Trebel pickup "peaking out" speakers

ira · Post by **ira** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 5:26 pm

Hey guys, its been a while since i posted but i am having a problem with my 4003. Whenever i really play hard my speakers peak out and give that fuzzy/farting sound. I switched between the pickups and it dosnt happen with the neck (bass) pickup, and only happens with the bridge (trebel) pickup. I dont think its my speakers going because the rig is fairly new.

I think it may have something to do with the bridge pickup not being set up right, i recently got it replaced because the origional pickup died and i dont think the tech put the pickup at the right heights. well the question is could the pick up being at the wrong height be causing this and how should i correct it? Any other suggestions on what i can do to rememdy this problem?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 7:31 pm

this could be an overhead problem ... to get a modern bass sound you get an amp with a lot more power than you need ... in essence you have a lot of overhead ... a good pa works this way ...

The modern 4003 pickups are hotter .. like most modern basses ... this can give an overloaded sound especially if you use effects or preamps, or distortion devices ... I use a line 6 pod ... I was using a 4001 with vintage pickups ... But when I played my 4003 through it the pickups were too hot for the patches ... so I remade the patches to compensate. Pretty much all Ric single coil pickups have a little bit of a dirty sound.

I use 1/4 pound seymour duncan pickups on my fender p and j basses these are hot pickups as well I had the same problem with these ...

I am sure if you plugged you Ric into a new GK, SWR, or similar amp with a big cabinet 4, 6, or 8 10" speakers ... it would be clean ...

I am a big fan of clean distortion ... I use a line 6 pod into a medium sized amp and \mike that into a big PA with lots of overhead ... The pod gives me some distortion and there is some speaker breakup ... I set it to get just the right amount and then I run it into a 6000 watt pa that can reproduce this sound cleanly at any volume ...

ira · Post by **ira** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:38 pm

i am using a hartke 3500 putting out 240 watts into a 150w 1x15 and a 150w 2x10. So you think that a better cab setup may be the solution?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 4:45 am

That's a pretty good setup .... try another bass in the same amp ... then try the Ric in a different amp ... the 4003 bridge pickup soloed will distort a little ... the modern 4003 pickups are overwound making them hotter and thicker sounding ...

If you want a really clean sound use a 4004 bass ...

Or maybe you have an electrical problem of some sort ...

I have an ampeg b3 amp that is 150 watts ... If I play too loud it will clip and make a god awful sound ... like it is shorting out or blowing a speaker ... my ampeg b2 with 350 watts has the same feature but it can be turned off and of coures there is more head room ...

jeff_ulmer · Post by **jeff_ulmer** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 6:54 am

You may just have the pickup too close to the strings. I couldn't use my 4003 from the factory with a (high end) DI as it would clip. Try backing it off a little and see if that helps.

relder65 · Post by **relder65** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 7:03 am

Hi Ira,

I am playing my 4003 through a similar rig; a Hartke 3500 with a Hartke VX 4x10. I haven't run into that problem, but recently lowered my bridge PU to even it up with the output of the neck PU. Might be worth a try...