Vintage 4001 Wiring Specs

[aceonbass]

I'm accumulating parts to build a correct wiring harness for my '64 4001. I've got an NOS set of correctly dated pots and a pair of .047 Ajax blue caps coming as well as the Switchcraft output jack and pickup selector. I need to know what gauge and colors the cloth wiring was and what it looked like. Anybody got any good pics of their control cavities from this era?

[aceonbass]

After doing a search of the RIC registration gallery, I've found that early Ricks used green cloth insulated wire, Ajax blue .047 400V tone caps, CTS 500K & 250K pots and what I thought were the usual Switchcraft out put jack and selector switch. As it turns out, upon close examination, the selector switch is subtly different. Since they're modular, it was possible to dissassemble it, remove a tab, and reassemble it with the proper configuration.Originally there were no grounding terminals on these, so the ground wire from the pots was soldered to the upper body of the switch instead. Also, all of the terminals were on the same plane instead of two different planes, so while dissassembled, the two terminals that the tone caps and positive pickup wires were soldered to were swapped and flipped over.

[aceonbass]

The final pic shows the reassembled switch with the correct configuration for my '64 4001.

[berth]

"Goed bezig!" we say in Dutch. Google translate tells me this translates to "Good job", but I'm not really sure if this an expression (with the same meaning) like it is with us Dutch people.

[aceonbass]

Next up are all the parts gathered for the harness. I scored a set of NOS date matched January '64 solid shaft CTS 500K pots that spec out with 2% of tolerance. Couldn't find any 250K pots, but I won't mind the slightly brighter tone of the volume pots here. I also found a pair of .047 Ajax "blues" that spec out at .048 uF. I'm using 22 gauge green cloth insulated stranded push back wire for the wiring, along with braided shield output wire as well as a new Switchcraft mono jack.

[aceonbass]

After a couple hours, the wiring is done. The cap leads had to be lengthened, which was pretty time consuming. I wish the people who pulled these from electronic gear would use a soldering iron instead of wire cutters!

[aceonbass]

Sliding insulation over the lengthened cap ends was pretty tedious. Even though these were originally left bare, the insulation covers up the extensions and keeps anything from ever shorting out.

[jps]

Nice work, Dane!

[ram]

great work Dane! even I could follow that!

[aceonbass]

Thanks guys. I used to pay techs to do my wiring, but now I actually like doing it. The search for correct parts and materials is half the fun. I like working with the pushback wire. No wire stripping, it doesn't melt, and it just plain looks better. I hope to send the bass off in the next month to have the fretboard replaced and a new jetglo finish applied. The only part left to pick up is a neck toaster, but since they're currently available, that's the easy part.

[leftybass]

Nice job. Went together quite nicely..

[cjj]

Nice pictorial! The end result looks great!

[johnallg]

What about the .0047uF cap? Didn't that exist in the 1964 basses?

Nice work, and very nice pictures documenting the steps. Another sticky in the making?

[aceonbass]

Even though they did have the .0047 cap in '64, I don't do the bass cut thing on a bass. I'm surprised that RIC would have ever done it in the first place really. On the same subject, I've started replaceing the .047 tone cap in my HB1 equipped basses with .022 caps, which actually brighten the tone up just a bit. Again, I don't know why RIC uses the same cap for all their pickups when other manufacturers specify a different cap depending on the pickup. I know I should know, but I have no idea what a "sticky" is.

[johnallg]

Sticky - an informative thread that is "stuck" to the top of a particular forum so it is easily found.