Pick guard and HS mod for a 96 4003S

[Droog61]

I was wondering if anyone can summarize a few things for me. I am sure the information is somewhere in the forum but I thought I would try to tackle this in one thread.

I have a 1996 4003S with a toaster pick up, I would like to move it up to the 1/2 spacing. I purchased a 1/2 replacement pick guard from Pickguardian. The question is will I have to drill some new holes to swap it? any routing out the body involved?

Also I have a shiny new Horseshoe from RIC (i ordered when the popped up a little while back) what sort of mod can I expect to be doing to pop that in? actually when I say I, I mean the tech who I find to do this

Any info on this will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Andrew

[cjj]

The horseshoe will drop right in, only thing needed is some soldering.

To move the neck pickup to the 1/2 inch position will require some routing...

[cassius987]

Try to play a 4001C64 or V63 (etc.) and hear how the 1/2'' spacing sounds. It's a subtle change and for a number of us not worth potential damage to the neck joint of your modern-built instrument. However it has its benefits. In the case of my 4001FL, I went ahead and routed for 1/2'' spacing to put more distance between each of the three Toasters, but I used wood hardener and sealer to stabilize everything I had routed. It appears to have worked but I normally wouldn't have taken the risk at all. This bass was already heavily modified when I bought it.

[rickaddict]

CJ is correct. But I'd like to add that the screw hole pattern will be reversed on the pickup surround. So either you can drill 4 new holes to mount your big new HS surround, or you can just drop the HS pickup into your existing 4003 surround.

Pickguardian is a great choice, but they make pick guards to fit Rick basses that span a wide range of production years. The best way to guarantee that your new pick guard will not require any new drilling is to send in your original pick guard and ask Pickguardian to duplicate the screw hole pattern.

[Droog61]

Thanks for the replies,

I may leave this one alone longer before putting it under the knife