Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Yes very nice work Sergio and Jeff. The photos allow for much discussion regarding sound differences over the years.

Dedgoat: the new horseshoe should work fine ... I have played a few 4001v63 basses ... the new horseshoe seemed to be a little more fuller and louder than a 70's high gain. Also the v63 models that I played seemed to not have the capaciter. So if you use a new horseshoe pickup then you may want to use a toaster as the neck pickup. With the old horseshoe the steel surround is actually the magnet ... the reissue has alnico slugs ... and the high gains allways have a ceramic base magnet.

Sergio: the 89 and 70's screw top high gain were both repainted ... usually when I get old beat up high gains I repaint them ... usually flat black or semigloss or satin black.

The only thing that I have to compare tone to is a 4001CS, I figured that the 68 would sound similiar, but I wanted to use a new higain in the neck for some serious low end punch. It's just a matter of leaving the cap in place or not.

The sound of the 70's high gain is probably closer to the 60's horseshoe than the reissue horseshoe is. But the re-issue horseshoe looks almost identical to the old horseshoe. The 70's high gain is the same basic pickup as the horseshoe with a

As per the cap ... that is a matter of taste ... try it with and without to see which you like.

Owen:
I assume a 4001 'button-top' treble high-gain pickup made in 1973 to be similar in every respect to one made in the late 70's, except maybe for the ohm rating - I guess this would be slightly lower in the '73 pickup.
Peter:
Thanks. I'll try and post some additional pics of Rick bass pickups.

80's 4001 high-gain pickup set.

Interesting thing about the magnet lengths on the toasters. The toasters on my '67 4005 WB have both. The neck pickup has the short, flush magnets and the bridge pickup has the long magnets.This is cetainly original as the body is routed under the bridge pickup and there is no opening at all under the neck pickup, just nice Jetglo paint. As this is the only 4005 I have seen up close, is this normal or has it varied throughout the production run of these when they had toasters?

I would say it is quite normal, as the longer magnets equal greater gauss and hence more output, which is desirable for the 4005 treble pickup.

The bridge pickup certainly has more output. Originally there were two o-rings under each mounting screw for the bridge pickup and only one under each mounting screw for the neck pickup. I reversed this and the bridge pickup is still somewhat hotter than the neck pickup. I get a nice balance by rolling back the volume on the bridge pickup a bit.

This is the bottom view of my '72 toaster. I think it's identical to Owen's '73.I love the deep low end in its sound. It's quite hot, actually.


As posted by Sérgio, my '73 treble high gain has a small magnet and is the least hot one among my RIC treble pickups. It has a metal (aluminum?) baseplate.

Here are 2 shots of my '98 treble high gain. A very punchy sounding one.

Jeffrey:
To the best of my knowledge, a 4005 with a bridge pickup that sounds louder than the neck one is quite unusual. I presume the treble-pass capacitor thereon has been by-passed/removed?
Paul:
Hi there! It's good to hear from you again. Thanks for your e-mail. Yes, that 1972 treble pickup baseplate is made of aluminum. Great pics. I have many more pics of Rick bass pickups, but I can't post them here because they're too large.

come to think of it my 4001V63 had a composite baseplate for the horseshoe, one that FedEx graciously broke in the shipping.

They were going to deny my claim until I pointed out a shoe print in the middle of the shipping box, right were the vintage case sustained damage. 2 months later I collected.

I had to fashion an aluminum baseplate as a replacement, the ferrous (sp?) versions I made just didn't sound right.

Looks pretty cool though.

There is no cap in line with the bridge pickup, and according to JH they never had one to the best of his knowledge.

Paul-Great pictures you should make a calender! I would buy it.