... mmm the sound of a '60s 4005.... compared to a 4001 or a 4003...well I've read in the chat pages that there are so many little differences between 4001/3/v63/c64 etc etc... of course the type of strings you use it's important....and modern bass amp speakers are so different and so far from the "typical" old fashioned sound 4005s were made to produce... I play them through a 60s Vox Super Foundation bass or a new small Vox amps..the natural tone, keeping the amps eq in the flat position is "full, soft and deep" just like in the 60s records... so far from the modern speakers full of middle tones. I hate to play in studio when I must use new Trace Elliott o Peaveys or whatever they have wasting 10minutes before I find a sound that is 70% similar to the sound I can have using my amps just plugging the jack in withouth touching any tone control
Anyway...I use round wound strings on all my basses.... just because I don't feel comfortable playing tape or flat wound ones.... even my '64 hofner violin bass has round wound strings..rotosound. with flat ones fingers don't slide if you know what I mean.
1) I purchased my 4001V63 as brand new in 1997 and she (funny for me that in english a bass guitar is a lady) has standard scale 45/105 factory RIC strings and I had to wait 4 months till they arrived to Rome from the USA. Anyway original strings sound well considering the typical "dead points" all rick basses have around the 7th fret of the D string...my old 4001, 4001V63 and even the 4005 all of them have this little trouble...
2) the 4005 MG, purchased in L.A. in 1992, has VERY thin neck. Since I got it I have used round wound strings (old ones were RW as well).. scale 40/100, SIT and recently COCCO strings...both of them play really well....I did not want to use original RIC scale on it just because I don't want to change the set up of the truss rod
3) Differences between 4001V63 and 4005? the 4005 does not have a horseshoe pick up in the treble position... the toaster is located too close to the bridge if you want to use it "alone" ...and its volume is lower than the other one..But if mixed with the bass pickup it gives a "presence" that maybe a 4001 does not have..more "open"... the general sustain of the 4005 is amazing for a hollow body instrument.. but hey! we're talking about Rickenbacker!!!
Seriously, I could get lucky.
