Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My 08 4003FL has a stock hi-gain in the bridge and a RI toaster in the neck position. I think the balance is fine and I'm extremely finicky about output balance string to string. I'll second Joahua's post about fundamental vs. overtones and how that is affected by PU location (but he put it far more eloquently than could I).

I haven't started messing with the bridge pickup height yet, my main concern was to try the Toaster out and see if I like the general sound of it in conjunction with the 4003's fairly high output bridge pickup.

With the bridge pickup height set at the distance in Joey's Bass Notes it was as expected notably louder than the Toaster, so it does need to come down a bit, my concern is that I predominantly use the bass in vintage mode so I don't want to lose too much of the bridge pickup's volume. I recall on my 4001 the bridge pickup was very high.

On the cap bypassed mode I tend to use the bridge pickup solo'ed a fair bit as well, sounds really nice, but it is noticeably louder than the both pickups on in vintage mode.

I'm not sure whether I'm going to be able to balance the pickups volume-wise without compromising on the sound I want in vintage mode, so I suppose it's going to have to be a sort of an average height setting to suit most situations?

Another thread that knocks it out of the park! Well said Jeff and Joshua!

On my '98 4003vp I have one of those "hi gain" toasters (wound to 9k) that were used up to 2002 (if I remember correctly). It sounds really good together to the stock hi gain bridge pickup. On my other 4003 I installed a 7.4k toaster and a RI horseshoe. The HS is capped, so they balance perfectly volume-wise. Without the cap the HS overpowers the toaster too much. I love both combinations.

Steve, the mid-90s toasters in guitars were wound to over 10k so that might be an option. You's loose some of the finesse of a lower winding Toaster, but it would balance better with your higain bridge pup. You's need to swap the bottom plate between the toaster you have and the guitar higher wound toaster to work in the bass (threaded hole vs oversized non-thread).

johnallg wrote:Steve, the mid-90s toasters in guitars were wound to over 10k so that might be an option. You's loose some of the finesse of a lower winding Toaster, but it would balance better with your higain bridge pup. You's need to swap the bottom plate between the toaster you have and the guitar higher wound toaster to work in the bass (threaded hole vs oversized non-thread).

Hi John,

Funnily enough I was thinking earlier of putting a posting on here about the Toaster I have, as it doesn't have the threaded holes and I have to fit it to the pickguard using nuts on the back of the 2 screws, I was wondering whether I had a guitar Toaster but wasn't sure?

I've read they're identical pickups ayway but thought the guitar version had a totally different mounting plate?

I'm pretty sure I checked the impedance some time ago and that it was round about the 7.4 mark.

I don't really fancy shelling out more money on another pickup, so I'm going to have to come to some sort of a compromise on the bridge pickup height I think.

Interesting on the Toaster mounting plate though, if I do have a guitar toaster on there I assume it's not an issue as I've read on here that bass and guitar toasters are identical apart from how they're mounted, is that correct?

Baker69 wrote:Interesting on the Toaster mounting plate though, if I do have a guitar toaster on there I assume it's not an issue as I've read on here that bass and guitar toasters are identical apart from how they're mounted, is that correct?

Correct.

Baker69 wrote:Well I bit the bullet and fitted the re-issue Toaster I had to my 4003 and I kind of like it. It seems to be a clearer sound than the stock high gain and in a way it seems to be a bit closer to the 4001 sound. Have only tried it briefly the weekend on a smaller amp but will gig with it on Saturday with my usual rig for the final test to determine whether I keep it on there or not.

I wasn't sure about the Toaster when I tried it on my 4001 as it seemed to make the sound too 'brittle' but on the 4003 it seems to work better.

I prefer the toasters to the higains. It's one of the reasons why I love the earlier 4001s so much. FWIW my 4003s8 had a toaster in the neck and sounded great. If I got a 4003 it's one of the first things I'd consider doing.

Yes, I'm quite pleased with the Toaster on there so far, it seems to be a lot clearer than the stock High Gain, but on occasions I do miss the warmth of the neck High Gain!

I messed around with the pickup heights yesterday after I had done the modifications to the nut and it was quite easy to get a balance between the Toaster and High Gain, but I did come to realise that my favourite tone was with the bridge pickup relatively high in order to get the best sound using the vintage tone so the 2 pickups are not balanced, but I'm going to leave it at that. If I use it in 'normal' mode I'll just have to dial back some on the bridge pickup.

The bass seems to have come on a long way since I bought it, I feel it's coming into its own more now it's set up properly!