Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
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- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
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Looking for that Chris Squire sound on a budget
- Thread starter sartor
- Start date
Saw Yes in July and Chris got the "Rick Sound" on all the basses he used, including a Lakland Bob Glaub P bass. In fact, his Rick sounded thin in comparison to the Glaub. Rotos played with a pick on a Jazz bass -- even a Squier -- might get you close.
Another +1 on a good J with a maple neck. All knobs fully up, neck PUP only and played with a heavy pick. If you consider Geddy Lee's tone is in the same ballpark, note that many of his classic tones were played on his J with maple neck and block inlays and not his Ricks.
I got a decent Squire tone back in the 80's with a Gibson G3,a Sunn Coliseum 300 with the high mids and highs cranked,Roto's and a thin pick held sideways. Striking the strings with a similar technique as described above helped as did sloppy left hand technique.For me anyway.
YMMV,IMHO,IHOP,ETC.
YMMV,IMHO,IHOP,ETC.
Well yeah if you can get a RIC do it by all means but if you need to go cheap id say as follows
1. Something with 2 pickups and blend controls. It gives you ways to dial in a closer tone. Jazz bass, thunderbird, even a precision bass can hint at Chris Squire.
2 ROTO SWING BASS STRINGS.
They are voiced very specifically and when you first get them on is always the closest to his sound. The harsh bite is what he loved the most.
3 decent eq and ampage.
Eq is essential as well as a good speaker to shape tones.
4 emotion. And dynamics
Light plucking won't do it. Some stuff was softer but he had dynamics to his playing and to get that growl you must attack those strings! Watch him live and see.
5 also...
If you pluck with fingers like me I'd suggest using your index or middle nail to pluck upwards. It really helps sound like a pick and up on the high strings it really gets close to Chris. He even did that with his thumbnail on up strokes ssometimes.
5 HAVE FUN YOU'LL FIGURE IT OUT WITH TIME AND TINKERING.
1. Something with 2 pickups and blend controls. It gives you ways to dial in a closer tone. Jazz bass, thunderbird, even a precision bass can hint at Chris Squire.
2 ROTO SWING BASS STRINGS.
They are voiced very specifically and when you first get them on is always the closest to his sound. The harsh bite is what he loved the most.
3 decent eq and ampage.
Eq is essential as well as a good speaker to shape tones.
4 emotion. And dynamics
Light plucking won't do it. Some stuff was softer but he had dynamics to his playing and to get that growl you must attack those strings! Watch him live and see.
5 also...
If you pluck with fingers like me I'd suggest using your index or middle nail to pluck upwards. It really helps sound like a pick and up on the high strings it really gets close to Chris. He even did that with his thumbnail on up strokes ssometimes.
5 HAVE FUN YOU'LL FIGURE IT OUT WITH TIME AND TINKERING.
I think it's still an interesting thought. I remember when Yes came out I needed to hear the album multiple times to try and fathom what CS was doing. A while back, Geddy Lee switched to Fenders away from Rics, and he still got that incredible crunch very similar to Chris. And he used a Jazz when he was asked to sit in for Chris on "Roundabout." Tech21 pedal? Taurus pedal? Maybe.
As shown in the pics above, the tone was all about Chris, as he got the same tone from multiple basses. That's where the bassist wanting to sound like him has to experiment with his own equipment to see how close he gets. This would still be a good discussion today, as I still think Chris' tone is legendary. An interesting study.
As shown in the pics above, the tone was all about Chris, as he got the same tone from multiple basses. That's where the bassist wanting to sound like him has to experiment with his own equipment to see how close he gets. This would still be a good discussion today, as I still think Chris' tone is legendary. An interesting study.
Per Geddy, the only 2 pieces of gear he used at the RHOF performance were his green Jazz Bass and his sig. GED-2112 SansAmp preamp.
I have a GED-2112 & one of his CIJ sig. Jazz Basses, and that pairing absolutely nails the sound he had at that performance.
The Geddy-written preamp knob settings he used are right there in the manual.
If you substituted a used Squier Jazz for my Geddy Lee Jazz, I'm pretty sure I you could get 97% of that particular "Geddy plays Chris" tone for under $600.
I wonder how close you could get with a Tech21 pedal?
I've been playing Geddy's version of Roundabout rather than Chris. There are differences but it certainly does justice to honor Chris Squire. Main thing being that Geddy plays with his fingers rather than a pick. I played it with various basses I have and interestingly, on an Iceman bass (I imagine the same would be true on a Thunderbird)- you can get a sound somewhere in between that of Squire and Geddy's.
I don't think either Geddy or Jazz Basses have a place in this thread. 
I think the cheapest way to get to Squire' sound would be to track down some sort of cheap '51-style P bass and then add a second single coil pickup at the end of the neck. A big part of that classic Rickenbacker tone comes from having two pickups, one in the 'sweet spot' and one at the end of the neck. Neither pickup is especially powerful, and you get a fuller signal because between the two of them they cover a wide bandwidth.
As for Geddy at the RRHOF, I don't hear Chris' tone in there at all. In my opinion either Jon Camp or Dave Meros should have been playing bass there, and Geddy should have had a front seat view.
I think the cheapest way to get to Squire' sound would be to track down some sort of cheap '51-style P bass and then add a second single coil pickup at the end of the neck. A big part of that classic Rickenbacker tone comes from having two pickups, one in the 'sweet spot' and one at the end of the neck. Neither pickup is especially powerful, and you get a fuller signal because between the two of them they cover a wide bandwidth.
As for Geddy at the RRHOF, I don't hear Chris' tone in there at all. In my opinion either Jon Camp or Dave Meros should have been playing bass there, and Geddy should have had a front seat view.
Pretty darned close.
Before I got my GED-2112, I used a SansAmp VT and/or an EBS MicroBass to get my Geddy tones.
Any good pedal that allows you to blend warm tube-like overdrive along with your clean signal is a good place to start. A touch of compression helps too.
All you need after that is a Jazz or Ric, stainless steel strings and an aggressive playing style.
Chris used a mountain of gear - with some careful tweaking, this setup allows a reasonable simulation at a reasonable cost.
I agree and I don't; Chris' setup was fairly consistent across the different eras of Yes, and his rig would probably be considered basic by modern standards. I think the big difference is the slightly unorthodox signal routing he employed. Chris went with a stereo rig, using a stereo output on his Rickenbacker, to drive different effects chains. For example he routed the neck pickup of his bass through a Maestro Brassmaster, whereas the bridge pickup went through a wah (etc). The two signal chains were then blended back together before they met any amps, though he used Marshall heads to bolster his signal prior to this blend. From listening to a chunk of live Yes recordings, it never seems that Chris was switching between amps via his pickup switch, simply that the output of each pickup never electrically 'saw' the other. This means that the pickups don't phase cancel, so you get their full output (minus the cap filtering off lows on the bridge pickup).
I think the Sansamp Geddy preamp will differ from Chris's tone as it runs on the basis that one will run a clean signal, a dirty signal, and then blending them together. Plus, the tendency is to run a clean signal with an emphasis on bass and low frequencies, and then a distorted signal with no low end and an emphasis on the treble, with the two never meeting in the middle. I think Chris use moderately driven amps (the Marshalls) for both 'halves' of his bass tone. However the treble pickup on his bass was weaker, and the lower frequences were blocked by the cap in series with the pickup (though some Rickenbacker/Yes fans have a theory that for a while his bass didn't have the cap following a rebuild in the '80s). I think it is fair to assume that something like 75% of Chris' tone was purely the neck 'toaster' pickup in his bass, run through a slightly dirty amp. The remaining 25% (which might be too generous!) was a shriller tone from his bridge pickup which accentuated fret buzz and rattle. I think the bright, open tone of the neck pickup might surprise those that are used to the darker, hotter tone of a modern Rickenbacker bass.
I think you could get that tone, on a budget, with a P bass. The pickup on a P bass sits nominally where the bridge pickup sits on a Rickenbacker 4003. You could artificually simulate the influence of the neck pickup by either bumping up the lows using an EQ pedal, or by some parallel EQ'ing and compression. However if you go down this route you need a similar degree of drive for both signals. I think a lot of Chris' 'drive' was really just fret buzz accentuated by compression, and the inherently gritty tone of both the pickups themselves and the fresh Rotosounds he was using.
I have a Line6 *something* floorboard processor thing. I'm wondering if my above theory about splitting a P bass signal will work...
I don't think either Geddy or Jazz Basses have a place in this thread.
I think the cheapest way to get to Squire' sound would be to track down some sort of cheap '51-style P bass and then add a second single coil pickup at the end of the neck. A big part of that classic Rickenbacker tone comes from having two pickups, one in the 'sweet spot' and one at the end of the neck. Neither pickup is especially powerful, and you get a fuller signal because between the two of them they cover a wide bandwidth.
As for Geddy at the RRHOF, I don't hear Chris' tone in there at all. In my opinion either Jon Camp or Dave Meros should have been playing bass there, and Geddy should have had a front seat view.
I respectfully disagree. Note Chris' bass:
As far as Geddy goes, when Rush came out, all of us bass players KNEW Chris Squire was a BIG influence on his style. So it wouldn't hurt to throw him in on the mix as he's made an effort to honor Mr. Squire and I don't think Chris would mind the tribute at all. It's all about sharing, remembering, and continuing to carry the torch.
Peace.
Bassists like Lee and Suire probably sound like Lee and Squire no matter what gear they have (as long as they have strings they like). I can emphasize just how much the player is responsible for their "signature tone".I'd hate to see someone spend a bunch of cash to try to sound like anyone, because if you have a laid-back approach and your hands don't work the bass hard, you'll never sound like a Chris Squire, no matter what gear you get. I think working on attack, the left hand techniques and your sense of riddim is where you get your sound.
No idea this was such an old zombie thread ....
That said, ronniequeue started to hit on the real secret to the Squire sound. I remember hearing him talk in an interview once where he reflected back to an older interview where he was asked about his picking technique. He said he'd never really put much thought into it until he was asked to demonstrate it. It was then that he realized on each downward stroke he was striking the string twice; once with the pick, and then again with the side of his thumb. He attributed that to having the most influence on his sound.
Of course, instrument and amplification played a pretty significant roll as well.
