Wow!! Congrats to you!! This may be the coolest thing ever shared on Talkbass.
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Wow!! Congrats to you!! This may be the coolest thing ever shared on Talkbass.
Yup...this is the Geddy tone for me as well...all other tones are measured up to this one! I had a ric for a while...could not get it to sound like this...bummer...so I sold it.
I mention "the Fender guys" who measured his bass, and "the" Fender guy shows up. What a great forum. It also reminds me to watch the Ps an Qs...you never know who's reading!
Lol...yeah...I realized the issue was the guy holding the bass real quick!
I was at that show too. It was their second pass through NorCal on the same tour - very unusual for them.
Geddy used the Steinberger XL-2 for the entire Power Windows tour. He brought the Wal with but it never made it into the live show.
Again, from the top of the page, post #81...
"Grace Under Pressure is a much darker-sounding record; the bottom end is a different shape, and the top end doesn't have such a nice twang. Different sounds for different periods, I guess. After Power Windows was finished, I visited the Wal people, and they built me the bass I used in "The Big Money" video. They really build their instruments with a lot of care and take a lot of pride in their work."
Did you want anything special done on the bass?
"I just wanted to have it sound close to that bass of Peter Collins. The only difference was that most of the basses they make are in natural wood finishes, and I'm not a big fan of them. So I asked for a black one. The sound is slightly different because it's a more reflective surface than a natural. But it's only different in a positive way; it's probably a little brighter than the other ones."
What made you choose the Steinberger for this tour and the previous one?
"Well, number one, I wanted a different sound. I was sort of bored with the same sound I was getting. And number two, I liked the compact feel of the Steinberger. It's small and concise. For me, playing onstage surrounded by so much gear--keyboards, microphones, and stuff--it's a very practical instrument to use. I felt that if I could get a sound out of it that I was happy with, it would make a lot of sense to use it because of its shape. And in the end, I liked the sound I was getting out of it onstage. It's very ballsy-sounding. So the size and sound made it an ideal touring bass for me."
Are you using the Wal onstage at all?
"I'm still using the Steinberger onstage. I have the Wal out with me, and it sounds really good live. But until the show gets to a point where I feel comfortable enough to start changing basses from song to song, I'm going to stick with the Steinberger and slowly work the Wal into the show."
Tom Mulhern's Interview With Rush's Geddy Lee
And as far as I know...he never broke out the Wal on the Power Windows tour.
You guys did a fantastic job on the FCS Geddy bass. I've said this before my Geddy FCS is simply the nicest 70s Jazz Bass I have ever played.
I must say, my favorite Geddy tone is his P bass on the first album. My second favorite is the live tone on Exit... but that is just a killer stereo Ric tone. I was really blown away by the 68 Telecaster bass he used on the R40 tour.
His P basses sounded good too but that Tele bass really had some bite to it.
His P basses sounded good too but that Tele bass really had some bite to it.
Are you referring to the bootleg or the album? Because given that the bootleg is 100% Steinberger, I agree on that front. It doesn't sound bad IMO, but it's somewhere between his Rick tone and Wal tone, and doesn't really have the best characteristics of either.
For the album on the other hand, I think the sound is right up there with his ESL tone. To me it's a very different character, but is just as distinctive. The most important thing, however, is that both fit perfectly in their respective mixes. IMO, his rick tone wouldn't have sounded very good on Power Windows, it just too beefy to work with the dense keyboard arrangements. On the other hand, on A Show of Hands, the Wal doesn't quite fill out the space in the older material enough for my tastes. It's a shame that he only started really using multiple basses on the last tour, because I think the variety really does help each era shine.
I believe they are the original pickups, but rewound by Tom Brantley.
I do remember reading, around the time he began using it, that he said it had a "devastating tone". So it seems like he loved it initially, but it just wasn't the kind of tone that had the staying power of his other tones.
Yes I have read that too. He loved the tone at first but fell out of love with it. Even recently i saw an interview where he said Tim Commerford keeps bugging him to pull out the Steiny but he said "one album was enough with that bass". I personally loved my Steinbergers and miss them (thats me playing my XL2 in my avatar) I sold them and regret it.
Sooooo true. I can speak for myself in saying that if I had bass techs they would hate me. In one short-lived band, I brought a different bass to practice every single time we met (roughly 8 practice sessions). The guitarist was like "dude...do you own a store or something?" so I just grinned and said "Never join Talkbass, just trust me lol"
They did a second pass during the Test For Echo tour, first time in San Jose and then a few month later in Mountain View. I agree, normally they don’t do that but for some reason that tour was an exception.
Weird opening bands for Rush: The Melvins. They opened for them on the Counterparts tour, saw them at the Cow Palace in SF.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,795
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
No, they didn't, but they do have someone else managing their rights:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Basically, Ole is managing the music publishing for Rush, something that Core once did but Ole bought them. The band still owns the rights to their music.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,795
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
There's actually more to the deal than has been made public. I recently had a long talk with someone very close to the band.
