Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My '04 4003 is quieter overall than my '06 Jazz Bass. There's nothing much between the bridge pickup volumes, but my Ric neck Hi-Gain is way quieter than the Fender neck pup no matter how I adjust it. It's no biggie - I use different EQ settings for both anyway so turning up a bit is no hardship.

jmceachern36 wrote:He said it was normal for Rics to have a little less output than Fenders. Then the interesting part. He also said that having less output puts less stress on the amp and results in having a better sound.

While quieter output can mean good tone as long it's audible, really the best tone comes from the loudest you can get before you hit the clipping range. That's been my experience.

Pretty much every Ric I've ever played except for a certain 2003 was louder than every Fender I've played. I've owned Fenders too. My Jazz Bass was definitely quieter than all three of my Rics.

Have you measured the resistance of your pickups? Do they seem to be sensing the strings pretty well? Are they too far away from them?

cassius987 wrote: Have you measured the resistance of your pickups? Do they seem to be sensing the strings pretty well? Are they too far away from them?

I don't know how to measure the resistance of the pickups. How do you do that?

jmceachern36 wrote:

cassius987 wrote: Have you measured the resistance of your pickups? Do they seem to be sensing the strings pretty well? Are they too far away from them?

I don't know how to measure the resistance of the pickups. How do you do that?

You'll need an ohmmeter for that, Joe.

Plug in a quarter inch jack, highlight one of the two pickups (neck) and have it full volume full tone. Take the multimeter/ohmmeter and set it to around 20K. (You'll probably get about 11K as your result and you want the meter to be higher than the result you expect.) Take the two probes and touch them to the free end of the quarter inch jack (the end that isn't in the bass. You will get a reading that is close to the real reading of the pickup--close enough that you can count as true as it should only be just a bit lower than the truth.

If you get something weird like 8K, that's a sign your pickups are lower wound and this would explain the dip in volume. Also the magnets could be weak... but I doubt it.

I don't know if I mentioned this yet but try just raising the pickups a bit too.

Thanks guys. I work at a music shop and I think I've seen one of those there. I'll test it tomorrow..... I have already raised the pickups. There at about the same height as the fender pickups. The neck pickup can't go any higher and I also raised the individual screws to make it closer to the strings.