Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Scott I've never had intonation problems with them, one member here did though but I've been using them for several years now and love the sound of them, not too bright nor too dull and they have a nice thump to them. I think they're worth the money, anyone else?

Bob, on both of my 4003's I had to reverse the saddle for the E string to get the proper intonation. I was wondering if you had the same problem with your Pyramids. Once I set it its ok. One set is a little over 2 years old and intonation is still right on. I put half rounds on one bass and had to turn the saddle around again, but im leaning toward putting the Pyramids back on.

Nope mine are both fine, I had a 98 4003 in which I turned it around but I don't remember what kind of strings I had on that one and I think I got that one intonating fine with the saddle the proper way after a while. I have 96 and 2000 4003's now. I just looked at the 96 and the saddle on the E string is almost all the way back in fact.

Normally when we talk about flatwounds on a Rick, McCartney gets mentioned.

If flatwound was standard on early basses, wouldn't Entwistle have played with flats as well as McCartney?

Entwistle did use flats in the early days. He was one of the first bass players to use roundwounds. He was definitely a pioneer of that type of string.

can you imagine Who live at Leeds with flats ... AAARRGGGHH!!!

or Yes Fragile with Flats ... yeeecchh!

or Rush Freewill, the Trees, Red Barchetta all with flats ... EEEKKK!!!

I think that's about the only thing Jeff and I agree on...

Stainless DR Hi-Beams for me!

Could you imagine "My Generation" with flats? It's a Jazz..with flats.

Thats right, Ron. I remember reading that. Its a Jazz w/ Labella flats.

Story goes he went thru 3 Dano Longhorns, breaking a string and being forced to buy a new bass after each string break as there were no replacement strings that fit. He wanted the twangy Dano tone but finally gave up and used the Fender.
We play MG for our encore, and I use my Jerry Jones Longhorn for that tune.

He wanted to play it with round wounds ... but back then no music store had rounds ... he got a danelectro bass with rounds, but he broke the strings, he could not get replacement strings so he got a second danelectro ... he broke those strings as well ... so he had to use the jazz ... but even back then he wanted the round wound sound ...

Not only flats but tapewound flats, the thumpiest flats going.

the tape flatwounds actually have a round wound string under them with a black coating ... I had a set on my '68 4001 when I bought it in 1973 ... the round wound strings underneath were actually rusted because they were so old ...

Yeah I bought a set of those too, little thin Rotos with really thick tape on them, I didn't like them and couldn't intonate them.

I'm a big fan of the Medium guage D'Addario Chromes flatwound string. My 4003S is strung with those.
But I'm a bigger fan of Rotosounds RS77LD Strings.
my 83 4003 is strung with these.