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Big Zion Nelson

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ThomasM said:
Chris Squire is the one who made the Rickenbacker sound so good everyone else wanted one. **** that man could play.

I've owned a handful of Rickenbacker basses and guitars over the years, and they were all great. One in particular was a 1974 that was a custom order. I didn't realize it when I bought it second hand. After owning it a while I decided to sell it. When I listed it I had a man who was writing a book on Rickenbacker basses as me if he could use my pictures for his book. I'm not sure if he did, but he was quite excited about seeing this unique 4001.
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I believe Squire’s sound was because he played with a pick. May have been one of the first to do it. My cousin tried to emulate him and got pretty good at it.
 
FrancisSawyer said:
Now that's awesome! Ricky guitars too? Very cool! So you had a 74 Ricky 4001 custom? Nice! What exactly was customized? Do you know how it differed from the stock model? What kind of pickups did it have? Great story man. Do you have a copy of the book that guy was writing? Geddy Lee has this huge book he put together called "Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass (a compendium of the rare, iconic and weird)" It's a huge book with tons of photos. Have you seen it?
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The pickups, for starters. It had older style pickups. The neck was a toaster. I want to say something about the bridge was a little different as well, maybe the pickup cover? It's been 20 years.

As for guitars, I have owned everything from an early "Rickenbacher" (when it was ch not ck) lap steel, a 12 string (I'd have to research the model). Then a pair of 4001s and a couple 4003s. The one 4001 is the only one I can sort of remember. I think the other 4001 was a 70s, but had been altered a bit. Played great, and sounded amazing.

I was mostly a Gibson guy for guitars. No way I could name them all at this stage. But maybe 5-7 Les Pauls, several hollowbodies, still have my great uncle's 1947 Gibson lap steel. All in all, I've gone through well over 100 guitars in my playing life.
 
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He either has been told he can finish his degree and retire or he will portal off to somewhere...............I hope it is the former as he seems like a good guy and a UM degree can open some doors.
 
423Hurricane said:
I believe Squire’s sound was because he played with a pick. May have been one of the first to do it. My cousin tried to emulate him and got pretty good at it.
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That was part of it. The other part was the fact he had his bass shaved down a bit when having it refinished, making the body lighter. Also, Chris was a big dude, so his hands were big. A lot of his tone came from his left hand. It really does make a difference.

I didn't realize how big the guy was until I met him years ago. He was an imposing figure.
 
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Geddy Lee said:
Yo what up with this dude? He ever gonna play again? Asking for my cats.
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Episode 2 Goodbye GIF by The Office
 
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