Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I got a problem! My 4004 isn't bright enough with chromes. That's the newest excuse for the band losing tempo. I am wondering a bout what to do.

1. Sell it and go back to single coil
2. get an SX PJ (about 179 bucks)
3. change to rounds (maybe TI jazz rounds?
4. Put in a toaster at the neck?

The SVT has the high button on, the low off, the mid and treble cranked, bass flat, mid switch on 4, the 4004 on the bridge with max treble on tone. I can't get any more highs out of it!!

you folks who said the action was high are right. I haven't had a setup done on it yet!!!

Hmmmmm...........just a thought Charley, are you able to run your SVT through a horn loaded cab? I ended up running the 4004 through a Trace SM500X 410H/115 rig to get the high end I was used to. (When no ones looking, I run a line from the Trace to my SVT/810 rig to warm it up a bit. It's ok, I own the equipment truck.)

I also found the jump from a single coil 4003 to the 4004 an adjustment. But that tempo issue, don't let them blame you. A good drummer with straighten out any tempo issues right now. I will confess to heading for the races if the drummer lets me.

No, I just have the 4x10 Classic HLF thingy. I got a 1x15 at home but that won't add mids and highs!

Possibly different pots might brighten it up, as Jeff R. points out often, but I think if you're happy with the tone, I wouldn't go modding a perfectly good bass.

How about a preamp or pod to give a bit more tonal adjustment.

There's no way that the bass' tone is the cause of any tempo problems! That's just silly!

Sometimes the bass player can influence the drummer's tempo subtly, you can kind of push or pull him slightly, but it really depends on the drummer.

We have no drummer, I'm it.... It is true, I like a rounder tone, so he has a point. A preamp maybe?

Jeff Scott had toasters in his, but I don't know if one would make that much difference.

I have a very low cost solution for you ... put a 1000k ohm tone pot ... i think the 4004 is better with rounds ... if you want to use flats go to the 4001/4003 ...

some day I want to take a 4004 and convert 2 high gain pickups into toaster top high gains and wire it vvt with all 250k ohm pots ... and of course it will have 5 strings ...

I've said this quite a few times so I won't go into great lengths (again).....go with a Laredo. Same basic tone as the Cii but with brighter character. Try a pot swap on the Cii first since it's a tad cheaper.

Love my Cii with toasters

I bought Jeff's old Cii that had the toasters and converted it to a five string, while the toasters were good sounding I felt the hb1's gave the B string a fuller sound and converted it back. I recently did a VVT mod on my jetglo Laredo five string and had Bayou cables solder the pots in a 500/500/1000K(tone) configuration as per Jeff Rath's recommendation. It brightened the hb1's even more than stock although with my Markbass rig they were already bright enough for me. I'm keeping the 330K pots that Jeff Scott put in the Cii because they have a nice warm sound and that has it's place too.

I would try a round, if it is fairly smooth to the touch. I used to use one of the DR "brands". I was hoping maybe jps would stop by and tell us how he likes the TI jazz rounds.

Charlie, have you tried D'Addario half rounds?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=half+rounds

No, are they brighter? I would guess so, maybe only half bright? I will be getting my jazz project on Monday or Tuesday, so I can put the chromes on that and try either the TI's or the half rounds..

Half rounds are indistinguishable from rounds after about a month or so.

They're definitely brighter than flats. They don't feel like flats, but they don't feel like roundwounds either. Kind of in between.