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ric vs jazz

#61
ProgressiveDoom said:
Quite honestly I believe most of the sound can be found in the Rick pickups. I have put authentic Rick pickups in a few of my basses and they sound way more like Rickenbackers than the cheap Chinese Rick copy I own, in fact my Thunderbacker sounds more like a Rick than the Peavey t-40 witch comes with a built in Rick tone. If you still arent convinced check this out.
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A cool video! The Rick pickup in the neck position of that Jazz bass sounds like a 4003. The bridge pickup doens't, because it is far closer to the bridge than the pickup on a 4003. Likewise the pickups are in the 'wrong' place on your Thunderbird, though it is probably easier to EQ it this way, and it looks very cool.

I don't buy the notion that a T-40 sounds like a Rick. It does, a bit, but they aren't the affordable Rick substitutes that some claim. You get a deep but articulate tone from the neck pickup of one, which might be a perceived generic Rickenbacker tone. However I've not heard any combination of the two pickups on a T40 that sounds like a Rick with both pickups on.
 
#62
Axstar said:
A cool video! The Rick pickup in the neck position of that Jazz bass sounds like a 4003. The bridge pickup doens't, because it is far closer to the bridge than the pickup on a 4003. Likewise the pickups are in the 'wrong' place on your Thunderbird, though it is probably easier to EQ it this way, and it looks very cool.

I don't buy the notion that a T-40 sounds like a Rick. It does, a bit, but they aren't the affordable Rick substitutes that some claim. You get a deep but articulate tone from the neck pickup of one, which might be a perceived generic Rickenbacker tone. However I've not heard any combination of the two pickups on a T40 that sounds like a Rick with both pickups on.
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I considered routing a neck pickup cavity closer to the neck like the Rick but once I hooked up the Rick pickup the sound was too good to change so I settled on that location.
 
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#63
Chrisk-K said:
Geddy, Squire and Macca have fooled me many times. I dug Macca's Ric tone on the "Band on the Run" album only to find out that Paul used Danny Laine's Jazz bass to record the entire album.
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Wait a minute...are you sure about that? Man, I was convinced the song "Band on the Run" was the Ric. It's not that different from his "Silly Love Songs" tone which I'm pretty darn sure is the Ric.
 
#64
kkaarrll said:
do you think that would be doable with master volume, master tone and a couple of 3way switches?
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well that is the question ... how do you wire a 4 pickup bass ... you have volume, tone, balances and toggles to use ... there have to be about 10 different ways to do it ...

I would probably use 2 volumes, and 2 tones and 3 toggles ...

Or maybe 1 toggle and 2 balance controls
 
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#66
Skybone said:
IMO, a lot is down to how you play and where you play.

Take Mr Lee for example. If anyone watched the R40 DVD, they will have noticed that he can get a very similar sound out of all of the basses he used. Whether that's down to EQ's, playing style etc is up for debate, but the fact remains that he can get wildly different instruments to sound similar.

Again, IMO, I've never been able to get either a Ric or a Jazz to sound anything like each other.

Or because Mr Lee has spent many, many, many years refining his style & sound, I on the other hand am still a relative newbie in comparison.
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I watched the R40 DVD, and saw the show in person twice. I thought every bass sounded different. Even the 3 Rics and multiple Jazzes each had their own sounds to me.

In addition, Geddy's sound has changed on pretty much every album, especially in the 80s with the Steinberger and Wal, and the fact that he changed up his amp rig many times both in the studio and live. He always goes for an aggressive crunchy tone, but it's not exactly the same.

To me there is nothing like the sound of a Rickenbacker played with the proper fingers through the proper signal chain, specifically Geddy's Rickenbacker tone on the Exit Stage Left album.
 
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#70
ProgressiveDoom said:
Quite honestly I believe most of the sound can be found in the Rick pickups. I have put authentic Rick pickups in a few of my basses and they sound way more like Rickenbackers than the cheap Chinese Rick copy I own, in fact my Thunderbacker sounds more like a Rick than the Peavey t-40 witch comes with a built in Rick tone. If you still arent convinced check this out. Pictured is my Thunderbacker with Rick neck pickup and Rick copy bridge pickup.View attachment 1129167
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13 pounds?, ouch I thought my VM was heavy at 10 pounds. You could put lightweight tuners on it as Every ounce would help once you get north of 10.
 
#72
Gilmourisgod said:
More than many players, Geddy's tone was in his attack, he really digs in for that growl. He didn't sound much different on the Wal or the Steinberger. I have a hard time hearing the difference between his Ric and J tones on the older albums. Squire's live tone was even more trebly than the albums the few times I saw him live, but the difference between his Ric's, J, and Mouradian are easy to hear on the albums. I think you can get some J tones on a Ric, a lot harder the other way around.
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Geddys tone was in his amps, He played pretty similar style through most of it. Hes changed several times up until early 2000's where he switched to Sansamp and Avalon DI and pre's. Hes used Ampegs, GK briefly, Trace Elliot, Traynors and a few others. He uses a lot of eq and effects to shape his sound irrelevant of basses used. But while we are the subject. He used Wal Basses extensively for a long time. And no, neither the J nor the Ric will come anything close to a Wal.
 
#73
Spectrum said:
I watched the R40 DVD, and saw the show in person twice. I thought every bass sounded different. Even the 3 Rics and multiple Jazzes each had their own sounds to me.

In addition, Geddy's sound has changed on pretty much every album, especially in the 80s with the Steinberger and Wal, and the fact that he changed up his amp rig many times both in the studio and live. He always goes for an aggressive crunchy tone, but it's not exactly the same.

To me there is nothing like the sound of a Rickenbacker played with the proper fingers through the proper signal chain, specifically Geddy's Rickenbacker tone on the Exit Stage Left album.
Click to expand...
Pretty much the same here. To me Geddy's sound on a per album basis is very distinct one from the next. And R40 was a good example of how much difference each bass made from one song to the next.
 
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#79
Another one of my favorite Geddy Ric tones:



In this clip the Ric tone is very piano-like. To me what sets it apart from Geddy's Jazz tone is the overtones. Rics aren't nasal-sounding like a Jazz can get sometimes, probably because the bridge pickup is so much farther front than it is on a Jazz. Rics and Jazz can both get the deep rich lows but a Ric has a certain chime to the overtones that sets the tone apart.

I may be wrong, but I think he running his Ric in stereo ("Rick-o-sound") in this show, which means you can EQ each pickup completely separate. At 00:30 you can clearly see his bass is plugged in through the stereo jack.

 
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