two jetglo cousins

[bobyoung]

Nice basses both! I'd like the sound better with no effects though. The closest I'll get to effects is a tube amp, especially an SVT driven close to the edge so it has just a little bit of bite.

[hieronymous]

Nice basses both! I'd like the sound better with no effects though. The closest I'll get to effects is a tube amp, especially an SVT driven close to the edge so it has just a little bit of bite.

If I'm playing with other people (which is rare these days) then I tend to play clean, but for my own original music I'd say about half the time I use distortion and other effects.

I don't know why I like distortion so much. Well, probably my early love of heavy metal. Actually, it started with the Beatles - the section near the end of side 2 of Abbey Road with the guitar solos - I liked the really heavy sounding one the best, and then got into Sabbath, Iron Maiden (though Steve Harris usually had a clean sound), Deep Purple, Motörhead, Rush, Cream, etc. etc.

But that's a great thing about Rics - they sound totally different in the hands of Paul McCartney, Chris Squire, Roger Glover, Geddy Lee - those are the main guys I can think of. I like to think on these recent tracks I was more towards the Roger Glover-Machine Head/Lemmy end of the spectrum...

[Highlander]

From time to time I dip into peoples music on the site (long from finished program to run) so I wandered into Heironymous' site today - the juxtaposition of the image seen in the photos and the name "Lemmy" had to be followed up...!



I particularily liked "Circumambulate"  - works for me, in a roundabout way...

[bobyoung]

If I'm playing with other people (which is rare these days) then I tend to play clean, but for my own original music I'd say about half the time I use distortion and other effects.

I don't know why I like distortion so much. Well, probably my early love of heavy metal. Actually, it started with the Beatles - the section near the end of side 2 of Abbey Road with the guitar solos - I liked the really heavy sounding one the best, and then got into Sabbath, Iron Maiden (though Steve Harris usually had a clean sound), Deep Purple, Motörhead, Rush, Cream, etc. etc.

But that's a great thing about Rics - they sound totally different in the hands of Paul McCartney, Chris Squire, Roger Glover, Geddy Lee - those are the main guys I can think of. I like to think on these recent tracks I was more towards the Roger Glover-Machine Head/Lemmy end of the spectrum...

I like distortion also, particularly like the distorted sound on side 2 of Abbey Road also. I liked Jack Bruce's sound, Jack Casady. Tim Bogart etc.lot's of people using distortion back in the late 60's. I like Lemmy's sound also. Have you ever run one clean channel with one running with distortion, I know the 8 string is mono but the 4003 is stereo right? I actually wondered what the 8 string sounded like clean I guess. I like your stuff, just worded it awkwardly I guess.

[hieronymous]

I actually do have a recording of the 8-string un-distorted, but still pretty effects-laden:



I actually have a 4008 as well, and recorded something with both clean and distorted sounds:



Although the 4008 has Ric-O-Sound, I'm pretty sure that I just split the signal and ran side through a Fulltone Bass Drive.

RE: "Perfected Hybrid Interaction" - this thread has been interesting for me - in reflecting back on why I like distortion so much, it made me realize that one thing that I like to do is be both the bass and the guitar, which may be part of why I like 8-strings. I found myself saying to myself, "but I'm not a frustrated guitar player" (a charge often leveled at busy bassists), but when I thought about it more, I realized that in some ways I definitely am. Virtuosic rock guitar has always been one of my favorite styles, even though I'm not capable of it myself. I also made a decision a few years ago not to play guitar at all and focus on bass - partly because if I allowed myself to play guitar then the collecting bug would increase exponentially!

Long story short, thanks for listening!

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Coool Rics!! I dig your toon Driving The Bus. Grooves like a mofo!
Put it in the Post Your Music thread when you get that guitar on it, willya?

[hieronymous]

I realized that I'm using the MXR octave pedal on "Driving the Bus" too! I can't believe I forgot. I must have kicked it off when I start hammering away on the low E string at the end...

[hieronymous]

Went back to Massachusetts last week and finally got to take a few pics of my 8-string (though they didn't come out as well as I had hoped). Here's one to compare the older (mid-'90s) "S" body shape to the more recent 4003:



The big difference that I notice is the upper horn - much wider on the 4003S/8. Also, I put a Pickguardian bridge pickup surround - I just can't stand the standard pickup cover, it gets in the way of my hand with my playing style. There would be more differences if my 4003 was "normal" like the pickguard would probably have subtle differences, but it seems instead to have an earlier version pickguard, as noted elsewhere in this thread.

Mostly recorded with the Telembic, but did a couple of things with the 4003 - here's one of them:



The 4003 is going into a Budda Phat Bass distortion, Alembic F-2B preamp, a dbx 162 compressor, then ProTools. Played with a pick, probably the neck pickup only. The distortion sound is poofier than I usually go for - I think I turned down the treble on the Budda. But for this track I like it! I overdubbed the Rhodes later, it's going through the same signal chain.

[chromium]

Cool track- bass sounds thick, and I love the overdriven Rhodes!  Reminds me a bit of that Mahavishnu-era Jan Hammer sound (@5:45):

[hieronymous]

Listening to the way that the bass sounds, I'm kind of surprised I played it with a pick, though I definitely remember doing so because I do some pinch harmonics at the end. It's kind of a mushier sound than I normally go for, but I think it works in context.

Finally was able to upload a pic from the session:



This has everything - the 4003, the Alembic F-2B, the Budda Phat Bass, and the 1977 Rhodes MARK I Stage Piano Seventy-three. There's actually a story behind the Rhodes. I arrived at the studio this time around, and said, "wow, cool Rhodes" and my friend who owns the studio says, "oh yeah, that used to be yours!" During college (almost 20 years ago) one of my first college bands used to rehearse at someone's house, and when they moved they told the drummer, hey there's a keyboard in the attic - want it? It was an old Rhodes, no sustain pedal, so he took it, but he didn't play, so it ended up in the basement of my house. I had it set up with a little amp, but hadn't played keyboards since I was a kid, so it ended up being forgotten. Fast-forward to 2002, both my folks had passed away, so I was back in Mass. to clean out the house and sell it. A friend of mine who's involved in music was interested in the keyboard, so off it went to live at his friend's rehearsal studio. I pretty much forgot about it. But apparently it also sat unused and abused at the rehearsal studio, so the guy who inherited it passed it on to Damon, the owner of Oxbow Studios where I record. So it's BACK!

I would love to have a real Rhodes at home - I have a Nord Electro since it has both organ and Rhodes sounds, but definitely nothing like the real thing. I love the sounds Jan Hammer gets on the Inner Mounting Flame album, and the various Rhodes sounds on the early electric Miles stuff (played by Josef Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett), so it was a real thrill to incorporate some of those sounds on this recording (I have one more in the can too, it'll appear soon). Of course, I can't play like those guys, but it was a real kick to jam along with the stuff we had just recorded, cranked through the control room speakers!

Oh, and thanks for the video too! Mudbucker sighting (I think), at 6:54...

[chromium]

Cool story about the Rhodes- I think its following you!      I'd love to get my mits on one someday too.  I usually find myself reamping the VST Rhodes that I use, trying to dirty it up and give it some life.

Never realized the bodies of the Rics were so different.  I like the look of that S body shape!

[hieronymous]

Never realized the bodies of the Rics were so different.  I like the look of that S body shape!

Yeah, I was surprised too. I love the S shape, it's kind of what I think of a Ric looking like for some reason. But the newer body shape really grew on me too! I like them both now.

By the way, I did some minor editing tweaks on the track, same link, but it's now a different mp3. In fact, here it is again: . Boosted some of the bass "solos" and fixed a couple of keyboard things.

[hieronymous]

Put up a video of the 4003 from the last time I was at Oxbow:



The usual suspects, as usual: Greg DeGuglielmo on drums, Damon Burke engineering (he makes a brief appearance, not realizing that I was videotaping), recorded/filmed @ Oxbow Studios in Marlborough, Mass. You can see the lights on the dbx 162 stereo compressor in the rack in the background, on the right, third down from the top, which the bass was going through. Bass is also going through an Alembic F-2B preamp.

[nofi]

nice tone, even with a pic. 

[hieronymous]

nice tone, even with a pic.