Stupid Question: Double Neck Rickenbacker

[New Digital Man]

Well not really and he hasn't used amps for many years, DI's everything!

[EagleMoon]

Well not really and he hasn't used amps for many years, DI's everything!

 

He has used Orange amps on the last three tours.

 

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Geddy_Lee_to_Play_Orange_Bass_Amps_on_Tour

Edited March 29, 2015 by EagleMoon

[MMCXII]

As stated modern technology can transform an ordinary six string electric into,acoustic,bass,12 string or any sound you like all in a small box.I use to have a double 12/6 guitar ,a Ibanez copy of the Jimmy Page model.It was a very cumbersome instrument to play not to mention keep in tune.Now i have one of those boxes that transforms my six string.It would be great to see the doubles of Alex and Ged back on stage one more time but then we would have to bus in Neil's wind chimes,tubular bells,gongs,etc( which can all be triggered by a drum pad these days).I believe the double Ricks were custom orders and were not something that you could walk into a store and grab off the rack.Anyway Rick Neilson has the Rush guys all necked out with his Hamer 5 neck monster.

 

I don't know anything about guitars or these little boxes but I'm trying to wrap my brain around how something can make a guitar sound like it has twice as many strings..??

modern technology my friend.

 

Al's Les Paul model with the Piezo pickups allow him to make the Les Paul sound like an acoustic. In years past he would have an acoustic mounted on a stand. That along with his almost endless amount of gizmos and effects to alter his sound would allow him to closely resemble the 12 string electric. For mortals such as myself, I hit my stereo chorus pedal when playing softer more acoustic-y parts so it takes more sound 'space' like a 12 string would. But I'm sure Al has more tools to do that than my simple stereo chorus box.

 

Bottom line is that Al doesn't have to use the double neck to be able to produce the 12 string electric sound. And it probably would be easier to stomp on a switch that to switch necks all the time in the song. Al's a pro...I have confidence he can figure this out.

 

Interesting thanks !

[New Digital Man]

I know he endorses Orange Amps now but I don't hear it in his tone or see it on stage, maybe he uses a little of the amp in his mix which is still primarily a cocktail of Avalon U5 Di box, Sansamp RBI(the main culprit), Palmer speaker simulator and apparently Orange amp! Edited March 30, 2015 by New Digital Man

[EagleMoon]

I know he endorses Orange Amps now but I don't hear it in his tone or see it on stage, maybe he uses a little of the amp in his mix which is still primarily a cocktail of Avalon U5 Di box, Sansamp RBI(the main culprit), Palmer speaker simulator and apparently Orange amp!

 

He uses the Sansamp RPM now, which is a more highly programable version of the RBI. That's what gives him the dirt and grit. I can understand having 'some' distortion but I think his live sound would be much better if he would cut back the gain on the RPM and go for a purer tone. Too much overdrive between the bass and guitar just ends up sounding like a sonic mess. Alex has done the same thing with guitar tone. Way too much distortion the last few years.

[JARG]

As stated modern technology can transform an ordinary six string electric into,acoustic,bass,12 string or any sound you like all in a small box.I use to have a double 12/6 guitar ,a Ibanez copy of the Jimmy Page model.It was a very cumbersome instrument to play not to mention keep in tune.Now i have one of those boxes that transforms my six string.It would be great to see the doubles of Alex and Ged back on stage one more time but then we would have to bus in Neil's wind chimes,tubular bells,gongs,etc( which can all be triggered by a drum pad these days).I believe the double Ricks were custom orders and were not something that you could walk into a store and grab off the rack.Anyway Rick Neilson has the Rush guys all necked out with his Hamer 5 neck monster.

 

I don't know anything about guitars or these little boxes but I'm trying to wrap my brain around how something can make a guitar sound like it has twice as many strings..??

 

Those magic little boxes can do all sorts of things to the input signal they get from the guitar. There's a group of effects called modulation effects that, as the name implies, modulates the frequency of the input signal. With frequency modulation comes pitch detuning, which takes the input signal and alters the frequency anywhere from a very tiny amount to a really big amount.

 

Here's a close-up of a 12-string guitar:

 

http://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/53028/53028,1153950622,1/stock-photo--string-guitar-1598173.jpg

 

Note that the top two sets of strings in this pic are the same diameter and the rest are a thicker string paired with a thinner string. The strings that are the same diameter would be tuned to the same note, whereas the other pairs of strings would be tuned with the thinner one being an octave higher than the thicker one.

 

Tuning guitar strings is an inexact science and one of the reasons a 12 string guitar sounds so full is due to pitch variations between the pairs of strings. Even the pairs of strings that are tuned to the same note will have slight variations between them (or certainly will soon after the guitar is played).

 

An electronic way to simulate pitch variation is to use frequency modulation to produce pitch detuning. I've never owned a box that can make a 6 string sound like a 12 string, but if I were to design such a box, I'd have the circuitry "listen" to the input signal, figure out which note is being played on which string, and then either duplicate that note with a slight pitch detune, to simulate a note played on one of the pairs of strings that are tuned to in unison, or play an octave of that note -- with a slight pitch detune -- to simulate a note that was played on one of the pairs of strings tuned an octave apart.

[Rushman14]

I totally expect to see both doublenecks this tour.

[Digital Dad]

I totally expect to see both doublenecks this tour.

 

And I fully expect back braces for our heroes up front.