Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

When I take off the ridiculous Fender flats from my 75 4001, and put on some relatively light RW's, will I have to adjust the neck or will the lessening of tension bring my relief into a good place again?

You won't know until you make the string change.

If the string tension is a lot lower with the new strings, you'll likely need to add some relief.

Do you have too much relief at the moment? If so, the lighter RWs may do the trick by themselves, otherwise you may have to loosen the rods a bit, as the current rod tension may create a back bow. As John said, you won't know till you try it. What RWs are you considering? I have TI Jazz Rounds on my 4004Cii and these sound great and are the lowest tensions rounds made. You might have to loosen the rods completely for them depending on the natural set of the neck.

It could take a few days to a week for the neck to completely settle in after a change like that. I have not used Fender flats for years (25 or so). It is very possible that they are different strings these days. My experience is that they pull pretty hard. Use small adjustments and only if the bass is not playable. Jeff is right, TI strings are very soft as are DR.

Yeah, there's a bit too much relief now. I figured to let it be for about a week. The guitarist in my band has been playing it, he'll let me know how it feels!

The fenders still have a lot of tension...In the future I'll probably give TI's a try, but for now I'm going to give the hi-tension Fenders a go on the Laredo and use some RW's on the 4001.

when I used to own 4001 basses with the old style I set the neck flat with the truss rods and never adjusted them again ... I just adjusted the bridge height and string gauges ...

Well, I put the .105 - .75 - .55 - .45 round wounds on it today and WOW! the neck went right back to beautiful. Sounded pretty good.

I did notice that the capped bridge PU sounds really weenie with these strings. But I usually use both PU's and vary the blend.

These strings are the bulk Rogue from Musicians Friend. Cost less than $40 for 3 sets including shipping. Well see how long they last, but from a first play with them tonight they felt/sounded fine...

I found .105 worked on my 4001 as well ...

You might like the sound of the bridge pickup much better if you bypass the .0047 cap.

It gives you a full sound and you can get a great tone with the bridge pup solod.

Having heard an example from Andy Winter's collection, I understand that Morrow. But I'd rather keep my 4001 totally stock, and I get some great sounds out of it. Yeah, I probably won't solo with it...

It just seems the RW's make the difference more striking. With the flats the bridge PU by itself does not seem to be so powerless.

Roundwounds have so much more top end that it makes the capped pickup seem so much thinner in comparison to the same pickup with fats. The highs are overpowering the mids.

This was my observation also.

Brand of string does make a difference also.

Ahhh, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks, David!

I wonder if guitar players take the caps out of their Ricks to fatten up the sound.

You just have to twist a piece of wire at both ends of the cap to bypass it. Too simple, & if you want to take it off later, no problem. Anything that eliminates the need to solder is good

There's a cap on guitars too?! why?