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Geddy's bass tone

#624
ProfGumby said:
Lot's of Rumors out there and on the Rush forum (therushforum.com). If they do, they do...but I read last night that the band is on a break but has a new cd and tour possibly in their plans.
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Wha-freakin'-whooo, baby! Hope it's true. I still haven't seen them live. I'm nearly 43, been listening to them since Grace under Pressure or a little earlier. . .a kid turned me on to Caress of Steel and Fly by Night when I was in 4-H in high school, that would have been around '82, summer at the Douglas County Fair in Roseburg, Or.

Anyway, things did definitely change. :) :bassist: :D
 
#626
Hi Russ,
I understand you might have contacted Andrew at BMC guitars recently about a certain bass that I just purchased. I forwarded my contact information to them should you still be interested. I am not that far from Toronto and I would be happy to speak to you about it. Hope all is well.
Regards,
Tom

TS
 
#627
Finally read through this amazing thread. Great to have you here Russ and taking the time to answer questions and provide some well needed Geddy history and stories.

I was initially only interested in Neil's drumming, although I did respect and appreciate both Alex and Geddy's musicianship. But recently I decided to learn bass guitar and initially started with some Sabbath tunes, but recently got back into Rush.

I'm now jamming with a guitar friend who has a pedal board and is in the process of emulating some of Alex's sounds. I've been transcribing some Rush songs (bass) and it's cool to see and play what Geddy plays. I never realized what an amazing bassist Geddy really is (among his other talents).

In looking for that Geddy sound I learned he uses the Rotosound 66 strings, so installed a set (even though I do not own a real Fender Jazz). Wow, I love the new sound of my bass! And I love the feel of the strings. It's cool to try to get my bass to sound as close to his as possible.

I look forward to reading about the other work you've done on his bass.

Hope you're healing well. Take care.
 
#628
Hey people, I came across this interview and thought you could like to read it:
bq: Even in passion you also were wearing some debauchment on your shoulder, as the cliché-Steinberger from the 80s which sounded not bad ...

Geddy Lee: ... but also not good. The benefit of the Steinberger had practical reasons. At that time I was surrounded by an incredible number of synthesizers and I assumed the missing head of the bass kept me away from pushing aside a mini-moog. The bass did its job but in the end it didn't sound good.

bq: For some years you're playing your Fender jazz bass again. Are you using one of your signature models or the original Fender Jazz?

Geddy Lee: Of course I'm playing the original one, from which the signature models resulted. But I admit that the neck of the original quit its service before the last tour and that I mounted a neck of one of the signature models which let it still sound fantastic. I'm really happy with the signature models because the value for money ratio is really okay. They don't really sound like my bass but they're quite close.

bq: On the DVD you can be seen with a red Fender-bass. What are you using it for?

Geddy Lee: The Fender custom shop gave me a few basses and I most liked the red one because soundwise it's completely different to all the others which can be explained by the kind and the age of the wood from which it was made. My Fender Jazz sounds the way it sounds because when I bought it something with the wiring of the electronics wasn't right. That's still the case up to today because I don't want the sound to be changed. For those songs in which I need a "clean" bass sound I use the red Fender.

bq: And you're still using your stone age Rickenbacker bass?

Geddy Lee: Yes, because it's requested by the fans. Over the years I was asked again and again why I'm not playing the Ricky anymore. Therefore, I decided to grant him a guest role at the end of one song (laughs). The Ricky is really heavy and therefore tough to play, so that I needed the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger if I wanted to use it all the time.

bq: Are you using a lot of effects for achieving the rich bass sound which clearly puts you in the middle of events within the overall sound of Rush?

Geddy Lee: No, not really. Our guitarist has 600,000 effects all around him and is a slave of sound. In order to get my sound right I'm practically not using any effects apart from distortion and top end. I try to let it sound as natural as possible. Our front-of-house mixer gets three bass signals from me which he can mix as he likes, according to the hall's acoustics. But I'm trying to avoid using redundant devices. There is already enough unnecessary coming from my bass-fingers.

bq: If you believe all those heavyrock bassists which name you being an influence to them, we think you're now exaggerating beyond measure.

Geddy Lee: Of course I'm joking a little bit. But too many effects may let my sound appear to be like one single heap of waste. On the other hand the set-up of the whole band on stage is so complex that I'm really not on for additional effects. Everybody in the band has a number of pedals at his place, and each of them is connected to a row of sequencers and prerecorded samples. The usage of electronics is so complex that we really have to be extremely focused in our work. Besides playing his own instrument everybody in the band has to trigger a number of samples for each song. This leads to the fact that everything you hear on the DVD is really live and could be mastered without any post-production. But that also means that our work on stage resembles more a choreography than a mere performance.

bq: So, in fact you are dancers?

Geddy Lee: (Laughter) Yeah, you can see it that way. To be honest, it is extremely difficult to put together a Rush concert and keep it alive. But because of that they are interesting, and the prospect of boredom on stage is practically non existent.

bq: Have you ever used the wrong pedals during a song?

Geddy Lee: A lot of times! Some of our sequencers are really long running and our roadie on stage has to check the sequences, which he strangely not always gets done. And then you hear a keyboard sequence from another song going on forever like in an infinite loop. Fortunately a part of our audience is really high and they then think that this wrong sample is an innovative version of a particular song (laughs out loud). Usually the roadie has to reset the sequencer every time but somehow it seems that none of them is capable of doing so (laughs). On the other hand our concerts keep being interesting for ourselves by this. Besides, we're not using click-tracks on stage in order to be able to improvise, which makes the usage of samples all the more difficult.

bq: Do you have any vices basswise which you actually shouldn't listen to, but you're listening to regardless?

Geddy Lee: As a rock type you're normally not allowed to say this, but I like the popping technique of the funk bassists a lot. Bernard Edwards of Chic was incredible with this. But who cares? Being a musician it is kind of a self-chastisement to let oneself be reduced to one style only. Even jazzers are chastening themselves, although they're always pretending to be so free. Integration is the key word for the whole development of Rush - and it finally should also be our political attitude.

bq: Very nice closing words. Geddy, thanks a lot for taking your time for this interview.
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#634
After reading about how great Geddy's bass tone is in the Snakes & Arrows live concert here at TB, I finally had a chance to see the intro and first few songs.

I've seen most of the Rush concert videos, but not one of them blew me away as much as this one. The sound of all the instruments is awesome. The performances are so tight; these three guys deserve even more praise than they get for what they can do, especially after 30+ years.

I totally loved the bass tone, and it’s great to see a lot more of Geddy playing it, and how he plays it.

I can only imagine how many kids and teens will see this video and beg their parents, or work to save up for, a Geddy Lee bass guitar, and take up the bass as a first instrument. And you couldn’t really ask for a better role model.
 
#635
Ric5 said:
Vapor Trails was such a bad mix ... it is amazing how a band with such good tone and good mixes can release such a badly distorted cd.
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+1

I`ve been constantly listening to "Test for echo", "Vapor Trails" and "Snakes and arrows" during last weeks in my car stereo.

The difference is notorious. The mix on VP is so dirty that it`s hard to identify guitar or even bass parts during several songs.
 
#636
Papersen said:
+1

I`ve been constantly listening to "Test for echo", "Vapor Trails" and "Snakes and arrows" during last weeks in my car stereo.

The difference is notorious. The mix on VP is so dirty that it`s hard to identify guitar or even bass parts during several songs.
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One of my first impressions of Vaper Trails, was that there was a lot of white noise.

Clearly, the mix sucks! I think there is another factor as well. The mix combined with the, chordal strummming style of Geddy. Even with a clean mix I think some of those songs would still sound somewhat muddy, and indistinct. IMO.
 
#637
mrhardy said:
One of my first impressions of Vaper Trails, was that there was a lot of white noise.

Clearly, the mix sucks! I think there is another factor as well. The mix combined with the, chordal strummming style of Geddy. Even with a clean mix I think some of those songs would still sound somewhat muddy, and indistinct. IMO.
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THere is this whole long web page out there somewhere that goes into detail of how the mix of that album got screwed up. I dont know where exactly it is but it was an interesting read.
 
#638
jgroh said:
THere is this whole long web page out there somewhere that goes into detail of how the mix of that album got screwed up. I dont know where exactly it is but it was an interesting read.
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I've read about that before as well. That was my comment about, clearly, the mix is messed up.

His flamenco style stuff is not my favorite approach to bass playing. If Geddy is going to strum flamenco style, then Alex needs to play single notes and not chords as well. If Geddy is playing chords, and Alex is playing chords then to me, it just sounds like a bunch of noise. Throw a bunch of compression, and distortion in the mix as well and, blah. IMO.
 
#639
Hi All,
Thanks for all your kind wishes. I'm doing well and hope all of you are doing the same.
I read all your post's about the "Vapor Trails" cd. I agree, not one of their best sounding products, mind you, I don't listen to Rush that much. I know a little of the story behind the Vapor recording but I cannot comment for obvious reasons.
As far as an up-coming tour, don't know.
I will be working with Ged soon as he wants me to set up some basses that I think he has purchased.
Alex has requested my services to do a boat load of guitar work for him as he has done major "reno's" to his studio. His studio is about ten minutes from where I live!
I will comment more about Ged's bass sound. I guess this is getting boring for you all, but just no time to make sure.

RR
 

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