Lucky me!

squirebass · Post by **squirebass** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 3:35 am

Owen,
I have a '71 and a '73 4001 and both are set up with Rotosound roundwounds. There are usually no problems with them at all, its just that the truss rod adjustment is done differently on a 4001 than on a 4003... But you can definitely use Roundwounds on it, Chris Squire made his name doing just that!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 3:44 am

Yeah, I never had any problems with Rotos on Rics, you know what sounds great on these things? the original equipment strings Ric puts on the new ones, I think they are nickle roundwounds. They are a little sweeter sounding than Rotos.
Hey Gene is there any difference from a 71 to a 72?

squirebass · Post by **squirebass** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 6:21 am

Bob, I'm with ya on those Rickenbacker strings, they sound great, and they aren't even very expensive. Only problem I have is that they are hard to find.
Do you mean any difference between my '71 and '73?
Yeah, a TON! The '71 is an early '71, with toaster, checked binding, wide inlays, walnut wings, thumbrest, and that wide flat neck that seemed to get a little narrower when the "skunk stripe" came along. The '73 is a very late '73 (December) and it has the high gain instead of the toaster...

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 7:08 am

ok......more questions on sound -

Does the old toaster neck pickup have a very different sound to a neck high gain of the same era?

I am really curious about all these little factors of the 4001 i just bought, as ive never played nor seen a rick like the one i bought. And seeing as im gonna have to wait ages to get it, id really appreiciate more input -

cheers

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 12:26 pm

This is just my opinion and my experience with a 72 Fretless (which of course sounds different than a fretted bass and it also has flatwounds on it). My bass also has a 1st generation bridge high gain (adjustable pole pieces) but I get most of my tone from the treble pickup (same on all my basses) and get the bottom from the bass pickup, if anything the toasters are just a little less trebly than the high gains and maybe a little more full sounding. I don't hear a huge difference in them from high gains especially with both pickups on. I usually run the treble on full and back off the bass pickup a little depending on the room and music I am playing, you can get a nice full sound that still cuts through like that without any mud, so I guess what I do is get my sound from the bridge pickup and augment the bottom with the neck pickup. I think of them as 4000's with a bass pickup added (which is why I take out the cap on the treble pickup, which although I've never seen the inside of one I doubt very much if they had caps to cut out the bass) The toasters have less output than high gains, but in my 72 it is balanced nicely with the bridge high gain. I think as the years went on the pickups got progressively hotter. But as with all old basses the pickups will vary from bass to bass. I myself love the nineties pickups, they are very powerful and seem to reproduce all the nuances of the basses.