Poor old 4001

[Ziaman]

I have just bought a 1978 4001 Bass. It's been stripped and someone PUT JAZZ BASS PICKUPS IN IT!! Oh the horror!! But aside from this, which was done with much damage to the bass, it seems fine. It is stripped from its original color and then never refinished. It now looks kind of like dirty wood. Any ideas on getting it refinished? I'll post pics soon. Ill be redoing some of the electronics but want ideas, thoughts etc on what I should do with the finish first. It started life white...which I'm not that into but I just want something on it to protect the wood that wont cost too much for me. Anywhoo...I have a 2012 mapleglow 4003. Always liked the 4003 better than vintage 4001's a played. Their cost never seemed worth it to me. But this ugly duckling was cheap and I feel I can bring him back to life! Thank!
Will
Albuquerque.

[johnallg]

Welcome to the forum! The necks on the later 70s were very comfortable. Do you have any pictures you can post? Especially interested in the pickup rout areas.

[Kopfjaeger]

Installed Jazz pick ups like on Roger Glovers bass??

Sepp

[jps]

...or, Dave Meros'? (Who happens to be a forum member )

[Ziaman]

Well I'lll be. I was not aware that anyone installed Jazz bass pickups in Ricks. Forgive me. These are not done so well and thus don't sound great. More pics to come.

[cassius987]

I always kind of admired the way Roger Glover took the improper "fit" of the Jazz pickup to the Ric's string spacing and did something cool with it by angling the pickups forward, presumably originally done to line up the pole pieces with the strings. I've kind of wanted to try it with a single pickup one of these days...

[Kopfjaeger]

Apparently, at least a few 4001's were modded the "Glover bass" way. A foto that I had never seen before of Sid Vicious had him holding, note I did not say playing, a 4001 with dual Jazz pups that looked very similar to the set up on the Glover bass.

Speaking of the mod, I have a link to the luthier's site that returned Glovers bass to "stock". What gnarly routing to fit those two J's in the RIC!!

Sepp

[Gilmourisgod]

I always wondered if the reason the neck heel extends so far out beyond the neck/body intersection (although that dimension seems to vary on basses from different eras) was to offset all the wood lost to the neck pickup rout. With the neck pickup moved back to the theoretical 24th fret line on newer basses, have they left more wood in this area? I've never heard of a bass entirely breaking there, but have some with hairline cracks. Can you post a link to the Glover bass restoration site?

[Ziaman]

Here are some pics. After a visit to the tech everything seems fine with the bass. I've been cleaning up the finish a little and will install the original neck pickup. But otherwise sounds cool.

[Ziaman]

It was white...now it's just like a dirty mapleglow. I've been sanding it with steelwool but it still just looks a little funny. Sound goo though and will sound cool with original pickup in the neck and jazz in the bridge.

[woodyng]

Are those Demarzio pickups? You might want to leave them both in,for a better tonal match. As far as color,i've seen a custom dark see-through green on a 4001 that looked stunning.

[Ziaman]

They are Demarzios. I like the bridge a lot more than the neck. As we're already in Frankenstien land here, and I already play a nice jazz, I'm goin to try to mix original and jazz pus. Don't know what it will sound like...The finish is like a mat finish or something. Not glossy. I've sanded it for a few days now and it looks ok. The cut of wood was never intended to be seen like this as the bass was painted solid white.

[rickenbrother]

Just me, unless I intended it to be a beat bass guitar, I'd restore it to it's original finish when I had the $$ to do so. White 4001s are very desirable. I like Demarzio DiMarzio pickups, but in a Rickenbacker, I prefer RIC pickups.

[Kopfjaeger]

I always wondered if the reason the neck heel extends so far out beyond the neck/body intersection (although that dimension seems to vary on basses from different eras) was to offset all the wood lost to the neck pickup rout. With the neck pickup moved back to the theoretical 24th fret line on newer basses, have they left more wood in this area? I've never heard of a bass entirely breaking there, but have some with hairline cracks. Can you post a link to the Glover bass restoration site?

Here is the site http://www.rauenguitars.com/pages/roger_glover.html

The neck route is way larger than it needs to be. While it's not really all that deep the large footprint creeps me out a bit.

Sepp

[iiipopes]

In the early '80's, I had a pair of vintage DiMarzio Model J pickups like that in a '75 Jazz bass that the original pickups had died, when you couldn't find good rewinders or aftermarket parts like you can now. They're both wound the same. They are both end-to-end humbuckers. If you really want one of the J pickups in the bridge position, take the neck pickup and move it to the bridge position so the poles will line up better under the strings tilting it as necessary without routing out any more wood, and put an HB-1 in the neck, so you have humbuckers in both positions. You will have to figure out which combination of leads on the DiMarzio is necessary to give in phase and magnetically compatable tone to the HB-1, but it is worth it.

On my P-style custom bass that I play when I'm not playing my 4002, I have the opposite: an HB-1 in the position where the D-G segment of a P would be, and a DiMarzio Ultra Jazz in the J-bridge position half way between the '60's and '70's location. They do work well together.

Also, if they are the first generation of DiMarzio J pickups, they will have a little over 7 kohm's worth of wire on them, and they will have their own flavor of growl that also matches well with a Rickenbacker pickup.