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Not true. Rotosound roundwounds (as well as Roto flats) was THE sound of British 70s (and late 60s) rock. The were used on lots of classic, iconic albums from that era.
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70s fender precision basses with factory flats
- Thread starter wolfkeller
- Start date
Not true. Rotosound roundwounds (as well as Roto flats) was THE sound of British 70s (and late 60s) rock. The were used on lots of classic, iconic albums from that era.
Not true. SOME British rock was played with Rotosound roundwounds. Pink Floyd was flats. Queen was flats. At lot of other bands were flats. Roundwounds were present, even had a sizeable niche but not *the* string. Besides, rock is only one genre.
(in my punk days in the 80s I used roundwounds. I remember picking up a Ricky with flats once and was really surprised at the difference. I was not really up on gear issues then (because punk)
You coulda scooped up Paul's early Clash Ric for a mere $325K!
Had he switched to a P bass by Down in the tube station?....though it does sound like the Ricky..Ibanez?And Bruce Foxton's Rickenbacker was an Ibanez in the early days.
He still sounds like himself on a PBass though
And, back then bass players didn't know you had to change strings so whatever was on them, stayed on them.
They didn't know because there was no TB back then.
To some extent for sure BUT the very first thing that I did with my brand new P-Bass back in 1980 was to take the factory flats off and put on a set of Roto 66s...
Really hard to tell.
From this other picture, there kinda sorta seem to be a little bit of flatwound shine from the low E around the nut area:
The Clash — Cardiff Live
The 15th of December was Paul Simonon’s 65th Birthday….41 years ago the album London Calling was released this week….40 years ago the album Sandanista! was released this week. KCL get two view points on “The only Band that matters” The Clash. The Old March 18th 1977 The Clash released their
www.keepcardifflive.com
Then again, I may well be wrong on this.
Really hard to tell.
From this other picture, there kinda sorta seem to be a little bit of flatwound shine from the low E around the nut area:
View attachment 7084147
The Clash — Cardiff Live
The 15th of December was Paul Simonon’s 65th Birthday….41 years ago the album London Calling was released this week….40 years ago the album Sandanista! was released this week. KCL get two view points on “The only Band that matters” The Clash. The Old March 18th 1977 The Clash released their
Then again, I may well be wrong on this.
That's a much better picture of that poor Pbass, thanks. Yes, I'd also say they kinda look like flats.
By the way, in the Fender Pbass video, his later/current Pbass is strung with a humble set of D'Addario XL rounds (2:49).
Yes the Rezillos are fantastic,. The called themselves The Revillos for a little while also, then went back to Rezillos, which was odd but ok. They were touring in 2022. Ending chord like opening of Hard Days Night ... always liked that
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devnulljp
Supporting Member
I don't know when he switched, but even now when he pretty much sticks to the PBass he still sounds like himself.
I couldn't reliably guess whuch tracks had the Ibanez, which had the Rick, and which had a PBass. He just sounds like Bruce Foxton.
Flats tone with pick:
Macca tone is not muddy.
Carol Kay tone is not muddy.
Joe Osborn tone is not muddy.
Many others; these are the bassists to study for this approach.
Flats on those Ricks? Maybe yes... maybe no. When bass round wounds became a thing, shortly after John Entwistle persuaded Rotosound to make him some, lots of Rick owners switched to rounds. So... who switched to rounds - and when? No idea... I'm not sure when Rickenbacker stopped putting Maxima #4440 Flatwounds on their basses, but I know that my friend's lefty '68 4001 wore those flats when I learned to play bass on it - in 1968. Pretty sure that my '73 4001 originally did, too. In fact, the grungy old flats that I removed - and replaced with Rickenbacker Light Nickel Rounds - might have been it's original Maxima's. I really wish I'd paid more attention to them, now... Fortunately for me, Optima - who bought out Maxima, quite a while ago - listened to Rick owner's kvetching about not being able to get the "original Rick tone", and more or less cloned the original Maxima flats. I have the Optima #4440 RB ("Rickenbacker Bass") flats on my '01 4003. Other than it's pickups being wound hotter than the ones in my 4001, and the neck pickup being in a different position? Sounds pretty much like that '68 4001 did; with the 4003's cap cut into the treble pickup circuit, of course...
As for a Fender bass? Yes, P-Basses kept their Squier factory flats until... 1982, IIRC. Jazz Basses lost their flats in 1978. So, my '78 P-Bass would have shipped with the Squier flats. Which, IMO, is how a P-Bass is supposed to sound; light gauge flats, under a foam mute in the bridge cover. Luckily for me, the light gauge GHS Precision Flats are near-clones of the original Squiers, so... that's what lives under the foam mute in my P-Bass's bridge cover. And, that's the sound of the Rock N' Roll that my generation remembers...
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Short OT history lesson.
Motown was DIing back in the 1960s, so were some Nashville studios. The instruments were usually plugged directly into the mike preamps of the mixing board although some studios built custom DI boxes.
Picture of the five channel DI preamp in the Motown studio. Guitars were often DIed as well as the bass.
Marty Robbins recorded his song "Don't Worry" in a Nashville studio in 1961 and the mike preamp the bass was plugged into was malfunctioning, becoming the first recorded example of fuzz bass.
The fuzzed out guitar on the single version of "Revolution" by the Beatles was John Lennon plugged into the mixer and the engineer diming the channel to get the distortion.
Mike Oldfield recorded his electric guitar on "Tubular Bells" plugging into the mike jack of an old tube tape recorder and running the output of that to the mixer.
