Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

When I use just my bridge pick up I get a lot of nice fundamental tone and with big bottom and very bright - perfect.
When I switch the selector switch to the middle position and play I get a nice mix of both pick ups but there is a slight phase shifting sound when I play, especially if I'm doing fast, long runs up across the neck to the higher notes and back down to the root again. This is my first 4003. Is this normal? Like a very quiet phazer pedal has been applied. Its a new 4003 with stock Ric strings.

I get that phasey sound on my 4001C64 on either or both pickups at and above the 12th fret. I think it's just part of the Rick sound.

I've noticed this with brand new strings on more than one bass. It always seems to go away pretty soon as the strings break in.

I noticed this on my 4002. I thought it was just because the pickups are the original end-to-end humbuckers made specifically for this bass. But wanting more low end, I shunted the inline capacitor to the neck (really, mid) pickup with a push-pull (yes, this bass has .01 capacitors in line to both pickups - see the schematic on the RIC web site). Afterwards, all the phasey swoosh was eliminated.

For a 4001/3, I imagine it is because both pickups are in octave nodes, and the comb filtering of the overtones is the problem. The OP does not say if his 4003 is new enough to have the in/out switch for the .0047 inline capacitor. If it does, try the bass with the capacitor in the circuit, both pickups on full, and see if it still has the phasey sound.

I agree. If you replace the .0047 vintage tone cap on any 4001/3 that has one with a .01 cap, not only will the comb filtering phasing sound go away, but there should be a noticeable kick in the bottom end, making the vintage tone push-pull effectively a "bass boost" control.

This is usually caused by one or both of pickups raised too high. The magnetic flux is influencing the string vibration.
More often it's the neck pickup. Lower it a little and see it there is an improvement. If that doesn't help.lower the bridge pickup a little.