Rickenbacker bass on jazz/funk gig, check this out!

[eriky4003]

It looks like he has a GK amp (likely MB800). Any idea what cab that is?

 

[StatesideRambler]

According to many vociferous TB posters _________* has only one sound and no amount of knob twiddling, string changing, setup, finger/pick/thumb action, pedalboard population explosion or amp choice makes any difference.

* Insert here the name of any bass you dislike. Optional: having actually played it.

 

[john_g]

Ricks are capable of many different kinds of sounds; it is unfortunate that many pigeonhole them.

Exactly. People would come up to me at gigs and ask what Im doing to get the different tones out my Ric, and I would say "I plugged it in!"

 

[jmlee]

Chris Brubeck uses a fretless Ric and it doesn't sound anything like what you'd expect it to. Too many people think Rics and telecaster guitars are only allowed to have one tone. If you stray too far from it they get bewildered. How can a two pickup instrument with separate volume and tone controls only get one sound? At any rate, Grover himself would have enjoyed this rendition of his tune, I think.

Here he is. I never get tired of this great performance video. Pickups aren't stock me-thinks.

 

[Dluxe]

Leon Sylvers played a Rickenbacker back in the day.

 

[Dluxe]

 

[Volunteerk9]

Thanks for that, Bob. Johnny Lee Long is awesome. A font of good will and joy in living, he is a seemingly ironic ambassador for funky Rickenbacker bass:

That man can jam.

 

[twinjet]

Ricks are capable of many different kinds of sounds; it is unfortunate that many pigeonhole them.

Sure is. I await the day that I may have the chance to personally discover what a Ric can do.

Here he is. I never get tired of this great performance video. Pickups aren't stock me-thinks.

Quite the sound out of that Ric, I really enjoyed that!

 

[alder]

FWIW the bass in the video is modded, maybe has a pre amp. Selector switch is a knob. At the end he turns it down, leading my deductive powers to conclude it is likely a master volume. Whatever, it sounds great and he plays a monstah.

I don't think so, it looks perfectly stock to me. He backs both tones at the end to cut the single-coil hum, and at one point he uses the switch as a switch.

Rics have a relatively narrow string spacing, which can make it more difficult to "thump", as he says. That doesn't mean you can't do it, obviously.

The Ric tone comes from having two very hot single coils in a neck-ward location. Compare to a Jazz - the Ric treble pup is nearly the Jazz bass pup, and no Fender has anything like the Ric bass pup. EB-3 has a pickup right at the neck too, but it is a mudbucker. I have built basses using the Ric pickup locations, and they come out sounding amazingly like Rics. Even with lipstick pups, you get the Ric sound, just at a lower volume.

That said, I think the Ric has the widest tonal range of any factory production bass, and the single-coils give it both punchy dynamics and subtlety, depending how you play it. The Precision is a fairly one-trick pony, and the Jazz, while great, is anemic next to a Ric.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Another Rickenbacker tone:



Gotta love the Two Tons of Fun!

 

[JRA]

the cat can play...really nice!

only on TB do i ever (ever!) see/read/hear discussions of which bass instrument should play a particular style or genre. you guys need to get out more. cats who play low notes well are getting the gigs you want!

 

[Clef_de_fa]

 

[bobyoung53]

Here he is. I never get tired of this great performance video. Pickups aren't stock me-thinks.

I think he put a J pickup for the bridge but the neck is stock, it's a toaster pickup, he said he bought this bass somewhere around 1969. There are other videos where it sounds almost exactly like an upright but doesn't have the big bottom.

 

[Watchootognbout]

This song.
Way back in the days of KKGO.
The Jazz station.
105.9 on your FM dial.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I think this helps prove that indeed tone is more in the fingers than in the bass.
I always liked playing Mr. Magic too, fun to stretch out on for everyone.

 

[bholder]

This Rickenbacker thread is so much more fun than that other currently active Rickenbacker thread!

 

[john_g]

This Rickenbacker thread is so much more fun than that other currently active Rickenbacker thread!

Well, lets see...John Hall worships a pagan sun god!

 

[bholder]

That Buckethead seems like such a nice boy.

 

[M0ses]

I think the list of basses I wouldn't play funk on is much shorter than the ones I would.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Way back in the days of KKGO..

We used to go to some great free concerts sponsored by KKGO, at the Wadsworth Theatre.

Folks like The Turtle Island Quartet, Brian Bromberg, Tuck & Patty, Andy Narell, Montreux, and lots of others.