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Geddy's bass tone

#501
Sorry about this. I guess I should say something about what I posted way back when. I need to spend some time with Ged's main bass and some pick-up's to see if I'm going to be able to reproduce the same sound as his original.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time needed to do this while on tour. I will have to wait until this Rush tour finishes and go from there.

tomersg said:
hi..maybe i missed that in that mega thread. but what with the mystery secret behind the pickup of the GL jazz bass?
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#503
RRyan said:
I assume you are talking about the small wedge-shaped speakers spread across the front of the stage. If you notice, those speakers are facing the crowd. They are for the people in the front rows. As the flown PA is so far to the right and left for these seats, these little speakers help "fill-in" the sound for the people sitting there.
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Thanks for the answer. Like I said, I just saw pics on a forum...usually just part of the speaker whenever one of the guys was playing near it...so I didnt notice which way it was pointing.
 
#504
RRyan said:
Sorry about this. I guess I should say something about what I posted way back when. I need to spend some time with Ged's main bass and some pick-up's to see if I'm going to be able to reproduce the same sound as his original.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time needed to do this while on tour. I will have to wait until this Rush tour finishes and go from there.
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Russ,

What does the modified pick up do that the stock ones dont? Does it give more bottom end, or growl more, or?
 
#508
I get the action as low as possible. I set it up with a bit of string growl but not so low as to start creating to much string buzz and most important, dead notes!
This is for his main bass and any others that are tuned normally. His red jazz is tuned a whole tone down with the same gauge of strings, I keep the action a bit higher because the strings are "flopping" around more than normal. If I set the action on the red jazz the same as his main one, way too much string buzz.
Ged never asks me about this. He just lets me set it up to were I think it works best and he goes with that.

Thunder_Fingers said:
Russ,
How high does Geddy have his action on the basses? I guess that you if anyone will know this :hiding:
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#509
Ged's GL bass is made to pretty much the exact same specs as his 72. As far as picking one off the rack, well there are so many variables there. Hopefully the music store checked them out and did any adjustments before they put it in the rack, as far as action, etc.

Gin said:
I read in a different thread here on TB that it was set fairly high, but to me it's seems to be set fairly low. I have a GL bass myself and aren't they supposed to be the same specs that Geddy's 72 Jbass has?:eyebrow: I could be completely wrong anyways haha :p
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#510
I bet your FOH engineer loves it as well!

oyobass said:
Hey Russ! I'll add my thanks to the many already here.

I use a preamp/cranked tube power amp/speaker sim to send a signal to the board as well. I use an old Peavey 1-15 2-8 cab as a speaker load, but have it face down firing into the carpet.

Result? Not a lot of sound in the room, a real load on the amp, and a hekuva lot of floor shakin' goin' on. Gives my feet a massage even when I use IEMs :)

oyo
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#511
RRyan said:
Ged's GL bass is made to pretty much the exact same specs as his 72. As far as picking one off the rack, well there are so many variables there. Hopefully the music store checked them out and did any adjustments before they put it in the rack, as far as action, etc.
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Yeah, thats true as well. I forgot ask, but is Geddy going to be putting back his original neck on to his main Jbass anytime soon or is the neck pretty unplayable? I just love the original neck color. :smug:
 
#513
That's a great question.
In its original state, it is pretty much unplayable. Anything can be fixed, to a point. This would require sending it to Fender Custom Shop and it would have to have major surgery, to the point it would be quite a bit different from its original state.
Ged has always stated to me that the original neck wasn't that great, compared to all the Fender Custom Shop basses he has. He never wanted to do anything with it as he was so concerned that it might change the sound.
Ged and I talked quite a lot during the recording of the Snakes & Arrows project about this and I suggested we throw a new neck on and see what happens.

After Ged tried the Jaco with the sanded down neck, he asked me to get a sanded neck for his 72 and try that. I had Fender send me a sanded one and a regular finished one. I threw the sanded one on and it was so much better than his original and he was happy with it!

He decided that the new neck felt great and no real change in sound, so we thought, lets no do anything with the original neck and just hang on to it.
Long story, but the original neck is in storage but will probably never be back on while he is still playing and recording.


Gin said:
Yeah, thats true as well. I forgot ask, but is Geddy going to be putting back his original neck on to his main Jbass anytime soon or is the neck pretty unplayable? I just love the original neck color. :smug:
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#514
Hi Mr Russ Ryan, im from Brazil and waiting Rush again here, that probably will play in next August again in Morumbi Stadium . The last time was in 2002. I was there :-) and was a dream come true for me and my friends. Well, i think was the biggest crowd ever for Rush´s performance, right? Please, bring your FOH cables instead rent here, because as you did see in DVD RIR had problem with our brazilian cables, all brokeds! Was bad luck with that cables, because we always have rock concerts without any technical problems. Anyway , you guys need relax more and enjoy Brazilian vibe!I told that because the DVD RIR documentary did show much "technical - drama" instead "beauty" of the South America Tour, you know?
Well, good luck and thanks for all tips from Mr Geddy´s bass tone.
 
#515
Thanks for your kind words.
Unfortunately, as I know now, RUSH will not be coming to South America this tour. I wish they were but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. The most beautiful women and kind people!
Hopefully in the future they will but I don't have a say in these things.

No4PCs said:
Hi Mr Russ Ryan, im from Brazil and waiting Rush again here, that probably will play in next August again in Morumbi Stadium . The last time was in 2002. I was there :-) and was a dream come true for me and my friends. Well, i think was the biggest crowd ever for Rush´s performance, right? Please, bring your FOH cables instead rent here, because as you did see in DVD RIR had problem with our brazilian cables, all brokeds! Was bad luck with that cables, because we always have rock concerts without any technical problems. Anyway , you guys need relax more and enjoy Brazilian vibe!I told that because the DVD RIR documentary did show much "technical - drama" instead "beauty" of the South America Tour, you know?
Well, good luck and thanks for all tips from Mr Geddy´s bass tone.
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#516
Yeah, Russ is right man, I have heard many rumours, and now we are hearing this from somebody on the inside, it won't happen this time. A shame I was so young in 2002 and didn't make it to the show. Maybe on the next tour, if there is a next tour. Hopefully until then I will have some money to catch then on the US.
 
#517
Just a side note, for all you that may be interested.
When I put the new neck on Ged's main bass, I took the original machine heads off the original neck and put them on the new neck. I personally didn't want to do this but Ged wanted them on and hey, he is my boss!

Gin said:
Yeah, thats true as well. I forgot ask, but is Geddy going to be putting back his original neck on to his main Jbass anytime soon or is the neck pretty unplayable? I just love the original neck color. :smug:
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#518
I popped in here to add a quick word the other week, but I really wanted to say; I went to my first Rush concert last Saturday, and it was single handedly the greatest experience of my 16 years of life. Geddy Lee is a huge influence in my music, and it was amazing to see him and Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson play live. I just wish I could have been front row, and gotten to meet Geddy and get his autograph. Oh that would make my year. If they ever come back to Winnipeg, or even the general area, I'll be sure to go. Oh, and I'm buying a GL Jazz soon just because I want to experience some of the awesome. You should send an autograph my way :) My birthday is in a couple months :p
 
#520
No4PCs said:
Biff Malibu had tiger´s eye on those additional screws, hahaha . Very funny too...;)
That screws prob hold some top-secret nano-EQ-modeling-hard disk managed-laser powered and connected in Hubble telescope sending informations to some extra-terrestrial planet! :eyebrow:
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Um...yeah.......;)

I thought the early 70's Jazz all had the "extra" screw in the middle of the pups as well as an extra on the edges...the other holes are from the tug bar and pup covers.....for that reason, I have been thinking of adding that middle screw and screw holes as needed to make my Geddy clone more authentic to the original....kind of relicing, kind of not....
 

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