Considering modding a 4004Cii/5

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:40 pm

here is a fix for the hb2 pickups ... on my 2020 4-2-5 bass the hb2 pickups only cover 2 1/4" to 2 3/8" ... I went to home depot and bought a steel rod for about $2 and I cut it with my dremmel tool then I placed the rods on top of the pickup and it covers 2 5/8" nicely ... it should cover 2 3/4" as well ...

this solution works ... but it is not pretty ... right now the rods are held in place by the magnetic field ... they could be glued and painted ...

pma · Post by **pma** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:12 am

Jeff, I am also having a blonde moment and not quite getting this. The metal rod just sits on top of the pick held in place by magnetism? This somehow extends the width of coverage?

For cosmetics, why can't the rod be under the pickup cover?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sun May 14, 2006 8:10 am

putting it under the pickup cover would destroy the pickup ... the hb1 and hb2 pickups are put together with a ton of epoxy ...

the hb1 and hb2 pickups have the magnets at the bottom and the magnetic field is transferred up to the strings by way of a steel rail ... these rails are 2 1/4" long by 1/16" thick by about 1/2" high ... by putting the steel rods on top I simply make the top of those rails 2 3/4" wide ... and thereby they can now cover a string spacing of 2 3/4" ...

The next step would be to put a plastic cap on it and clean up its appearance ...

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Sun May 14, 2006 8:37 am

Or paint the magnetic steel rods black, then you couldnt see them on top of the pickup cover.

incubus2432 · Post by **incubus2432** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:51 am

Jeff, do you have any spare/broken HB-2's for practice? Since that is just a cover maybe it can be groove cut with a grinder to inlay the rods at least partially. There should be some room between the coil winding and the cover to do this. Just a thought.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sun May 14, 2006 12:29 pm

Sorry ... I had one broken hb1 pickup a while ago ... but it is now dismantled ... I had to take a hammer and chisel to dismantle it ...

the good news is I can put a single rail on top of a ric high gain ... this is possibly a way to get a 2 3/8" string spacing on a 4003s5 ...

or another idea is to put a t-bird pickup in a 4003/4004 bass ...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:24 pm

ok my solution to the 4004CII5 problem is about $2 of steel ... somebody else did it by changing the bridge ...

the problem with this approach is you have tight string spacing on a fat neck ... but you do get good volume on all 5 strings ...

pma · Post by **pma** » Thu May 18, 2006 11:04 am

Hard to tell from the pix how tight the string spacing is relative to the neck. Any way to get a close up of the neck near the body and at the nut to better see this? Can you tell what the actual spacing is?

What is the make of the bridge?

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Thu May 18, 2006 11:48 am

The narrow spacing on a wide neck looks odd.

incubus2432 · Post by **incubus2432** » Thu May 18, 2006 12:23 pm

I agree that the spacing odd and I think the bridge is a Kahler.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu May 18, 2006 1:54 pm

the Bridge is a kahler ... it goes from 2 1/4" to around 3" ... these bridges are a little quirky to adjust ... but they really have a good effect on tone and sustain ... I have the kahler on a 2020-5 and a 2030-5 ...

The blue bass belongs to David Ochal ... he is happy with his mod because he now has good volume on all 5 strings ... I am still working on options for a modification of the hb2 pickups ... Steve Cooper and I were discussing options ... but so far I have achieved good results at increasing the coverage distance a full 1/2" on the hb2 pickups ... and the tone of the pickup remains the same ...