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Geddy's bass tone

#141
Skip hasn't been with Rush since the Test for Echo tour. Skip has been so involved with Steely Dan, the last time we met.

walman01 said:
Russ,

I would like to add about my post regarding Jimmy Rhodes. When I became involved with Wal Basses, Geddy's tech was, I believe, Skip Gildersleeve. Pete at Wal Basses would constantly gush about how easy he was to deal with. Pete did not have that opinion of Jimmy, which seemed to be consistent on that particular day I met him. Again, I certainly didn't mean to insult you or him.

Is Skip Gildersleeve still a part of the Rush live show?

Thanks,
Steve Chesney
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#142
Russ Ryan said:
Steve, no need to apologize. I'm sorry you had not got along with Jimmy. I have not heard about Jimmy and Ged having differences but that is not my business. I'm not saying you are wrong or right.

Guy's do me a favor, and I'm going to sound harsh here but I don't want to hear about any bad dealings with past and present Rush personal, you might have had. It is of no concern to me. Ask me all you want about Ged, the band and their gear, but no personal stuff.

Thanks,
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Not harsh at all. I completely understand and again, I do want to apologize. You have to understand that I may have had a preconceived notion that day because of what Pete was telling me. At any rate, have you had any experience dealing with Elrick Basses? I played one the last time I was at Bass Central in Orlando and it was incredibly well-built and that sound was funky!

Steve Chesney
 
#143
Dave, best question ever! I'll get back to you on this. I have griped about this many of times. This will be a long post and I hope I can give you tips on how I deal with it.

Dave Hill said:
My biggest gripe with the GL is the need to take the neck off for a truss rod adjustment. Russ, how many times a month do you have to take "the real one" apart? I can't imagine you haven't addressed this on Geddy's basses as I'd guess they reauire a lot of tweaks on the road. I think I'm gonna route out my body a little for some tool room.
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#144
Hey Russ thanks for contributing. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to give a break-down of Ged's current live rig? Also for what it's worth, I was guitar and violin tech for band by the name of Kansas from 76-81 and it does make life so much better when the band members are truly quality people as they were, and it can be a very hard and demanding job, you know what I'm talking about.
 
#147
Dave Hill said:
My biggest gripe with the GL is the need to take the neck off for a truss rod adjustment.
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That's not necessary. One of my students has a GL and I only had to remove the pickguard to access the truss rod (That's a hassle to me, anyway).

Thank you for your insights, Mr. Ryan! I'm another huge Rush fan. :) :bassist: :cool:
 
#148
Very Cool! I guess I didn't mention this and being very honest, "Leftoverture" was a big inspiration. Okay, I can't remember everything. Kerry was a great guitar player! Magnum Opus is classic!
Thanks for this! I always thought Steve Walsh was one of the great rock singers at that time and most people don't know, he was a great B3 player. Am I wrong? I would love to read your posts, if you don't mind.

RR


svp said:
Hey Russ thanks for contributing. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to give a break-down of Ged's current live rig? Also for what it's worth, I was guitar and violin tech for band by the name of Kansas from 76-81 and it does make life so much better when the band members are truly quality people as they were, and it can be a very hard and demanding job, you know what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...
 
#150
Russ Ryan said:
Very Cool! I guess I didn't mention this and being very honest, "Leftoverture" was a big inspiration. Okay, I can't remember everything. Kerry was a great guitar player! Magnum Opus is classic!
Thanks for this! I always thought Steve Walsh was one of the great rock singers at that time and most people don't know, he was a great B3 player. Am I wrong? I would love to read your posts, if you don't mind.

RR
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No problem. Kerry is a great guitar player, but the big guy with eye patch, aka Richard Williams was kind of the unsung guitarist of the band. Alot of the guitar work people hear assuming it is Kerry, is Richard. Yes Steve can bang a B3 really good, it's just keeping the hand stand's under control, and he is definately one of the best rock singer's of all time. One memory quickly, the band's management decided to ship the gear to Tokyo for the Japan tour instead of by air. When we arrive at the hotel there is a message for us to come to the dock's right away. We get to the dock's just as the seacontainer's are being stood back up with salt water pouring out of them, the ship had gotten caught in a typhoon, nice way to start a tour, no gear:hyper:
 
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#151
Sorry, I didn't answer your question. Ged's live rig is pretty basic. There are three direct sends to audio. He does not use amps and cabs on stage.
Sansamp RPM preamp for his 'Dirt' sound. Palmer PDI-05 Speaker Simulator, the original ones. Avalon U5 D.I.
That's it.

svp said:
Hey Russ thanks for contributing. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to give a break-down of Ged's current live rig? Also for what it's worth, I was guitar and violin tech for band by the name of Kansas from 76-81 and it does make life so much better when the band members are truly quality people as they were, and it can be a very hard and demanding job, you know what I'm talking about.
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#153
Interesting, never new that. Oh man, I have never had that happen. I was with the Scorpions and we went to do a tour of South America, I think around 94. We took backline only and used stacks & racks over there. Gear arrive okay and not damaged. All was good until we started setting up. We (guitar techs) went to start changing strings and realized our work boxes was cleaned of all sets of strings and this is good, Batteries. Okay, batteries can be replaced anywhere in the world BUT strings. It was, like you said, nice way to start a tour. Great story. We could go on!!

RR

svp said:
No problem. Kerry is a great guitar player, but the big guy with eye patch, aka Richard Williams was kind of the unsung guitarist of the band. Alot of the guitar work people hear assuming it is Kerry, is Richard. Yes Steve can bang a B3 really good, it's just keeping the hand stand's under control, and he is definately one of the best rock singer's of all time. One memory quickly, the band's management decided to ship the gear to Tokyo for the Japan tour instead of by air. When we arrive at the hotel there is a message for us to come to the dock's right away. We get to the dock's just as the seacontainer's are being stood back up with salt water pouring out of them, the ship had gotten caught in a typhoon, nice way to start a tour, no gear:hyper:
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#155
Thanks again for being so cool to all of us! When in the studio, does Geddy always go for a complete one-take track, or does he punch in on songs? Also with all the duties he performs live, does he ever have a trainwreck, or is he always on? I saw him in Chicago over the summer and MAN was he on!
 
#156
wateroftyne said:
Hi Russ

Thanks for taking the time to post here... it's appreciated by many.

FWIW, In my humble opinion Ged's tone on the S&A tour was the best it has been in many tours. More growl? Less fizz? Marvellous!
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I completely agree!! Geddy's tone is great on this tour. I think Russ mentioned before that Geddy backed some of the distortion off of his SanAmp this time around. To me, it made a huge difference.

Russ, have you had any experience with Elrick Basses? I played one at Bass Central and was just blown away. Thanks for being gracious about my foot-in-mouth before.

Steve Chesney
 
#159
Russ, firstly, thanks for all of the info that us Rush fans have been guessing about for years, as well as the return e-mail. Absolutely stand-up guy, you are. :)

You've made it clear that Ged really isn't a fan of "nostalgia" in terms of using his older basses, such as having no desire to use his Wals, having to be "pushed" into using the Ric for Bangkok on the last tour (which as a fan was a fantastic moment for us "in the seats" :hyper: ), Ric N. pushing him into finding his original Taurus pedals for the recording of "S&A", etc. At the same time he seems to be very clear about moving forward in regards of his tone, with examples of using the RPM (SansAmp's best and newest), switching to the Palmer Simulators back in the '90s when it was pretty forward-thinking to go direct with no miked signal, and of course... the dryers, the rotisseries, and The Soup backstage. ;)

I supposed my question is, do you see Ged try out some "newer" basses in both designs, hardware (bridges, tuners and such) as well as electronically (newer pickups designs, internal preamps, etc) and if not, why in your opinion (I would *never* ask you to speak for Geddy) do you think Geddy is pretty forward-moving in some areas of his "rig" but very much a "creature of habit" (i.e. using the '72 Jazz 90% of the time since 1993) in others?
 
#160
Russ:

The 70s 4001 basses are a bit unusual. The first point mentioned earlier is the .0047 capacitor which removes all bass and low mid frequencies from the treble pickup. Second Rickenbackers from this era had 500k ohm tone pots. This along with the all maple construction and the bubinga fret board made for a trebly instrument. Have around 20 basses myself I have learned to be my own bass tech. I have found that rewiring a 70s 4001 without the .0047 capacitor and with all 250k ohm pots makes the 4001 basses from that era exceptional instruments.:hyper:

Also Russ have you ever tried a j-retro bass preamp? I have one in my jazz bass and I really like it.

And with the Musicman bass I recently frankenstiened a musicman clone with a jazz neck. I had to move the bridge back 1/2". This changed the pickup location, and it changed the tone. I think it improved the tone and playability of the bass.:ninja:

I have also experimented with Fenderbird basses. I have built 3 of them, with 3 different types of pickups. And I am going to build a 5 string version of Entwistle's Exploiter. Has Geddy ever played a fenderbird or an alembic?:bassist:
 

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