Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A friend of a friend just stopped by, he has a '73 Jetglo that he wanted to sell and has already posted pics in local forums (he has a newer 4003 Fireglo that he uses regularly), I told him about the capacitor and how to bypass it, and we did a quick setup, guess what, now he doesn't want to sell the 73, after he did the cap mod... says the improvement is unbelievable.

That bypass procedure is the best little trick in the book.

I'm gonna need to do that pretty soon. My 4001 lacks balls. The sound is there, but it's kinda wimpy. That and it'll have to beat the low end of the J bass I'm building (TY Mr. Rath). I'm sure it will... no worries about that.

Anyone know of a link that give instructions on how to do this?

The sound is kinda what, Nate? 8-(

That cap mod is great btw!
I rewired my 4001 so the volumes work as a cap on/off for both pickups.
Best sound are (to me):
*Bridge pickup without cap
*Both without cap
*Both but bridge with cap
*Both but neck with cap (fretless like sound)

The mod is easy; just remove the "extra" cap (the .0047 value one, if I remember correctly) and replace it with a length of wire.

I did this mod to my friend's '74 but he ended up reversing it. He loved the sound but it was "too much bass" for his Marshall Super Bass. Go figure.

Just did the bypass mod on mine so the cap is still there but not engaged.I could undo the mod in a minute but I much prefer the sound without the cap.Much more balls and more useable tone.

No need to remove the .0047 cap, just solder a piece of wire across it.

"That bypass procedure is the best little trick in the book."

Best thing I ever did to my '74...

Strangely it does very little to my 72 (or did with the original pickup in; haven't tried it since I installed Sergios). However it completely transformed my 76, it was like a new bass.

When I hung out for an afternoon with Andy Winter a couple months back, I finally got to hear what an uncapped Rick is all about. The difference is startling.

It seemed to me, however, that the uncapped bridge PU is very similar in tone to the neck PU. It probably would be a situation that I would notice the difference more if I lived with it, but I kind of like my capped 4001...

I guess the way I use my 4001 is a little different than most: I almost never use the switch, and instead vary the blend of the two PU's. In this way the very different sounding bridge PU offers a lot of flexibility.

My neck PU on the 4001 also has quite a bit of bottom/output - seems may 20-25% stronger than the bridge, so for that little bit more bottom I can just nudge the neck up a little.

I suppose if a toggle switch (very unobtrusive) was put in to switch back and forth, it might be an "accceptable" mod to a classic 70's 4001.

I had the 68 out last night and that capped treble pick up is so nasally weak that it makes me wonder how any of them survived without mods during the 70's etc...
There just is no real "sound" at all from that pick up...

Compared to an uncapped 72 it is sonically an inferior bass. (Saying that, I'll take 5 figure offers for it now...lol)
I bought a 67 harness a while back to go in my 67 4001S project. It has the original cap, and when it comes to fitting it will be bypassed...

I remember getting an Acoustic 402 cabinet (2x15) in HS...at that point I thought NOW I can use the treble PU by itself...

So I understand. Which one was the 68, Andy? A couple of your basses seemed to have less ballsy bridge PU's than my 4001, but the difference was clear with the un-capped one and the bridge PU on my 4001.

Heck, I really don't use the 4001 much anymore, it's the 4004 and the J-Bass mostly now. So I really don't think I'm doing anything to it other than changing strings and making the output jack work right.

Ed, the 68 was the gorgeous deluxe FG. On the right here, with the 72 refinned MG on the left.

Andrew, What is the white one, that looks really special...?

How do you get such large, clear images on this forum?