Figuring out the "Rickenbacker Sound"

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:55 pm

I use the cap mod with my Chromes.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 6:10 pm

I've learned a few tricks in the last few years for getting great sound out of 70's 4001s that don't involve major mods. I just wish I knew them 25 years ago!! It pains me to remember that I let so many otherwise great Rick basses go because I just did not understand them. This bass

looks great today because I NEVER played it. Why? The low end just plain sucked. The E string was anemic just like six or eight others I owned back then. Shunting the cap and fixing the gap under the tailpiece did the trick! Simple things but now I can't put her down. I have rubbed the matte finish to a gloss on the neck and the back of the body. The low end is now clear and defined and the low notes are gratifying to feel and hear.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 6:22 pm

The term "Rickenbacker Sound" has a different meaning to different people ...

For some it is a pre 1980 bass with a .0047 capacitor that eliminates the low frequency response from the bridge pickup, for some it is Ric-o-sound, for some it is the McCartney flat wound sound, for some the Chris Squire treble bite with distortion, for some it is the Geddy fingerstyle sound from Exit Stage Left ...

I prefer the modern 4003 1990 and later with low action and the pickups raised up high ... I run it into a bass pod and then into an ampeg b2r with 4 eminence 10s ... I run all of my volume controls at 10 except for the neck volume which I roll off to about 7 ... and I play with a pick sometimes and I pick back by the bridge like Squire does ...

my Rickenbacker sound comes from the modern overwound pickups, round wound strings, 250k ohm pots, fret buzz, and distortion with a treble bite, mid growl, and a full low end ...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 6:29 pm

I loved my old 1968 4001 ... it had a lot of treble bite but lacked low mids ... it went from trebly to boomy ... the weak pickups, the .0047 capacitor and the 500k ohm tone pots made it hard to work with ...

On my 1973 4001 I rewired it without the capacitor and with all 250k pots and the original 8k ohm high gain pickups ... that was a great gigging bass ... If I still played 4 string basses I would have kept that one ...

jim_morris · Post by **jim_morris** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 6:55 pm

Jeff, I was just checking out the 4003s5 on your website. The jazz pickup stuck in the bridge was a wicked cool idea! You'd never even know it was there unless you looked closely. How does it sound? There seems to be a lot of that cool/crazy stuff on your site.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:00 pm

Actually I got the idea from Bartolini they make a pickup that fits in the mute cavity ... My 1990 midnight blue 4003s5 was a little dark sounding and I also never use the mechanical mute ... So I put a seymour duncan jazz neck pickup in the cavity and wire it into the neck pickup volume control ... the main benefit is it eliminates most of the hum ... it adds a slight amount of treble bite ... when I solo the neck pickup I get 2 pickups and it has sort of a 4005 hollow sound ... on one 4003 bass I put in a toggle so I could run the mute pickup with or without the neck pickup then it really added a nice treble bite ...

I tried the bartolini mute pickup and was not really happy with its tone ... it wasn't bad but it wasn't quite good enough to leave in the bass ...

zoomduck · Post by **zoomduck** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:27 pm

" I set the tone knobs on the bass all the way off " John....thats THE recipe for " fart-o-rama " . Try the ol smily face EQ.....that should make her Fat Bottom and Clang !

highway_star · Post by **highway_star** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:07 am

A couple of other ideas for you to try if you haven't done so by now:

Stainless steel rounds - I use DR Lo-Riders. I get lots of grunt and no fret wear. Nickel rounds seem too thin to me.

Play closer to the neck, especially if you're using a pick. It's okay to take off the rear pickup cover if you need the room.

What other bass are you using? That would help us identify your amp settings. I like using amps with a bit of warmth to them when using Rics. Ashdown, Ampeg, Markbass and Thunderfunk seem to be favorites around here.

rickaddict · Post by **rickaddict** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:15 am

The two solutions I would recommend cost nothing, are reversible, and can be done in around an hour.

It sounds like you hit your strings pretty hard. And you mention that the "farting" mostly goes away when you switch over to the neck pickup. I'll bet if you lower the bridge pickup away from the strings the "farting" will go away. Take both of the big screws on either end of that bridge pickup and back them off a full turn each and see what happens. Do it again if you need to.

The other thing has been mentioned here a couple times already: Bypass the .0047 bass-cut capacitor in the tone circuit. It was originally designed to keep the 4001 from sounding too "bassy" through the amps that were available way back when. You aren't using one of those amps, and my guess is you'll get what you want by removing it from the circuit.

For a description of the procedure, go to fellow Forumite Joey Vasco's website:

www.joeysbassnotes.com

Look under "Rickenbacker Bass Guitar Maintenance and Setup" for the capacitor bypass modification.

When you finish, turn up your amp and rock out. You now have the best bass tone ever!

hieronymous · Post by **hieronymous** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:43 am

Personally, I think you just need to turn the tone knobs full on and do your EQing at the amp. Maybe turn them down a little, but don't turn them all the way off!

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:51 pm

Yeah, tone knobs all the way down and then hitting that hard is the surest way to get a bad sound, unless you're using flats, in which case it probably is the most bass-heavy, anti-treble sound out there, which could be very cool.

The biggest thing I found is this: ONLY play by the bridge on a Ric if you're using a pick. Do NOT finger-pick there unless you finger-pick very lightly, because otherwise, you're gonna overemphasize the treble pickup by a ton, and it's going to distort in a very weird way, causing that "fart" sound. Good if you really wanna get some grind out of a distortion pedal, but not so great if you just wanna play regular stuff. For finger-picking, I'd say play in between the two pickups, or possibly right in front of the bridge pickup. That's what works best for me.

shinynewtoy · Post by **shinynewtoy** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:54 pm

Not in my experience, Rob. I fingerpick by the bridge alot, and it's a great, articulate sound. With Chromes... the string of the Gods.

prog_rockin_metal_man · Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:41 am

I play fingerstyle close to the bridge all the time and I find it sounds great to me. It gives me a nice tight and defined sound and a nice amount of growl. I use Rotos.

I suspect your problem is with your amp settings or the settings on your bass. If you have the cap in your bass setting the tone knobs flat will sound bad and if you scoop the mids on your amp it will also sound bad...I actually got a cap and put it in my bass (gasp!) and these are my amp settings: bass 3 o'clock, low mids all the way up, high mids all the way up, treble 3 o'clock. I use the controls on my bass to change sounds if I need to...I pretty much have two main settings...classic rick clank which is volume and tone knobs full on both pickups and then there's the setting I use for metal and other hard rock which is volume on full for both pickups neck pup tone at 6 o'clock and bridge pup tone at 3 o'clock

I'm a really big fan of the clank and growl of rics so my settings might not help you if your looking for a really bass heavy sound but I get a decent amount of bass with these settings and I have the cap in...it just depends on your preferences I guess.

What my fellow forumites have said is also great advice...I'm just speaking from personal experience, I'm no expert. It took some tweaking to find my sound so don't give up.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:31 pm

"With Chromes... the string of the Gods."

That would make a HUGE difference . . . the tendency of bridge-playing to cause that sound is also largely a result of roundwound strings. Flats are going to sound completely different.

Matthew, the only reason I can think of you not getting it with Rotosounds is if a)you don't play super-heavily or b)you don't have the bridge pickup raised up very close to the strings. Either that or you're just lucky. Or maybe my bass is just quirky. But playing hard by the bridge is the surest way for me to get my bass to "fart" out.

prog_rockin_metal_man · Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:27 am

well I guess I'm just lucky then cause I have a pretty hard attack cause I try to get that Geddy Lee or Chris Squire sound and my bridge pickup is fairly close to the strings...if I'm not careful I hit the polepieces. My bridge pup is a Sergio special though so maybe that might have something to do with it...that or I have the awesomest technique ever!!! haha...not likely though.