• Guys, we've spent considerable money converting the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and we have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!

Mick Ralphs Bad Company tone

Jim Jones

New member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
500
I though that I'd read he used a Junior and an old Esquire on the 1st album?
 

Velvetgeorge

New member
Joined
Jan 27, 2009
Messages
103
A favorite tone of mine on "Can't Get Enough", likely a simple formula too. Great guitar > cool amp > (don't discount the affect of open G tuning on this track) > cool old mic, not too close. Recipe for big tone IMO.
That break in the arrangement for the big chords really drives it home for me.

George
 

spidey

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 21, 2003
Messages
3,265
Loved Mick's playing in the 70s Bad Co. Awesome wide slow lazy vibrato.
Great tones too. Yes he used LPs, Juniors, Strats and all sorts with Bad Co. Seemed to remember he used MXR pedals, Marshalls sometimes Ampeg amps!
 

lpnv59

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
10,725
On the first Badco album, the open C tunes "Movin On" & "Can't Get Enough" were done with a '57 Esquire. Its the same guitar Mick Ralphs used on the Mott album playing "All The Way From Memphis", and one that he still tours with. In the old days it had a humbucker set into the middle position. The original bridge, plate and pickup was left untouched. I assume it was wired like a standard Tele. Junior was used for solos and thicker chords like on the song "Bad Company" and "Rock Steady". In interviews he said he used a Marshall. Live backline were Ampeg V4 stacks and SVT/V4B's for the bass rig.
 
Last edited:

ES335TD

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2002
Messages
374
School me on this - I always heard he used some type of open C tuning on a lot of those hits. It soes sound like a Les Paulbridge pickup with the tone controls rolled off to about midway, give or take.
 

RAB

Active member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
2,122
Fascinating...no wonder I could never get those tunes to sound quite right!
 

lpnv59

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
10,725
Open C uses the same fingering as open G. If you tune open G with a capo at the 3rd fret, it'll sound similar. But open C is really chimey sounding with that wide open first chord.
 

Wilko

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Mar 11, 2002
Messages
20,854
I never paid that much attention to what he was using 'cause I just assumed he was always playing a Les Paul. Tunings? cool info.

Thanks for that.

Way underrated guitarist because he's rarely "flashy".
 

Bruce R

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
1,029
Great thread, Greg. I listened to Kossoff so much during my formative years that my vibrato was very fast, but when I heard Mick's "wide, slow, lazy vibrato" (starting on his Mott stuff) it turned my head. I've been trying to slow my vibrato down ever since!

I have also heard that he recorded at a very high volume, as well. LPNV59 nailed it.
 

zombiwoof

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2003
Messages
3,565
That open C tuning is cool, but you have to use light strings on the inside strings to do it. He talked about it in a guitar mag a few years ago. You tune the outside "E" strings DOWN two steps to C, tune the 5th string up a step and a half to C, and tune the remaing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings up a full 2 1/2 steps. This gives you the equivalent of a third fret barre "C" chord for the middle four strings when you hit an open chord, and the outside C strings are lowered as drone strings. The inside strings have higher tension, as they are tuned up a fourth, and the outside strings are slack. He said he used a .009 set, but I think you'd have to put heavier strings on the two outside strings, as the first and 6th strings in a .009 set get way slack when tuned down two steps. I tried it once, and it sounded just like the studio guitar sounds on those songs where he used that tuning. I did end up putting an .011 on for the first string, and a .050 for the sixth (although he really didn't hit the 6th string much from what I hear on those songs, at some point you can hear that drone of the low C on the open chords, but I think he just avoided hitting the low C very often). The combo of the tight inside strings and slackened outside strings gives that cool sound that tuning has.

One note: I just saw a recent Bad Company reunion show on TV the other night from a couple of years ago, and he didn't use the C tuning at all. I could see he did what a lot of guys do, he played it in regular tuning, doing the chordal licks on just the 2-3-4 strings, to make playing the solo part easier, and they had a second guitar player playing full chords to fill out the sound.

Al
 

lpnv59

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
10,725
ZW, Its been a couple of years. But I remember when Mick was showing me and Johnny A his old Esquire backstage. It had the 5th & 6th string tuned in unison. I could be remembering it wrong though. But it was a gas checking out the same guitar I saw him using on the last Mott tour in '73. I think the 1st Bad Company album was already in the can and he was fulfilling his tour committment.

BTW, Mick told me he lurks around here alot....So everybody wave. He is one of the nicest people. :dude:

normal_mralphs3.jpg
 

spidey

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 21, 2003
Messages
3,265
ZW, Its been a couple of years. But I remember when Mick was showing me and Johnny A his old Esquire backstage. It had the 5th & 6th string tuned in unison. I could be remembering it wrong though. But it was a gas checking out the same guitar I saw him using on the last Mott tour in '73. I think the 1st Bad Company album was already in the can and he was fulfilling his tour committment.

BTW, Mick told me he lurks around here alot....So everybody wave. He is one of the nicest people. :dude:

normal_mralphs3.jpg

Cool stuff lpnv59! Hi Mick if you're reading!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully coming to see you in Leicester with your blues band.
 

zombiwoof

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2003
Messages
3,565
ZW, Its been a couple of years. But I remember when Mick was showing me and Johnny A his old Esquire backstage. It had the 5th & 6th string tuned in unison. I could be remembering it wrong though. But it was a gas checking out the same guitar I saw him using on the last Mott tour in '73. I think the 1st Bad Company album was already in the can and he was fulfilling his tour committment.

BTW, Mick told me he lurks around here alot....So everybody wave. He is one of the nicest people. :dude:

normal_mralphs3.jpg

I got that info from an article in a guitar mag, where MR described how to tune for that C tuning. And, as I said, there are certain places in those studio tunes that used the C tuning that you can hear the low C droning when he hit a full open chord, and it sounds kind of sloppy in pitch, as a detuned string would. However, you could tune the bottom 2 strings to the same pitch and it wouldn't make much difference, since he tended to avoid hitting the bottom string most of the time (similar to the way most people use open G, avoiding the lower D string most of the time, which is why Keith Richards just took that string off on his G tuning guitars, and played it as a 5-string). Personally, I liked the low C when you hit an open C chord, it just made the chord sound huge with the difference between the tight inside four strings and the slack outside two. Maybe Mick even changed the way he did it over time, as the slackened low C can go out of tune if you hit it too hard (which is why I put a heavier string there).

Either way, it's a cool tuning, when I set up my Tele with it, I played around with it for some hours, making up my own riffs, and played it at a jam where it sounded really nice. I believe he was inspired by an old folk acoustic C tuning, Page used a similar tuning at times on acoustic.

Al
 

Tex Ecco

New member
Joined
Sep 28, 2003
Messages
304
I had the pleasure to meet Mick in 2004 when he played with Ian Hunter's Rant Band at a tiny village hall near Shrewsbury here in the UK.

We arrived mid afternoon to have a picnic on the lawn behind the hall.
It was a nice sunny day and when the band arrived they came out and had a glass of wine with us...such great people, no overblown egos.

Anyhow we went backstage after the gig and chatted about Mick's Les Pauls. He was mainly using R8's at that time, and never moved from the bridge pick up. He said how much he liked how the Burstbucker #3 sounded. He said he was always modifying his guitars, changing pickups and pots, but he was sticking with the BB3, for now at least. The colour of those R8's were something else....he had about 3 of them in a guitar rack just off stage, they all looked stunning.

That night he was playing through an old mic'd up Holland valve amp. His tone was exquisite. He played the Esquire on a couple of numbers and that sounded great too.

Here's a few pics of that nite....wish I had taken more !

Mick_Ralphs_small02.jpg

MR_Esquire.jpg

IH_MR_Small.jpg
 

lpnv59

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
10,725
Wasn't Good Lovin Gone Bad done in an open tuning as well?

GLGB is standard tuning. "Honey Child" was the open C and sounds like its possibly could've been recorded with the Esquire. "Feel Like Making Love" & "Simple Man" were standard with a low drop D.
 
Last edited:
Top