Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Jeff...thanks for the tips but I did every possible adjustment and swapped a bunch of different strings before switching the p/u's. It has nothing to do with volume (my amp can take care of that) it was just the tone improvement (to me) that the Barts provided (I even swapped the Bartolini and stock p/u's back and forth several times before final wiring to make sure it was what I wanted).

JPS....unfortunately I think the "simple minded" (politically correct) think alike also

Brian....I was going to try that (and I believe they will swap right in) but that is when I scored my first set of Barts from ebay so I never got to try it out......I'm sure somebody on here has though.

They are the same dimensions but the humbuckers lack the threaded mounting screw holes. This is easy to work around. The HBs are fatter sounding than the high-gains. They lack the transient response of the HGs but they are smooth and powerful. They would definately give a 4003 a different voice.

I tried the 4004 pickups on a 4001 and a 4003 ...

first I tried a 4004 pickup as a neck pickup on a '74 4001 ... this will increase low end and decrease hum ... I tried it as a bridge pickup on one of my 4003 5 string rics ... It was too thick sounding for me ... maybe it was the 250k ric pots or the mass of the 4003 body ... but the 4004 pickup growls nice in a 4004 body but not as well in my 4003 ...

I rewire my 4004 basses volume volume tone with 500k pots ... this makes them brighter ...

you can mount a 4004 pickup onto the plastic base plate that the 4003 pickup fits on ...

I would put a modern high gain 4003 pickup in the bridge and try a 4004 humbucker in the neck ... this will give you low end plus growl and treble bite ...

but the perfect tone is subjective ... some love flatwound strings, some love vintage pickups, some love humbuckers, etc ... so what I like may not work for you ... good luck in your search for the perfect tone ...

me I'm stuck on 5 string basses ...

Sérgio, your toaster has lot of boom in the neck postiton of my ah, ummm... Hohner. Very clear with a lot of low end. If I ever get time again (school's almost done) I'll try it in one of my Ric's. I just threw it in the Hohner without soldiering it in to see what it sounded like.

You're of the hook this time.
Seriously, prior to shipping it to you I only gave it a test run in the treble position on a 4001 copy (/ducking to avoid thrown objects/) and it sounded quite nice, so it should sound good enough in the bass position of a legit Rick bass.
Let's make a deal: if you get rid of your Hohner, I'll get rid of my 4001 copy...

I'd get rid of it but I don't think anyone would take it, needs lots of work. The toaster sounds a lot better than the Hohner pickup I'll tell you that.