Fingerstyle Friday: Rickenbacker 4001

Rickenbacker 4001 jetglo

This is my Friday break from writing, editing, synopsising, platforming, …ing and focus on my other love…bass guitars.

For some players, this is the holy grail of bass goodness. Especially for progressive rock bassists. I used to own one. WHYYYyyyy!

The 4001 is brutally awesome in songs like “Sober” by Tool, “Closer to the Heart” by Rush, “Close to the Edge” by Yes, “Orion” by Metallica. Any Beatles song when Paul wasn’t playing his Hofner violin bass.

The Ricky is an all maple masterpiece, heavy masterpiece. Match this bass with a 70’s Ampeg SVT and an 8×10 cabinet and you will be able to cause destruction to china cabinets and hearing loss to small woodland creatures.

This is not meant to be an all inclusive history of the Rick post. That…That would take a book. And an author. And…no, not going to write it.

Take some time today and spin a song that has one of your favorite Rick players. Your world will be a better place.

Here’s a shortened list of cool Rick players.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rickenbacker_players
• Lemmy of Motörhead^[5]
• Cliff Burton of Metallica
• Les Claypool of Primus
• Paul D’Amour of Tool
• Roger Glover of Deep Purple
• Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple
• Rick James
• Brent Liles of Social Distortion and Agent Orange
• Geddy Lee of Rush
• Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols
• Paul McCartney of The Beatles & Wings
• Dave Meros of Spock’s Beard
• Gary “Mani” Mounfield of Primal Scream & ex-The Stone Roses
• Michael Rutherford of Genesis
• Chris Squire of Yes
• Kira Roessler of Black Flag and Dos
• Troy Sanders of Mastodon
• Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear

This was Fingerstyle Friday:Rickenbacker 4001
Hope you enjoyed the bass of the week.
Ty

Fingerstyle Friday – Fender Musicmaster 70’s era Bass Guitar

Fender Musicmaster Bass Guitar

I don’t have my first bass anymore. I think this looks like mine. I must have been 12? I don’t remember. My parents (who were awesome) allowed me (bought me) a bass guitar. What was the first song I “learned”. It was the 70’s. What song did every kid learn first in the 70’s. “Smoke on the Water”. I never did play it correctly, but boy did I ever duhn duhn duhn, duhn duhn, dun dun, thousands of times. Ah…those were the days.

What? You mean you’ve never heard “We all came out to Montreux, On the Lake Geneva shoreline”; “Smoke on the water, fire in the sky”.

Fingerstyle Friday – DR Marcus Miller strings

I don’t play my bass very often these days (just a phase), but when I do, I use DR Marcus Miller Fat Beams. ;0

These strings are stainless steel and wound tightly. They feel good on your right hand when plucking or thumping (or left if you are a lefty). I love them. I used to play Rotosounds, but they die soooo quickly. The DRs have a long life and look mahvelous.

Here’s a crowd sourced review on talkbass.com (a great bass player resource) http://www.talkbass.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1104/title/dr-fat-beams-marcus-miller/cat/17

Fingerstyle Friday – Peavey T-40

Peavey T-40. Mmmm. I have one just like this (except mine has staining from use).

These 4-stringers are heavy. And I mean eighch double ee vee wai, heeeeveee. You can easily slay small woodland creatures with one swing from this axe. Possibly even mid to large sized, but that’s a different post. The pickups have some really cool, powerful wiring. You’ll have to look in the manual, I forgot. Sorry already.

This baby is also slap-able. I believe it was a monster slap machine in the 80’s. Currently, some people call it a poor man’s Rickenbacker. I’ve owned a Rickenbacker 4001. I don’t think it is a good poor man’s Rickenbacker. Actually, a poor man’s Rickenbacker is the Rickenbacker 4001/3, because you are poor after you buy it. 😀

But, seriously, play this gal (or guy) with a pick and you will get some aggressive tones (roundwounds required). I’ve also played my darlin with flats and she was more sultry. Still sounded great. It does have a massive bridge like a Rickey. It also has a metal nut. Metal. Nice.

The best part about this bass guitar is that you can pick one up for under $500 on used.guitarcenter.com or ripoffbay.

This was Fingerstyle Friday. Keep Thumpin!