Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Putting the 4002 though its’ paces.

I am sure that most of you would tell me I should have titled this thread “who really cares”, but it is a huge deal to me.

As most of you know, I recently purchased what is believed to be the last NOS 4002 pickups known to mankind (thanks again to all at the Ric Outlet).

I will post a brief overview of installation of the pickups, and the observations of the operations and sound of them. I think that I have a unique prospective having had played this bass with the HB-1’s in her for over a year. I now can hear the difference in the bass with the proper pick up. Also, I have the opportunity to hear the differences of the pickups using the same amplification equipment.

To digress for a minute, in 1978 a little known band called Rush, came out with an album called “Hemispheres”. To my knowledge, it is the only recording to promptly feature the 4002 (I am sure that there are others). As a young lad at the time, I could not conceive of owning a Rickenbacker, yet alone a 4002.


As time passed to the early 80’s, I was able to afford my first Ric, but the 4002 was still out of reach. More time passed and as I have accrued some means and now I could afford one, all of the 4002’s seemed to disappear off of the face of the earth.

Shortly after MARF I, Chris Pappas was kind enough to sell me his for a very fair price. Until then, I had never seen a 4002 in person.

I am the third forum member to own it. It was refinished by some guy in the Pacific Northwest (his name escapes me ). As I stated above, the pickups have been replaced with HB-1’s however the rest of the guts where there. I was happy to own it even without the proper pickups.








More To follow….

First, here is how the 4002 appeared when I first opened up under the hood.





Ted Staberow was good enough to open up his 4002. I now had a good template as how the pickups should look.

Dave, I really care. Please continue

Here you can see how the Low "Z" was jumper out and wired to the mono output.

Jess, jess? Pleeze conteen-yoo...

With Darren's and Jdog's permission, I will now continue.

Being in the electrical business, I felt that with a little help from some of my coworkers; that this would be a “doable project” for me to do myself.

I did think better of me doing the installation and wiring, due to the extreme rareness of the pickups. I thought that it was appropriate that an authorized Ric dealer should do this work. Chris Clayton was the obvious choice as I know that he has does a ton of soldering and wiring work over the years.

After we reviewed the wiring diagram off of the Ric site, it was time to start.

First Chris removed all of the incorrect shielding from the plate, and installed the pickups.

I know what you all are thinking, “why do you have two of the low Z pickups, only the bridge pickup is to have that”.

Well that’s where the bass is still not 100% correct. Albeit, if I just did not connect the neck pickups’ low Z wire leads to the low impedance jack, it would in theory and in sound, be identical to a stock 4002. After much thought, I decided to connect both pickups to the low Z jack, why not.


Here is the rest of Chris’s handy work,

Now how does it sound?

First, here is the amplification equipment that I used. Again, this is pretty much my live rig, so I could get an apple to apples comparison of the difference in sounds of the pickups.

First, the mono output went to an STV head with an 8 x 10 cab.

I then ran at the same time the low “Z” connection thru an 1800 watt PA system (with 2 EV T252 3200W peak speakers). I think that the low “Z” was only intended for a studio board and not live sound, however this was the only way I could test out the low “Z” connection.

In addition to the PA connection, I also ran the low Z thru a second Ampeg rig (Pro three head and 2- SVTHLF410 cabs).








To be continued...

I'm wet.

Sounds Great!

I can hear it from here

Dave, do you have the hardshell case for your Exploiter?

I'm green.

Dave, I CARE !!!

It sound's spectacular....I can hear the bloody thing from Melbourne!

I hear the sound of weeping!