Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Paul-

ni how mah! (US spelling)

Where have you been?

Hey, Ni How ya, Jared.
Yeah I was not around here for quite a while. Lots of producing and mixing lately. Hardly any time for getting on the web.

I see that we have a few new members. Welcome aboard, folks.

For the new thread, here are my babies:
(Click on "My Basses")

http://photobucket.com/albums/v400/Flower_Child/

well done, as always!

Ahhh.....hello again , Sophie!!!

Had my FL out as I looged on...good to see you here again Paul...

Thanks, Jared.

Andy,
I never get tired of seeing your Fireglo Fretless babe! Absolute beauty she is! Yeah it's good to be "home".

Chris,
Sophie says "Hi".

Hi Paul,
So they let you out to breath some fresh air!

The toaster actually sounds fairly similar to the hi gain in that position but with more clarity and obviously not as much output, which is fine with me as I wanted to try and match the output on all my Ricks. As this is a fretless the differences are not quite as noticable soundwise as it would be on a fretted instrument. I do get a nice mwah and growl with Chromes on her.

I too think the toaster in the bridge surround looks fantastic.

Hi Guys,

I'm new to this board (just registered). I'm a one-woman, er, bass kind of guy. Its a '74 FG 4001, with a few mods: a DiMarzio Model 1 in the bass position, and a Bartoloni (6FH??) in the Mute compartment. Can get a pretty wide range of sounds, classic RIC, P-Bass, and J-Bass, and others. Plays like a dream. I love the look of the 4002 (my dream bass), and replaced the stock pickguard and Truss Rod cover with Black pieces to get a bit of that 4002 look.

Cranque

Welcome to The Rickenbacker Forum Tom. Thanks for sending along these nice photos and for your comments on your bass.

It looks like I would need to spent a little time in the bass simulator before I would qualify as an operator. Kidding aside, I am always interested to see how other players modify their Rickenbackers to achieve a particular sound.

Welcome Tom, and thank you! I dont think I've ever seen a fireglow with black trim, but I've always wondered what it would look like. Very cool! Nice bass you have there.

If you dont mind me asking, why did you think it needed modified? And what did you gain from the modifications?

Peter and Scott,

Thank you both very much! It's great to be here. A little personal history: My first bass was a mid-70's Ibanez Ric copy, with a bolt-on neck. As an instrument, it was fine, but sounded NOTHING like a Ric. Sort of a P-Bass sound, but IMHO not as deep. I also played Fenders from that era, but didn't like the necks at all - P felt like a baseball bat and J taper was uncomfortable for me (although the sound was OK).

Being a big Prog Rock fan and comsummate Squire fan, the Ric sound was it for me. So I traded in the Ibanez and got this used Ric in '77. LOVED the sound, and it's still my favorite overall. However, I found the stock Ric neck PUP to be somewhat weak and without a lot of deep bottom end. Hearing a DiMarzio Model 1 on a friend's Gibson EB-3 (which has to be one of the muddiest sounding basses ever with stock PUP), I was very impressed. So had to do a small amount of routing and voila!

I found the Model 1 to give a LOT of strong bottom end. I wired in a switch to put the coils in series or parallel, which can create an alternative tone with slightly less deep bass but a little more treble - good for some bluesy stuff without the other 2 PUPs.

About that time I came across the Bartolini mute PUP - adding it was very straightforward, so I thought "why not? I don't use the mute anyway...". So this gave me essentially 2 treble options - the Ric bridge PUP and the Bart. Bart has a very different sound, which is better for some types of music that require a less aggressive tone but still a lot of top end.

So what did I gain? A pretty versatile instrument that can sound like a good variety of basses. It certainly helped that I prefer the feel, weight, balance, neck, etc of the Ric over almost everything else I've ever tried.

At the time I did the mods I lived in Southern Cal & the nice folks at Ric on MacArthur Blvd were able to sell me a Black truss rod cover and extra 4001 knob. I'm sure you guys know that white plastics are std with FG finish. Red and Black have always been my fav colors, so....

I know 4002s are extremely hard to find and expensive, so now I have my eyes on a Cheyenne. The finishes are unbelievable and I would like to also have a bass with the all-wood (no pickguard) look.

Tom

Tom ... welcome ... a lot of those who post here are real retro purist types ... they frown on changing out a screw let alone a pickup ... they are still trying to nail bass parts from sgt peppers with flat wound strings and mute pads ...

I mod Ric basses too ... but a little different than you ... http://www.3dentourage.com/425/

but it is your bass if you want to mod it then go ahead ... I prefer Ric pickups and pickguards on my basses ... but I also prefer 5 string basses ...

Yo Cranque.

Intriguing beauty. FG + Black Trim = Nice.

Welcome.

Jeffrey,
I'm back for fresh air again. Thanks for sharing your impression on the toaster's sound in the treble position. It's quite a good idea for a fretless Rick. Is there any more room for you to raise the treble toaster up closer to the strings without causing magnetic pull? Oh, and how did you install the toaster on to the treble base plate? Are there screw holes existent on the RIC baseplate for it?

Tom,
Welcome.
Nice job on the pickguard and TRC. 4002-ish indeed.