Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Jared, will you please stop showing off your horseshoe conversions!

P.S. Your 4003s/5 pickguard has an unsightly hump in it.

>>Greg, glad to hear you solved your own problem.
Intersting choice of words. I really didn't see that I had that much ^$&%ing choice in the matter. That is unless I wanted to leave it in the case, and just play my SR305's. Thanks for all your support.

Dane-

I cannot claim that 5'er conversion. Kendall James GAVE me those shoes, he had no use for 'em.

If only I could chrome like RIC...

There are no-good chrome guys here.

John - are the new pickups for the 4004cii/5 the same dimensions as the old pickups so that they can be easily retrofitted (as in Joey's case)? If so, is it just a matter of increasing the magnetic field to provide better coverage for all strings?

I really like the Rickenbacker sound and I really like 5 string basses ... but Rickenbacker's first two attempts a making a 5 string bass were flawed ... the 4003s5 had the strings too close and the 4004CII5 had pickups that didn't properly cover all 5 strings ... both can be fixed with mods ... but most players don't want to modify their $1600 bass ... me I like to mod basses for fun ...

I have found even bigger problems with Korean made basses ... I had one recently that I had to replace the nut to adjust it right and it would not intonate properly until I moved the entire bridge ... and some of the cheaper basses active circuits and humbuckers buzz louder than single coils ...

Greg, once the 5 string pickup redesign was finished, I'm sure John Hall would have helped you.

Talk about string spacing...check this out. Played this while recording at Deaf Dog Records in Chicago. Wow. I still prefer my 4003s/5 but this thing is an incredble jazz monster.....they offered it to me and I must say that I am considering it.....I am also looking forward to my BBR 4004Cii/5 that was ordered in January of 05.

Ric could reuse the same pickups if they redesigned the rails like this ...

If that's a Thompson DO IT!!!!

He's not taking any more orders... talk about a great bass, and one that'll only get more valuable!

It's a Thompson. I am tempted but it is pricey. They had some minor problems with it and had to send it in for repairs. The day I played it, Carl called the studio to see if everything was OK.

If anybody wants to sell me 2030, or 4004CII5 pickups ... the kind that adjust from the back ... I am interested ... they are perfect for my 4-2-5 conversion basses ... and 6 string guitars ...

So for me Rickenbacker has not done a 5 string bass that I like to play right out of the box ... but neither has Fender ... that's why part of my basement is a workshop where I modify basses into what I need them to be ...

That's why I designed my own bass. I wasn't finding what I wanted and got tired of modding basses.

for me the 4003s5 is to narrow and the 4004CII5 is too wide ... the perfect 5 string bass would have a nut 1 3/4" to 1 7/8" and a bridge 2 3/8" to 2 5/8" spacing ... I know some players like a 2" nut and a 3" bridge ... but that is too big for me ... also I would like to see Ric do a 5 string bass with single coil high gain pickups ... I just love that sound ...

I like the 2 3/4 spacing of the Schaller bridges set at the widest setting. One of my basses has a 3" Gotoh, which is just a bit too wide. 2 7/8 is ok. What is the spacing at the bridge on the 4004CII5? I'm not sure what my nut is... probably like a 4 string 4001 as far as string to string spacing. I hate the narrow nuts on Jazz basses. I did one like a P, but with 5 strings it's too wide! Hurts my hand after a while. One of these days I'm going to reshape the neck.

The Schaller adjustable bridges are really nice bridges ... I use them on my fender and gibson 4-2-5 projects ... if Ric hb1 and hb2 pickups could cover 2 1/2" string spacing then I could use Schaller on the 4004 and 2030 4-2-5 basses ...

I have not come to the place of actually creating a bass from a slab of wood ... I just modify them and assemble them from premade parts ...

The B to G string spacing on the 4004Cii5 is factory set at approximately 2 5/8", but you can the adjust the spacing on the saddles of the ABM bridge from 2 1/2" to 2 3/4".
The nut on the 4004Cii5 is 2" wide, the string spacing on the nut is 1 5/8".