Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK I understand well, thank you very much so this is not a real reason to choose a 4003, it would have been easier

Like Rickenbrother mentioned new string technology, balanced sets like the ones offered by Circle K and others, have reduced the stress on the neck. In most cases lower and even tension across the neck can now be had in a round wound string. Mine should be arriving by the time I return from vacation. if they go as well as I expect them to, I'd put them on a vintage 4001 without hesitation.

I put Rotosound roundwounds on my Mid 70's Ric "back int he day" and was told that was a huge mistake. I believe that was a but of false info since it seemed my set up tech had no idea how to set a 4001 neck.

Sepp

Thew real reasons to choose a 4003 are:
1 - It's what you want
2 - It's a great instrument.

Bonjour! If you are going for the vintage vibe,you might want to check out c64 or a v63 as well,for the look of the simpler dot neck no binding design,and the fact they have toaster/rihs pickups instead of hi-gains,and may give you a bit more of the vintage sound. i think most of the c64's had slim necks,but the v63's necks can be a lot more varied in size/feel.

Ommadawn wrote:Ok... I read this doing some searches with Google but I found it was strange.

Article link: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/guitars/ ... on-23.html

Quote: "The 4001 neck was designed in 1956 for the only type of strings available then . . . flat wound . . . and since the design favored a slim neck, the neck strength was right on the edge of the envelope. Round wound strings took many of these instruments beyond their rated capability for string tension, resulting in various problems. But of course there are many types of strings, not to mention that every piece of wood is different, so plenty of 4001's have been used with round wound strings for decades with no ill effect."

Salut!

il'ya beaucoup de choix pout votre basse. Chaque person a besoin d'une basse mais ce n'est pas seulement une basse avec tous les choix....Bon chance, beaucoup d'avises, chacu'un differents....
A bientot!

Showoff.

coolingitdown wrote:Showoff.

can't help it...I have French and Spanish besides English..

Hey really nice Jaymi! I see what you mean

I see a beautiful V63 some weeks ago, I thought it could be a good choice as well. There's no Rickosound on this model but I even don't know yet if I need Rickosound or not so...

Only one of my Rics has Rick-O-Sound. I really don't have any plans to ever use it on my 4003.

I haven't used Ric-o-Sound in a live situation yet, but I do have all the gear for it and I have tooled around with it in the rehearsal studio. It's pretty awesome! If I ever can afford to get my Vox guitar amp fixed I will absolutely be using it live.

I will admit I'm in the minority as someone who does/would use it, though.

jaymi wrote:

coolingitdown wrote:Showoff.

can't help it...I have French and Spanish besides English..

That ain't nothin'! I have Google Translate. It's ain't perfect, but I have 'em all!!

My advice is the new 4003 is a great quality bass but even with the vintage tone circuit it will not sound like a 70s 4001. Different wood, different construction, and different pickups. The 70/80s higains were wound to about 8k4 ohms DC resistance, a lot closer to the Toasters talked about earlier, and are clearer and have a bit more punch. The current higains (late 80s to present) are wound to about 11k4 to 12k4 ohms DC resistance and though they have more output and more growl, they also tend to sound a bit muddier, especially on the low E string. It comes to what you're trying to get tone-wise. Many will say the 70s 4001 will sound thin, and unless you short out the .0047uF cap in series with the bridge pickup I would agree. But my '75 4001 will get the Squire sound on the long version of America, which the newer 4003 only approximates. Yeah, I'm a little anal about these details. I have put 250k/500k pots on a newer 4003 with the hot higains but it is still not the sound of a 70s 4001.

All this said, my 2004 4003 with a RIHS and a new 7k4 Toaster, 250/500k pots, and NOS RIC Maxima flats sounds really really good. Cap out, of course.

In this vid, I'm using my 4003 Turquoise from '01, which has the .0047 cap. I can get a great Chris Squire or Geddy Lee sound out of it without even trying hard.
This was outside, no special sound recording, shot with a Flip camera.
The strings are a set of D'Addario XL-170, which haven't been changed on over 2 years and I was wireless.

Gads!!! Heck of a nice tone for two year old strings. Nice.

I'll watch your vid as soon as possible

What about a V63? I'd get closer to a vintage 4001 than a 4003, don't you think?