Toaster? HG? HB-1? Other? Which one for "fattest" sound?

[Oz_Greg]

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If I had a Rick 4001/3 husk, I'd look to fit it with HB1s and set them up to have the progressive coil-tap feature outlined by some of the technical gurus who post here.

Evan,
this intrigues me but I haven't been able to find anything on it in the forum's "Search" function.

Got a link or something?

Greg

[heinpete]

There's a fellow in France building a repro of the Hagstrom BiSonic.(Used in the 60's Guild Starfire)
They look like he's not using the large case like the Hammon Dark Star uses and
I had thought one would fit in the treble bezel of a Rick quite nicely.
That might over power the neck pup some....

...here in our RRF community we have a specialist in RIC pickups: SERGIO is da man!!!
He can build you anything you can or cannot dream of!

[jps]

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Here is a set of pickups with associated electronics to go with them for your Rick (no affiliation, except I may go for them! )

I saw that ad this morning actually! (Thanks all the same.)
I haven't bid because I'd be going in blind, wondering if they were better or worse than what I have now.

Mmmmm, food for thought.

cheers,
Greg

Tony Cabibi has/had a set of these in one of his Ricks; he can tell us all what they are like.

Tony?

[antipodean]

Greg,

There have been two coil-tapping methods discussed in the forum. Dane Wilder ("Aceonbass") has provided several very clear and helpful descriptions of a "standard" coil tapping system using push-pull pots - two threads that cover it are here and here.

I found a brief overview of the "progressive" method by Eden MacKenzie ("Weemac") on page 6 of a huge thread entitled "show your custom bass". Rather than have you page through the thread, I'll reproduce it here:

"On a 4001 or 4003 you can use the spare lug on the pickups tone control to act as a coil tap. The coil will split when the tone is turned full up. Turning the tone back a bit (not much) will bring the pickup back to full HB.
The neck HB-1 on my orrible 74 4001 is wired as such.
Tapped HB-1s have the shine, control and balance of an old toaster, plus a slight farty grit from the Hi-gain when you give it a push. A very underated pickup!

I agree that 4004s should have taps built into them (just via the tone control would be fine thanks, and only on the neck pickup)

Eden."

I hope this is helpful.

[woodyng]

What Evan said!
If you are looking for a fatter bassier sound,you should definitely consider getting 2 of the RIC HB-1's. They are fabulous sounding pickups in humbucking mode,and with 500k pots and coil tapping wiring options,they even come somewhat close to sounding like the older higain pickups. I have a laredo that has been wired that way by Dane.

My personal experience width EMG pickups has been.....yuck.

[clankchris]

You posted this same thing over in another bass forum, if I recall correctly.

What did you decide to go with? I'd vote HB-1's or modern 4003 pups myself.

[aceonbass]

I think he's gonna go with a current 4003 hi-gain in the neck position, and an HB1 for the bridge position

[clankchris]

Hahahaha, I wonder how you know:)

That should sound nice and thick, yet defined. HB-1's sounds much like an angry P bass on roids in the bridge.

[Oz_Greg]

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I think he's gonna go with a current 4003 hi-gain in the neck position, and an HB1 for the bridge position
D a n e W i l d e r (aceonbass)

That's incredible Dane, you're absolutely correct!
Amazing insight!
You clearly have some form of ESP.

(Thanks mate!)

Greg

[Oz_Greg]

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HB-1's sounds much like an angry P bass on roids in the bridge.

Man, now I am getting excited!
(How quickly can you get to your post office Dane? )

Greg

[aceonbass]

Greg.....I'll get the wiring mods done tonight, and hopefully get your parts out to you tomorrow. ESP=Extra Special Pickups

[Oz_Greg]

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Thanks again Dane!

Greg

[Oz_Greg]

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Welcome, Greg! Check to see if the .0047µF capacitor that is in-line with the bridge pickup is there. This cap deliberately cuts the bottom end from that pickup; if it is there put a piece of wire across the leads of that cap and you will find the bottom end you seek.

Sorry Jeff, thank you for the welcome!
(I'm an ignorant bugger sometimes!)

Greg

[vulcan_creedler]

Well, having read this thread, and seeing Dane's response to my other posting on thread "Adding an HB1 to a 4003" viewtopic.php?f=2&t=406346&start=30#p776376
I'm going to modify my 4003 and my 4001 to identical spec: HB1 bridge, 11k Hi-gain (adjustable poles)in the neck. All 4 pots will become 500k, with a .022uF tone cap for the HB1 and a 0.047uF cap for the Hi-gain.

I have a spare 500k push/pull (that I never really used, from the 4001), so I may wire it into one of the basses so that when it is pulled out, I coil tap the HB1 AND put in the 0.0047 vintage sound cap together, (kind of a double hit, but I'm sure I read here somewhere that the vintage sound cap with an untapped HB1 isn't so great!)

Happy to be called a plonker, if anybody thinks I'm wrong, and happy to receive further advice/suggestions! Of course I'll keep the original pickups form the 4001 nice and safe in the same box as the remains of the original pickguard, the horrible old tuners, and all the original corroded screws/mute bolts.....! (I don't throw any Ric bits away!) I can always reverse the operation!

Luckily the 4003 has evolved from an eBay carcass so no worries about replacing "original" bits.

VC

[aceonbass]

You should use a 250K volume pot on the neck pickup. I don't care for the sound of the .0047 cap on an HB1, but you may feel differently. One thing you'll notice is that at full volume with both pickups on, there's a volume drop. If you roll either volume back a little, this goes away. It's a byproduct of combining a hi-gain and HB pickup.