Beedster

[quote name='tografox' timestamp='1330220040' post='1554364'] Ric - 50s design, thin pickups, rubbish tone with fingers (OKish with a pic) - Chris Squires - Precision for recording. Bruce Foxton - Precision because Rics impossible to keep in tune - look great/sound crap. Great look, great style - but if you want to play bass then stick with a P/'Ray!!! Every bass player dreams of a Ric - and every bass player goes back to a P after playing one!! Nuf said. [/quote] Probably worth countering one man's opinion with another's here. I started playing bass in the late 70's and until late 2009 had never played a Ric. This was because everything I've heard both of them and about them put me off (in fact, a lot of what I heard was similar to the post quoted above). As most on here know, I was a Leo kinda guy; Precisions were my mainstay with the occasional flirtation with Jazzes and Stingrays. I moved from gigging fretted to fretless in early 2009 (not because I'm any good at fretless per se, but because I've always struggled to get decent tone without fret buzz on fretted instruments), and having spent the summer gigging a lovely old fretless Jazz and occasionally a fretless Precision, felt I wasn't getting the oomph I wanted from either. So, I bought, on a whim, a 2005 fretless Ric body/neck and built it up. The first rehearsal in September 2009 was an absolute revelation, both in terms of the sound and the playability. The sound was the sound I'd always had in my head, fat lows and clear sweet highs, and the playability - despite a far fatter neck than either my Jazz or Precision - was substantially better; it sat better, my right hand seemed to sit naturally at the sweet spot (I always had to move my hand to an uncomfortable place to find this with Precisions and Jazzes. In short, it just worked. OK, I play flats and go for a far more retro tone than many players, so direct comparisons with what a lot of guys refer to as 'good tone' probably aren't applicable. However, I now don't have a Precision, and it's a long time since I could say that! I also have a fretted Ric-alike, mainly as back up but also for recording when things need to be slightly more in tune). The above of course proves nothing, it's a horses for courses world and when talking about music, instruments etc, only an idiot makes categorical statements about one thing being definitively better than another. However, I will say that a lot of people give Rics a very hard time on the basis of having played a badly set up instrument through a crap amp in a store (or having heard about someone who did), or through assuming that Squire or Lee's tone is the only thing Rics do, without ever going to the effort of giving one a real go, as was the case with me for 30 odd years. Whilst I accept the Precision orthodoxy alluded to above, I can put my hand on my heart and say that i've played far more crap Precisions than I have crap Rics! C

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1330216326' post='1554329'] I personally think that Rics are the most difficult basses to amplify correctly to get "that" sound. Whenever I've tried mine (all 13 or 14) through modern, neutral, transparent rigs they just don't work. I've only found a few amps that really work with them and in every case I've eq-d heavily. I've always found them at their best through gritty valve amps or (strangely enough) Trace / Ashdown gear. i'll never forget trying my Sei singlecut and my Ric CS through an EBS rig and a full Ampeg stack in the Gallery. The Sei sounded blinding through the EBS, but pretty poor through the Ampeg. The Rick was the exact opposite; through the Ampeg it was monstrous, but I couldn't get it to work through the EBS no matter what I did. I tried the same CS through an Epifani rig and got equally crap results, but it sounded huge through my Ashdown and previous Trace. [/quote] Yep, totally unique and unpredictable instruments; a curse and a virtue in one really. No point playing any Ric bass but the one you're thinking of buying. EDIT: and through the rig you're gonna play it through. My 4003FL loves valves and 15's. Sounds crap through met 2x10 SS rig

Thanks for the above guys, I appreciate the input. I started reflecting on the rigs that have worked for me in the past and those that haven't, and realised that the homer were always matched speakers (Mesa 2x12, Bag End 2x15), whilst as suggested above, I've had mixed/unpredictable results with mixed cabs. So, I'm going for another Powerhouse 1x15 to give me some extra grunt for mono whilst giving me some stereo options. Chris

I'm sure Wayne will be heading towards Harrogate in the near future mate Glad you're not selling it. As a big Danko fan I'd be holding on to this and not the Baby (although IIRC he played one of those also). BTW, the problem with talking to you by PM is that I suddenly start thinking about getting rid of instruments with which I'm quite happy to trade for something of yours about which I know absolutely nothing

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1330032844' post='1551898'] For the dual mono thing, neck pickup to clean maybe scooped bass rig and bridge one to middly driven guitar one is the way to big sound. Bye bye rhythm guitarist though. [/quote] Yep, that's a big sound, almost too big for me. I kinda do the opposite, a really clean and sweet back PUP and quite a lot of drive on the neck. Not quite so in yer face, but a really articulate top with a really quite nice and gut-moving presence if needed works for me

Interparcel are VERY reliable and their insurance is reasonable (having said that, I've never had to make a claim). I would not use anyone else these days. Shame you sold the wrong bass though mate

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1330026398' post='1551744'] I don't believe you know what bi-amping is. It's running a single source into a two-way speaker system with an active crossover and two amps, one for each passband, rather than a single amp with a passive crossover. What you're describing is simple stereo, two full range cabs with independent sources independently powered. 'Stereo effect' is what happens if you have the two speakers horizontally separated by six feet or more, When placed vertically there is no stereo effect. The preferred setup would have the bridge pickup cab on top. [/quote] OK, looks like I'n not bi-amping then. Not really stereo I'm after either. Bridge cab on top is what I've done in the past (the Mesa 1516 didn't give me a whole lot of options in that respect), and I loved it. FWIW Bill, I could certainly hear a substantial difference between the same instrument (Ric 4003 FL) going through one channel and then into the 1516, and the same bass going through two channels and then each into the two separate inputs of the 1516. While I'll admit that part of this was the different EQ on each channel, even flat there was a significant and pleasing difference. Assuming then that it's stereo and not bi-amping I'm after, what combination would you recommend? Chris

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1330017710' post='1551553'] +1. Bi-amping with two bass cabs accomplishes zilch. That suggest that bi-amping is not what you want to do. Perhaps you mean stereo. . Only guitar'd players should care more about how their rig looks than how it sounds. [/quote] Thanks Bill Not sure I agree with Point 1 (having tried it a few times). Point 2, not after a stereo bass effect for sure, but it would be fun to try the HiFi thing, if only to scare the neighbours, Point 3, I agree entirely Just to reiterate, I think a lot of this comes down to taste, and most Ric players I know prefer a certain tone which is perhaps different to mine. I play heavy flats and prefer both PUPs wide open, with a pronounced 'click' and punchy attack from the bridge PUP with a full on rumble underneath from the neck PUP (I don't use a pick but have enough nail on my first two plucking fingers to go for a soft flesh only finger style to using nail and getting quite a fast pick-like attack). No doubt I can get this without bi-amping, but the few experiments I've tried so far allow for far more control over the tone when I do by amp then when i don't. And like I said, it's a slow day at work

Thanks guys. Yep, veering toward another 1x15 as the cab in question won't be exclusively for bi-amping the Ric, but will need to be there for adding more clout generally if needs be (must admit I'm kinda keen to see how a pair of Powerhouse 1x15s do as HiFi speakers ). I've tried the guitar amp thing and it wasn't quite what i was after, and it looked crap

Quiet day at work so..... Really regret selling my Mesa 1516EV a while back, but given it required a truck, took two of us to get it into said truck, and a room of its own away from anything breakable at home, I guess it was inevitable. I now use a lovely Mesa Powerhouse 1x15 as my mainstay cab bt am looking to upsize and bi-amp my Ric. I recently picked up an SWR 2x10 but it doesn't sit quite as well with my Mesa 1x15 as I'd hoped. So, I was going to buy a Powerhouse 2x10 but recently used a 1x15 + 2x10 Powerhouse setup and whilst I liked it, it didn't seem to have the power of my old 1516. So I started to wonder if another combination might be better, in fact, I'm really starting to think about having two 1x15s, especially given how great the tone is from the one I've got already. I play heavy flats through two valve preamps (TE V-Type and Ampeg SVT-II) then through two Peavey valve power amps, and am looking for a fat but articulate retro tone. Thoughts? I don't need to bi-amp of course, no-one in the audience (or probably even the band*) is going to notice a whole lot of difference in tone, but hey, having got currently both basses and amps I'm really happy with, I've really got to mess about with something Chris * or even me.....