Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

If I'm working towards a 1970's Ric bass sound, would I be wasting my time using newer (circa 2000) hi-gains? I've read over past posts, but just wanted to reconfirm my suspicions. Cheers!

The newer ones are much hotter (louder) and produce stronger low end. I am not sure what you mean by 70's sound (Squire, Lee, McCartney from WOM, The Knack) All of the above can be done using the modern pickups. IMHO the modern ones are better all around pickups.

According to Rickenbacker and their latest upgrade to the 4003 being a Push/Pull Tone Pot on the Bridge Pickup allowing Full Tone or Vintage Tone through a Filter Cap. the pickups are not the deciding factor.

I have new 4003 pickups in my 74' Walnut 4001 and they sound great.

I actually think it's "ME" that Sounds Vintage!

Thanks gents. I guess what I'm referring to by '70s sound is the muted snarl of the early Clash, the Jam and Gang of Four. Ah yes, the filter cap, I was assuming that it was essential in there. I'm starting to get that self-vintage feeling meself! But 40 is the new 20, right? right!?

It is a combination of the pickups and the cap. The 70's pickups have lower output. IMHO the cap sucks the life right out of the tone. I was never clear on why anyone would want to remove low end from a bass. I used to have to jack up the low end on my old Acoustic 320 to get any bottom on my 70's 4001s. My jazz bass with the same amp settings would level small cities.

40 the new 20? I thinks so too. That's what I've heard anyway.

I only have 1 4003 with the current pickups. I've thought about changing them out. I'm still working on trying to get used to them, though. I think my C64S and my V63 sound more like my 70's 4001s than my current pickup 4003. I remove the cap from the old 4001s though.

Anywho...I would think that the bass that you're trying to reproduce those sounds with should be a close enough approximation.

A 60s 4001 had a toaster scatter wound to about 7.4k ohms and a horseshoe wound to about 6.5k ohms and a bass cut capacitor.

A mid 70's 4001 had 2 high gain pickups wound to about 8k ohms and a bass cut capacitor.

A modern 4003 has 2 11k ohm high gain pickups and no bass cut capacitor. Except the new 4003 has the push pull knob to activate the capacitor.

And the some of the 4003s5s have a 15k ohm treble pickup, and the hb1 and hb2 pickups are dual rail dual coil series humbucker pickups.

All of those basses have the distinct Rickenbacker sound. The older basses were designed for older amps with less headroom. It is harder to get a clean sound out of a 50 watt tube amp when you bring in a hot bassy signal. But with today's modern amps you can make your 4003 sound remarkably like the old Rics by adjusting the eq knobs. Basically the old Rics had a weaker signal going into the amp and the capacitor simply truncates all frequency response below a certain frequency for the treble pickup. It was developed in an era before active electronics. I prefer my pickups to be full frequency and hot and then control it with my bass pod and my tone controls on my bass amp.

Thanks again guys. Turns out, someone swooped in and bought them right out from under me, but I still have the single older hi-gain and a 500K tone pot headed in my direction, so I'll start there and see how that sounds. I'm playing through a '68 Kustom K100 (50 watts) which has a jacks for both regular instruments and also one for high-output instruments (w/ db and bass cut), so hopefully it'll "like" what I'm throwing at it either way.

40 looks like 20, but then again, I just had to get bifocals!