the work, so I dunno. But they added the bone nut.

KOLAD wrote:As for the action, hey, I'm just repeating what I was told when we talked, 3 days ago.
And for the zero fret, he told me it didn't have it till after they did the work, so I dunno. But they added the bone nut.

Well, me don't know - he was there, I was not. But from photos floating :
Photos of the bass with MMT paint sanded off, shape of the horns still intact, original pick guard (with the crack), HS in place, and a white nut and zero fret.
Later photos of the bass as above, but with the horns sanded out of shaped.
Then photos of the bass after serviced at RIC - without HS pickup, and with a new pick guard.

But, it's all history - happy playing