Pawn shop 4001 should I invest in it?

[johnallg]

I still say this one is an easy fix and worth the time and effort. It is easy to chip out the wood plug and mount the tailpiece like it should be. Not all basses need to or do look like they just were shipped from Santa Ana.

[gareth]

Daniel,
I'd really like a 4003 instead of a 4001. I like to play rounds and I do not want to worry everytime I change the strings if I am going to run into issues with tension and neck problems.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Any 4001 you look at will very probably have had them fitted for years anyway. I've been putting rounds on my 4001's for 30 years now, and never had a problem. Some of the necks are cranked down pretty tight though

Some of the earlier, razor thin necked 4001's might cause you an issue, but you're looking at '72 and earlier mostly there, and those can sell for very rarified prices, and I would imaging that you wouldn't choose one of those anyway over a newer 4003 at half the price.

Personally, I like the 4001 series better. I like the cap-in sound. I have some of mine set up with the vintage tone control, and I always seem to have that engaged. I can't seem to get that nice clank/thud with a stock non-capped 4003. It's one of the reasons I don't like to touch basses that have had extra routing in the line of the neck. It degrades the transfer of string energy and changes the sound IMHO. They never sound quite right to me.

YMMV etc etc .

[johnallg]

I had an interesting thought today while practicing. I use an Aphex Sonic Factory compressor and it has gain. So I took it's output to the Amp In on my SVT-3 Pro to see what my '75 4001 sounded like "naked". Wow. Very different than how I had it "colored" with my tone controls on the amp head. It sounded less heavy at first, but the longer I played it that way, the better I got the character of the bass itself. Direct or compressed, it sounded the same. I also tried the '93 4003S with the magnetic horsey, with similar results. Going back to the regular signal chain brought back the low end I had dialed in, but the beauty of the middle was not there now. I ran out of time (work, what a concept) to further explore this, but that can happen in the next couple days. An eye opener. Got me thinking of a Tech 21 VT Bass pedal direct to amp......

[jps]

...I haven't tried that yet. Hmm.

[johnallg]

Aphex Punch Factory....

[jps]

Yeah, I noticed, but was being kind to you, JA!