Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

After waiting about a week and a half for the parts to show up, I took my time over two days and tranformed this "sea green" Laredo into a five string. This is actually a blue boy I got from Tom Gallo but the color has turned some. It plays great and the hb's sound awesome and have the growl that J.Rath has referred to. The bridge is slightly wider on this one at a hair over 2 7/16" with no volume drop on the ends.

Nicely done! I like that "blacked out" look contrasting with the light body color.

A nice job!

I like the black hardware on the Blueboy. What make of bridge is that, Mark?

I like it too Mark, although you should have the strings wrapping around the tuner posts at least three times to make the tuning more stable and also to provide more downward string pressure on the nut. What are the gauges of each of your strings by the way?

That's pretty darned impressive, Mark!

Good show!!

We've created a monster!

That bridge is a Schaller 496 that I got from Warmoth for $63. It was a challenge to find a black bridge that would work as I was shooting for 15.5mm string spacing, this one spec'd at 15.8-17mm, you can tilt the end saddles in slightly because they are the farthest off of the base after adjustment, this gets you very close to 2 7/16" which is the maximum I would recommend with these pickups. This bass has a very straight neck and I was able to get the strings very close to the fretboard, the bridge had great adjustability.

The strings are S.I.T. Silencers, .045-.120, $24 at Juststrings.com.

Well Mr. Scott you have alot to do with this, it was your pimped out Cii that passed through Mr. Pappas on it's way to me that started all this. Then you have Mr. Rath pioneering the techniques and sharing them here, and Mr. Cooper buys a G&L 2500 like the one I used to have and giving me gas for a fiver. Then Mr. Crisman tweaks J.H. about not putting out any fivers and I started thinking seriously about getting it done, what's that saying, if you really want something done(right) you have to do it yourself.

This thread reminds me that every time I play a 4 string bass it feels weird ... it is like you 4 string guys having your E string removed ...

Also this reminds me that the standard 4004 4 string bass is an excellent platform for a 5 string bass ...

Rickenbacker could make really excellent 5 string basses by taking the existing 4004 and putting in 5 tuners in the headstock, a different nut and a different bridge ... there would be virtually no R&D costs and they could use off the shelf parts ... and it would be finger friendly and the pickups would cover all 5 strings ... or those of who know how to work a drill can make our own 4-2-5 conversions ...

Also the newer 4004 basses resonate better and the necks are stronger than the old ones ... I asked JH why and he declined to let me in on what the reasons were ... but the newer 4004 basses are even better than my 2 90s models that I love ...

on that bass you might try wiring it Volume, Volume, Tone ...

also I tried the Schaller bridge on my 2020 4-2-5 bass and I found it to be just a hair too wide to get a 100% coverage on all 5 strings ...

on the pickups ... did you use black covers or no covers ...

I'm not into the Blueboy finish that much, but I'm really diggin' the way that one looks with the black hardware. I just keep staring at it!

I think a 4004 mapleglo would look great with black hardware as well ...

Well shoot Mark! Another 4004 5'er!

Blueboy with black is...interesting. I have to say, the jury is still out on this one for me. Blueboy is my favorite finish, but in a more 1950's way - I like to see it with gold hardware and plastic parts. BTW, Tom Gallo and I may be working out a trade for his BB4004. I'm still weighing my options.

So I guess with all these new 5 strings, you don't need all those old cruddy B-less '73's, huh? Just gimme the address of the dumpster where you'll be tossing 'em.