Modding a 4003 to approximate 4001C64S

paul_yan · Post by **paul_yan** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 7:06 pm

Enjoy this "The Beatles and their Rickenbacker guitars" article by Mr. Björn Eriksson too.

sherekhan · Post by **sherekhan** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:54 am

thanks Paul, really good stuff!

This is the response I got from Rickenbacker on the upgrade issue:

"The pickups are part of it. The other part is the wiring harness and this is not yet available. Unfortunately we do not have a repair shop and I am not familiar with the DC area, but if you check around I'm sure you should be able to find someone that can do the work. Swapping out pickups is fairly simple."

As you can see, I was also asking whether they endorsed any service shops in the DC area. I wonder how much of a sonic difference the wiring harness makes...hmm, interesting stuff.

olivercat · Post by **olivercat** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 9:23 pm

I've got (what turns out to be) a jetglo 4003S, and made some of the modifications that Alexis is asking about. It was sold to me as a 4001, so I thought "I'll make it look more like a 4001". I replaced the neck pickup with a toaster one (which required some new routing) and got a new scratchplate. I also had it resprayed to a fireglo and fitted vintage knobs. I didn't bother with the zero fret - I've got one on my Hofner and Jeff and Owen are right, it does very little.

I haven't had the courage to have the headstock wings stained in case it didn't come out right.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 4:12 am

I say put in the toaster ... it is a cool mod ... and totally reversable ...

olivercat · Post by **olivercat** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 8:23 pm

Yep....And as long as you use flatwounds and play through a valve amp you'll have about 90% of Macca's sound...