Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I wasn't really satisfied with the sound of my 1977 4001 Bass. So I never gigged it. A while ago I started to think about the lack of punch and body of my Rick's sound. My conclusion was it had to be the bridge. The bridge touches the body of the guitar only by two small adjustment screws.
There is a lot of space between the bridge and
the tailpiece plate. I put a fitting copper strip in that space. Now the bridge is tightly connected to the tailpiece (by the tension of the strings).
The trick worked! My Rick 4001 now sounds punchy,
with a lot of body and growl. No more weak tones.
Doing this, instead of installing a Badass, I kept
the instrument all original. Never heard or read about this trick. I suppose I'm not the first with this idea. Or is there anybody with a better idea?
Let me know. Thanks. Jan

There are several ways to go about the sustain issue with the bridge.

Removing the strings from the feed holes on the tailpiece is one way.
you anchor the strings in a metal plate with notches under the tailpiece ,inside the area where the strings normally feed thru the tailpiece.

A different way is to change the size of the post that the saddle assembly stands on.You are limited by the dimension of where the allen screw is ,and the stigma of "My God ...it's not stock!!"
But it will help.
Changing the whole bridge to a saddle assembly that Stars guitars made in the 1970's to mid 1980's (sort of an Alembic saddle/bridge )setup,and a tailpiece that is a plate that uses the routed area under the original tailpiece will do the same.But this saddle assembly/bridge is no longer commercially available and there is very little after market product .I'm sure there is the threat of corp. litigation that is halting companies from making after market products ...but this is not based on known fact.

I suggest you ask JH about it directly