Music videos that feature Rics

[wellREDman]

To me the picture just emphasizes what an idiot Sid Vicious was.

True Story

[gearHed289]

To me the picture just emphasizes what an idiot Sid Vicious was.

BINGO!

[uwe]

I'm known here for not liking the Sex Pistols, but whether they sang "Belsen was a gas" in poor taste or that idiot Sid wore a swastika muscle shirt - there was nothing fascist about them. It was all adolescent shock value. And remember Jimmy Page's SS cap, Nazi chic intrigues some people. But if Ilan or someone else was offended by it, off it would go.

A tale of two Rics that were actually one (or twins): Roger's Ric was both black and red at different points in time (or he had more than one) and what Pete Agnew plays is (one of) Roger's Ric(s). Very likely at Roger's recommendation as he was Nazareth's producer and guiding light at the time. The Nazareth albums Razamanaz (73), Loud 'N' Proud (73) & Rampant (74) were all Glover productions and on Razamanaz (the album) the Ric sound is especially prominent, just listen here:



That is not Pete Agnew's short scale EB-3 which Glover found lacking in the studio. For years, rumors persisted in Purple fan quarters that Glover actually played bass on Razamanaz (the album), but he has denied this when I once asked him in a q&a on his home site.

Now how Roger's Machine Head, Made in Japan & Who Do We Think We Are-anointed Ric got into the grimy little hands of Sid (I'd have no issues if Glen Matlock had played it) is another matter altogether. I have no idea.

[Dave W]

Glen Matlock did play a Ric but it wasn't molested with Jazz pickups.

[amptech]

Now how Roger's Machine Head, Made in Japan & Who Do We Think We Are-anointed Ric got into the grimy little hands of Sid (I'd have no issues if Glen Matlock had played it) is another matter altogether. I have no idea.

Guess you have to ask him, then!

[Dave W]

Guess you have to ask him, then!

Sid responds to seances? Oh wait... 

[Pilgrim]

Sid responds to seances? Oh wait... 

Have you lost your seances??   

[uwe]

All you have to do is spin a safety pin and a syringe very fast on the seance table. Plus a knife. That'll do for an appointment with the Demon Lord Vicious!

[wellREDman]

Glen Matlock did play a Ric but it wasn't molested with Jazz pickups.

I'm curious what two J pickups placed like that were for, were they played together but inverted for a big humbucker effect?

[Dave W]

I'm curious what two J pickups placed like that were for, were they played together but inverted for a big humbucker effect?

Could be, or just a big non-humbucking series sound.

[uwe]

Never much of a single coil man (he played Precisions and Mustangs, but never a Jazz), Roger most likely went for parallel humbucking mode. When playing bass with Purple in their 70ies heydays, he was foremost concerned with (i) being heard on stage between all the melée Lord, Paice und Blackmore were making, (ii) not too much distortion or overdrive in his tone, and (iii) (I quote) "not sounding like frigging Chris Squire" with his Ric.

That's him on the Ric in late 1971 - prior to the Jazz Bass pup implants. He first played Rickenbacker on Machine Head (In Rock was Precision, Fireball the Mustang) - the Fender whose headstock graces the Machine Head back sleeve was not used in the recording - and kept it for Who Do We Think We Are (albeit by then modified with the Jazz pups). Typical for Roger's style is that he plays the verse mostly on the off-beat (an exercise repeated for Woman from Tokyo and also audible on No One Came from Fireball), something you don't really notice in the band sound unless you single out his bass line.

[ilan]

Never much of a single coil man

And yet the bass tone most identified with him is the epitome of singlecoilness and his signature model Vigier has two single coils.

[wellREDman]

so i went to look at the vigier website to see if it said anything about how he wired the 2 single coil pups
and the mystery deepens, ...Switch: balance, Pots:  volume bass, middle and treble and Balance why would you need two balance controls?

[uwe]

That Glover model is buried with controls, I always wondered too. It provides an extremely even, hifi'ish sound, but that is the way Roger likes it (with DP at least).

The Vigiers have such a boosted active sound, I wonder whether humbucker or single coil pups make any difference at all. But as long as Roger is happy with it ...

When he plays his natural fin Vigier (not used with Purple) with his other outfit though, his sound is completely different.

[ilan]

so i went to look at the vigier website to see if it said anything about how he wired the 2 single coil pups
and the mystery deepens, ...Switch: balance, Pots:  volume bass, middle and treble and Balance why would you need two balance controls?

One is a switch and the other is a pot. Makes perfect sense. In a Les Paul or Ric 4001, you can balance the two pickups to your liking, then you can switch between neck, both or bridge, but if in the middle position you want, for example, full neck and 50% bridge, that means that when you solo the bridge you get a volume drop. With a switch and a balance knob you can avoid it.