Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Now that I have pickups in hand, I'm ready to put the toasters on one of my 4004Ls.

IIRC, I really need 250K pots to use with toasters.

Can I just wire in 250k where the existing (1m?) pots are?

What's the bass gonna sound like if I just keep the stock electronics.

TIA,

-T

Jeff Scott did this mod. I would contact him. Or give him a while, he'll chime in Im sure.

Jeff Rath would be able to help also.

the 4004L comes with 1 toggle and 2 500k ohm pots ... you can just drop in the pickups ... but 500k ohm pots with the single coil toasters will sound harsh ... the best choice for a single coil pickup is a 250k ohm pot ... you will get a warmer more pleasing sound ...

if you was going to try toasters then you may also want to try a volume, volume, tone or 2 stacked pots arrangement ...

you might also try a high gain pickup in there as well ...

as some of you know I went through a lot of pickup experiments on my 93 4004L ... toasters, high gains, humbuckers, non-ric pickups ... I finally decided on the 2 original pickups and 3 1000k ohm pots as the best choice ...

I understand the volume pot impedance loading shifting the resonant peak in amplitude. Increased pot loading, i.e. lower resistance (250k) will dampen the resonant peak, making the pickup less harsh in the upper mids. On dark sounding pickups like humbuckers the loading needs to be less to brighten it up a bit. On a maple body with single coils (high gains and toasters) 250K would be the best choice.

I am not so sure on the value of the tone pot and its affect on sound quality as it is frequency dependant (impedance) and the loading effect is variable by position. I don't think, and could be wrong, that it has much effect when all the way off. The tone pot value probably has more to do with the "rate" of high frequency roll-off.

try 'em all-you decide!

this bass here has a ton of treble bite with the 1000k ohm pots ... http://www.3dentourage.com/425/93-4004L-5.htm ...

I have, or should I say Chris Pappas has 350 K pots in it. As you go higher in resistance, the brighter the tone will be.

didn't you do the stacked knobs?

Scott Doseck did the stack knobs, I did the VVT thing!

Jared, certainly isn't any harm in that.

Is there any particular cap(s) I should use? I have other parts I'd need (wire, pots, jack).

They do look nice with the toasters.

Would putting two neck hi-gains in a 4004L make it sound very similar to a 4003?

somewhat ... the body is different ... the 4004 has less mass so it resonates differently ... also the bridge pickup for the 4003 has a bigger magnet ... I put a neck high gain in my 4004L at the bridge location and a toaster in the neck ... it sounded kinda like a 60s 4001 ... the only reason I didn't keep it that way is the hb1 pickups cover a wider string range than the high gains and my 4004L is a 4-2-5 and I was going for maximum string spacing ...

@Jeff Rath: On my 4004CiiTR I tried the VVT with 1000k pots, but they closed the volume too fast. So I stayed with the original ones in and it sounds well(of course I could always make use of a bit more treble). Maybe some mistake in the characteristics of the pots (linear or log???), what kind of do you use?