A good proggy bass guitar!

moshkito wrote: Dean wrote: sturoc wrote: Dean you touch upon a few good tech points there.  Though infocat said in" laymans terms" which  I put simply,  as evidenced by his reply. A violin vs Double bass, Mandolin vs guitar vs bass, on and on. Except that's not the whole story, nor is it the reason for the size difference. A bass guitar can be the same size as a regular guitar and still play an octave lower - the size difference is for the tone not the pitch and that's as "layman" as I can get.   I love it ... like ripping the Ricky in "prog" ...   I think it important to help folks know what the music is about ... but to state outright and blindly, that it is because of a sound ... is totally insane ... heck ... PFM and Banco even used the concert basses many times ... but that is ... being ignored! And not progressive? ... who needs an expensive Ricky? Ohhh heck, ELO played Cellos and other low strings too!   NOW, if the idea is for the person to buy one? ... I would tell him ... bad idea ... but these days the Bogey Man 5 string is becoming real popular and will likely make the Ricky sound bad and cheap one of these days! Me? ... I probably would by a nice Stratus Graphite 5 string bass (similar to Guy Pratt's), or go with a nice Warwick 5 string of some kind ... if not a nice 5 String ESP or Shecter. My hand is too smal for a 6 string. Ohhh ... btw ... if you want an even more "proggy" bass, even the "Bitch", or the ones that Levin and friends are playing around with, would be way more "proggy" than the ones you even consider!

Which has got absolutely nothing to do with my post, but thanks anyway.

i would love to buy that

chopper wrote: The.Crimson.King wrote: A Rick doesn't mean you'll sound like Squire or Geddy,   How true that is. I've always loved the Ricky sound and thought the best bass sound ever was on side one of "Hemispheres" but then I eventually found that Geddy played that on a Fender. A lot of the Geddy sound comes from his finger technique.

moshkito wrote: these days the Bogey Man 5 string is becoming real popular, specially in the metal areas with folks like John Myung ripping the 5 and 6 string on these ...

I have a humble Peavey 'Fender Precision copy',  it's nothing to recommend particularly but for my level it produces acceptable enough sounds.

Oh how about JON JOWITT on the title track of the album, SUBTERANEA.
Jesus. I don't know what kind of bass he has, but it thumps my ears off! So awesome.

Also. I just want to say that ever since I bought the Sennheiser HD800 headphones I've been more if an admirer of solid bass playing...largely because I can f**king hear now!
I'm sorry, but HD headphones are mandatory for quality prog listening experiences. ;)

I've got a fretless Geddy Lee Jazz Bass and an Ibanez BTB575FM. 35" scale, heavy Rotosounds, excellent active EQ, too bad it requires two 9V batteries.

The.Crimson.King wrote: It's not the bass that makes it "proggy" but how it's setup and played.  When I played bass in late 70's prog bands I had an Ibanez Rocket Roll Flying V bass.  Beautiful instrument.  Then in the early 90's I finally played a Rick 4001...OMG it was the smoothest playing most tonally versatile bass I'd ever played.  Got a great deal on a used 1 for about $500 (in 1991) and have never cheated on her with another bass since.  A Rick doesn't mean you'll sound like Squire or Geddy, it's all in the signal processing and type of strings (rounds or flats).  A great feature of the 4001 is a separate output for bridge and neck pickups.  I get a mind blowing sound by running the neck pickup clean and the bridge pickup throught a distortion box.

So did Chris Squire on Fragile. Except he used a Fender guitar amp for neck pickup and a bass amp for bridge pickup, I believe.

Edited by SteveG - January 31 2018 at 04:00

The one guarantee I can make is that you won't find a Rick cheap. Unless you go for a Chinese Rickenbacker clone, AKA a Chickenbacker.

The last time I had a chance to buy a Rick 4003 at a reasonable price was in the mid 80's, when no one wanted them. I had the money in my pocket at the time. Things are slightly different now. ;-)

I can't recommend a Rick as the double truss rod system is a hideous idea. If not properly adjusted, Ricks tend to have all kinds of neck problems. They really are overpriced rubbish. 

Going through a list of "prog" basses - nor would I go for a Precision bass if I wanted a cutting, solo sound. Personally, I'd go for a Gibson EB-3 or the excellent Epiphone copy or a Jazz. The Squier Classic Player 60's jazz is excellent, pretty cheap and you can get some interesting noises out of it. 

If you want to go high end, try a WAL. If you can find one. Other options are also Thunderbirds, but they may a bit thuddy. 

Personally, I use a Danelectro Longhorn short scale for my bass work. But then again, I've never been conventional in my bass tastes. ;-)

Davesax1965 wrote: The one guarantee I can make is that you won't find a Rick cheap. Unless you go for a Chinese Rickenbacker clone, AKA a Chickenbacker. The last time I had a chance to buy a Rick 4003 at a reasonable price was in the mid 80's, when no one wanted them. I had the money in my pocket at the time. Things are slightly different now. ;-) I can't recommend a Rick as the double truss rod system is a hideous idea. If not properly adjusted, Ricks tend to have all kinds of neck problems. They really are overpriced rubbish.  Going through a list of "prog" basses - nor would I go for a Precision bass if I wanted a cutting, solo sound. Personally, I'd go for a Gibson EB-3 or the excellent Epiphone copy or a Jazz. The Squier Classic Player 60's jazz is excellent, pretty cheap and you can get some interesting noises out of it.  If you want to go high end, try a WAL. If you can find one. Other options are also Thunderbirds, but they may a bit thuddy.  Personally, I use a Danelectro Longhorn short scale for my bass work. But then again, I've never been conventional in my bass tastes. ;-)

My Ricky is a 4001, 1980 make. It needs some work, but plYs well. I love it. I’m always awkward when I’m playing a mate’s P-Bass for recordings.........