Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a 4004 Ci and a Laredo. The old Ci has a very low and comfortable action that I have never been able to get with the Laredo. It finally occurred to me that the height of the fingerboard might be different on the two basses. As it turns out, the height of the fingerboard where it is cut off at the body is .060" lower on the Laredo. The result is that even with the bridge bottomed out the G string is still too high. (The frets are the same height above the FB on both basses as closely as I can measure).

I read in another thread that some forum members have replaced the Schaller bridge with a Hipshot for just this reason. So-- I ordered a Hipshot and hope that will solve the problem.

Bottom line is that you learn a lot of interesting stuff on these forums especially work-arounds for various little problems.

Next, I need to figure out a way to straighten the tail piece for my C64 -------

Yes, I have seen 4004Ls and CIIs with bottomed out bridge saddles. The only way to address it is to replace the tailpiece with one that sits a little lower.

The stock ABM that is was on my Ci was bottomed out but the action was perfect so it wasn't an issue. Recently I've done some swapping of hardware and I now have the Hipshot unit on the Ci and the action is just as good but there is still plenty of room to lower the bridge saddles if it should be necessary in the future. The Hipshot is a great upgrade.

I really like the Hipshot stuff, both the bridges and the tuners, unfortunately they don't make a five string bridge that's narrow enough for a 4004 conversion. I recently noticed that the supply of Schaller 496's (especially chrome) had been drying up and I think they've been discontinued. I got lucky recently and found this one on ebay for $50 BIN, it will come in handy for a future project.

I found that bridge to be a little wide for my 4-2-5 Rickenbacker conversions ...

I use these instead ...



but on my basses that don't use Rickenbacker pickups I use the schaller 5 string bridge with great results ... I have one on my 4-2-5 pbass, 4-2-5 jazz bass, and a 4-2-5 fenderbird ...

Has anyone here ever tried to use the Hipshot 4000 series replacement bridge on a 4004? I know they sit a little lower than a 4004 bridge while the extra length would fill out the rear of the bass nicely and it's wait could only increase sustain. I'd like to see Jeff do one of his Photoshop pics of this combo on...say...a MID 4004L.

This is the one you need. Make sure you get the .750 string spacing.

http://www.hipshotproducts.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=118

Yea, the Schaller wouldn't work on a 4003 conversion but on the wider 4004 neck it doesn't get any better than the spread shown in this pic(black Schaller 496), covers the whole fret board and is pretty roomy for a conversion. Also has great adjustability. I just measured this one and it's around .600" spacing at the saddles.

I never tried a schaller on a 4003 ... but I have tried it on a 2000 series bass with hb-2 and found it too wide, I tried it on a fenderbird 4-2-5 with hb-1 pickups and it was again too wide, so my experience is that the schaller bridge is slightly too wide for the hb1, and hb2 pickups by about 1/8" ... this opinion comes from doing over 20 4-2-5 conversions ... many of them with Rickenbacker pickups ...

I also have a plan to get a hipshot 4000 series bridge without the holes drilled and without the saddles ... I will drill it out for 5 strings and 5 saddles ... I have a recently acquired 4003 that I will be converting ...

as per the 4004 where you can't lower the bridge enough ... there are a ton of 4 string bridges available that could work on that bass ... get a replacement bridge and try to grind the string grooves a few mm deeper with a file of dremmel tool ...

and using the hipshot 4000 bridge on a 4004 would require removal of some wood ... if you are going to remove wood then just use the original bridge and remove some so it is set into the 4004 body about 1/8" ... I would try a different bridge first ...

Not sure why you couldn't get that bridge to work Jeff, it puts the B & D strings in the same place that the E & D were previously. I do adjust my hb's up close to the strings, it brings out the growl and evens out the string balance. I like the hb1's so much the dual toastered Cii is going to have one less toaster in the near future.