Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ted, it's looking really good already.

Along the way, I restored the 4002 by removing the Badass and installing the original Rick tailpiece and bridge.

At last you did it! She looks perfect now, Ted.

Nice work, Ted. The project bass looks great, and its nice to see the 4002 is back to being all Rick again.

Ted, I love the look of your basement shop. I feel a good vibe from it and feel that it will produce many fine resurections to come. Your mission is admireable; to take ***********, cast-off, unloved Ricks and give them a 2nd chance. I have also noticed your skills improving over time as you take on more involved projects. The best part is that you don't ruin collectable instruments, but save otherwise junk from the heap! Most of your mods are tasteful and retain much of the character of the original piece. They certainly retain or increase the value of the guitar and yet they are done in a way so as not to decieve in the future.

Ted ... you have a nice one of a kind bass now ...

You guys do realize there are two basses involved here - the homebuilt 4002 in sanded form and then Ted's real 4002 after the tailpiece replacement....

I was wondering whether there had been two involved.

I really enjoyed looking over this thread. I'm glad there are people who can do this!

Ooops Sorry. I guess I did not make that clear. The nicely finished one is a genuine 4002 the one with all the flaws is my project to turn a trashed 4001 into a 4002-like bass.

Nice work, Ted! Let me know when the 4002TS is done so I can send you the shipping address.

I figured there were 2 basses ... but he still has a nice one of a kind bass ...

Nice work, Ted! Let me know when the 4002TS is done so I can send you the shipping address.

No need to trouble yourself Jeffrey, Ted already has my shipping address.

I have been studying the 4002 circuit both from my bass and the schematic on the RIC web site trying to understand how it works. If I am understanding it correctly, the circuit allows for greater frequency response than does the standard 4000 series circuit. The tone cap values are .01uFd instead of the usual .047uFd. This coupled with the resistors seem to be intended to enhance the tone range. There are some additional .1uFd caps between the pots and ground. I am not sure what they do. I plan to try a 4002 harness in a 4001 just to see what it does to the sound. I am wondering just how much of the 4002s silkiness and depth is a function of the caps and resistors.

There is one discrepancy between the RIC schematic and the circuit in my bass and that is the value of R5 and R6, the resistors in the RC circuit off of the tone pots. The RIC schematic shows them to be 10M resistors but the actual value of the resistors in my bass are 300K. That could be an error or maybe they changed the design at some point.

As for the pickups, they are still a mystery. The tops are Tolex, like on most guitar cases and some details of the bobbin can be felt right through the Tolex. There are no poles. The bobbins seem to have 2 plates laid lenghtwise across the bobbin. I can move them inward a bit by pressing on the tolex. After a few minutes they move back out into position on their own. There is a small separation between the plates (magnets) suggesting 2 coils but there is only a single set of leads coming out o the sealed pickup body. This does not nean they are not humbuckers but only that the coils cannot be used independently. The treble pickup has two sets of leads but the second set is for the LoZ connector. The Rickenbacker catalog describes the pickups as humbucking. I have not tried measuring coil resistance yet so I don't know how they compare to other RIC pickups in that regard.

The RC networks for tone control on the 4002 have different cutoff frequencies and rolloff characteristics. There is also a 90 degree phase shift from other RIC instruments, due to the two caps in series.