Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The neck pickup of my 4003s sounds muddy and horrible (always has). I never switch to just that pickup, I always have both and its just there for some extra bottom.

Is this normal?

Change your strings.

Not normal in my experience, although I prefer the sound of a toaster to a high gain. I would also suggest changing your strings and possibly lowering the height of the pickup.

I never solo the neck pickup ... I never turn the neck pickup volume up to 10 ... I use the neck pickup on a Ric bass just to add a little low end and to smooth out the aggressiveness of the bridge pickup ... the one exception was my 1968 4001 ... with the vintage pickups and the bass cut capacitor it needed the neck pickup at 10 ... but when I put 4003 pickups in that bass and removed the capacitor I was able to back off the neck pickup and use the bridge pickup to get the Ric growl ...

Also some of the 80s high gain pickups were overwound so instead of 11k ohms they are more like 13k ohms or more ... this will give the pickup a fuller tone with more low end ...

try a toaster in the neck position ...

EQ ?

Thanks guys. It has always sounded like this and I recently put new strings on it (it has had many over the years). I turn it to full then roll it back a bit. Hmmm a toaster might be the go. I will be using the ROS at some stage so it would be good if it sounds good on its own.