Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm going to go look at an '83 JG4001 tonight and I wanted to get some tips on any 4001-specific things I might need to be on the lookout for. I'm told it's in decent, though NOT mint shape. I've already been told that it 'sounds different' than the owners other rics and that the bridge pickup is big on mids, but has little bottom end. Thanks for your help!

Check all of the usual stuff. Is the neck straight, check the nut, bridge, and tuners. An '83 would have the old rods. Check either side of the neck around the first fret for cracks or separations of the fingerboard. These are signs of bad trussing technique. Pull the TRC and make sure the rods look ok. Check for chewed up adjusting nuts. Also, make sure the rod tips are not bent backwards into the wood. There should be enough space between the nuts and the wood to fit a thin-walled 1/4" nut driver. These are not fatal flaws but any cracks immediately reduce the price. Look under the guard for signs of butchery. You will know it if you see it.

First thing that I would look at are the ends of the truss rods to see what condition they're in.

Bring along a small screw driver and ask if it's ok to remove the "Rickenbacker" truss rod nameplate cover. Once its off, the end of the rods with the nut on each should look straight. If they are bent, then that means someone tried to improperly adjust the neck. If they're straight and look untouched, that's a good thing.

Next you might want to remove the pickguard to check to see that no additional routing has been done to the body to accomodate an additional pickup or electronics.

I suspect that the .0047 capacitor is still in place which would result in the the bass being "big on mids, but has little bottom end".
A simple bypass around that cap will change the bass having little bottom end.

Check the normal things, how original is the bass, what are the condition of the tuners, frets, bridge, pickups, bridge. All the normal stuff.

Good luck

Good point on the add'l routing, Jon. I agree with you about the cap - that'd be primo if that's all it is.

Thanks a mignon, Ted! I hadn't thought about looking under the trc. He's only asking $650 w/o a case, but still.....

That's a pretty good deal, & if it all checks out I HIGHLY suggest doing the cap mod & it sounds like you'll have a winner.

Ok, I went and played the '83 and she sounded hot! Dirty? Check. Dinged up? Check. The guy had the pickup situation backwards, it was the neck p'up that didn't work. It doesn't give any sound, actually. I got it home and flipped the pickguard to see if anything looked unsoldiered. I couldn't find anything obvious, but I've never looked before. What do you think? http://www.leedavila.com/ric.JPG Cheers!

For one it appears to be an OEM Rickenbacker guard, there is masking tape underneath the pots.

The cap is still there, its the little barrel cap underneath the two larger ones.

Can;t tell what is causing the neck pup to be dead, maybe the pickup just went open by a winding corroding or something. Its happened to me on a P Bass before.

The wiring looks ok - just slightly ******** up. Sometimes a dead pickup is caused by the wiring at the jacks or the leaves of the switch. Look at the jacks and switch very carefully. Also, check the pickup with a multimeter. Post the resistance value for the neck pickup. That will tell us a lot.

I still will never understand why you would want to cut bass response on a bass guitar.

So you don't have a bunch of baby basses running around!

Thanks all. After I get it going, I might think about doing a cap mod on it. Another alternative I thought of was that I could always kick on my trusty Bass Xciter that sits between it and my Kustom K100.
Any tips of what to use to rid it of 20+ years of heavy gigging grime? Is windex OK or maybe vinegar and water? I don't want to goof it up! I'll post some pics later today.

Murphy's oil soap did the trick! I'm off to grab a multimeter at work and will test that neck pickup this afternoon. Rainy day here in Austin, perfect to spend with a bass you love.

The easiest (and reversible) way is to tightly twist a short length of wire around both leads of the cap using needle nose pliers. No soldering or mess & easy to remove should the urge come along.

The key is tightly, without solder there is a chance of intermittents. I can't imagine what that would sound like, but it can't be a good sound!