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CHRIS SQUIRE STYLE??

#25
I saw Chris on the Yes/Asia tour tuesday, and he is using the RM Rick, an all-black Rick with triangle fret markers, a white Electra and a Lakland Glaub. He had two Ampeg cabs with what looked like horns or small, sloped cabs for high end on top of each and a single Marshall cab beside those. The RM Rick was very top and bottom heavy, and the black Rick sounded a bit more balanced. For my tatse, the Rick were almost too distorted at times, but he playsvery hard. The Electra was very clear, the Glaub a close second. Back in the early '70s I got a very nice Squire sound from my 4001 using Rotos, an Acoustic 360 and a Kustom guitar head hooked up to a midrange horn. I ran the neck PUP To the 360, the bridge PUP to the Kustom. I had some kind of tremolo, too -- can't recall which. At that time, Chris was using Sunn Colisuem heads -- the guitar heads, if I recall correctly, with 2 6x12 cabs, using the head's tremolo & Reverb, and a Bass Brassmaster for fuzz. This was during the Fragile tour.

Foiund the following online from a 200 Bassplayer interview:

Richard Davis, Chris Squire's long-time bass tech, reports that Squire is toting several basses on the latest Yes tour. These include his original, circa-1967 Rickenbacker 4001S, which (like all of his basses) is wired stereo. "By having a neck- pickup output and a bridge-pickup output, Chris can route each signal through different effects in his rack," explains Davis. Also on hand are Squire's green Meridian 4-string, a Tobias 5- string, the extended-range Tobias 4-string described in the interview, an early-'70s maple-neck Jazz Bass, a Chris Squire Special Edition Rickenbacker, an 8-string built by Chicago luthier Eric Ranney, and an Electra 4-string from St. Louis Music. Chris uses Rotosound Swing Bass standard-gauge strings (.045, .065, .080, .105), with custom Rotosounds for his extended-range Tobias. His picks are heavy-gauge Hercos.

After using Marshall amps for decades, Squire has switched to Ampeg for the current tour. His stage setup includes two SVT- II Pro heads and two 8x10 SVT810E cabinets, which sit behind him on stage right, with a third 8x10 cabinet driven by an SVT300 power amp on stage left. The key component of his pre-programmed rack is a switching unit that organizes such effects as a custom-built tremolo unit, a Maestro fuzz, a T.C. Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger, a Lexicon LXP-5 multi- effects, a Roland SRV 2000 reverb, an MXR 1500 delay, a volume pedal, an octave divider, and an ADA preamp EQed for the low notes on the Tobias basses. The pedals sit atop the rack and are routed into the switching unit. On the floor in front of Squire's vocal mike is a custom pedalboard with buttons to activate preset effects combinations, as programmed by Davis. One button also toggles his combination Taurus/Jutron bass pedals, which are amplified by an SWR SM- 400 head driving an Energy 2x15 cabinet. Squire wears two Samson UHF wireless systems, one for each stereo channel.
 
#26
BigOldHarry said:
One thing that threw me when I was young is how Rick Wakeman often doubled the bass parts with a clavinet (roundabout, for example)
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It's pretty well documented that Rick Wakeman never used a Hohner Clavinet during his original tenure with Yes (if at all). His keyboard rig at the time of "Roundabout" consisted of a Hammond C3 organ, a pair of Mellotrons, a pair of MiniMoogs, an RMI 368 electric piano, and an acoustic piano. While I suppose it's conceivable that Wakeman could have used one of the harpsichord presets on the RMI 368, it's way more likely that what you're hearing and thinking is a clavinet is in fact simply the sound of Squire's bass.

Moreover, it's also well documented that Squire doubled the bass line to "Roundabout" on a Gibson archtop guitar (miked acoustically).
 
#27
guitardefector said:
Hello all. I recently put flats on my MIM Fender jazz and started using a pick in hopes of getting that unique Yes sound of Chris Squire. It still doesn't sound even close. Do I need to adjust my amp a certain way or just flat out get a Rickenbacker like his??Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks gents.
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Your not even 'close to the edge'! :p

A set Rotosound RS 66 Swing Bass round-wounds please!

'Don't know what gauges are involved, but that's what the Internet is for.

As for your Jazz Bass coping Mr. Squire's 4001 sound? It'll come close enough if it's strung with RS 66's, has a fairly low string action for that clangy, grinding sound, you use both pickups, and you flat-pick over the neck pickup. This is how I approximate his Ric tone with my MIJ Fender VI.

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#28
Roundwounds are a must, but the bulk of his tone is his pick style. I can pull off a most convincing Squire tone through my Ken Lawrence bass and even my Sadowsky. One key factor is not to "strum" with the pick at all. Use very short, sharp, aggresive attacks on the string. A good crunchy tube amp helps a lot as well. Push the gain and go for that tone right before the tubes start to break up into distortion.
 

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