oh wow I didn't even think about him using the tape wounds on the rick! I wonder what songs he used them on
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What flat wound gets the closest to Mccartneys Rickenbacker tone?
- Thread starter Will_420
- Start date
He may have, but there are articles of some decades ago that he (meaning: his staff) conducted a global search for OEM NOS Maxima strings until the development of Optima RB's. I don't know if he has ever used Optima RB's on his 4001, but it is a possibility.
Thank you for the very detailed response! I without a doubt be putting the Optima RB flats on, and I guess I will have to be happy with in the "ball park." Happy playing!Well, a couple of things....
- Sir Paul's 4001 Rick would have come from the factory with German Maxima flatwounds on it, which is what made for that signature Rickenbacker sound. So, unless he just absolutely hated them - or the recording engineer did - they probably stayed on that bass for quite awhile, considering how long-lived flatwounds are. These days, the closest you can get to the original strings is a set of Optima RB (Rickenbacker Bass) flats. Optima owns the remains of Maxima, and a few years ago decided to clone the original factory strings. Down to the 45-57-77-100 gauges... I have a set on my '01 Rick 4003; they're... just what I want to hear from that bass. I'm not trying to sound like Sir Paul (as if...); I just want that original Rick tone...
- As others have said, there is a whole bunch of other things that contributed to all the Beatles' sound. There are several mind-numbingly detailed videos that will give you a taste of just how complicated their sound was by the time Sir Paul picked up that Rick. Equipment that you couldn't even begin to buy...
So, bottom line? Realistically, there's simply no way to duplicate his sound - today. The best you can hope for? Put a set of Optima RB's on your Rick; cut the capacitor into the bridge pickup; and be happy with "sort of in the ballpark"....
I’m gonna go out in a limb and stir up some stuff here…
Even though I believed for years that Paul’s Ric had the cap removed when the hi gain was installed… I no longer believe the cap is removed at all.
Get a 4001 or a C64 (with the push pull pot). Put some flats on, ideally the Optima RB’s (these string exist on the market because I am the guy who asked Andre at Ootima to make me a custom set years ago using the same old formula and I even sent him a set of NOS Ric flats. I also wrote the text inside the Optima RB packaging, including the spelling mistake which exists in there lol).
Anyway, listen to Wings over America, turn your bass nobs full up, pluck near the bridge and try that with the cap in and out and now tell me cap out sounds like Wings Over America… it certainly does not. It sounds way too muddy and uncharacteristic with both pickups full up and the cap out of circuit.
But Cap engaged with flats (add a Diamond bass compressor for even more flavour) and it certainly DOES sound like the snarky Wings over America tone.
Also… there a video on YouTube of Paul playing in studio with Elvis Costello and they jam My Brave Face and Paul is messing around. In this video you can clearly see the pickup selector switch on Paul’s Ric is up (that’s bridge pickup engaged only on Paul’s backward wired Ric) you never ever see Paul using the Ric with the switch up, always down for the Beatles era (toaster) and middle for late 70’s wings (both pickups).
In this elvis Costello video with the Spector switch up Paul’s bass is ridiculously shrilly, thin and trebly… exactly how a bridge pickup would sound without the toaster adding the bottom end. That’s not the sound of a de-capped bridge pickup!
So there ya go, IMO I do not believe the cap was removed from the Ric. I believe the proof is in using your ears. It’s a clear and vast difference.
Even though I believed for years that Paul’s Ric had the cap removed when the hi gain was installed… I no longer believe the cap is removed at all.
Get a 4001 or a C64 (with the push pull pot). Put some flats on, ideally the Optima RB’s (these string exist on the market because I am the guy who asked Andre at Ootima to make me a custom set years ago using the same old formula and I even sent him a set of NOS Ric flats. I also wrote the text inside the Optima RB packaging, including the spelling mistake which exists in there lol).
Anyway, listen to Wings over America, turn your bass nobs full up, pluck near the bridge and try that with the cap in and out and now tell me cap out sounds like Wings Over America… it certainly does not. It sounds way too muddy and uncharacteristic with both pickups full up and the cap out of circuit.
But Cap engaged with flats (add a Diamond bass compressor for even more flavour) and it certainly DOES sound like the snarky Wings over America tone.
Also… there a video on YouTube of Paul playing in studio with Elvis Costello and they jam My Brave Face and Paul is messing around. In this video you can clearly see the pickup selector switch on Paul’s Ric is up (that’s bridge pickup engaged only on Paul’s backward wired Ric) you never ever see Paul using the Ric with the switch up, always down for the Beatles era (toaster) and middle for late 70’s wings (both pickups).
In this elvis Costello video with the Spector switch up Paul’s bass is ridiculously shrilly, thin and trebly… exactly how a bridge pickup would sound without the toaster adding the bottom end. That’s not the sound of a de-capped bridge pickup!
So there ya go, IMO I do not believe the cap was removed from the Ric. I believe the proof is in using your ears. It’s a clear and vast difference.
Considering Mac stated on the Get Back movie that he "didn't know what all those knobs were for", with his Ric, I'd bet a cold Guinness that he used the factory strings until they broke, if ever.
Secondly, because they used amps in the studio back then, don't discount the amp and speaker cab design contributing to his tone, something you seldom see mentioned here relating to recorded British vintage tone.
Secondly, because they used amps in the studio back then, don't discount the amp and speaker cab design contributing to his tone, something you seldom see mentioned here relating to recorded British vintage tone.
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Macca used the Maxima/Rickenbacker strings yes… you can tell because 99% of the time the strings at the machine heads had no silks and purple silks at the ball end. There’s many pics you can see the dark purple silk sticking just out of the bridge, including a book with has detailed pics of the bass. There is an older book (Beatles Gear) and in that photo the hi gain used throughout the late seventies had been replaced with the reissue horseshoe, the same as what’s in the C series basses. It also has what I believe to be labella 760FX strings in it when they had orange silks, 90’s and 2000’s. About ten years ago they switched to green silks for the FX set. I’ve used that same set many many times and they work perfectly on a Ric as it’s a very light flatwound set, my rics like them. Saying that, I’ve never seen the Ric actually used by Paul with coloured (orange) silks at the headstock end, I’d imagine they didn’t stay on it long, perhaps this was during the Driving rain sessions when the Ric - with the newly replaced Reissue horseshoe - was used for the song Spinning on an Axis.
The Ric/maxima strings were he only ones recommend for those old rics with weak necks. Much like my C64S and C64, even they have weak necks, it’s because the pickup route of the neck pickup is too large, too much wood removed.
That’s why Optima remade what’s now known as RB flats, the closest match to the original Ric flats and my C series basses certainly like them. The other flat I love in the rics are the Pyramid 640/1 set… love them, very similar to the Optima RB (also German made) but the Pyramids are hex core apart from the E string. Sound great but they do have too much tension for my C series basses, they just can’t handle them.
Yes that is the video BTW.
I’d love to hear all your thoughts on whether you think that sounds like a capped bridge pickup solo’d. I think it certainly does.
also… listening to Wings over America, (song such as Letting Go, Let Me roll it, Soily, band on the Run, Silly love songs) do you think it sound like a decapped bass with both pickups full on, I don’t, it still has the snark of the cap mixed with the toaster plucked near the bridge.
The Ric/maxima strings were he only ones recommend for those old rics with weak necks. Much like my C64S and C64, even they have weak necks, it’s because the pickup route of the neck pickup is too large, too much wood removed.
That’s why Optima remade what’s now known as RB flats, the closest match to the original Ric flats and my C series basses certainly like them. The other flat I love in the rics are the Pyramid 640/1 set… love them, very similar to the Optima RB (also German made) but the Pyramids are hex core apart from the E string. Sound great but they do have too much tension for my C series basses, they just can’t handle them.
Yes that is the video BTW.
I’d love to hear all your thoughts on whether you think that sounds like a capped bridge pickup solo’d. I think it certainly does.
also… listening to Wings over America, (song such as Letting Go, Let Me roll it, Soily, band on the Run, Silly love songs) do you think it sound like a decapped bass with both pickups full on, I don’t, it still has the snark of the cap mixed with the toaster plucked near the bridge.
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Here’s that video with Costello btw. Skip to 14 min mark to see the Ric played with just the treble pickup, rare for Paul.
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Like I said before; I'm not trying to sound like Sir Paul. I have about as much chance of that, as trying to fly off my roof by flapping my arms...
I have the Optima RB's on my '01 COY Rick 4003, because they're as close as I can come to the sound of the factory Maxima's on the '68 4001 that I learned to play bass on - in 1968... I also had the push/pull treble tone switch - and the factory .047 cap - installed on it, because the '01 4003's didn't come that way...
The Roto TruBass 88 tapes? I have them on my late '90s MIK Rogue VB-100 violin bass - which is comparable in quality to a Hofner 500/1 CT bass (without a center block). They're there because, with them, IMO it sounds like a violin bass is supposed to sound. And, because of all the strings I tried on the thing, the Roto's were the only ones that tuned up and intonated - perfectly. It's worn the Roto 88's for about 12 years, now...
I also have a '73 Rick 4001, which also has the push/pull treble tone switch installed (the cap was already there). I usually leave it with the cap in the circuit; but I can cut it out, if I ever get a wild hair... Unfortunately, it's begun to develop the neck problems that some older 4001's get - thanks to that @**&#! "Bathtub Rout" up at the neck. So, it wears Dogal JC106A "Jaco" CarbonSteel Flats, instead of the Optima RBs. With an advertised tension of 5 kg. per string (44 lbs. a set; 1/3 the tension of the La Bella LTFF's), they're just what the doctor ordered. And, from the way they came up to pitch almost instantly? I believe them, too. Doesn't hurt that they sound great on the poor old thing, either. Not exactly like the original Maximas, but... pretty close, to my ears.
I have the Optima RB's on my '01 COY Rick 4003, because they're as close as I can come to the sound of the factory Maxima's on the '68 4001 that I learned to play bass on - in 1968... I also had the push/pull treble tone switch - and the factory .047 cap - installed on it, because the '01 4003's didn't come that way...
The Roto TruBass 88 tapes? I have them on my late '90s MIK Rogue VB-100 violin bass - which is comparable in quality to a Hofner 500/1 CT bass (without a center block). They're there because, with them, IMO it sounds like a violin bass is supposed to sound. And, because of all the strings I tried on the thing, the Roto's were the only ones that tuned up and intonated - perfectly. It's worn the Roto 88's for about 12 years, now...
I also have a '73 Rick 4001, which also has the push/pull treble tone switch installed (the cap was already there). I usually leave it with the cap in the circuit; but I can cut it out, if I ever get a wild hair... Unfortunately, it's begun to develop the neck problems that some older 4001's get - thanks to that @**&#! "Bathtub Rout" up at the neck. So, it wears Dogal JC106A "Jaco" CarbonSteel Flats, instead of the Optima RBs. With an advertised tension of 5 kg. per string (44 lbs. a set; 1/3 the tension of the La Bella LTFF's), they're just what the doctor ordered. And, from the way they came up to pitch almost instantly? I believe them, too. Doesn't hurt that they sound great on the poor old thing, either. Not exactly like the original Maximas, but... pretty close, to my ears.
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Like I said before; I'm not trying to sound like Sir Paul. I have about as much chance of that, as trying to fly off my roof by flapping my arms...
I have the Optima RB's on my '01 COY Rick 4003, because they're as close as I can come to the sound of the factory Maxima's on the '68 4001 that I learned to play bass on - in 1968... I also had the push/pull treble tone switch - and the factory .047 cap - installed on it, because the '01 4003's didn't come that way...
The Roto TruBass 88 tapes? I have them on my late '90s MIK Rogue VB-100 violin bass - which is comparable in quality to a Hofner 500/1 CT bass (without a center block). They're there because, with them, IMO it sounds like a violin bass is supposed to sound. And, because of all the strings I tried on the thing, the Roto's were the only ones that tuned up and intonated - perfectly. It's worn the Roto 88's for about 12 years, now...
I also have a '73 Rick 4001, which also has the push/pull treble tone switch installed (the cap was already there). I usually leave it with the cap in the circuit; but I can cut it out, if I ever get a wild hair... Unfortunately, it's begun to develop the neck problems that some older 4001's get - thanks to that @**&#! "Bathtub Rout" up at the neck. So, it wears Dogal JC106A "Jaco" CarbonSteel Flats, instead of the Optima RBs. With an advertised tension of 5 kg. per string (44 lbs. a set; 1/3 the tension of the La Bella LTFF's), they're just what the doctor ordered. And, from the way they came up to pitch almost instantly? I believe them, too. Doesn't hurt that they sound great on the poor old thing, either. Not exactly like the original Maximas, but... pretty close, to my ears.
So… your old 68 and your 73 which had the push pot installed by you… when both pickups were fully turned up and the cap in engaged (as per original spec) was the neck pickup still the dominant sounding pickup? With the treble just cutting through a bit from the bridge pickup?
I also have 97 4003 which came without the 0.0047 cap, I had the push/pull installed and that’s the result I get… the neck pickup is still more dominant, same as in my C64 and C64S.