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Playing jazz on a Rickenbacker?
- Thread starter RobMac
- Start date
My first bass was a 4001. I played it in Big Band up until my second year as a pro. I used dead Rotosound Swing 66 most of the time. I got a lot of positive comments from people in university band I played in. They liked the extra clarity over the P-Bass used by the other bassist.
My favorite string on the bass was the Maxima Gold bass strings. I believe they are now sold under the Optima label. I felt the E string tension was much better with the Gold strings and the low end was tighter and more focused.
If you want to hear the bass with flats go to Youtube and search for "Rickenbacker 4001 Flats"
There is also this fretless with tapes
Ric's tend to hum a lot. If you can get over that & the bass is comfortable for you & the sound matches the emotion you want to project, I don't see why not.
I cannot find the video of Stanley Clarke playing in Return to Forever with a Rickenbacker. That was Fusion, and not more traditional Jazz, but he ripped on it!
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That's gotta be Jamaaladeen Tacuma.
Hey, a 4000 like my first nice bass!
I seem to remember seeing Clarke with a semi-hollow Ric, but I could be wrong. That happens a lot.
The only Rick I recall seeing him play is that Jetglo 4000.
A lot of great posts here, and I'm pleased that my initial feeling was correct, that the Rickenbacker could make a great jazz bass guitar, with a decent upright sound in a band situation.
I think any instrument can be used for playing tunes in different genres. So, for me, there is no reason why a Rick should not fit into jazz. Yet, people coming from a more mainstream approach would prefer a DB over any EB because of the differences in the attacks and sustains of the instruments. That might be one of the reasons why the earlier Precisions, as well as some later designs, had the string mute option in order to cut (or reduce) the sustain of the instrument.
Particularly in jazz, the feel of swing is related to where the bass plucks the notes; in front of the beat, on the beat, or behind the beat. Since the attack of most electric basses is fast, playing in front of the beat tends to feel like rushing (or speeding up) for some musicians. And in most cases, EB seems not to fit in the mainstream styles of jazz.
To me, it is just a matter of taste. As long as you can swing the hell out of the music, all is good! And a Rick, I believe, would fit in that quite fine depending on how well you can control the attack and sustain of the instrument.
Particularly in jazz, the feel of swing is related to where the bass plucks the notes; in front of the beat, on the beat, or behind the beat. Since the attack of most electric basses is fast, playing in front of the beat tends to feel like rushing (or speeding up) for some musicians. And in most cases, EB seems not to fit in the mainstream styles of jazz.
To me, it is just a matter of taste. As long as you can swing the hell out of the music, all is good! And a Rick, I believe, would fit in that quite fine depending on how well you can control the attack and sustain of the instrument.
I remember seeing RTF back in that era. Stanley’s playing was so masterful and blindingly expressive. I was and still am astounded and humbled. Not my daddy’s bass playing...
I played jazz standards on a Ric for several years. Also used it for rock, blues, country, whatever. Not a problem at all.
The only thing it did not do well was slap. Not that it was bad, but that particular Ric wasn't well suited to it.
I always liked slapping Rickenbackers.
I knew a guy who went to Berklee in the 80's. He went to his first Jazz comp class with Ric in hand, the professor told him to go home and get a "real" bass, presumably a Fender. A lot of silly Jazz snobbery in those days. A bass is a bass, and Rics are more versatile than people seem to realize.
I'm impressed... Any of us who can play and sing (I struggle a lot with it), know how hard that can be. Now add the challenge of intonation on a fretless while also singing, and I'm impressed.
I wouldn't want to defret a ric. I would hold out for a fretless, they are cheaper than fretted ones sometimes. They are more collectable but also way less people want them in general. I have seen ones on GC used for as low as 1200 if it's been sitting. Reverb almost always has a couple fretless Rics for sale.
I defretted a Rick in the late 70's and played jazz on it for several years. I think I was using GHS groundwounds. I found it worked better to raise the action a bit. Sounded great.
If I were to defret a Rick today, I'd buy one with the unbound neck (4003s) as it would be easier to refret.
