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Only a Rick sounds like a Rick...


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[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1430937684' post='2766189']
[attachment=191403:Mike Rutherford twin neck.jpg]
I believe this is a Dick Knight 12/6-string bass which apparently Rutherford couldn't get on with.
[/quote]

Interesting! Never seen that one before. I believe Mr Knight is no longer with us but the company lives on - his son runs it now apparently. There's a website but no mention of these basses. I might send him an email to see if he can shed any light.

[url="http://www.knight-guitars.com/"]http://www.knight-guitars.com/[/url]

Edited by Cosmo Valdemar
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[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1431008956' post='2766858']
Interesting! Never seen that one before. I believe Mr Knight is no longer with us but the company lives on - his son runs it now apparently. There's a website but no mention of these basses. I might send him an email to see if he can shed any light.

[url="http://www.knight-guitars.com/"]http://www.knight-guitars.com/[/url]
[/quote]
[url="http://www.rickresource.com/rrp/rutherford.html"]http://www.rickresou...rutherford.html[/url]
Here's an article about the work he did on Mike's Ricks.
[attachment=191478:Mikes twin neck.jpg]
and here's a bigger pic of the beast. Sadly the ad's in German which I don't comprehend.

Edited by spectoremg
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[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1431027656' post='2767143']
Didn't Lemmy put Gibbo pups in his?
[/quote]

Lemmy is well known for replacing the neck pickup. One had a Thunderbird pickup, another had a Bartolini, amongst others. I never understood why as he only uses the bridge pickup...

Lemmy once described Rickenbacker pickups as sounding like 'chewing corrugated iron'. He seems to like the humbuckers they use on his signature model though.

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[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1431027114' post='2767133']
Pete Agnew from Nazareth had the same mods. Here's an interesting bit about Glover's:

[url="http://www.dawksound.com/bass.html"]http://www.dawksound.com/bass.html[/url]
[/quote]Cheers. Do you happen to know what he used it on?

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[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1431028545' post='2767161']
Lemmy is well known for replacing the neck pickup. One had a Thunderbird pickup, another had a Bartolini, amongst others. I never understood why as he only uses the bridge pickup...

Lemmy once described Rickenbacker pickups as sounding like 'chewing corrugated iron'. He seems to like the humbuckers they use on his signature model though.
[/quote]Chewing corrugated iron's his sound isn't it?

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The main issue was the stock 4001 pic ups had very low output.
In the old days there was very little pre-amp available as valves distort when you pre-amp a signal.
Hence getting a loud enough input out of a stock 4001 was near on impossible.
In todays transistor preamp stages a 4001 can be dragged up, but in those days, you had all on to be heard.
The 4003 pickups were re-worked and are now quite hot and produce a lot more output and bass.

Mods using better pick ups were quite normal, Foxton had a jazz pick on his main rick basses bridge area for recording and his later work before moving back to the precision.

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[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1431033909' post='2767243']
Cheers. Do you happen to know what he used it on?
[/quote]

Glover's modified Rick is on "Who Do We Think We Are?". Compare the tone to that on "Machine Head" - it's much fatter, but woollier and with less definition. Still has a noticeable Rick flavour, though.

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Rics can sound so different depending on what you want from it, plug a recent 4003 straight into an Orange terror bass and you will get a lovely deep warm tone, add in a Tech 21 vt rack and you are talking Geddy lee type tone,
they are quite versatile basses.

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[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1431036611' post='2767293']


Glover's modified Rick is on "Who Do We Think We Are?". Compare the tone to that on "Machine Head" - it's much fatter, but woollier and with less definition. Still has a noticeable Rick flavour, though.
[/quote]Cheers, I like that album.

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[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1431036611' post='2767293']
Glover's modified Rick is on "Who Do We Think We Are?". Compare the tone to that on "Machine Head" - it's much fatter, but woollier and with less definition. Still has a noticeable Rick flavour, though.
[/quote]

In that case he's got his dates wrong, he says he worked on RG's bass in 1974 by which time Glover had left Deep Purple entirely. WDWTWA was recorded July-October 1972 and released in 73. Or it had already been modified previously by someone else.

Edited by KevB
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[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1431074924' post='2767483']


In that case he's got his dates wrong, he says he worked on RG's bass in 1974 by which time Glover had left Deep Purple entirely. WDWTWA was recorded July-October 1972 and released in 73. Or it had already been modified previously by someone else.
[/quote]Pretty sure I've seen pics of him using it in Purple?

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[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1431076344' post='2767497']
Pretty sure I've seen pics of him using it in Purple?
[/quote]

Yeah, loads of pictures and live clips of Glover using the bass with DP. Odd though, Glover's modified Rick was Jetglo, whereas the one in the link looks more like a burst of some description.

Here's a more in-depth piece about the restoration!

[url="http://www.rauenguitars.com/pages/roger_glover.html"]http://www.rauenguitars.com/pages/roger_glover.html[/url]

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[quote name='geofio' timestamp='1431039253' post='2767329']
...they are quite versatile basses.
[/quote]

I'd say so. Most of 'Sgt Pepper' was played on a Ric. McCartney had one for no better reason than he was given it for free, but if you didn't know it was a Ric on most of that album I think you'd be tempted to say it was a Jazz or a P. Plus, there was a huge amount of tone-shaping and, er... 'unconventional' production going on too, obviously...

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[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1431080569' post='2767560']
Yeah, loads of pictures and live clips of Glover using the bass with DP. Odd though, Glover's modified Rick was Jetglo, whereas the one in the link looks more like a burst of some description.

Here's a more in-depth piece about the restoration!

[url="http://www.rauenguitars.com/pages/roger_glover.html"]http://www.rauenguit...ger_glover.html[/url]
[/quote]

The restoration in that link is much later of course, probably work done for when RG used the Ric again briefly around the mid-90's and didn't even use it for whole gigs then (recall it coming out for the odd song or two on the Pupendicular tour around 1996). The [i]original[/i] mods must have been done pre 1974 because, as mentioned before, he wasn't in the band by then, so the date mentioned on the Dawksound page is wrong or there was yet more work done after he'd quit Purple.

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[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1431097513' post='2767816']
The restoration in that link is much later of course, probably work done for when RG used the Ric again briefly around the mid-90's and didn't even use it for whole gigs then (recall it coming out for the odd song or two on the Pupendicular tour around 1996). The [i]original[/i] mods must have been done pre 1974 because, as mentioned before, he wasn't in the band by then, so the date mentioned on the Dawksound page is wrong or there was yet more work done after he'd quit Purple.
[/quote]

Indeed, the restoration was quite a recent thing. Pity they didn't put Rick pickups in it though - he played it on Smoke on The Water at the Roundhouse a couple of years ago and it could have been anything.

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