String spacing on 4-strings, S/5s, and 4-to-5s

chrisjin · Post by **chrisjin** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:44 pm

Hi all, long time lurker and first time poster. A little background and then my question. I've played bass for a number of years but never a Ric. I met someone locally a few months ago through another forum who just by chance also happened to have an old 4001 and he let me borrow it. It's far from stock as you can see in the pics. It has EMG Select pickups, a who knows nut, and a bridge from an Aria bass. It had a Badass on it when he got it, not sure why he changed it.

Despite being somewhat of a FrankenRic, I played it for 2 days and liked the feel of it so much more than any other bass I've ever played that I got on the phone and placed an order for a new Jetglo 4003 from The Ric Page in NC.

My question is in regard to the string spacing on 4 & 5 string Rics. One of the main things I like about this 4001 I borrowed is the narrower string spacing. I took some measurements of the basses I have here at home and both my P-bass copy and cheapy Ibanez are around 60mm total span right at the saddles (from the centerline of the E to the centerline of the G), so 20mm between each string. The 4001 is only 47mm, so just under 16mm between each string. I also measured the nut spacing/width, and what I found really interesting was that despite the Ric having the narrowest bridge span, it had the widest nut span (34mm), so I guess that means the Ric has a more consistent string spacing along the entire length of the strings. Viewing the 'shape' of the strings from the bridge to the nut as the bass sits on a stand, they have more of a rectangular shape to them than a trapezoidal shape. I'm not sure how much of a difference that make for my fretting hand, but I really like the narrower spacing for my picking hand.

I was hoping someone here with a stock 4003 would take some measurements of their bridge and nut spacing & overall span so I could compare them to the one I have since I've never played a stock Ric before (and in mm would be great). I would think they would be very close since the string layout on this bass looks 'normal'.

Every 4-string I've ever owned or played at a music store has had the more typical 'P-bass spacing' I mentioned above. I had no idea that there were 4-strings with narrow spacing, and apparently Ric isn't the only manufacturer that makes them since there's an Aria bridge on this bass.

I've been to Jeff Rath's site and seen his 4-to-5 conversions. He mentions his bridge has a 2 1/4" span which converts to just a hair over 57mm, so that would be slightly narrower spacing than I have on this 4001. I've also seen posts about a bridge mod to the 4-to-5s to increase the span to 2 3/8" which would be slightly more than 60mm and closer to what I have here.

I realize that S/5s aren't too common, but if anyone here has one I'd be interested to find out what the measurements are on it, too.

Sorry for the length of the post, and thanks for any help you can offer.

phlemmy · Post by **phlemmy** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:51 pm

I'm of no use to you, but welcome!

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:27 pm

Welcome Chris:

A 4-2-5 4003 would have about 12mm between strings ...

A stock 4003s5 will have a 10.7 mm spacing ...

and you are right a 4001/4003 4 string bass will have bridge spacing of about 2 1/16" ... most basses will have a nice taper from the nut to the body but the 4001/4003 neck has almost no taper ... the 4004 neck has a more traditional taper and it makes a nice 5 string bass ...

pretty much all Ric basses are well made and good players ... ever the ones that were frankensteined ...

chrisjin · Post by **chrisjin** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:55 pm

That's a better way to put it - the Ric has less of a taper from the bridge to the nut. I think I like that about it. Since I'm not the most precise player there's less of a chance of me accidently touching a string I don't want to since it's less crowded down by the nut.

I was mostly curious about the 4-string spacing. I'm not a big 5-string guy, and if I was to ever get one I'd string it E-C.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:11 am

Jeff is right, the 4004 makes an awesome 5 string with great right hand spacing and your left hand will really appreciate the compact four string that lives underneath that B string, it's almost guitar-like. The couple that I've done have 2 1/2"(63mm) bridges and the strings are 15.7mm apart at the saddles. This puts you at 2 1/4" at the back pickup which is the limit of the internal rails. The humbuckers sound good with the B string due to their thicker, meatier sound over the single coils.

chrisjin · Post by **chrisjin** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:25 am

I know 4003 5-strings aren't being made anymore, but I'm confused as to why you'd convert a 4004 from a 4 to a 5 when you could buy a 4004Cii/5 ? I know there's a backlog of orders and they may not be producing any at this moment, but it's still a production model, isn't it?

Or do you mean the conversion is intended for people who already own a 4004 4-string and then later decide they wish they had a 5?

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:35 am

Chris: The 4004Cii/5 has a really wide neck that not all players find comfortable.

As an aside, the Cii/5 is not currently in production and hasn't been for over e year (maybe two), due to the pickups not being wide enough to adequately cover the wide string spacing.

chrisjin · Post by **chrisjin** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:39 am

Ok, gotcha, I wasn't aware of the p/u issue.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:22 pm

Quote ... "I know 4003 5-strings aren't being made anymore, but I'm confused as to why you'd convert a 4004 from a 4 to a 5 when you could buy a 4004Cii/5 ? I know there's a backlog of orders and they may not be producing any at this moment, but it's still a production model, isn't it?"

They only made a few 4004cii5 basses ... they had a nasty flaw ... the pickups were 4 string pickups that had steel rails 2 1/4" wide ... the strings were spaced 2 3/4" ... this meant the B and G strings had a serious dropoff in volume ... and some of us prefer a slimmer neck ... for me the 4004 4 string makes a really nice 5 string bass ...

Rickenbacker has not made a 5 string bass for years ... and they don't seem to be in a hurry to produce any ... so those of us who want a 5 string Rickenbacker have to get a little creative ...

chrisjin · Post by **chrisjin** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:19 pm

Thanks for the info. I thought it was still a production model since it's pictured on their website.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:19 am

When I was new to the forum I used to see Jeff's five string conversions and wonder why anyone would do that to a perfectly good four string. I was playing 4003 models and fenders and had not started my vintage 4001 collection yet. I finally got a 4004 in 2006 and really wanted a five string bad, but the S/5 was too narrow and the Cii/5 was too wide(cue light bulb). I decided a 4004 conversion would be right in the middle and the perfect solution. I sold all of my 4003/fenders and now have only vintage 4001's and 4004 conversions.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:16 pm

yep a 4004 4-2-5 is an almost perfect 5 string bass ...