Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm more than happy with the feel, but the sound seems to have changed a bit. Hard to describe, but it's lost some of it's "Rick-ness" in the tone. It just sounds a little duller than it used to be, kind of like it needs new strings, even when it has new strings! It's also very noisy when recording ...

FYI, here is the writing in the original routing. Is this just the guy who inspected it?

Thanks again for your collective expertise!

Now my challenge is what to do from here. It is a great bass to play, but needs some TLC. Do I change out the pickup to a 4 pole toaster or other Ric neck pickup (even if that would mean more routing)? New wiring harness? Leave it alone?
http://archives.rickresource.com/oldattachments/127826.jpg

Here are some pics, and based on my recent research and looking at what I found it looks pretty clear this was an, uh, odd modification http://archives.rickresource.com/clipart/sad.gif
Pickup appears to be a guitar toaster, routing looks to have been done later, etc.

http://archives ...

My '76 4000 has been modified so that it has two pickups. I got it in '78 and it already had the neck pickup at that time (toaster style). The pickups, nobs, switch, etc look exactly like a 4001, but the body and neck are more what you would expect from a 4000.

Could the factory have made these ...