Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

power tube distortion is cool but it changes as the volume changes ... an effects unit can get that distortion at a lower volume ...

The action is as low I as I can get it without buzzing. The pickups are pretty close to the strings,not too close, but close. I still have the factory strings on it, but they have only had maybe 3 hours of playtime on them. I tried messing with the nobs on the rick in plenty of positions, and my EQ is usually set about what you stated. So pretty much I've tried most things, maybe this is just a post to complain in now I would like to try a 2000 series sometime, but I've yet to see one around and now I'll be broke for awhile because of this 4003 purchase.

John ... do you live anywhere near southeast Michigan? if you do you are welcome to come by my workshop studio ... I have a bass pod, sans amp and several distortion pedals and a few ampeg amps and several basses ... I get some great distorted sounds out of ric basses ...

Try running just the bridge pickup only and see how that sounds ...

I was playing last night and what ever way I had tweaked the VXL Hartke Bass Attack it was sounding like a cross Between Sly and the Family stone Woodstock and The Who Live at Leeds!

I was so damn horny on that tone we jammed for ages

Jeff, that is one of the reasons I like power tube distortion, you can control it by the way you play.

I use a Sansamp preamp to get my distortion.

I like the Sansamp distortion alot, and use it for recording, but I've also had good luck with the Boss Blues Driver pedal... It doesn't seem to sap the bottom out of the sound as much as some other fuzz pedals do.

I've got a Zoom pedal as well, but I can't figure the thing out. Maybe I should read the book!

The sans amp can get boomy ... and I don't use stomp boxes any more ...but I like the line 6 bass pod ... it has a lot of ways to get distortion ...