4004Cii to 4002/4004LK Conversion

[cjj]

Well then the way I see it, the only way to find out which pickup configuration will best suit CJ's needs is to build the Rickenbacker 4004 equivalent of this:

That's exactly what I'm afraid of if I put 4 pickups on my 4004Cii...

[86kubicki]

A sound clip of a 4004LK bridge pickup would be great.

Ask and ye shall receive Joey!
http://www.soundclick.com/seagreenvibe
I've added another clip - click on the "4004lk" link. Recorded straight into Pro Tools, this is a 4004LK with factory RIC roundwounds, and the tone control is on full treble. The first part of the clip is all three pickups, and the latter part is the bridge pickup only.

[rickenbrother]

Thanks Steve!
That bass sounds really nice. I love the clarity and growl from the bridge pickup. With the growl from that pickup, if that bass was fretless, Tony Cabibe would be on the next plane to Canada and you'd have a permanent house guest!

[cjj]

Yes, Steve, thanks for posting that! I'm definitely liking the idea (and sound) of adding a pickup in the 4004LK bridge position.

Now, if I could only figure out what difference moving from my present 4004Cii bridge position to the 4004LK middle position would be. I'm guessing that even if you made a recording of just that pickup, gauging how that's different from a 4004Cii bridge pickup would be difficult...

[86kubicki]

...Tony Cabibe would be on the next plane to Canada and you'd have a permanent house guest!

As long as Tony likes Canadian winters!

[rickenbrother]

...Tony Cabibe would be on the next plane to Canada and you'd have a permanent house guest!

As long as Tony likes Canadian winters!

Don't worry, he's getting really good at baking. It keeps the house warm!

[VRICKY63]

Are we playing Bass or guitar ? A pickup close to the bridge would be useless .

I beg to differ - here's a 4002 recorded using only its bridge pickup:

http://www.soundclick.com/seagreenvibe

Not impressed with that burpy tone

[rickaddict]

Not impressed with that burpy tone

But whether you like the tone or not, the playing rocks!

[rickenbrother]

But whether you like the tone or not, the playing rocks!

+1!

[cjj]

But whether you like the tone or not, the playing rocks!

+1!

Yes, I agree! Great playing!

I have to say, the "burpy" tone alone might be a bit much, but adding that edge to the huge sound the 4004Cii has would, In my opinion, be great! As I said before, the 4004Cii has a great tone, but I want a bit more bite in it. I'm thinking this would be a good thing to do.

I'm having a bit of a hard time imagining just how much different the tone would be from the stock position of my 4004Cii bridge pickup and the 4002/4004LK mid position. I mean, it's only 1.75 inches. But then again, that's about the same distance to the 4002 bridge pickup too, so I suppose it could be very different indeed...

[cassius987]

I understand why people don't like some bridge pickups, like the anemic bridge pickup on a Jazz Bass (though some folks swear by it... I'm not among them). The difference with the 4002 is that its humbucker really gives it a lot of beef. I have played Scott Pope's 4002 (and gigged it) and I treated it very much like my 4003s: lots of blending that depended on the song. Some song really called for that pickup to dominate. Others begged for the neck pickup.

CJ, you do what you want with it, it's your bass. Aesthetically I think 4 pickups would be better than 3... I know it sounds goofy because it is aesthetically motivated but you may be happiest if you just get everything evenly spaced, and give each pickup a switch so they can be turned on or off and operate on a single volume and tone (to reduce impedance so everything sounds nicer). Then you can blend to your heart's desire, though I guess not so much in terms of decibel levels... Just a thought I guess. To reduce clutter you could put the switches on the back of the bass as long as they were those low-profile types. You could replace the current selector switch with another pot maybe or use it to toggle something like a capacitor.

As for Steve's 4002 clip, I adore it. Good work buddy.

[winston]

As for Steve's 4002 clip, I adore it. Good work buddy.

I could not agree more with the above comment. Well done Steve.

[cjj]

Here's a little taste of what it would look like with 3 pickups (thanks a HUGE bunch to the skills of Mr. Joey V.!):

A 4th pickup might look OK, but then again, it just might start to look goofy.

I'm thinking right now that I'll do triple stacked knobs, V/T for each pickup. That way I really don't need a switch to select as I can just roll the volume off if I don't want one in the mix.

I'll be setting this up for stereo too (I've already got that). I'm thinking a switch on the back to add the center pickup to either the bridge or neck as desired. Also, switches to select single or double coil for each pickup. I've got that already with the 2 I have now.

If I put a 3rd stacked pot in, I won't have room for as many switches as I've got now though, so I'll lose the selectable 4002 tone circuit. So far, I can't say it does a whole lot with the HB-1's so the loss won't be missed much...

[cassius987]

A 4th pickup might look OK, but then again, it just might start to look goofy.

To each his/her own, but if it were me doing this I would try to achieve the most evenly spaced pickup layout possible (distance between all pickups is the same) to achieve the best aesthetic--and I think there would be sonic benefits to that scheme as well. This kind of layout could only be done using four pickups in this situation so for me it would be hard to do anything else. Others may not be bothered by this sort of thing, but I think about it in cases like this.

Naturally I'm not the one doing the project so my opinion is nothing more than chatter, and I also can't back it up by saying that I would actually go through with it if I really had the chance. I just wanted to clarify my previous statement about why I suggested going with four pickups instead of three.

[rickaddict]

Nice photoshopping, Joey!

Could we see what it would look like with 4 evenly spaced pickups?!

(Give me an inch and I'll take a mile!!)