Has anyone one else noticed that Geddy Lee's jazz and rickenbacker sounded extremely similar, hell even mentioned it one
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Geddy's bass tone
- Thread starter rickenbaker
- Start date
People dont realize how much your hands play into your tone. Geddy Lee is as perfect example, over the years he has played quite a few different basses and they all seem to give the "geddy Lee" sound.
If only there were a cheap, effective, ethical and painless way to go about stealing other people's hands... hmmmm.... a hacksaw achieves the cheap and effective aspects, but falls short on the painless and ethical aspects... Looks like its back to the drawing board
They're similar, but certainly not exactly alike. Nothing sounds like a Ric. Period. He has a great growly sound from his Jazz. The sound similarities can absolutley be attributed to his playing style.
Which is, as everyone knows that follows him, very aggressive. He pounds the strings, hard. Watch any of their more recent DVD's. He just about pulls the strings when he plays, as opposed to just hitting them.
As far as all his basses sounding the same? Not true at all. His WAL sounded completely different from anything else he played. And as much as I love Steinbergers, his was very nondescript, not very punchy at all, at least compared to the Ric and the Jazz.
Which is, as everyone knows that follows him, very aggressive. He pounds the strings, hard. Watch any of their more recent DVD's. He just about pulls the strings when he plays, as opposed to just hitting them.
As far as all his basses sounding the same? Not true at all. His WAL sounded completely different from anything else he played. And as much as I love Steinbergers, his was very nondescript, not very punchy at all, at least compared to the Ric and the Jazz.
I was just thinking. I could get a rick 4003( I know you were expecting for me to say get a Geddy lee jazz and I can sound like a rick) but this way I get rick quality, and two ricks rolled into one(in case you didn't now in 2006 rickenbacker put in the the capicitor that they took out to make the 4003 except its an option now so all you have to do is pull the bridge tone control.
Lots of posts on the subject too. The Jazz and Rick Sounds are smilar in that he used similar amplificaiton when recording them on Moving Pictures, and Signals, IIRC. Sun amps. The different with the Ric is that the sound IMO was inherently a bit thinner and he ran it in Stereo with treble and bass amp set ups. But both were Sunn amps.
These days his tone has gotten a little more "obnoxious" (I don't mean that pejoratively-- it is just more in your face) with more crunch to it than in the old days where it had more "twang" than crunch.
And Geddy has always played hard with his hands.
Kind of interestg though how he has evolved. Used a P bass on the first record. Then a Ricky until "Moving Pics" when he mixed it up with a Jazz. I believe all of "Grace" was with a Steinberger". Then a Wal from Power Windows through Roll The Bones when he Brought the Jazz back out and he has never gone back.
Would love to see hear Geddy play a Stingray. It is somewhere between his Wal and his P tonally...
These days his tone has gotten a little more "obnoxious" (I don't mean that pejoratively-- it is just more in your face) with more crunch to it than in the old days where it had more "twang" than crunch.
And Geddy has always played hard with his hands.
Kind of interestg though how he has evolved. Used a P bass on the first record. Then a Ricky until "Moving Pics" when he mixed it up with a Jazz. I believe all of "Grace" was with a Steinberger". Then a Wal from Power Windows through Roll The Bones when he Brought the Jazz back out and he has never gone back.
Would love to see hear Geddy play a Stingray. It is somewhere between his Wal and his P tonally...
If you listen to Tom Sawyer and then listen to Red Barchetta, you'll hear a huge difference in tone between the Ric and Jazz.
Rogerbmiller- I find your view of Geddy's tone today interesting, as in his guitar world interview he said his tone had gotten more round and that he gravitates now towards the big, fat sounds with less top end crunch than in the early days.
Rogerbmiller- I find your view of Geddy's tone today interesting, as in his guitar world interview he said his tone had gotten more round and that he gravitates now towards the big, fat sounds with less top end crunch than in the early days.
true I just think that I would be able to get a reasonable approximation of his old jazz tone using the Rick(I jsut saw a video on youtube that came off of gearwire and now I msut have a rick, I din't know that ricks could be so deep and rich and growly sounding, but most of my experiences with ricks has been with Geddy Lee and as a previous poster put it Geddy has quite a bit of twang.)
There is more botton end to be sure, but I think ther eis also more crunch, in the mids.
Geddy talks about his current tone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjhiv0Mxe5c&feature=related
Geddy talks about the basses he's gone through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YotuwZw7Iuc&feature=related
Geddy talks about the basses he's gone through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YotuwZw7Iuc&feature=related
You nailed it!
However, Geddy playing one of my basses would sound like Geddy. His tyle and attack are very much his. I f he picked up a bass like Jaco's ...wait he did in Malignant Narcissism and he still sounds like Geddy!
The tonal variances, the ability to be descript, punchy, piano like clangy etc...all vary slightly in each diffeent bass. Geddy dumped the Steinberger for the very reason you cited. To hear what I mean by the jazz bass very distinct sound, check out the Rio version of LaVilla Strangiato in the link below.
Then check out the version below that from his Rick days.....huge difference in the bass tone, but the very same attack and style......I prefer the Jazz tone from the Rio setup over the Rick....sorry guys, that is how I feel....and I want a Rick too, my dream bass since I was 17.
The other great variables, his effects settings and if he did or didn't do anything to the wiring of his Jazz etc....I remember seeing an interview with him from a guitard web site, or bass player something or other where he talks about the tone of all his basses....
I'd post a link but I lost it when Firefox thought it would be funny to dump all my bookmarks......
EDIT :Found the interview, posted below the music vids....
- Just for giggles....
he has like 1000 processors and distorted sound so no wonder it sounds similar
For whatever it's worth, I'm Ged's Bass Tech, Russ Ryan, and during rehearsals for the R30 tour, we actually tried a few stingrays. They were okay to him but not enough to impress him to actually use one instead of a Jazz.
I personally like the Stingrays. Ged these days has become a bit of a creature of habit when it comes to basses. He's stuck on the Jazz's and their sound. It took a bit of coaxing to get him to use the Rick on the Snakes & Arrows tour.
I personally like the Stingrays. Ged these days has become a bit of a creature of habit when it comes to basses. He's stuck on the Jazz's and their sound. It took a bit of coaxing to get him to use the Rick on the Snakes & Arrows tour.
Russ Ryan Here!
Guy's, Ged's Main 72 bass has a sound all its own, which can be reproduced, to a point. It's not because it's a any thing related to the year it was made.
More on this later!
Guy's, Ged's Main 72 bass has a sound all its own, which can be reproduced, to a point. It's not because it's a any thing related to the year it was made.
I think they sound very different...
I agree. A Rick has a tone unlike anything else that I've never heard duplicated. I much prefer his Rick tone over the Jazz. The only similarity I hear is the use of overdrive.
Actually, his Jazz tone (especially lately) is my least favorite. Too much crunch. I like to hear the bass a lot more than the effect.
Hey Russ, whats it going to take to get him to bust out the Wal?
Oh and more mwahh on the Jaco!
