Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey all!
I've just put a HB pickup in the neck of my 74 4001 with a coil tap via the tone control (ala Peavey T-40). With the tone all up (single coil) it sounds like a cross between the good bits of a 70s high gain and a 60s toaster. Back the tone off just a little and it goes to full HB sound.. warm and full. Back the tone off some more and it can do a passable EB-3 sound (sea of mud). It's very versatile without fussy switching and silly mods. It also looks like one of those styling faux pas that works...
Well worth the cost of the HB pickup and it has transformed the bass for the better..
Eden.

Could you explain how your tapcoil is wired? I'm not familiar with the T-40.

Easy.. The clear and black wires on the HB1 are joined as standard (Just unwrap the black tape a bit) but you need to solder a short piece of wire from this join to the unused lug on the tone pot of that pickup.
Without completely understanding the science behind it I believe that when the pot is turned all the way up one coil is shorted to ground which taps the pickup.
The way my bass was phased I had to make the blue wire hot (to switch), the red wire earth (to back of volume pot along with the shield), the clear/black to the third lug of the tone pot.
When in single coil mode the coil near the neck remains on, which is what I wanted to hear, you could set it up for the other coil to be the single fairly easily if you wanted to....
Eden.