Chris Squire of YES Talks a bit about his basses

[tim]

Interesting interview.

Apropos of recent threads about Ric basses there's one bit where he says
that Ric came and weighed his bass and measured the pickups when they
were making his signature bass, but after all that it doesn't sound at
all like his.

I also love the way he's taped up the controls on one of the basses
because it was too easy to get something wrong...

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bsGjl6kP0SI#!

[papajohn]

Great interview! I have a '74 Ric just like his but I don't think any amount of refinishing is going to get me to sound like him! ;-)
Love to get my hands on a Mouradian! saw a few on eBay here and there but I'd have to remortgage the house! Really liked the Steve Howe portion too. I got into Line 6 Variax some years back. Got an acoustic and a bass. Great stuff if you're in a cover band doing a wide variety of tunes. The acoustic is great for going through a couple different acoustics and twelve strings. Even has a decent banjo tone for those Deliverance gigs. The bass is really cool. Has the typical electric tones but also has a really nice acoustic sound and one of them actually comes close to an upright. I love the eight and twelve string bass tones on it. Played with a couple of bands that covered some Cheap Trick tunes. Nothing like slamming out the 12-string bass lines to "I Want You To Want Me" at last call at a bar on a Sat night. Man! What a response!

[tim]

Oh yeah a Mouradian. I played one several years ago, and even though I wasn't really impressed with the body shape I loved the playability and the attack of the Barden Pickups. But the $1100.00 (used) price was way out of my league at the day. So.....

But I've got a couple customs since then that have mroe than compensated for it.

Speaking of the line 6. Those are amazing amps. I've dallied around with them as well, but to me - I can't say it was too complicated, but rather had too many possibilities to choose from.. Maybe some day when i have enough time on my hands to do nothing but experiment, I'll get one. But until then, I suppose I'll settle with my Peaveys and Ampegs.

[papajohn]

Sorry, Tim! My screw-up! When I mentioned the Line 6 I should have said I have an acoustic and a bass guitar. I just looked over my post and I guess I was a little misleading. I have a Variax 700 acoustic/electric and a Variax 700 bass. Had some Line pedals for awhile. Haven't yet gotten any Line 6 amps yet but maybe someday. For some reason, I've always been a Carvin user. Had an Eden W800 for awhile but to be honest, I wasn't all that impressed, at least not for that kind of money! As for the Mouradian, I remember when Chris first went to them. Very unique body style for the time. I like basses with weird body styles. Saw a few on eBay but like you, the multi-thousand dollar price tag said no way.

[tim]

Well, speaking of Variax, I've always lusted for a James Tyler bass. I don't think he produces them anymore at least, I didn't find any on their website. But they do have quite a following, and there is a dedicated facebook page for them. But any how, wasn't Tyler a pioneer of the Variax systems?

[papajohn]

He either is or was very much a part of the whole Variax line. If I recall, Steve Howe mentioned a six-string Tyler was responsible for. Howe was very impressed with the whole idea of basically being able to play any type of guitar with the flick of a switch. I got hooked on Variax after a trip to GC one day with Pete from Connected. They had a Variax 700 acoustic/electric plugged into a Bose L1. God, it was beautiful! Very tricky to eq. Seems to work best plugging it into the return on the effects loop of an amp or direct to the board. Love the bass. A great tool if you're playing in aGB or cover band. I can go from a PB to a Jazz to a MM or Ric. Also has a couple acoustic tones. Got a couple of funky synth sounds that worked well doing Lady GooGoo stuff or Black Eyed Peas. Got an 8 and 12 string sound that is killer doing Cheap Trick stuff. Things eats batteries like crazy so I
got a couple power packs for them, I can't swear to it but I think Line 6 actually discontinued their bass line.

[tim]

i wonder what would happen if you hooked up a Variax to a Line 6 effect and set them both to "Jazz Bass?" Would it sound like a Jazz bass on steroids?

[papajohn]

I did set it one time to Jazz bass, into the pedal board set for Ampeg V-4 head with an 8-10 cab and ran it through a rather potent pa. My chest felt like I was in the emergency room with a couple pads and someone yelling "Clear".

[tim]

LOL!