Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My new '98 4004 Laredo arrived today.....YIPEEEE! It's in excellent condition with only a few minor (very minor) dings and some light discoloring on the headstock edges from a guitar hanger. I love the maple fretboard. It's the first time I've seen a finished maple fretboard BTW and I like it much.

I'm ordering an ABM piezo bridge for it and have been trading emails with John East about making a custom harness since I need some sort of buffer to balance the passive stock p/u's with the piezo bridge system. It will give me the ability to blend any combo of the three p/u's and also to run it in passive mode without the piezo. It will only be a slight enlargement to the rear control section and drilling the mini toggle for a 3rd pot like the VVT mod. His preamps sound killer on jazz basses so I'd expect the Ric to sound even better......having the ability to go passive is a HUGE plus as well.

Congratulations Brian,

NOW you're talking...ever since hearing Jdog's 380L, I fell in love with the Piezo bridge and wondered how it work on a bass.

You know, the more I look at these things, the more tempted I get. I like the p/u spacing on this bass. Very cool bass indeed! Sweet maple neck too!

PLEASE keep us posted on the progress and how it works out.

LOVE it, Brian! Think the Piezo setup could be ready for MARF?

Tony, my 2005 Laredo would be right up your alley - the neck is SO thin.

I should be getting a price sometime today/tomorrow for the harness. Mr. East has been a pleasure to deal with so far. I'll do a step by step when it goes under the drill/dremel.

About a year ago I played a Dingwall with a custom piezo system and a J-Retro preamp and was blown away by the tone. I've had thoughts of putting a similar setup in a 4004 on the back burner ever since.

If this 4004 wasn't in such nice shape and in a rare color (for a 4004 at least) it would be getting the headstock lengthened for 8 tuning keys and getting routed/filled for three p/u's like the LK....so this "surgery" is relatively minor.

I hope it will be done by MARF but the wiring harness is custom made (in the UK) and I have yet to check to see if anyone actually has the piezo ABM bridge in stock.....plus a day or two for install. So it may be tight.

Nice going, Brian! Your account of the modification pending will be good reading.

So the maple neck is fully varnished? That's pretty cool - I played an older EBMM Stingray yesterday that was like that too, very nice.

Yes John....fully varnished. I was expecting it to be "naked" like my ex-Ci and Cii.

Brian, you'll recall my '97 Fireglo Laredo has the fully varnished maple fretboard as well. A thing of beauty!

Paul, I remember playing your's (loved it) but at the time the fretboard being finished to stick in my mind. I think I played your's before I got my Ci so it must not have struck me as different like it did today when I got mine.

You gotta go black trim on that bass ...

I was thinking of going Redneck with it.

Congrats, Brian, very nice!

git 'er done!

I don't have any extra black hardware at the moment so it's staying chrome. With this color combo I actually like the look of the chrome.

No Redneck in it's future either.....in the unlikely event that it gets any refinish work it would be a complete refinish in non-yellowing white which would look great, IMO, with the maple fretboard......and chrome hardware, three p/u's AND piezo, and 8 strings.

Keep 'er stock, Brian. She looks great.