Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Yes John, I did, once I got the '72.
I emailed the photo to Mr. Hall asking him if the wiring harness and the 2 rectangular tone caps were factory original. His reply was yes, but not so sure if the tone caps were...the factory was using whatever were available then.

Here's another shot.

Did you guys know even C's tilt too?

Should I sue?

Garry

Hi Paul, after seeing your 72 opened up I had to open mine too, unfortunately my camera is very far now (Peru´) my tone caps are orange, they are similar to your black ones except they are rounded and my treble pickup cap is a disc cap, the typical color, kind of amber. My wiring is black, with two grey pickup wires and one grey out to the stereo jack.
By the way Paul my headstock is the same as yours, and I'm almost certain that my 75 had the same headstock, (same tilt and smaller than later ones)
And while I'm at it, my 96 JG seems to have the same headstock and body as my 79 and 78 4001's (the cutaways are larger and the headstock is medium) My 98 FG and 2000 SMG have large headstocks and thinner cutaways.

Thanks Paul for posting the pic again.

You're welcome, John.
Just let me know if you want me to send you the images in large screen sizes.

Bob,
It sometimes amazes me that these little things (tone caps) can vary so much in looks. I like the big fat orange Spraque brand caps of my '86 Shadow the best. The looks of them immediately promise good sound, haha!



But to quote Mr. Hall: "They are only caps, after all."

Wow, what neat wiring! Mine are similar to those I think, maybe a little smaller, but I'm not taking it apart again! But I have to admit I love taking them apart, started when I was young, took apart my favorite alarm clock I used to keep under my pillow at night (no hands, my mother got sick of holes in her pillow cases) and couldn't put it back together again, a traumatic experience.

My younger brother liked to take everything he could lay his hands on apart to take a look inside when he was a kid. Still does sometimes now. My mother called him "The Terminator"...

Talk about a traumatic experience,let me tell a RIC bass related one:

My Sophie ('86 Shadow) acted weird when I got her in late April. The output dropped dramatically and the low frequencies were all gone when her toggle switch was in the middle. I thought the toggle switch needed sanding and cleaning with contact cleaner... Did that, but the problem didn't vanish. So I thought the pickups must have been out of phase/polarity with each other. But I didn't know how to prove it. Our Pickup Guru Sergio taught me to put the pickups face to face to see if their respective polepieces would attract each other... They DID, proving that one of the pickup's magnet was wrongly installed, facing south while the other's faced north. Sergio suggested me turn the treble pickup's magnet over.

The treble pickup's magnet was glued to its baseplate. Tried to separate the thing with a little blade driver and SSSSSSHHHHHUAAAAAAAAA! I was scared shitless by the sight---a fraction of the soft magnet material was still glued to the baseplate! Man, it was a bloody scene!!!



I put the pickup back together immediately, hoping I didn't "terminate' it, and emailed Sergio asking him what to do. Under his guidance, I desoldered the wires, sanded and cleaned up the fraction on the baseplate and the wounded side of the magnet. The black magnetic residues made my hands look like those of a car mechanic. Until it looked acceptable.



Final polishing of the magnet's surface was done to good effect with some tissue paper. Put it back together and resolderd.



Quite a horrifying but extremely educational experience it was. Thank you, Sergio!

Now she sings so fine like she was born to.

Sophie has checkerboard binding? Very nice looking bass and pickup, very clean looking.
It is strange some of the things that you can find out puttering around, I lost one of the screws of my 72 pickguard last year right after I got it (had to look inside you know?) so I took one off my 78, they were in similar shape. I took the pickguard off the 72 again last week and guess where I found the screw and by accident? (I had forgotten about the lost screw)It was stuck to the magnet of the toaster! So I put it back in the 72 where it belonged and put the 78 screw back where it belonged: a happy ending for all.
I have to take my 72 all apart and clean her up good, I take all the chrome off and polish the body, I haven't done that yet.
I ordered some TI flatwounds today, my 79 4001 is especially sensitive to string pressure and I have heard that these TI strings are low tension so I want to give them a try, I have OE Ric round wounds on it now which are nice strings, but I am partial to flats, especially now that I am officially a geezer (50 last March) and have been playing a lot of blues and jazz lately as opposed to the hearing loss inducing music I have been known to play. (I still enjoy playing it though, and still have the SVT's)

Yes, she does...the unusual "white squares on black" binding which is exclusive (I believe) to this model (50 units made during '86-'89).



Cleaning up good a "72?
I did just that once after I got my Akiko ('72 Fretless). Pickguard, pickups, tailpiece, tuners, etc.. Polished all the metal parts to well shiny , including all the rusted pickguard/TRC/tuner mounting screws, with the toothpaste-like chrome/aluminum metal polish bought from my local motorbike shop. Replaced the 2 "rubbish" black hex type mutepad screws that the previous owner had put on her, with the 2 original thumbwheels kindly given to me by Sergio as a celebration for the purchase. (Thanks again, Sergio!) Gave the baby a thourough waxing and cleaning. I even inserted two 3/4" long proper gauged black hose between the treble pickup's baseplate and mounting surround to lower the height of the pickup cover so it would be real low without touching the vibrating strings. The old flatwounds that came with her were later replaced by the black RIC nylon tapewounds which are lighter in tension that automatically corrected the excessive neck relief caused by the old flats.



You will love the TI flatwounds, I guarantee ya!
I put a set of JF344 on Sophie and have been very happy with them.



They have quite an elastic feel to them. Very comfortable playing. Action can be set a little lower than other flats without increasing fret buzz. The Pyramid short scale flats feel a little stiff touch-wise (while sounding good in a vintage manner) compared to the TI flats.

Lots of TI flats users have reported that they take a little longer to run in and last for very long. They are brighter sounding than flats of other makes, while being no less tubey and punchy. Because of their innate brightness and fatness, I have been able to make Sophie sound from warm and deep to bright and aggressive. I would call the sound of the TI flats "Modern Flats".

To tell you the truth, I like them so much I'm tempted to replace the Dean Markley MedLite Rounds on my Annie ('98 4003 FG), which has been sticking to roundwounds since birth, with another set of TI JF344... Hmmm, think I'll do just that tomorrow and see how Annie would sound!

Great looking bass, Paul! I really like the look of the lowered pickup cover (I personally think they look a bit to high at their standard height).

I concur. Post-1975 4001 handrests are a bit on the tall side. I always lower them like Paul has done on his 1972 4001. Pre-1975 handrests are the right height for me.