Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This is the moddified 4001 tailpiece assembly I have on my new 4003S5.

cassius987 wrote:I did a rough comparison of the pickup spacing on this bass compared to a 4003, a 4002 and a Jazz Bass. I just drew vector art over photos I pulled from the net and compared the length from nut to bridge to the length from nut to center of pickup, so these are surely not perfect numbers.

4003: 74-75% (neck), 87.5% (bridge) [aren't these both octave positions? neat]
4002: 82.5% (neck), 93% (bridge)
Jazz Bass: 81% (neck), 92% (bridge)
4003AC: 81% (neck), 91% (bridge)

Limitations: I could have chosen bad representative photos, especially if the camera lens was angled a bit. But I still think the results are likely to be accurate if not precise. As most of us could tell just by looking, the 4003AC looks a lot like a 4002 or Jazz Bass in pickup spacing. I'm excited to hear it.

You got it amazingly close from memory, pictures and your graphics program. My 4002 measures out with my yardstick from the fretboard edge of the nut to the center of the pickups 83% for the neck pickup and 93% for the bridge pickup, but these were hand-routed pickguards, and could possibly have variance from instrument to instrument. It appears you measured a "60's" Jazz bass, as the bridge pickup of a "70's" Jazz bass is marginally closer to the bridge.

When I measured for pickup placement on my custom fanned fret bass, I centered a RIC humbucker in the neck position between the traditional Fender and Rickenbacker placements, and the bridge pickup between the 60's and 70's position, which is the 7th partial positions, instead of the 6th partial of the Fender neck and the 8th partial of the Rickenbacker.

Very nicely done, Dane. Retains the retro look, but allows for palm muting and easy intonation.

iiipopes wrote:When I measured for pickup placement on my custom fanned fret bass, I centered a RIC humbucker in the neck position between the traditional Fender and Rickenbacker placements, and the bridge pickup between the 60's and 70's position, which is the 7th partial positions, instead of the 6th partial of the Fender neck and the 8th partial of the Rickenbacker.

If I'm not mistaken the equidistant point between the 4003 neck and 4003 bridge positions is basically the Jazz neck position.

75% of 33.25 -> 24.93
87.5% of 33.25 -> 29.09
Delta = 4.16
1/2Delta = 2.08

24.93+2.08=27.01
27.01/33.25 -> 81% (Jazz neck, give or take)

This is probably why my "mid" pickup on my 4001FL, which is centered between the two traditional Ric positions, sounds so "traditional Fender" to me.

jps wrote:

Korladis wrote:

cheyenne wrote:Needs more distortion.

Why the eyeroll?

It's an affliction from his mother's side of the family.

cassius987 wrote:This is probably why my "mid" pickup on my 4001FL, which is centered between the two traditional Ric positions, sounds so "traditional Fender" to me.

Indeed.

Holding one without hardware, during one of my recent visits to RIC.

You look very happy Joey!

ram wrote:You look very happy Joey!

I could live in the RIC museum.

rickenbrother wrote:

ram wrote:You look very happy Joey!

I could live in the RIC museum.

What kind of food do they serve?

rickenbrother wrote:Holding one without hardware, during one of my recent visits to RIC.

Looking at that pic, I can see that the new tailpiece/bridge assembly has EIGHT retaining screws? While you were there, did you get a better look or any pics of the new tailpiece/bridge assembly? I also see that the AC production model has two truss rods, as well as access points to remove them.

aceonbass wrote:Looking at that pic, I can see that the new tailpiece/bridge assembly has EIGHT retaining screws? While you were there, did you get a better look or any pics of the new tailpiece/bridge assembly? I also see that the AC production model has two truss rods, as well as access points to remove them.

I could be wrong, but I think this is an unfinished prototype because they decided to go with just one trussrod on this model.
I'm hoping they eventually go with one rod on all the models. They say the new bloodwood fingerboards are super rigid and stable.
I didn't take pics of the new tailpiece, but from seeing the design, the tailpiece lift issue has definitely been resolved and access to intonation screws will be easy. IIRC, there will also be string to string space adjustment with the roller saddles. I think the new tailpieces will most likely be standard equipment by next year and they will be available to buy as a direct replacement of the old ones with no modifications. This is the reason it has taken so long to finally go into production. They wanted them to also easy to install on existing 4003'. I think they fit the 4001 as well.

jps wrote: What kind of food do they serve?

Well, for breakfast, we usually just go to a restaurant down the road.

And right behind Joey's left ear is the 2030GF that used to belong to Jeff Scott!

aceonbass wrote:

Korladis wrote:

cheyenne wrote:Needs more distortion.

Why the eyeroll?

Because there is already so much distortion in his bass playing that it kills any tone the bass may have.

Completely disagree. Rickenbackers don't sound the same as other basses with distortion. They sound much better.

Do you think that guitarists shouldn't play with distortion, either?

Korladis wrote:

aceonbass wrote:Because there is already so much distortion in his bass playing that it kills any tone the bass may have.

Completely disagree. Rickenbackers don't sound the same as other basses with distortion. They sound much better. Do you think that guitarists shouldn't play with distortion, either?

I like distortion on bass. Muse's Hysteria comes to mind. But all of the time? Nope.