Rush singer and bassist Geddy Lee talked about all things bass in a recent interview with Guitar World. The bassist spoke about the time he bought his first bass and how he aimed to emulate Yes’ sound and failed.
Lee recalled seeing his current bass for the first time on TV, played by Paul McCartney. Although he bought the same bass guitar as the Beatle used, his main inspiration was no other than Yes’ Chris Squire.
During the interview, the bassist made it clear that he falls into the first group of the lovers and the haters of the Rickenbacker 4001, also revealing that the signature sound of Squire made him buy the bass. He said:
“Let me say that I do love the sound of the Rickenbacker, but I will qualify that by saying that I love the sound that Chris Squire got out of it – and that’s the sound that made me want to buy one. When we signed our first record deal in 1974, I got my share of our small advance, and the first thing I did was buy a Rickenbacker. I think I paid about $400 for it. Much to my dismay, when I plugged it in, it didn’t sound like Chris Squire!”
After getting disappointed for not sounding like the Yes bassist, Lee eventually figured out how Squire made his bass sound like his signature way. He continued the story:
“I found that all through the years I used the Ricky: it had a great trebly sound, but I had a hard time getting the right amount of bottom end unless I used the Rick-O-Sound feature, which enabled you to send each pickup to a different source. I used to send the bass pickup to a bass amp and the treble pickup to an amp that was set up for that twangy sound. It took quite a lot of work to get it to sound like a classic Ricky. It wasn’t easy to get the sound I wanted!”
Lee took place on the same stage with Yes members in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the honor of the late Yes bassist. The rocker shared that it was bittersweet for him since Squire was his ‘hero,’ while also noting there was a hole during the performance that no one other than Squire could fill.
Below, you can see the tribute performance.
