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A fight McCartney vs. Lemmy would probably end with Lemmy refusing to fight and inviting Paul for a few drinks

Cliff Burton. Absolute beast. A rare time when a whole band moved to the city where the bassist lived, just so they could have him in the band.

Lemmy himself once said the Beatles were "hard men" from the Liverpool docks who would absolutely destroy the Stones, whom Lemmy considered effete college boys, in any kind of confrontration, so I agree that he'd probably rather sink a few pints with Paul rather than fighting him 😂

A big part of the Geddy and Chris Squire sounds that you guys didn't touch on is using the Ric-O-Sound output to run each pickup through a different signal chain. It lets you really emphasize the driven clank from the bridge pickup while maintaining the clean thunderous low end from the neck pickup. Really contributes a lot to that piano string sound.

Casting another vote for Al Cisneros. Though I'm not surprised to not see him being mentioned since Sleep is not as well known as Yes or Metallica. Dude's groove is impeccable and Rickenbacker even gave him his own signature model and a custom double neck bass.

Roger Glover of Deep Purple recorded 'Machine Head' with a Ric - That's the one with 'Smoke' on it, and bass solo on 'pictures of home'

Geddy Lee has THE Ricky tone. Another notable Rick player is Mike Rutherford of Genesis, especially when Peter Gabriel was still the singer.

That Chris Squire sound is a signature sound rather than a generic slap bass/funk bass tone that many none rock bassists use.

Chris Squire's bass tone is freaking amazing ... Lemmy should have played an 8 string

Let's not forget that for many years, Mike Rutherford of Genesis played Rickenbackers, and of course, Geddy Lee honed his original style and tone on a Rickenbacker.

Chris Squire...The ruler of the Rickenbacker bass...

The intro to Cygnus X-1 Book I was the best promo for Rick. That track sold Ricks to me and all my high school bass playin buds. Killer tone!

Paul D'amour on first TOOL album. Rickenbacker and an awesome tone. The simplicity of Sober and the power...

Chris Squire was one of my main inspirations to play bass. Geddy Lee is up there, too; but he often plays a Jazz bass. I also think the Roundabout recording does well with Bruford's heavy bass drum. They take difference "slices" out of the bass spectrum, so they don't conflict with each other.

Fun fact for Muse fans: Christopher Wolstenholme played a Rickenbacker on Black Holes and Revelations.

Clicked the thumbnail, pressed pause, ran to the comments to say: LEMMY. Cliff is a close second. Now to enjoy the rest of the video haha

Love that SBL is finally featuring Rics! They aren't for everyone but iconic and unique nonetheless.

McCartney. No question. He extracted more variety out of the Rick than anyone. But Geddy Lee was the ultimate representative for the Rick.

Respect to them all I think, all got great sound from the Rickenbacker. You missed Bruce Foxton, the Jam had some great Rick powered bass lines.

Another vote for Bruce Foxton of The Jam. The bassist of the Modfather. Seen live once Nottingham on early 80s. Awesome tone and power.

Pete Trewavas: Marillion I first saw this band in Würzburg, Germany in 1983; they blew me away. I submitted "He Knows You Know" from "Script for a Jester's Tear" as my audition to the Musicians' Institute. I love his tone and style across "Script."

The criminally underrated Jon Camp of Renaissance had a fabulous Ric tone. Check out their chart-bothering 'Northern Lights', or album tracks like 'Ashes Are Burning' and 'Ocean Gypsy' - all while playing bass pedals and singing harmony as well. They didn't have an electric lead guitarist so he had a lot of sonic space to fill, and fill it he did - tastefully, melodically and dramatically. Right up there with Chris Squire I reckon. If anybody knows what he's up to these days I'd love to know! 👍

Both Lemmy and Sir Paul are GOATs in their own rite. Lemmy is widely considered to play his bass more like a guitar player. Did you know Doctors recommended AGAIST a blood transfusion due to his alcoholism and that clean blood might've put his body into shock and killed him (earlier). Nice to get a follow-up with Lemmy included. One of Cliff's biggest influences too

Al Cisneros one of the best rick players but gets so little credit from the people not in the doom scene

Macca's image is with a Höfner, but the best Beatles music features him with the Rick. Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mistery Tour, White Album, Abbey Road... Lots of amazing and cool bass lines!

I love this kind of format. So much fun to watch! Super cool to see all those different Ricky players and hear the similarities and differences in their sounds, as well.

Guys, I love the dynamic between you two. The channel is going from strength to strength. Keep it up.

Loved this take on the different Ric players in music history. You two are just bonkers when you get into conversations lol. I'd LOVE to see more videos like this with different bass models.

a lot of the Rick James bass tracks were actually a Stingray. He mostly held/posed with the Ric because of the name synergy. even in the stage show sometimes he'd be playing, but mostly it was Oscar Alston from the Stone City Band. the sound was more often than not musicman and alembic basses. by now we know Rick played multiple instruments, but he held the bass more than he played it while onstage

Honestly, I would say my answer is divided by decade 1960s: Paul McCartney (The Beatles), Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) 1970s: Paul McCartney (Wings), Geddy Lee (Rush), Chris Squire (Yes), Bruce Foxton (The Jam) 1980s: Cliff Burton (Metallica), Lemmy (Motörhead) 1990s: Scott Reeder (Kyuss), Al Cisneros (Sleep) 2000s: Chris Wolstenholme (Muse), Haruko Haruhara (FLCL - yes this is an anime (which is really good, recommend checking it out if you've not heard of it) but she still uses a Rickenbacker) 2010s: Jesse F. Keeler (Death From Above 1979), Charles Michael Parks Jr. (All Them Witches), Josh Smith (Halestorm)

You guys are seriously making my year with these Rickenbacker videos! I’ve been following since these videos were done with easel and giant pad with marker and you’ve finally done not one but two Rick videos!!!

This has to be one of the best of you two, so much laughter, and please bring back the last minute comedy skits

Roger Glover - Pictures From Home!!! Roger’s sound on Machine Head blew me away as a young teenager learning how to play the bass. Into my sixties now with money to burn so thanks to Roger Glover inspiration, I am a proud owner of a cool Ric! Oh and BTW, I agree with you on Chris Squire’s tone…

Bruce Foxton of The Jam. THE most intense show I ever saw was on their first US tour at the Starwood in Los Angeles. Amazing tone.

Mike Mills on the early albums of REM has that pretty classic 80's Ric bass tone. Check out tracks like South Central Rain or Driver 8; Pure Ric!

Ian should have dropped some Cliff for us. He kills on that tone!

It was about the end of the year in 1971 when I heard "Roundabout" by YES playing over my transistor radio for the first time 📻 ... I never knew that a bass guitar could have so much presence in a song, until I heard Chris Squier and his Rickenbacker 4001 on that recording.

Chris Squire had the greatest tone. Totally cut through and worked so well with the music. Lemmy was a rhythm guitarist.

Geddy's sound simply the best.

Although Rick James did play bass, it was most likely Oscar Alston on that track. He is credited as the only bassist for the album that had "Superfreak."

You guys are best in the KZfaq. I learns lots of things from you guys.lots of love 💕❤️

Great format, thank you both!

Oh my days loving the new format

Chris Squire. :) Make fun of the Ric all you want, but like Geddy Lee and others, this is one sound that people have a very hard time to duplicate. It is not doubled with guitar. It is doubled with bass amp and marshal guitar amp for the drive and high end. Which is one reason the Sansamp was built. A modeler that handles two channels to build the drive in one and the bottom in the other. Rush was one reason I heard the sound. Geddy does play very hard and yes the attack is a big part of what is going on. Two sounds of the Ric. Warm to Cello sound and then a dirty sound. Got to love it, but if you don't want this sound, then don't expect to change it. It's the nature of the beast.

Lemmys performance on Hawkwind Space Ritual is one of the best !

Happy to see that you guys are finally giving space tot alk about the Rick! So many legends played it, so many legendary songs were played on it that's a crime to give so much attention to designer Fodera like basses and not spare a word on the Ricky. You could talk about the stereo output too, it' s a game changer! I recorded a Samba-rock song using stereo, leaving the neck pickup open to sound like a (duh!) bass drum, and the bridge pickup slightly overdriven to join the guitar and the final effect was so cool.

Macca all the way. All of these players were great on the Ric. But Paul McCartney really did amazing things on that bass, made it sing.

I can’t believe you mentioned that Rick James song that he probably didn’t even play on instead of featuring Leon Sylvers of Dynasty and The Sylvers. His Ric bass was all over a lot of 70’s - 80’s R& B hits.

I bought my Rickenbacker because of Geddy Lee. I never got to put a Badass bridge in, but I read where Geddy’s attack is all in his fingers and so that’s how I approached my playing on my Rickenbacker. Especially when we were playing Rush songs. I used the same Rotosound round wound strings and tried to get as close to his sound as I could.

Thanks for featuring 3 of the reasons I picked up the bass. Geddy, Lemme and Cliff 🤘

Love this kind of videos from you guys!!

The one that ruled had to be Geddy hands down I love the sound and tone on roundabout but to each his own Keep it up guys love this stuff

Have an older Ric thanks to my brother. Badges Bridge and Seymore Duncan Bridge pickup. Sounds pretty good to my ears. Geddy lee was my inspiration for a long time. Love your channel

Love the format…more, more more!

Love this format keep it up, bass players are rarely the profile when people remember bands… except for other bass players 😊

Lemmy... cuz he's God

I think you had a point when you said that both Lemmy and McCartney were guitar players as well, because the Rickenbacker has a slightly shorter scale length and lots of Ric players use distortion, almost like a rythm guitarist. If I had to add another player to the hall of fame, it would be Al Cisneros.

Digging this format, Scott. 👍

All phenomenal players. They all gave us so much greatness. 🙏🏼

I love the little clip of you guys just chilling at the end. There should be one of those at the end of every video like this lmao

Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash is a great Rickenbacker player. "The King Will Come" is one track where that ric tone really cuts through

Awesome recognition 9f lemmy and cliff! Thnx! They both ruled so bad....❤

Hey, let's not forget Lou Barlow's work with Dinosaur Jr.

Paul was playing fifths like that since the very, very early Beatle days. he'll still play fifths to this day from time to time, too. but, there is another pretty famous Ricky bass player - Pete Quaife of The Kinks (he also famously played a Hofner, too). Rick James didn't play the bass part on Super Freak. he might have written the riff, though. when I was young and bought the single, I had assumed it was him playing that part, too.

Al Cisneros is a great Rick player. I’ve seen him live quite a few times and his tone is massive

Gotta say, you guys are damn cool. That shot of you guys chillin on the couch at the end was awesome lol

I’m in love with the ending…best one yet. Once again…it is ok to be human and embrace your imperfections as long as you’re grooving.

Mike Rutherford of Genesis had some memorable tones out of his ric on the early stuff

Wow...I love CS's tone on Roundabout!

Jon Camp from Renaissance (super underrated--just listen to "The Vultures Fly High" or "Ashes are Burning") Mike Rutherford from Genesis (I believe he made the first Ric doubleneck 4080 12 for himself by gluing a bass and guitar together). Dave Meros from Spock's Beard (has done a lot of experiments to find that most of the Ric tone comes from hot single-coil pickups in specific positions, which I believe are under the 36th harmonic and just in front of the 24th harmonic.)

I have a 2010 Jetglo 4003. You made me reignite my passion for my Ricky

R.I.P cliff we all love you

Pete Quaife from The Kinks did a fantastic job with the Rickenbacker as well

Long time viewer of SBL... Love this format. Love you two together. Very entertaining. I, too, am a 6 foot, bald, bass player in his late 40's. I eat this up.

I got my first 4003 last week I’ve played guitar for over 40 years, badly. Picked up a bass 4 months ago and love it! The 4003 is an absolutely amazing instrument, purchased because of my hero’s, Lemmy, Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover, Geddy to name few. I found Scott and hopefully I can become a better bassist than I am a guitarist. Great video thanks guys. ✌️

Can't wait for the next time Ian and Mr. Scott Bass Lesson talk about balls.

Lemmy played guitar for The Rockin' Vickers, before he joined Hawkwind.

You guys are great ! My favourite bass players on Rickenbacker are McCartney and obviously Geddy lee . Nice video

the video was fantastic. you guys do a great job, informative and fun. so many great comments! so many outstanding "Ricky" bass players!! with so many subscribers and comments im not sure if this will be even be seen/noticed. but here it goes. .. one of the interesting features about Rick basses (which have many) the one that does not get mentioned often is the adjustable foam "Muff" feature. this can really change/effect the sound of the bass very substantially and distinctly. i just want to quickly point out that this piece of foam was KEY to McCartney's Rick sound. Unlike most "Ricky" players, McMcartney had his foam adjusted as high as possible, muffing the strings to the max, with hardly any sustain at all!!!!!! Along with the heavy old tube compressors at EMI this (to Mccartney's wish) made his "Rick" sound like a tuba. with hardly any low end over tones or ringing or sustain, this enabled geoff emerrick (or who ever was engineering the session) and this was not only his sound used during The Beatles but continued through his work with Wings, to crank the volume of the bass in the mix and get an amazing amount of low end with out causing too much disturbance/imbalance to the mix. and give the bass extreme clarity and causing no problems with mastering, making needles skip on records or bad sound on the radio. i have personally talked to several engineers who have worked with pm, and an ex-employee of rickenbacker to confirm this as true. so for all beatle/mcartney/wings/rickenbacker enthusiasts out there...... this is the secret sauce. besides being a superb bassist, playing with other great musicians and on some of the most exquisite and expansive songs ever written. crank/raise that foam muff. it may sound like turd compared to geddy, lemmy, squire, mills and all the other tremendous rick players. but that is the trick/key to get the sound macca used on his rick. side note: carol kaye used a foam dishwashing sponge to mute/muff her sound. and even when mccartneys original adjustable foam wore down because of age, use, sweat etc. there are pictures of him during "Ram" sessions sticking a small towel under the strings near the saddle to get that extra "muff/tube" sound. thanks to whoever took the time to read this. rock on! crank your muff, and think like a frustrated guitar player or tuba player high on LSD!!!!

If I think of ricks, it's all about The Jam and Yes

There will now be a band called Gasfrog!

Love this format guys...

Great segment 🎉

Geddys sound is the attack, one finger as much as you can! I remember an interview he said he's not good with a puck on bass.

Helmut Hattler from the german band "Kraan" during the 70ies also played crazy stuff on his Rick, worth checking out =)

"Roundabout"... BEST bass tone EVER!!!

Enjoyed watching every thing about the ric I still have my 4001 1980.

Paul D'Amour of Tool played a Chris Squire signature Rickenbacker on the album Undertow. An Iconic Bass tone of the 90's! To answer the question I'd say Squire is the king of the Rick

Now we need who did Wal the best

You can have huge fun playing around with the sound capabilities of a Rickenbacker bass. Yes - keep it in the middle position and see what you get by sweeping through the volume & tone pots for both pickups. Could keep you busy for hours! 😃

If the topic of Paul McCartney's bass playing comes up, I always tell people to listen to Revolver. Paul is a freaking great bass player!

I love the Chris Yes tone. It's iconic.

You dude's make me laugh 😂😂. Keep hammering those bass machines 🎸🎸🎸🎸

Do more of these player comparison videos with different bass models!

The dude who once was in The Jam and later in Stiff Little Fingers had also played a Rickenbacker... Bruce Foxton! (Oops! Took me a moment to remember his name! 😅) And also Barry Adamson from Magazine 🙂 The Clash's Paul Simonon, The Cure's Simon Gallup and Deep Purple's Roger Glover all had used a Ric at some point in their career, too 🙂 My personal favourite Ric player is Geddy Lee; I love his bass sound on that 'Exit...Stage Left' album! 🤩 *Edit:* How could I forget Paul Gray?? Seeing that The Damned have been one of my all-time favourite bands for over 30 years! 😆

Roger Glover was a big influence just listen to Fireball nice solo. Never gets street cred.

I love Ian’s deflection on the fist-fight issue. Classic pacifist conversational judo. Mad props!

That Yes bass tone is so dope.

David Paton of Pilot (oh oh oh its magic) , Ray Bennet of Flash, Jon Camp of Renaissance, and Kasim Sulton on Bat out of hell which was a ric (he also used it on Ra by Utopia where Flea got his hi-er ground lick)