Check this out: Deep Purple - SOTW Live Besides being a stomping live version of Smoke on the Water, you can see Roger Glover has modded his Ricky. It looks like he swapped out the neck pickup for two Jazz pickups. You get a good view at 2:07. Sounds good to me!
That did look really cool, and sounded even better. But they looked more like black versions of the Dans-Electro LipStick p-ups, but I dont know that much bout p-ups.
I think it's a terrible thing to do to a Rick and it looks dreadful. But, have enormous respect and admiration for Mr Glover, so he is forgiven. He plays this bass live from time to time, usually on SOTW. However he said himself that he does it mainly for crowd reaction, and that he doesn't really like the sound.
I kind of liked the look of that mod, but am I imagining things or was Ritchie's guitar a bit out of tune?
I dont know about that bassist, but I wouldnt really idolize someone that places crowd reaction above his sound... but thats just me. and, modding a Rickenbacker like that, is Sacrilege! The Rickenbacker gods must be appeased! SAcrifice him!
Dave Meros of Spock's Beard has a pawnshop ric that he had 2 jazz pups in the ric positions and 2 jazz pups in the J bass positions installed in. It still sounds just like a Ric when he selects the ric position and quite different when he selects the Jazz position pups. (if anyone is interested, I'd suggest their new live CD, some of the best sounding live bass I've heard in a long time).
Greetings from the North, Well I'm gonna admit it..... Back in Teenage I added a Jazz pickup to one of my Rics. Placed it right in the center between the stock pickups. Did it sound any better? Not really,just a little more growl. But lucky for me some one else really liked it, so I sold it to them. So if you see a 71 Blonde 4001 with a Jazz in it I had nothin to do with it. Rezdog
I have that CD, it's great. SB is totally underappreciated. I think Meros's bass is wired with seperate output jacks. One for the normal Rick pickups and one for the two Jazz pickups. He's also got a Badass bridge on there. There are really no good pictures of it, but this one is the best I've found.
Idolize or don't idolize whomever you choose, however when I think of Glover, this is not what I see. In his Deep Purple heyday, he played a Ric. When a player who is assosiated with a particular instrument, hauls it out to play, the crowds going to like it. Remeber, people pay their money to see a show, not critique the bass players tone. Kind of like if Clapton pulled out "Blackie" for a song. I'm sure people would love it. Let's say you went to see Jaco play (pretend for a second that he's still alive) and he was playing a Lull or Lakland. Wouln't you be psyced, as a member of the "crowd" if he pulled out the "bass of doom" for a song or two? Giving the people what they want isn't a bad thing, so far as I can see. {}
+1. It's just good showmanship! Which is why I don't understand why Pete Townshend never uses an SG again in his live shows. Perhaps there is a bit of history that I missed? I am admittedly only familiar with Ox's bass tales, so if someone can enlighten me that'd be great!
Cliff Burton did some fun stuff with his Ric , a big old gibson mudbucker in the neck and jazz pick up in the bridge [/IMG]
Here are some related products that TB members are talking about. Clicking on a product will take you to TB’s partner, Primary, where you can find links to TB discussions about these products. Browser not compatible