Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

hey everybody. i just last week got my first 4003 rickenbacker. it's turquoise and it's a beauty. i play with my fingers and i strike the strings fairly hard. my playing style probably is most similar to john entwistle. i'm finding that im having a difficult time keeping the bass from being to trebly,more specifically that sound of the finger striking the string, which i don't care for. can anyone lend any advice on a kind of string that may help me? it says the factory strings are 45-105, but the tension feels so much lighter than any of my other basses. is this possibly because the distance from the bridge to the nut is a bit shorter, or maybe the guitar shop put a lighter gauge set of strings on when they did the set up. i normally use 45-105. i have a 3000 series rick and really like the sound i get from that. im just not used to the range of sound that the new rick can produce. i play through a bassman 135 with 4- 12"ers. thanks for your help everyone. sorry for the long windedness

One concideration with Rick basses is string height. A common phrase is "The Rickenbacker Clank". Most of the time this sound is caused by very low action and a hard attack. The strings hit off the treble pickup surround,or the fretboard, and or the tops of the treble pickup itself. This is easy to do especially if low gague strings are used. A heavier gague string can certainly help this situation. Make sure the strings used are the gague you are most comfotable with. If the "too much treble sound is really the case, this easily fixed with proper eq settings.

Ric strings are .45 .55 .75 and .105, the A and the D strings are lighter than normal .45-.105 sets. The 1/2" to 3/4" shorter scale also makes them a little looser. So combined you have less tension. There are many heavier gauge strings available, if you're getting too much treble try some flatwounds, Pyramid Golds sound great with the new 4003's and will tighten them up also, they sound just right for me, not too much treble and no mud. Regular Fender nickle rounds will tighten it up also and sound good if you are a strict RW player. You can also raise the action if you like. If you do this you will have to widen the A and D slots on the nut, many people here do it with a short length of the string they are going to use, sawing back and forth until the slot is widened to where you want it.

thanks guys. i've never played with flatwounds before. maybe it's time to give them a shot, before i do any action raising. thanks again

try a compressor and a distortion device ... or better yet get a bass pod and you will have both ...

I love my Ric basses but I would never just plug one straight into an amp ...

If you live anywhere near southeast Michigan then come by and play your ric through my rif and I can help you get your sound ...

I just tried plugging a 4003 straight into an ampeg with 4x10's ... I got that same exact sound you described ... it reminds me why I played with a pick so much back in the 70's ...

Joseph ... you gotta have compression ... and I highly reccomend you get a bass pod ... it has compression, distortion and amp modeling ...

I take that same bass and amp and run the pod in between them and it sounds wonderful ... no bad finger string impact sound ...

i thihk the brightness goes away with older strings. ive had my ric for roughly 3 months and its lost the brightness of the strings.

I use no effects and get a great sound with my 4001's and 4003's, Pyramids and an SVT. I get a good sound straight into the amp with RW's too, and almost always play with my fingers, different strokes for different folks I guess.

I agree Bob. I play gtr in my band now, but when I played bass live, I used a 4003 straight into a Fender bassman head & one of the old bassman 4x10 cabs. I too use fingers & it was a sound made in heaven. Valves are natural compressors when you set the amp just right, so I didn't even have to compress it.
As you say Bob....different strokes.....

I'm with Bob, also...I use flats on my 4001, and it has no problem with a lack of bass tone. With my Laredo I still have the stock rounds (according to the users guide they are 45-55-75-95, but I've seen conflicting descriptions on the Ric site...) and with the tone pot mostly closed it also has a pretty deep runble.

Of course, the PU's are vastly different on the 4004.

I rarely use any effects ( I did try the guitarists chorus pedal briefly the other day and liked it), but my low end Behringer head has a tendency to clip a little with the 4001, adding to "the sound"-especially when I dig in hard to anf F or G on the E string.

sometimes I wonder what I am doing on this forum ... so many people are so retro ... stuck in the 60's ... back then we just plugged into amps without effects, used flat wound strings, ric-o-sound, mechanical mutes ... thumb slapping and round wound strings were unknown ... the only thing that got miked was the vocals ...

Guitarists were faster to break out of the mold of no effects and round wound strings ... but then bassists followed ... listen to squire and Geddy ... they always have a bunch of effects, distortion, compression, etc ...

I want to be able to get any sound at any volume ... I don't want my amp to clip ... I don't want an unpleasant harsh attack finger noise ... so I use the bass pod

man, all of this feedback is wonderful. So just to be specific. is it the Line6 bass pod xt that i should be looking at?

Well I guess that begs the question of what is retro in 2005?

I played RW's for many years, used to change my strings every month trying to chase that trebly twang that was modern back in the 80's and 90's and now find that bass is back to sounding like bass and flats do a much better bass sound than RW's do. I went back to flats three or four years ago and haven't gotten this many compliments on my sound since I last used them in the early 70's. They actually have much more presence than RW's because they occupy the octave below the guitars unlike many rounds which basically interfere with the guitars because they lack bottom and are mostly overtones which are in the same range as guitars, remember they are only one octave above basses and the first overtone is one octave up. I believe bass sound is in the process of going full circle. I use good strings and good amps along with my good Ric basses and don't need any of that extra stuff to disquise or change my basic sound because it is good, and I know that because I do many fill-ins with different bands and musicians and get compliments from the musicians. I find the sound of a good 4003 with good strings and amps is a very pleasing sound that I would not want to cover up with effects and best of all "my" sound comes through which I owrked very hard to attain over the years.I also get it with Rics flats and tube amps.

I believe the fact that because many bassplayers are going back to or are discovering flats means that RW's are becoming retro, 5 years ago you almost had to order flats if you wanted them, they are now in all music stores, watch out time doesn't pass you by! haha!

"... so many people are so retro ... stuck in the 60's"

"... listen to squire and Geddy ..."

LOL... so Jeff, being stuck in the 70's is better? Anyway I'm stuck in the 70's too and love the Ric clank with roundwounds. But it's OK not to, right?

Just one more opinion, if I had to get an effect because I was getting a lot of noise or was not satisfied with my sound I would look at my technique, strings, amp or set up before looking at something to cover it up. A lot of people keep chasing the next latest gadget to try to improve their sound and sometimes waste a lot of money when perhaps a little look at the way they play might be a better place to start. OK, throw the stones now.