REGGIE RICHARDS (B.B. King's bass player) BIO anyone??

DHowardAir · #1 01-03-2010, 07:15 PM

Hello Gents,

I had the absolute wonderful privilege of finally attending a B.B. King concert in Tulsa, Oklahoma (land of Carl Radle :-) on New Year's Eve.

King's bass player, Reggie Richards (formerly with Bobby 'Blue' Bland's entourage) laid down some of the most FANTASTIC blues bass lines I have ever heard in my life!

But, there is not much out there on the Web about this Low-End Guru.

Anybody out there in TalkBass land that can help us learn more about this gent and his career, history, etc?

Any and all info is greatly appreciated. We need to know much more about this cat and his influences as he is one bass playing machine!

I do know this, and that is he plays a red Yamaha TRB-5 axe and it looked like a GK amp head on top of two 4x10 cabs with what MIGHT have been aluminum speaker cones. Oh yeah, the amp had a blue LED light that kept going back and forth left and right about a foot each time.

There is someone out there that must know this cat's history. Lay it on us!

Thanks!

david fitch · #2 01-07-2010, 09:33 PM

Great player ! I've seen him twice with BB.

ColdSteelRain · #3 01-09-2010, 10:33 AM

Not much I can add, but at the show in Dallas on 1/3 he was introduced as being from Dallas (and someone yelled out, "Uncle Reggie!").

He also did 2 fantastic solos that night, in addition to playing a constant background groove with the drummer for a couple of hours.

DHowardAir · #4 01-11-2010, 12:51 PM

Awesome. Thanks for the info !!!

TheAstroman · #5 05-30-2010, 06:12 AM

R. Richards used what it seemed to be a classic Gallien Krueger 800RB + an old SWR SM500 amp, and Trace Elliot speakers - a 410 and a very FAT LOW's 180. This was in Portugal 2010 - BB King's last european tour.

Normally bassists use a 150 but when you try a 180 for lows you would never use 150's anymore.

I'm sure SWR was responsible for some metallic sound. GK has probably the best mids (together with Ampeg), and best lows provided by UK's Trace Elliot cabinets.

I'm not a fan of 5strigs basses tho...

cheers

Winterpegbass · #6 11-12-2010, 10:30 AM

Saw BB King last night in Winnipeg and Reggie was using a Markbass rig.

Lazylion · #7 11-14-2010, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DHowardAir

...the amp had a blue LED light that kept going back and forth left and right about a foot each time.

Sounds like a rack-mounted tuner to me.

rishi11544 · #8 01-13-2012, 09:12 AM

@DHowardAir - found some more info... on Reggie :-)
Source: Jeff Wisotzkey - FAQ

Who impresses you the most on bass guitar?

Reggie Richards, the bass player I recently saw with BB King (we had front row seats and it was a thing of beauty watching and listening to him play. BB can ramble on telling stories. Reggie just played a beautiful walking bass line behind him. It never got stale and he never overpowered his boss…. As for the rest of the night, it was bass playing at its finest.