4004L5 one of a kind

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 4:59 am

Most Mondays I go to a local bar that has a jam night on Monday ... they have several guitar amps and a drum set and an ampeg svt bass amp ... usually my band goes there and plays 5 or 6 songs ... well last night my lead singer had a bad cold so he didn't show ... so we jammed with several others ... the ex-lead player from Marshall Tucker was trying to get me and my drummer to join his band ... which is kinda cool ...

anyway the point is I took my 4004L5 last night and was playing it and then I let my bass tech guy (who knows basses pretty well and is a good player) jam with the 4004L5 for a while ... he usually plays a musicman 5 string with active electronics ... any he loved the 4004L5 ... he loved the neck ... he had no troubl with the spacing of 2 3/8" at the bridge ... he play with his fingers and no picking ... Also it gave me a chance to sit in the audience and see the 4004L and hear it ... I must say the 4004 looks cool on stage and it sounds good as well

So if you Ric players can get one it is a fine instrument ...

Hey John Hall ... keep making the 4004's

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 7:47 am

Before I bridged the caps in my 4001's if I tried to run my older 4001's with the bass pickup partially off, the sound was very thin, with the later 4001's (at least with my SVT) I had no problems with the sound, I did with all of them through small amps however that were not capable of reproducing the bottom of a Ric. I had a B-15 and they sounded terrible through it until I bypassed the caps, the 60's B-15's were very middy sounding. No real highs or lows, that is why they sounded so good with P basses, they made them much more audible, accentuated the mids and cut the lows. Rics with the cap in have no real mids to speak of, it's scooped out by the cap, but the later one have more mids thatn the early ones do.
To me the later ones either have a different cap (which I don't think is the case) or the pickups are much fatter sounding. I have 3, a 72,a 78, and a 79, (and had a 75 with old style appointments and sound) with the cap in the 75 and the 72 were very thin sounding, the other two were much thicker than the older ones.
I have always wondered if it were the caps or the pup's that were the cause of the difference.
Has any else noticed this besides me?
But they all sound better with the caps bypassed IMHO. much more presence and the treble response is not affected at all, just more low mids.
My 4001's still sound different than my 4003's.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:22 am

and of course ... they all sound good through an Ampeg svt ....

The 70's 4001 basses have pickups that are around 8k ohms for high gain ... toasters are between 6 and 8 .... the modern high gain pickups are 11k ohms or more ... my 1990 4003s5 bridge high gain pickup tests around 15k ohms ... that pickup is thick and thunderous ... and lots of mid punch and it still has the highs ...

Some purists want to only use vintage pickups between 6 and 8k ohms and use the bass cut capaciter ... these basses will have less mids and lows and a weaker signal ... the modern high gain pickups without the bass cut capaciter will still have the treble bite but they also have more mids and lows ... and a hotter signal ...

The 4004 pickups are 13k ohms ... because they are humbuckers they loose a little of the highs ... but they have a nice sort of p-bass growl ...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:35 am

I agree with everything you said Jeff, I am not a purist I am a pragmatic working bassist, and I want what sounds best. To me the cap is just an anachronism, like you think stereo and mutes are, haha. But have you ever measured any difference in the pup's impedance between an early 70's 4001 and a late 70's 4001? The difference in sound with the cap between the two is dramatic for me.
I would chalk it up to the components aging, if it weren't for the fact that my 72 and 75 sounded indentical, as did my 78 and 79, and the sound was very different from each other

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:52 am

The cap has always kinda baffled me....i tried out a 75' 4001 - the treble pickup was next to useless it was so thin. Why did Rickenbacker put in the cap way back when anyhow?

Correct me if im wrong, but there is no other bass guitar in the world besides the 4001 that had that electronics layout. And Rick has not included the cap for ages so that proves that its kinda no good.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 9:23 am

I have a 1968 4001 ... it came with the horseshoe and toaster and the cap ... I left in the original pickups and took out the cap ... the bass was dull and lacked the usual Rickenbacker spark ...

So in my opinion the capaciter is best used in 60's basses with 60's pickups and flatwound strings ... also in my opinion high gains sound better without the capaciter ...

I have never tested a late 70's pickup on an ohm meter ... I assume they are 8k ohms ...

I know through the years the pickups went from 6-8k ohms to 8k to 11k and more ... I don't know the exact date ...

I have 2 4003s5 basses 1989 and 1990 ... the high gain pickup on the 1989 is 11k and the 1990 is 15k ... so 1990 was a transition year to the modern pickups ... but there were other transition years as well ...

'70's rics are wonderful basses ... I prefer to remove the bass cut capaciter ... even with this mod they have less mids and lows than 1990 or later 4003's ... I prefer 1986 to present for Ric basses ... but I appreciate the older models as well ...

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 9:32 am

Jeff is your '90 that blue/black 5 string?

I have a white/black trim 91...the bridge pickup is FAR more powerful and much louder than the neck- i have to lower it a bit to even up the volume ..but its still far louder

Is yours pretty much the same? Are the pickups unbalanced?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 10:21 am

yes and yes ...

I bet the 91 sounds awesome ....

I have been playing my '89 as well ... I put a 13k ohm 6 pole high gain in the neck but the 11k bridge pickup screams ... and the neck adds more bottom ... with the neck turned back to 8 or so it makes a nice growlly sound and still has a biting edge ... the blue 1990 is better for finger playing and subtilities than the cream 89 ... both are cool ...

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 10:34 am

Yeah my 4003 sounds great! i do exactly as you, use both pickups and back off the neck a bit. Actually the neck pickups really just "back up" for me....i let the bridge do all the work.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 11:19 am

ya ... the mid punch you get from dialing in that setting is awesome ... the neck pickup adds nice ambience ... I use a similar approach with fender style basses ... I run the mid pickup at 10 and back off the bridge pickup to 7 or so

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Aug 27, 2003 9:05 am

In almost every Ric bass I've owned, the treble pickup was much louder than the bass pickup, I believe somewhere here in a thread JH has stated this is normal. I think of a 4001 as a 4000 with a little help in the bottom end.
I have one bass, a 96 4003 with a very loud bass pup, it sounds great, both are very loud in that bass, it is probably my best sounding bass. It is also the worst lookng, a beat Jetglo, has dents and scratches, but not obvious unless you are close to it. I payed about $500.00 for, with a bad bridge pup, bought a used one from Ebay, from a (98?)4003 I think.It was a good investment. I also run my basses like that, full treble with bass on 7 or 8.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Wed Aug 27, 2003 9:10 am

I guess that the real reason the bridge pickup is louder is because (i dunno why i didnt think of this before) the magnet is clearly much bigger!!!

Bob, are you using MSN messenger?