Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

You gotta go with roundwounds, Roto's of course: .45 -.105.
As for picks, I've used the Dunlop Tortex .73s for years, but I've been experimenting with the new Clayton Ultem .72s which are pretty cool.

Grahame - use Rotosound sing bass 45 - 105. The ernies are ok but the stainless strings like the Roto's are way better.

I use a big thick pick a dunlop 1.5mm I find on the bass its a better way to pick, you dont need that much force and you can play much harder with less effort.

D'addario Slowounds for me, the most consistent strings I've ever used. I've never liked that formulation of Stainless used with Roto's, I even like D'addario's Prism Stainless series better than Roto's. There is an aggravating overtone, ("Bring in the machine that goes ping!"), a ringing overtone.
It seems to get more pronounced as they get a little age on them. To be fair, I haven't ever tried to use the nickel plated Roto's, they might be more my style. The D'addario Slowounds seem to last for longer than most strings before they either go dead or get hard to intonate.

D'Addario XL-170 nickle strings for me. I think they are as bright as they come, and last long to. I have tried various sets of Rotosound .45-.105's through the years and I ALWAYS seem to get a totaly dead string in the pack...? I'll have to try the Slowounds G.L., I've never heard much about them. If you like them, I'll have to try them

If I get any kind of noise that's not supposed to be there, and I've definitley isolated it to my bass, I go crazy until I find it and fix it. That sounds like you are hitting the neck pickup's buttons with the strings to me. I hate that sound. If your strings are very close to the treble pickup surround, you may need to straighten out your neck a little more, that will usually let you raise your bridge while maintainting the same action. A heavier gauge of string may help too. The scale on a Ric bass is 3/4 of an inch shorter than standard 34" scale so I like a little stiffer strings on mine usually, just to tighten them up so I can play hard with no problems. I have basses set up both hard and soft.

Yeah, Bob , it's that kind of noise.
If I play quite hard (but not ridiculously so) and watch the E string, after a few secs you can more or less see the string get too close to the fret board & treble pick up.

Trouble is - I have the same prob with 2 4003's - and can't figure out why it's so bad at times.

If I lower both pick ups it does get marginally better - but it still affects my confidence.

Maybe both bass's do need the truss rods altered - but if so, how much by and what way.

I also am pretty sure that the E string (the only real culprit in my situ) never actually hits the pick up.

Hi Niffy,
What I do and I think many others here do is to fret both ends of the neck and check how much space you have between the 12th fret and the E strings (and G), usually one to two business cards works best (description by Paul Yan), if you have more you probably have compensated by lowering your bridge height. how much of the allen screw do you have showing above the bridge? It's also possible that your are hitting the last fret with the strings, I used to do that. How high is your action at the twelfth fret?

Had a look at the set up tonight.
I had a very small space between strings and board - so adjusted the rods . Will check on Tues with my amp (at practise rooms) as all I have in the house is a Tascam trainer & headphones.

Does the rubber strip in the bridge have any affect if it's lowered or raised ?

Adjusting the truss rods does at first checks seemed to have improved things.

I'll whack out "London's Burning" on Tues and check the new set up.

Thanks for the help so far - been brill info.

Dug out the old practise amp. A lot better now, but at the cost of very high action.

Keep fooling with it, Niffy, that's one of things I love about Ric's the more I fool with them (poor choice of words I think) the more I learn about them. You should be able to get your action down. Maybe you overcompensated, sometimes a very small tweak of the truss rods will dramatically change the neck. I leave the Truss Rod Cover off for a few days, especially when I don't know the particular bass well, and adjust and re-adjust until I get it right where I want it. You want a little bit of relief, and I lower the bridge to where it is comfortable when I am playing out, which sometimes can feel a little stiff while playing relaxed in my living room.
The rubber strip in the bridge is a mute, it can make your bass sound like an upright bass, and/or give you that old 60's sound. Probably not too good for The Clash. You raise and lower it with the two little chrome knobs at either end of the bridge.

As a matter of interest - should there be washers between the pick up and the cover ?
The Ric diagram shows there is , but mine had none.

Added a small washer either side and it made a huge difference.

Also , can the pick ups be put in back to front. They are angled so maybe that makes a difference too ?

There are supposed to be rubber washers at either end of the neck pickup, some people take them out for more bottom because with the 4 corner bolts also off the pickup raises about a 1/16 of an inch closer to the strings, I have done this on two of my old 4001's. I don't understand what you mean back to front. The treble pickup is sometimes slightly angled, especially on newer 4003's.