Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Eric, my bass player, is a long time Precision player & owns a couple of beauts ('59, '61 Precisions, '60's Tele bass & Gibson EB3 with slotted headstock, amongst others), but has long admired both the sound & quality of my guitars. This is a pretty rare beast in the UK & he is staggered by the build quality.

Let me guess.. the one with a BIN from eBay? I sure was tempted!

Very rare beast indeed... be sure to congratulate.

My oh My, the 4004s are starting to flood in...

I have a 2004 Cii in Trans-Red, one of the first Reds in the country.



Gotta love natural though... very nice indeed! I'd like to hear his opinion on its sound, especially when he's been playing Precisions for years.

You're right Henny...the Ebay 4004. How many are there? I'll let you know the full sound opinion next week, when we've put her through her paces!

Not many at all in the UK...

There's a fair number of the Model I variety, (Tung Oil finish, walnut face, maple neck).

.. But of the Model II, hardly any... I heard somewhere between 8-15... a third of them are in the 'Special' finishes - TR/TB/TG, the rest I presume are Natural like that fine example above.

There are far more Laredo I and II versions of the 4004 around also, but the Cheyennes are really alien.

I'm waiting for them to put two volume controls on them, that is a must for me on a 2 pickup bass, and I wouldn't want to modify one. I love the naturlas also, very classy.

they do sound better wired like a jazz bass with 2 volume controls ... you can then blend the pickups ...

Eric has mentioned the idea of stacked controls, ala jazz, which is a pretty good idea!

Is there enough room in the cavity? Did you ever try that Jeff?

Yep ... I have rewired 5 4004 basses with Volume Volume Tone controls ... you have to make the toggle switch hole just a little bit bigger to fit the volume shaft through ... sometimes I use carvin 500k pots ... they are a little smaller ... and somebody here did the stacked knob conversion as well ...

That would be me.

Here's the link:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Components:_Control_pots_and_knobs/5/Control_Pots.html

They work great with absolutely no permenant modification. I'll have this bass at the Columbus Confluence in May.

My next Ricky project will have two pickups and NO tone controls. I'll have two volume controls,a pickup selecter switch and a coil tap for the humbucker. I do my EQing on the amp(PortaBass 800 with two pre-amps). I've always run my tones on full anyway so I figure I'll get a purer tone without the extra parts.

I was considering that but I already had three vintage knobs so I kept the tone control!

Thanks for the link Scott. I think Eric will go for that.

Why have you replaced the bridge, Jeff??

They'd be alright except they look so bling!