Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

And the headstock is ALL WRONG! The pointy bit below the E tuner, kind of suddenly juts out to harshly! There should be a gentle curve to both sides of the headstock! The D/G side is better, nut the A/E side is shocking! This ain't no Ric!

rickenbrother wrote:Dane, you never know, someday. The biggest challenge would probably be to finish the plugged hole left by the original treble pickup position well enough, so that it looks like it was never there.

That would be especially difficult, requiring the body to be refinished. However, the existing treble pickup is in too good of a position to just eliminate. I'd keep it. I actually feel the 4001S prototype's bridge pickup is back just a bit to far to get much out of the string's limited movement at that position. I would prefer to add another pickup in the 4002's bridge position.

The 4005's bridge pickup (sans .0047µF cap) does not have much bottom end but does do a nice burpy jazz kind of tone with some EQing. However, when combined with the nice thick tone from the neck pickup the two together produce some great sound. I have a bunch of recordings i did in the early '80s with the old WB that sounds fabulous, IMHO, playing abilities notwithstanding.

aceonbass wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Dane, you never know, someday. The biggest challenge would probably be to finish the plugged hole left by the original treble pickup position well enough, so that it looks like it was never there.

That would be especially difficult, requiring the body to be refinished. However, the existing treble pickup is in too good of a position to just eliminate. I'd keep it. I actually feel the 4001S prototype's bridge pickup is back just a bit to far to get much out of the string's limited movement at that position. I would prefer to add another pickup in the 4002's bridge position.

Exactly that, has been a hopeful project of mine for a very long time! Someday, I hope soon, these will look like this:



I've even toyed with the same fantasy on CJ's 4004Cii, at his request.

I can't seem to find the larger size of it alone right now. I'm sure CJ has it.
But I do have this!

rickenbrother wrote:Is it just my eyes or I've just noticed the TRC looks like it's from a 12 string. I don't think it's a Laredo. I don't think 4004 horns were ever that fat.

Here I am with the real thing:

so...what was the feel and tone ???

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Is it just my eyes or I've just noticed the TRC looks like it's from a 12 string. I don't think it's a Laredo. I don't think 4004 horns were ever that fat.

Here I am with the real thing:

so...what was the feel and tone ???

You could ask John Paul Jones the same question!

Right there is my dream Rick, it actually exists.

When I gathered all the pickup spacing measurements and figured on adding the 3rd pickup to my 4004, the plan was to have only 3 knobs, all dual/stacked for V/T V/T V/T. I've never been one to do a lot of pickup switching "on the fly" so I figured turning a pickup off by turning its volume down would suffice.

There will. of course, be my switched for coil splitting, which pickup the middle pairs with in Rick-O-Sound mode and R-O-S/Mono.

All the parts are here, waiting to be installed. Just have to get the shop cleaned out enough to do the work. Maybe this spring...

aceonbass wrote:Hey Joey, You'll need another knob on those three pickup 4004's. I did Mario's "4003LK" with a VVVT wiring setup that worked really well. The three knobs there would be volumes, and a tone control could be positioned between and below the last two knobs. The bass would be routed from the rear to accommodate the tone control, and a new cavity cover made.

Dane - can you post some pics of the VVVT 4003LK?

Guy

jps wrote:

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Is it just my eyes or I've just noticed the TRC looks like it's from a 12 string. I don't think it's a Laredo. I don't think 4004 horns were ever that fat.

Here I am with the real thing:

so...what was the feel and tone ???

You could ask John Paul Jones the same question!

Right there is my dream Rick, it actually exists.

now just think how high that 4001s fretboard is off the body plane to acomodate those toasters, like a 4005 ! that's special.

One day I have to play that bass!

aceonbass wrote:Here it is Guy, with it's pensive looking owner

Looking terrified!

aceonbass wrote:That would be especially difficult, requiring the body to be refinished. However, the existing treble pickup is in too good of a position to just eliminate. I'd keep it.

I can't disagree with that statement. The tone from the pickup in that position is awesome.

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:so...what was the feel and tone ???

IIRC, it wasn't long prior to taking this picture that this 4001S was brought out of storage and put in the RIC museum. It was very playable, but I don't think it was setup after being taken out of storage. I never plugged it in. I was suffering from a pretty bad gout attack at the time, not very well mobile. I was thrilled enough that JH let me check it out as much as I did. I'm he wouldn't have minded if I'd plugged in in, but with the condition I was in at the time. I didn't want to futz with it or hold it for too long. I may not go down in any official RIC history documentation for anything, but if I do, I don't want it to be because I destroyed the '67 4001S!

vulcan_creedler wrote:

aceonbass wrote:Here it is Guy, with it's pensive looking owner.

Looking terrified!

Oh no, Mario rocks!

Thanks everyone for all the input. I may be joining the ranks of Rickenbacker bass owners, but not just yet.