'76 4000 Mods

dehand · Post by **dehand** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:52 pm

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?

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:58 pm

There is no such thing as a 4 pole toaster. They are all 6 pole. It is cool the way it is. IMHO!

dehand · Post by **dehand** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:59 pm

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

Thanks again for your collective expertise!

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:03 pm

Cavity graffiti is unique to an instrument. It appears that yours was definitely a 4000.

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:29 pm

That "graffiti" is half the fun of owning a Rick!

Welcome, Dan. Great bass there - white.... mmmmm.

gareth · Post by **gareth** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:54 pm

Here's my Azureglo 4000. I's going to get a RIC horseshoe in there in a couple of weeks. The thing has a monster sound, quite unlike the 4001's or the 4004LK.

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:46 am

Nice one, Gareth! You don't see many AZ's.

That was a very clean routing job on yours, Dan! Just the bare minimum of wood removed.
If you're happy with the sound & feel, I'd leave it as is.

dehand · Post by **dehand** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 6:26 am

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 direct.

It's those two things that had me thinking that perhaps the pickups and the wiring could use a refresh.

henry5 · Post by **henry5** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 7:26 am

Gareth, was that the ebay one? I keep wondering whether I should get an AZ refin on my 4000...

gareth · Post by **gareth** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 7:40 am

Shaun,

I did get that one off eBay from a forum member about a year ago. It fell into the category of "couldn't afford it but couldn't resist it" that all the other basses I have do.....

If you like AZ, have it done. At least I'll know that there's at least one more out there.

wints · Post by **wints** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 8:36 am

That white 4000/1 is cool Dan. I have seen very few of them in this colour. Leave it as is...

That AZG is nice too Gareth. It should sound huge with a RI HS in it.