Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This topic may have been covered before, & if so I apologize.
BUT, I'm still on the hunt for the ultimate bass distortion. Clarity without sacrificing the lows. I've heard some good things about the Fulltone & was wondering if any my illustrious Rick brethren out there had any experience with one.

What did Cliff Burton use? Use that, whatever it was! I think he had a Bass Wah. Think "Whiplash" intro!

I think Cliff used an old school Morley Wah & a vintage Big Muff.
Plus he had a big *** Gibson humbucker in the neck of his Rick!

Oh yeah, & he was a frikkin' genius too! I'm a big fan of his.
Didja read the article about him in the new issue of Bass Player?

I prefer the line 6 bass pod into ampeg b2r and 4 10's miked into a big PA with 18" subs ...

Geddy Lee uses the sans amp and he splits his signal into 3 ... one is regular, one has distortion and one has boosted bass ... the sound man then blends these three signals into what you hear as Geddy's sound ... he also has some other things like speaker emulators in there but that is his basic concept

Use an old tube amp like a straight 100 watt Marshall (before they had master volumes) and crank it, that's the best overdrive sound you'll get. Or even an SVT if you want to kill everyone within 20' of the stage. I think the Marshall would be more controllable though.

I have gone through several stomp boxes looking for good distortion/overdrive and I ended up with a Blue Tube preamp by Tube works that has a fantastic overdriven tone without killing the lowend. I just leave the eq section flat and crank the gain. The only downside is that you can't just turn it off with a footswitch but I mainly just use it for some "light distortion" and leave it on.

For the Cliff Burton tone in "Anesthesia" or the beginning of "For Whom the Bell Tolls"....I use a Boss Hyper Metal distortion stomp box and a Morley Pro Series Bass Wah II (along with some heavy chorus) to nail the tone.

The exact "CLiff" distortion sound was the original Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, and Morley Wah pedal. I know Morley has more than one wah pedal, I'm not sure which one he used.

Right now, I have a reissue Big Muff, a much larger version than the older version, and I really don't know if there is any difference in sound from old or new. Is there a difference between the two, other than looks?

So...no Fulltone users out there?

Not a Fulltone user but may I suggest the Prescription Electronics Depth Charge.

Lets you blend clean and distortion and retains or boosts the bottom end in a most glorious fashion.

Prescription Electronics

Cliff didn't have his pickups changed in his Rick until well after he recorded "Anesthesia". It was a stock late 70's Burgundyglo 4001 through an old Muff and a Morley Power Boost Wah.

Later on, he had a Jazz pickup in the bridge and a Gibson humbucker at the neck.

I have a Fulltone Bassdrive. I'm primarily a bass player but I bought it for guitar. It's the same as the standard Fulldrive 2 but with a wider frequency response. I don't usually use distortion on bass but I'll be happy to put my Ricky through it if you'll tell me what to listen for. I love it for guitar. Gives just a little grit (or a lot depending on the setting) without loosing definition.

I appreciate your generous offer Bill.
I actually just ordered one up from Mike Fuller & am selling all of my old distortion pedals on eBay. I've searched on other forums & read so many positive reviews that I just went ahead & pulled the trigger.
Everyone seems to be happy with whatever Fulltone pedal they have. I assume that the same holds true for you?
Any complaints or recommended settings for the Fulltone Bassdrive?

Just saw this, someone may be interested.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41411&item=7303072967&rd=1

I use a Fulltone Bassdrive with my 4003 on a few songs, including King Crimson's Red. It suits me - I really like it.

I just want to correct my earlier post in this thread, as it turns out I was incorrect - Cliff Burton did indeed record "Anesthesia" with the new pickups in his 4001.