Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a hankering for a 4005, but actually know nothing about them. How do they sound? Do they have dual truss rods? Does anyone know what happened to the one (4005) that CME had on ebay recently?

The 4005 has dual rods like most other Ricks. They went into production in 1965 and continued until around 1986. Some people don't care much for the sound. The treble pickup sits right at the bridge and picks up nothing but twang and the bass pickup is nothing but mud. I think they sound bad with heavy flats. Jeff Scott's 4005 sounds great with whatever strings he uses. The one I have here at the moment has Pyramids. IMHO they sound like **** on a 4005.

You're gonna hear from Jeff Scott soon....

The Chromes definitley sound better than the Pyramids that came on my 4005 when I got it. The heavier strings, like Ted said, just made for more mudiness. With the right amp settings, the neck pickup on my 4005 sounds incredible - but it can very easily get muddied up.

It's a '74, so it has higains, but i'm considering trying some Toasters on it, just to see how much it changes things.

Like Ted also said, I find the bridge pickup by itself pretty much useless except in very specific situations. However, the two pickups together sound great as well.

The one on eBay from CME did not hit it's reserve, which we guessed was around $5000.

I wonder if you ran just the bridge pickup....with roundwounds....and picked back by the bridge...would it sound like a barritone guitar ? ....Dwight Yokum !!!

While I think scale length has a lot to do with the tone of a baritone guitar, you may be able to approximate it that way. Anyone have any experience with rounds on a 4005?

John, I've found toasters to sound like high gains tonaly but clearer and with more pitch definition.

Same here, which is why i'm thinking they might be great on the 4005.

I used rounds for a long time on my 4005WB with great Squire/Camp/Lee type results. Even with the Super Soft chromes I get a great growly tone but with greater depth to the tone, and by varying the pickup balance and/or the tone control settings I can get quite a variety of useful sounds.

I'm lucky to have four 4005's (I know, sorry - I'm still a lousy player if that helps!) but the point is they all have roundwounds (two always with Rotosound medium gauge, and hi gains, and two sixties models with standards on one, and a set of pretty light 35-90 gauge Rotos on my fireglo '68, which has had a neck repair and deserves a bit less pressure in its old age!). The sound is amazing on all four, very lively and broad and you really appreciate the pickup spacing for the variety - I doubt I'd ever put flatwounds on any of them since the basses seem so alive regardless of pickup design. The 68 gets most use because the light strings make the string bends more fun! No loss of bass end that an amp can't replace these days... hope that's of interest.

I use Rounds on my 67 4005 mapleglo...45/100

trebly sound through Ampeg SVT2:
http://www.gospel.bo.it/albums/userpics/10160/1.wmv

bassy sound through Ashdown AbmC115-300:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDplIq90-lY

Thats some good tone Francesco!

Great playing also.

Francesco, thank you, thank you , thank you!! I always wondered what a 4005 sounded like in the real world. I used to have an ABM 500 115 and know exactly what that sounded like. I now use a 500 head with two 2x10 cabs, a much better sound IMHO. Now I just need a '67 4005, some rounds, an obscene amount of money....

You are welcome, Bob
I've planned to purchase an extra Ashdown 2x10 speaker in order to brighthen the sound of my 1x15 combo which is too bassy...

That is exactly what I did, it will not only brighten it but give you a good mid punch as well. I also found that my modified Ikea kitchen carcase leg set (!) works a trick for tightening that very loose bass that I got when the combo was on the floor. I would have stayed with this set up but for a very special deal direct with Ashdown.