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Geddy Lee - Which bass, which album, which song

K

KPAX

Inactive
Mar 22, 2005
1,134
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www.unhingedrocks.com
#1
Ok Geddy scientists, please help me out ...
I believe Geddy used the Rick (almost) exclusively in the 70's through Permanent Waves and for most of Moving Pictures but then in the mid 80's-on I get lost on what has Wal, Steinbeger and Jazz ... and when did he go back to the Jazz in the 1990's?
Chronology please?
 
#4
KPAX said:
Ok Geddy scientists, please help me out ...
I believe Geddy used the Rick (almost) exclusively in the 70's through Permanent Waves and for most of Moving Pictures but then in the mid 80's-on I get lost on what has Wal, Steinbeger and Jazz ... and when did he go back to the Jazz in the 1990's?
Chronology please?
Click to expand...
As far as I know it's like that: I don't know whether he used the Jazz already on Permanent Waves, but to my ears, it sounds like it's always been the Ricky.
On Moving Pictures you hear both basses. Alembicplyr was right with the examples he gave.
On Signals it was the same. On some tracks the Rick, on some the Jazz. To give an example, but I don't have any evidence for that, I'd say that on Digital Man, he must have used the Jazz, whereas the bass you hear during the pre-chorus, the chorus and the solo of Subdivisions is the Ricky, but as I said, it's just what I guessed by listening to it, there's no evidence, probably we'd have to ask Ged about it. ;)
When recording the Grace Under Pressure album, he switched to a Steinberger headless. As far as I know, it has been used on all tracks of that album exclusively, but on some tracks (his Rickenbacker appears in the Body Electric video though), there might be bass synths. Some of the bass on Afterimage sounds a little like that to me.
Before recording the Power Windows album, Geddy got into playing Wal basses. He would continue to use them on all records following records, Hold Your Fire, Presto, Roll The Bones until he got back to the Jazz for Counterparts. In this period, he would occasionally use fivestring basses as well. One thing that always makes me wonder is why the Wal on Power Windows sounds so different compared to the other recordings of that period. Did he use a totally different bass, set-up, rig or whatever? Any informations on that?
However, coming to your question when and why he went back to the Jazz. The first recording on which he used his old used Fender Jazz Bass from the seventies again was Counterparts. Rush wanted to do a rock album again but as it turned out, the Wal wasn't too well-suited for this purpose, so being given the advice by his bass tech he pulled out the old Jazz Bass again and used an old Ampeg amp they found in the studio which he turned up as high as he could at the risk of blowing it. Since then, Geddy has stayed with Fender and ordered several Custom Shop basses you hear extensively on the Test For Echo album and which are used today for certain songs live, especially if another tuning is needed.

Edit:
@skb5string:
Wow, didn't know he used the Rick on Grace Under Pressure and the Steinberger on Hold You Fire. Do you have any specific song examples?
 
#5
Also, IIRC, He used the Steinberger more live, when he got heavy in to playing keyboards because of the small footprint, he eventually ditched the Steinberger, when he realized that he was beginning to neglect the bass.
Plus I don't think he dug the sound as much as his other basses.
 
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#6
Alembicplyr said:
Also, IIRC, He used the Steinberger more live, when he got heavy in to playing keyboards because of the small footprint, he eventually ditched the Steinberger, when he realized that he was beginning to neglect the bass.
Plus I don't think he dug the sound as much as his other basses.
Click to expand...

You're entirely correct on all fronts.

He felt (rightfully so, IMO) that the low end just wasn't there from the Steinberger.
 
#7
Alembicplyr said:
Also, IIRC, He used the Steinberger more live, when he got heavy in to playing keyboards because of the small footprint, he eventually ditched the Steinberger, when he realized that he was beginning to neglect the bass.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't approve of that. To me, it's more like Geddy started to realize that in the late eighties when he way playing the Wal basses exclusively. The amount of keyboardparts started to decrease somewhat after Hold Your Fire and Presto.

Alembicplyr said:
Plus I don't think he dug the sound as much as his other basses.
Click to expand...
Now that's something where I totally agree with you. As he has explained in interviews, the Steinberger was "more of a practical bass to use" and seemed more like an experiment, as if he had grown tired of the Rick and the Jazz and now wanted to go extreme and try out something radically new. In the end, he dropped the Steinberger pretty quickly.
 
#8
Demian said:
I wouldn't approve of that. To me, it's more like Geddy started to realize that in the late eighties when he way playing the Wal basses exclusively. The amount of keyboardparts started to decrease somewhat after Hold Your Fire and Presto.
Click to expand...

The reason I mention that is because I had seen an interview where he talked about using a Steinberger, where he had recalled banging the headstocks and bodys on the keyboards when he would switch up. I think that was one of the main advantages he had mention about Steinbergers.
 
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#9
Alembicplyr said:
The reason I mention that is because I had seen an interview where he talked about using a Steinberger, where he had recalled banging the headstocks and bodys on the keyboards when he would switch up. I think that was one of the main advantages he had mention about Steinbergers.
Click to expand...

Yup. I'd have to dig to find which interview it was (I've seen so many!), but he specifically said that he liked the Steinberger because it didn't get in the way.
 
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#12
If you can, get the issue of Bass Player mag with Geddy on the cover (within the last year or two). He describes the reasons he has changed basses. I do remember the main reason he played a Steinberger was because the small size allowed him to move about the stage easily, but he was not getting the tone he desired so he switched.
 
#17
Demian said:
One thing that always makes me wonder is why the Wal on Power Windows sounds so different compared to the other recordings of that period. Did he use a totally different bass, set-up, rig or whatever? Any informations on that?
Click to expand...

Power Windows was recorded on a Wal belonging to pop producer Peter Colins. He had done a lot of pop work in England and Wal were in "in" basses at the time. Geddy didn't like the tracks he had recorded with the Steinberger so he tried the Wal and loved the result.

By the time he came to recording Hold Your Fires he had received his own Wal basses which he had ordered after completing Power Windows. I believe he had three made, which he used for the next few years. He also commented that when he made HYF, he had learned better how to use the Wal which is what could be responsible for the more "refined" sound of HYF.

I'd also like to comment that while the Steinberger did appear on the HYF tour it never made it onto the record. Similarly, all tracks on Power Windows were re-recorded with the Wal. It's like when people saw Geddy using his jazz in the video for Superconducter, despite the fact that the entire album was recorded on his Wals.
 
#18
Chris2112 said:
Power Windows was recorded on a Wal belonging to pop producer Peter Colins. He had done a lot of pop work in England and Wal were in "in" basses at the time. Geddy didn't like the tracks he had recorded with the Steinberger so he tried the Wal and loved the result.
Click to expand...
Ah, so that was the way it went. Good to know, thanks for the information!

Chris2112 said:
I believe he had three made, which he used for the next few years. He also commented that when he made HYF, he had learned better how to use the Wal which is what could be responsible for the more "refined" sound of HYF.
Click to expand...
I don't know how many he received over the years. I just remember him saying in an interview that the guys from Wal had made him "a lot of custom basses", including five-stringed Wals as well, or at least one that he must have experimented with in that period.
However, talking about his sound on HYF, I have to say I don't like. That one on Power Windows was just way more powerful and had that nice twangy and as well grunty edge. Just listen to Mystic Rhythms, probably my favourite Wal tone he captured in the studio. On Presto and Roll The Bones his sound pleased me again, but I ought to say that HYF is in general the less-liked Rush album to me, though.

Chris2112 said:
I'd also like to comment that while the Steinberger did appear on the HYF tour it never made it onto the record. Similarly, all tracks on Power Windows were re-recorded with the Wal. It's like when people saw Geddy using his jazz in the video for Superconducter, despite the fact that the entire album was recorded on his Wals.
Click to expand...
As far as I know, he even played the Steinberger during the second half of the Signals tour already. And I've seen photos of the Grace Under Pressure tour where Geddy can be spotted using his Rick. As I said earlier, he can be seen playing the Rick in the video for The Body Electric, however you clearly hear the Steinberger on the album. So it's just the same like the example you've given above.
By the way, I once read that the Steinberger was used on "most tracks" of Grace Under Pressure. I can not recall it where I came upon that, but does anyone know something about that? If you ask me, I just hear the Steinberger on Grace Under Pressure.
 
#20
KPAX said:
Ok Geddy scientists, please help me out ...
I believe Geddy used the Rick (almost) exclusively in the 70's through Permanent Waves and for most of Moving Pictures but then in the mid 80's-on I get lost on what has Wal, Steinbeger and Jazz ... and when did he go back to the Jazz in the 1990's?
Chronology please?
Click to expand...
Ever use a Wal,, looks weird? Me no
 

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