4004/2 v57

[rickenbrother]

Just talked to Dane, he's shipping it out today. I must confess that I don't know how to record, and seeing that I only started learning bass last year, I'd be embarrassed as the talent on these forums is top flight.

Send it to me. I'll record it for you!

[cjj]

Yeah, but somehow, I doubt he really wants to paint it Jetglo just so you can Rock it for him...

[rickenbrother]

Yeah, but somehow, I doubt he really wants to paint it Jetglo just so you can Rock it for him...

Shhhhhhh!!!

[coolhandjjl]

This what you had in mind Joey?

[jps]

Just talked to Dane, he's shipping it out today. I must confess that I don't know how to record, and seeing that I only started learning bass last year, I'd be embarrassed as the talent on these forums is top flight.

Send it to me. I'll record it for you!

I'm closer, send it to me!

[rickenbrother]

This what you had in mind Joey?

Hey, that's cool, fretless too! But I'd wanna see the Rickenbacker logo!

[ram]

looks like a black hole.

[aceonbass]

This bass apparently had neck issues of some kind before John got it from Ed Roman's last year. The truss rods had been removed, a plastic plate made to cover the routes, and then were shoved back in with the original tape (binding up in the process). It took 2 hours to get the rods out with vice grips and a hammer. Thanks Ed! Anyway, after stripping the tape off, straightening the rods, one of which was kinked in the middle, I retaped them and slid them back in. While the neck is much more adjustable than it was, it won't quite adjust flat, but it's plays prety good now with the usual nut slotting and bridge adjustment. The pickups no longer use the usual wood screws that you have to bear down on to adjust. I drilled the holes out and put brass inserts in the body (ala Alembic) and they adjust with stainless 4-40 machine thread screws that are very smooth, requiring little effort. I liked the mod so much, I went back and did it to my other 4004's. The bridge was offset 2mm to the bass side, so I dowled and redrilled the 4 screw holes so it's centered now. I routed the body extensively for the new 4003 style electronics which now employ coil taps for each of the HB1's on the volume controls. This makes for 4 very distinct sound options without even changing the controls. In my opinion, this should be standard on the 4004 as it really gives that 4001 single coil hi-fi sound with both knobs pulled. Off came the M4 tuners, and on went some vintage Gotohs that are much better and give the headstock that early look, sans tuner bushings. The guard was really tricky to make as it get's quite thin above the neck pickup. Clear acrylic is very fragile and very prone to cracking, as I'm sure this one will do at some point, adding further to the vintage vibe I'm sure. Pickguardian made the finger pull. Sound wise, this bass does a lot of things very well...except it's missing a B string! I took a lot of hi-res pics during the conversion process, so if John can reduce them, he should post them here.

[rickaddict]

Wait...So THAT's the Ed Roman Laredo? I know that bass. I've played that bass! It was in May of 2008. They had just got the bass in, and hadn't had a chance to tag it or hang it on the wall yet. They pulled it out from it's case in the back room and showed it to me because I was scoping out their ($20,000!) Lemmy bass.

I don't think Ed Roman's shop did the repair because the black plastic plate was already there when they showed it to me. (Partial re-post here) I pointed the black plastic plate out to the sales drone. He was confused by it and discussed it with an unseen employee (Ed?) in a back room. I told him that it was probably done to service/remove the truss rods as there was no access to the back of the rods with that pickup configuration. He then told me that the truss rods adjust under the TRC! I COULD NOT get him to understand what I was saying. He just kept repeating that they adjust under the TRC!

He was calling the bass a Cheyenne, so I corrected him: "Actually... you're close, but the bass is a Laredo. They are both 4004's; they're very similar, but a Cheyenne would have gold hardware, a gold letter TRC, and walnut body wings sandwiched by a maple front and back. A Laredo would have chrome hardware and no walnut in the body." Said employee then went back again to the unseen employee in the back room. When he returned, he said: "Its a Cheyenne. We were just on the RIC website, put the serial number into the decoder, and a photo of the bass came up."

I didn't go there to argue with the guy, so I dropped it.

Here's the thread on that bass (from 2008) viewtopic.php?f=2&t=382450&hilit=ed+roman%27s#p446112

They really stuck to their guns...They called it a Cheyenne for around 2 years until they sold it! I wonder how many people came in and tried to tell them the bass was a Laredo!

Anyhoo...Great job on it, Dane. That coil tap mod does sound like a handy option to have on a 4004. Maybe I should do it to my Glenn Frey (which has the same control layout as a 4004). I've thought about having a new pick guard made with a new control layout and this seems like a great way to do it. Did you use the RIC push-pull pots?

[aceonbass]

Although John supplied a pair of new Alpha pots, I already had a pair of factory RIC push-pull pots pre-wired for coil tapping with the appropriate tabs cut off for fitting in stock cavities. When I get these pots, I first cut off the locator tab at the top and then the grounding tab at the bottom. I also cut off the two wiring terminals at the bottom. Then I run a ground wire from the center lug on the pot to the bottom and another ground wire from the top pair of terminals to the bottom. When the pot is installed, I simply wire it like any other volume control, then break out the two center wires joined together in the HB1's harness (newer HB1's have this already done) and solder them across the center pair of terminals on the pot, still joined together. When the knob is pulled, one of the coils is shorted, leaving a 7.5K single coil pickup. I use push pulls as volume instead of tone controls because I want to have a full size and therefore better quality pot for a tone control. Most push-pulls are essentially medium quality mini-pots, so they're okay for volume controls.

[rickaddict]

Very cool!

So...If one wanted to, one could even have yet another push-pull on a tone control to activate/deactivate a .0047 cap.

[aceonbass]

Yes, I have a customer who wanted .0047 tone cap/push-pull activation on the tone controls for both pickups as well as coil taps for the HB1's on the volumes, but it just resulted in a thin sound.

[rickaddict]

... but it just resulted in a thin sound.

I'm glad it wasn't me saying it this time!

[aceonbass]

Used with a current 12K bridge pickup, the push-pull sounds pretty good pulled, but not so much with a 7.5K coil tapped HB1.

[rickaddict]

Used with a current 12K bridge pickup, the push-pull sounds pretty good pulled, but not so much with a 7.5K coil tapped HB1.

Hmmmm...I guess I never thought about that...I don't like the sound of the cap, but the basses that I have with the cap are 70's 4001's.

I wonder if...

Nah, I'd still hate it!