Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well I finally got my Ric 4003 after weeks of waiting, plugged it in after waiting the 48 LOOOONG hours and I must say, so far I'm very disappointed. I was expecting to be blown away by this bass. I was expecting Booming lows, Hi attack mids and incredible treble punch. So far it sounds like a simple ordinary bass. My G string especially sounds muted and dead for the entire length of the fret board. I have a Shecter Custom 4 that right now blows this bass away in every aspect I mentioned above for literally half the price. Did I get a lemon. I need some answers fast before the time to send in the warranty expires!

BTW, I'm playing it through a Bheringer Ultrabass BX1200 120 watts. My Shecter sounds absolutely killer with this amp. Tons of punch and insane lows. I can't turn the master volume up past 1/4 with the Shecter. With master volume turned up to 1/2 the Ric sounds weaker than the Shecter Custom 4!

Rick basses aren't really known for there lows.Maybe you will like it better with flat wounds,but you will not have as much sustain.You can also try outside effects to boost your lows or mids.

If the other bass that you're using powered preamp, 9volt battery, you are going to notice a drop in output level; the 4001 is a passive instrument. You will need to turn up the preamp on your amplifier some to counteract that.

You will want to check the action too, when I ordered my 4003 recently from Music123, the set up was a bit too high for my taste, and the pickups were too far away from the strings.

Passive pickups are great for their expressiveness and sensitivity, active are good for there ability to have certain frequencies boosted, not just cut. I find both types of pickups and electronics useful for different types of music. Try some tinkering with the instrument, you'll find more sounds that way.

Gabriel: A couple of points.

First, please check the setup of your 4003. Big_g's points are well taken. You are comparing apples and oranges to a degree. Every amplifier and instrument has its own set of limitations.

Second, what is the type of sound for which you are looking? What type of music do you play? Are the sounds of Geddy Lee or Chris Squire appealing to you in any way?

Gabriel, I also agree, the sound of a Ric really depends on the set up to a great degree, I like the pickups close to the strings and I use flatwounds, Thomastic-Infelds (sp?) and I get all kinds of bottom and top, I get the trademark Ric sound that you were probably expecting, Ric basses put out REAL bottom that a lot of smaller amps simply can't reproduce IMHO anyway, I use Ampeg SVT's, you can knock over a wall with a Ric, flatwounds and SVT's and get muscles all at the same time.
The ratio of treble pickup to bass pickup will also alter the sound a lot, try lowering the treble pickup. And also an active bass will sound better to the ear just because it's louder sometimes (experiments have been done eliminating all other variables), turn the Ric to the same volume with your ears, don't worry about the numbers on the knobs. Adjust the action, neck and pickups, you should be able to get that sound you are looking for. With passive pickups, the sound is much more in your fingers and hands and setup than in an active bass. Rics are fascinating basses to experiment with.
Jonathan listen to some late 60's Beatles (Magical Mystery Tour "Baby Your A Rich Man" or mid 60's Beegees if you think rics aren't good for bottom. I think they have more pure bottom than any other bass out there.

Thanks for the input folks. I just got home and read your messages. I will try to answer your questions. Firstly I'm a huge Chris Squire and Paul Mcartney fan as well as Roscoe Beck and Mike Rutherford. Geddy Lee or Rush for that matter never did anything for me personally, I always percoeved them as a cover band..hehe. I've heard RIC basses hit some INCREDIBLE lows so I know its possible especially by Cris Squire. As far as what I play, Well I love Rock and Blues and I dabble into funk a bit. Jazz is nice to listen to with the little lady but I've never had the urge to actually join a jazz quartet, quintet etc. As far as my Ric goes this is how it arrived from Musicians Friend. Action was actually pretty good, a little high but nothing I can't fix with an allen wrench. The problem is, alot of the accesories weren't shipped to me, like ALLEN WRENCHES and the special stereo cable! The neck pickup is way low, as low as can be actually. The bridge pickup is only slightly higher. The thing that worries is the G string. It sounds muted throughout the entire fretboard. Anyways If someone can lead me to basic adjustments on these problems I'm sure I can fine tune the rest. Also does everyone here reccomend a rig upgrade? And if so what works well with the Ric to really get that RIC sound


You folks are the best
Peace!

You might try a trick that John Hall and others have mentioned here in the past. You will need the long handled truss rod wrench for this. Remove the truss rod cover and slighty turn the G string side truss rod either direction but no more than 1/8th of a turn. This may fix the G string deadness. The basses do not come with the stereo cable for the Rick-O-Sound nor does it come with a truss rod wrench, although they should as every other guitar or bass I have bought new came with one. You can buy the wrench from Mike Parks at the Music Connection. I am not surprised that you didn't get the allen wrench from MF, given that they are the mail order division of Guitar Center.

www.the-music-connection.com/ric.htm


Most any amp system can give you a variety of sounds, so you will get a very diverse range of opinions on that subject. I use a Walter Woods 650 watt head into several different speaker cabinets depending on the venue I am playing in. I have a custom made 1-10 cabinet with an EV 10BX driver in it, a SWR Bass Monitor 12 and a '68 Sunn 2-15 cabinet with Eminence Delta drivers in it; they all sound different but with some EQ tweaking I can get them all to give me the RIC sound I am looking for. No doubt your vision of the RIC sound will vary from mine. Over the years I have used so many different amp systems I don't remember them all but the bottom line is I was able to get the sounds I wanted from all of them.

Ok 1'st adjustment, I raised the neck pickup to max. One word WOW !!!! This is exactly the low end I was looking for. I think I can blast a hole through the wall now lol. Hmmmm better not, wife would be a lil upset ... hehe.

Plz keep the suggestions coming, you guys are making a big difference on the sound already

Also I'm looking into a set of hartke 4 X 10 and a hartkey 1 X 15 with a Behringer 300 watt head. Anyone try this configuration with the Ric before?

thnx again
Peace !

I like to set my bridge pickup just under the level that my strings would smack the polepieces, if I was playing the hardest that I normally play.

This is a little easier for me because I don't dig in really hard, I pinch the strings down hard enough to dig in but I don't really nail them, unless I'm slapping and popping and that's at the end of the fingerboard, not over the bridge pickup.
One more little trick, turn all the knobs up and back off the neck pickup just enough to hear the volume blossom out of your amp, or the inverse everything up and roll the bridge pickup back a little, for that blues bass sound.

One thing that may not be obvious is that you may need to use a pick to get the Squire sound, at least the more "treblely" part...

I'm not really a serious bass player,but every rick bass i have played has been really trebly.I didn't think that they could have lots of bottom,and thats what I have always heard.Its probably another rick "myth" that should be ignored.

It's a myth. I've never had a trebly Ric, and the 4003s and 4004 I own/have owned all had plenty of warm detailed low end. More bass and less treble than any Fender I've owned.

My 4005 WB has a lot of bottom and a great high end.

Hmmm...maybe I'd better rephrase. Mine have always had a great high end too, but I just meant I would never characterize the sound as "trebly". It's a balanced sound.