The Beatles - Revolver Remix

[Misdee]

Listening to this album has made me  hanker for a Rickenbacker bass even more, by the way.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

1 hour ago, Misdee said:

Listening to this album has made me  hanker for a Rickenbacker bass even more, by the way.

Them's dangerous words.

[mikel]

2 hours ago, Misdee said:

Listening to this album has made me  hanker for a Rickenbacker bass even more, by the way.

Why not, a unique and left field sound. Why follow the crowd? 

[Grimalkin]

Needs more cowbell.

[Misdee]

It's just that every time I play a Rickenbacker bass I am reminded why I've never gotten one before; I grew up playing Fender basses and the Rick feels so alien I can hardly play it!  The non-tapered neck completely throws me. And the strings keep hitting the pole pieces on the pickups and making loud clunking noise. I just love the sound and the look so much I can't give up on the idea. 

 

When I first started playing the bass I wanted more than any other was a Rickenbacker. Come to think of it, I probably started playing the bass just so I could get a Rickenbacker, such was their allure. I didn't want to be a bass player so much as a Rickenbacker owner. Now it's forty-odd years later and I still haven't had a Rick. But never say never...

[pfretrock]

On 17/09/2022 at 18:12, PaulWarning said:

Must admit I was sceptical about this, are there going to be endless remixes every time technology moves on a bit? but having listened to it there is obviously a significant improvement.

One thing has always struck me about remixes in general, the bass is always more prominent, I'm guessing because originally it couldn't be too loud because of the limitations of vinyl, but that is not the case with the improvement over the 2015 remix of this track.

I won't have to buy it though, thanks to spotify, having got the original LP I think I've paid my bit to the Beatles coffers 

I read somewhere that Jameson's bass was low in the mix, else it made the pickup arm jump out of the vinyl track. Odd since pickups back then weighed about half a ton.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

3 hours ago, Misdee said:

And the strings keep hitting the pole pieces on the pickups and making loud clunking noise. I just love the sound and the look so much I can't give up on the idea. 

McCartney got around this little problem by raising his action just a smidge.

 

 

[PaulWarning]

2 hours ago, pfretrock said:

I read somewhere that Jameson's bass was low in the mix, else it made the pickup arm jump out of the vinyl track. Odd since pickups back then weighed about half a ton.

the better arms had a counter weight, the weight on the stylus should be around 2 grams if my memory serves me right

[mikel]

5 hours ago, Misdee said:

It's just that every time I play a Rickenbacker bass I am reminded why I've never gotten one before; I grew up playing Fender basses and the Rick feels so alien I can hardly play it!  The non-tapered neck completely throws me. And the strings keep hitting the pole pieces on the pickups and making loud clunking noise. I just love the sound and the look so much I can't give up on the idea. 

 

When I first started playing the bass I wanted more than any other was a Rickenbacker. Come to think of it, I probably started playing the bass just so I could get a Rickenbacker, such was their allure. I didn't want to be a bass player so much as a Rickenbacker owner. Now it's forty-odd years later and I still haven't had a Rick. But never say never...

It's like anything. If you had started out on a Rick you would then have found Fender necks odd. 

[Burns-bass]

On 30/10/2022 at 09:20, miles'tone said:

It's free on Spotify. 

Apart from the £20 you spend on it. And as any audiophile will tell you, streaming is no substitute for a CD or the aural nirvana that is a record!

[neepheid]

2 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Apart from the £20 you spend on it. And as any audiophile will tell you, streaming is no substitute for a CD or the aural nirvana that is a record!

 

Yeah, ad nauseum

 

Audiophile - someone who talks so much about listening to music you wonder if they have any time to actually listen to music.

[Misdee]

2 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Apart from the £20 you spend on it. And as any audiophile will tell you, streaming is no substitute for a CD or the aural nirvana that is a record!

I've been streaming this album from Tidal through my pretty good ( but fairly old) hifi system and it sounds very acceptable. The new stereo mixes have some detailed and even  holographic in places. Having a decent DAC makes a big difference in the quality of sound you get from streaming, and Tidal is definitely better than Spotify premium.

 

The whole vinyl v CD v streaming debate is a complicated one in so much as which turntable system v which CD player v which streaming system ? A lot of the major hi-fi manufacturers have long since abandoned CD and endorsed steaming as the inevitable future of audio. It's inevitable that streaming will develop even greater levels of fidelity.

 

My take on it all is that streaming can sounds very good, and it's very convenient!🙂

[Misdee]

10 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Yeah, ad nauseum

 

Audiophile - someone who talks so much about listening to music you wonder if they have any time to actually listen to music.

True, but how many folks on Basschat spend more time talking about playing bass and related issues than actually playing? 

 

I suppose you have to accept that for a lot of folks talking about their pastimes is a big part of what they enjoy about them.

[Misdee]

11 hours ago, mikel said:

It's like anything. If you had started out on a Rick you would then have found Fender necks odd. 

Very true.

 

Rickenbacker basses are a pretty esoteric design, though. I would contend that the Fender is more an easier design to get along with for most players.  That said, I know Paul McCartney is on record as saying that he never really felt comfortable playing a Fender bass, so that very topically illustrates your point.

 

I know that by the time Revolver  was recorded Paul had his Rick, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had still used his Hofner on some tracks, just like he did on Let It Be.

 

[neepheid]

11 minutes ago, Misdee said:

True, but how many folks on Basschat spend more time talking about playing bass and related issues than actually playing? 

 

I suppose you have to accept that for a lot of folks talking about their pastimes is a big part of what they enjoy about them.

 

I think you took me too seriously.  Sorry my attempt at humour missed the mark - you can't win 'em all.

[PaulWarning]

I spent years trying to improve my HiFi, eventually I decided it doesn't make a bad song better no matter how good it sounds, the situation you're listening in makes a far bigger impact, ( like down the pub in good company on a crappy juke box, the backing track to an advert or TV program, or even driving the car).

I use ad based Spotify, sounds fine to me, mind you, I am a bit deaf these days.

Which brings me back to the Revolver remix, yes it sounds better, but once the novelty of trying to decide if you can hear something that you couldn't before wears off you're back to listening to a great album, would I shell out to buy it? no.

[Agent 00Soul]

When you think about it, just the act of making Revolver was incredibly brave.  It seems the obvious thing to have done in hindsight but they must have been taking a big chance on their careers at the time.  The Beatles entered 1966 as essentially a (very sophisticated and talented) boy band and left as Avant Garde aesthetes.  I couldn't imagine Col Parker allowing Elvis to make such a radical change in musical direction by way of a simplistic comparison.  Luckily for them, the record buying public loved it, but think about what might have happened had it flopped.  No Sgt Pepper, no White Album etc.  They could just as easily become a Badfinger-style power pop band in an attempt to salvage their careers if Revolver didn't find favour.

 

As for the Rickenbacker thing: I've owned Ricks and Fenders over the years.  The thing to realize about Paul's use of the Rick during his Beatles days was I suspect that he and the EMI engineers rolled a lot of the treble off so it is not the typical sound that Ricks are known for.  His work with Wings is more of the classic Rick sound from my experience playing one.

[Grimalkin]

7 minutes ago, Agent 00Soul said:

When you think about it, just the act of making Revolver was incredibly brave.  It seems the obvious thing to have done in hindsight but they must have been taking a big chance on their careers at the time.  The Beatles entered 1966 as essentially a (very sophisticated and talented) boy band and left as Avant Garde aesthetes.  I couldn't imagine Col Parker allowing Elvis to make such a radical change in musical direction by way of a simplistic comparison.  Luckily for them, the record buying public loved it, but think about what might have happened had it flopped.  No Sgt Pepper, no White Album etc.  They could just as easily become a Badfinger-style power pop band in an attempt to salvage their careers if Revolver didn't find favour.

 

Dylan played a part in the radical change in musical direction on 28th Aug 1964:

 

"Brian and The Beatles looked at each other apprehensively. “We’ve never smoked marijuana before,” Brian finally admitted.

 

Dylan looked disbelievingly from face to face. “But what about your song?” he asked. “The one about getting high?”

The Beatles were stupefied. “Which song?” John managed to ask.

Dylan said, “You know…” and then he sang, “and when I touch you I get high, I get high…”

 

John flushed with embarrassment. “Those aren’t the words,” he admitted. “The words are, ‘I can’t hide, I can’t hide, I can’t hide…'”

 

https://www.beatlesbible.com/1964/08/28/bob-dylan-turns-the-beatles-on-to-cannabis/#:~:text=On 28 August 1964 the,Avenue%2C near Manhattan's Central Park.

[Agent 00Soul]

Maybe it was the drugs that made them brave enough to take a chance with Revolver.  I sure couldn't imagine BTS, who are about as sophisticated a boy band as you will find today and who I like personally, suddenly making an experimental musical collage for their next record though.  But I couldn't imagine them taking drugs either.

[Grimalkin]

13 minutes ago, Agent 00Soul said:

Maybe it was the drugs that made them brave enough to take a chance with Revolver.  I sure couldn't imagine BTS, who are about as sophisticated a boy band as you will find today and who I like personally, suddenly making an experimental musical collage for their next record though.  But I couldn't imagine them taking drugs either.

 

Rubber Soul was the turning point:

 

"By the time they released Rubber Soul in late ’65, fans were listening to an entirely different band, and it was no coincidence. George called the album was “the first one where we were fully-fledged potheads."

 

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-beatles-album-george-harrison-said-was-a-full-fledged-pothead-record.html/

[mikel]

7 hours ago, Misdee said:

Very true.

 

Rickenbacker basses are a pretty esoteric design, though. I would contend that the Fender is more an easier design to get along with for most players.  That said, I know Paul McCartney is on record as saying that he never really felt comfortable playing a Fender bass, so that very topically illustrates your point.

 

I know that by the time Revolver  was recorded Paul had his Rick, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had still used his Hofner on some tracks, just like he did on Let It Be.

 

Agreed. Also Paul and John, and George to a lesser extent, always seemed more concerned about the quality of the song than obsessing about the instruments. On Sgt Peppers they allegedly tried to make every instrument used sound as different as possible.