Is this normal ? 4003 neck pickup question.

[streki]

Just arrived - hello everyone

Just got my first Ric (2010 4003 fireglo - love it)

It works beautifully, and sounds great, but is this normal......?

The neck pickup is loose in its chrome bezel.

Photo here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15432389/moves.jpg

The chrome bezel surrounding the pickup is rock steady, but the black pickup has a lot of left / right movement.

I can even hear it click as it moves when i turn the bass over.

I didn't want to rush into removing the scratch plate to investigate.

Is the movement a normal feature, or can anyone suggest a fix please?

Many thanks

Elliott.

[2ndHand72Rick]

Pull the pickguard and pickup.Check the bezel mounting screws.make sure they are snug.

[ram]

Hi Elliott, welcome to the Forum. I don't think it should be doing what you describe. Perhaps the plate under the whole bobbin assembly has come loose. There a 4 screws and nuts holding it all together. Here is a diagram from the Rickenbacker corporate site.

http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/gpickups.pdf

not hard to fix if that is it. the whole pickguard will need to be removed (I can do mine without removing the strings). It just slides out and kinda flips over - be gingerly and careful. Good idea to put a small towel between the bass and the extracted pickguard. You should be abe to verify that the plate is loose or not from the point. If it is the problem, unscrew the pup from the pickguard (I put a mark as to remind me the orientation of the pup). Once out tighten the 4 screws/nuts. Put the pup back in and reunite the pickguard and bass. you will have to readjust your pickup height.

HTH

Any pictures of you bass????

[streki]

Thanks very much for this info, Tom -
Very clear instruction
I'll give it a go this weekend.

Here's some pics -
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15432389/Ric/027.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15432389/Ric/011.jpg

I've removed the bridge pickup cover since these were taken. Now she's fitted with one of these:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15432389/Ric/bezel.jpg

Finally bought a Ric! I'm loving it so much, I may never play my old Ibanez again!

[ram]

Elliott, just take it slow and don't force anything. If you take the pup out remember how the grommets are and replace them the same way (that's what gives tension to the pup adjustment screws). Also I have had issues with the cable from the neck pup interfering with the switch when putting it back. A small wooden thing like a Popsicle stick can work wonders! Great looking bass!! BTW - our own moderator Joey (a really great guy) has an equally great site with some of the more common things Ric explained - www.joeysbassnotes.com. real nice walk thru for doing a set up! Let us know what happens with the pup.

[johnallg]

Elliot, beautiful FG bass! Welcome aboard.

[streki]

Cheers, John. She is indeed a beauty.

I'm sure it will be fine Tom.

I've been taking computers apart for 15 years so I'm pretty handy with a screwdriver. The last bass I took apart was over 20 years ago however - that was a cheap piece of junk, where as Angelina here just set me back a small fortune, so I thought it better to seek advice on the forum before charging in. I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again.

[nov_1981]

Elliott, I had the same thing happen to my neck hi gain on my 2010 4003.
The plate at the bottom of the pick up somehow became detatched from the bobbin.
I dont know exactly how it was ever attached (possibly glued?)
Tightening the screws did not solve the problem in my case.
There still seemed to be a little play after tightening the screws so what I ended up doing was cutting little slices
of rubber grommet and then placing them in between the plate and the bobbin, then tightened the screws down.
Problem solved

BTW, I was concerned that putting rubber between the pick up and the plate might somehow affect the tone
but it did not, it sounds as good as it did before the rattle

[streki]

Hi Robert,

Thanks - I'll look out for this issue. I'm sure the problem will present itself once the pup is out and I can see what's causing the problem. I'll be sure to have something suitable on hand for bridging the gap in case I encounter what you have described. I'm not looking forward to taking her apart, but as Tom said - slowly and carefully

[paul_yan]

Welcome, Elliot! Congratulations and good luck on solving the problem.

[antonius]

That's a beautiful bass! I'm sure you'll have it sorted out in no time. There are some really nice people here willing to share a HUGE amount of knowledge and wisdom regarding Rickenbackers. It has certainly helped me get the most from my 4001. Enjoy!!

[streki]

The job is done

The problem was just as Robert had described: The pickup bobbin was detached from the lower plate, and there was no evidence of how it had been attached in the first place. I couldn't see any glue residue at all. The four screws between the lower plate and the upper chrome bezel were all very tightly secured, but the bobbin was rattling around between the lower plate and upper bezel with nothing evidently to secure it. As robert suggested, I've had to pack out the gab between lower plate and bobbin (using thin strips of neoprene cut from an unused scuba mask strap wrapper). The pickup is now solid, the tone is unchanged, and all is well.

What an extremely fiddly job that was though! Once I'd put it all back together and plugged in to test the pickup, I discovered that the selector switch was quite tight when switching to the neck pickup. So, off came the scratch plate again....just as Tom had predicted, the cable from the neck pickup was interfering with the selector switch and it took a bit of poking with a thin strip of card to get it all suitably arranged.

Thanks very much to everyone who offered advice on this issue....it certainly helped, knowing what to expect and what to look out for. I really appreciate it, cheers.

[fatcat]

My first 4003 (a 2006) arrived with thar condition existing, I emailed Ric customer support, their reply was that it was not a defect.
I did nothing about it,the bass plays and sounds just fine.