Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I used Rotosound RS66's on my old 1977 4001 for years when I had it. Aside from eating the frets, I had no problems using them. The neck handled them fine. I use DR rounds now on my Ricks.

Yes, Rotos eat up frets in a hurry. That is the beauty of DR Hi Beams. The outer winding is nicely polished and despite being stainless is very easy on the frets.

John Fay makes a good point (as usual). Those old Rick strings were very soft indeed - a lot like TI Jazz Flats. If you were to change strings without tweeking the rods you could have been in for a nasty surprise. Then if you or your tech did not know how to adjust the rods properly the situation would go south on you in a hurry. I wonder if the soft factory strings are the reason why so many 4001s have fingerboard delamination.

Ideal strings are personal preference. There are lots of great strings out there depending on your playing style and desired tone. Hard players seem to like D'Addario Chromes for flats. Players with a ligher touch seem to like TI Jazz Flats. There are lots of other possibilities. The TIs are expensive but they last a looooong time. Hell, they come out of the pack dead. There is no where to go from there. I say that in jest. They are really fine strings and I use them on some of my basses. Flats are not my preferred string but when I use them they are TIs.

I had a butchered '76 4001 that I bought cheap and "amaturely" restored into a psuedo 4001/4000. It turned out quite good to me,, and was a joy to play. However, it had a kind of rubbery feeling neck so I decided to string it with light guage TI roundwounds.

They had kind of a dead tone to them, but pleasant. But I always found myself picking that bass up and playing it wearing those strings, and really got to like the tone very much.

This coming from a guy who loves roundwounds, and will change them if they even think of going dead. TI strings are very unique in feel and tone and expensive, but worth it. They would be my first choice to install on any "vintage" bass with even a suggestion of a neck problem. I sold this to our own Paul Wilczinski. I always wondered if he made something special out it. How about it Paul?

i have noticed on my ricks and other basses,that a "standard" gauge 45-105 is just too much tension,round or flat. my ricks are loving dr sunbeams 40-100,which are roundcore nickel plated roundwounds. i have a set of ghs 40-100 flats on my danelectro hodad,and probably will put 45-100 sunbeams on my jazz clone. i just took a set of 45-105 low rider dr's off the jazz because they were just to tight feeling and seemed to pulling the neck up..