Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi there mates! My question for today is: Do old pickups wear in time concerning input signal level and quality?
I have the honor to own a 1976 4001 and compared to my (first bass) 500$ Cort has the half input signal on preamp.
Do I have to change something?
Thnx in advance!!

Yes ... the magnets degauss ... they get weaker ... especially the old 50s and 60s horseshoe pickups ...

Also the pots get worse with age as well.

Corts are kinda cheap basses even when they are new ...

Thnx for info!I love my Ricks tone but sometimes I feel like I need some more "power".

triantavas wrote:Thnx for info!I love my Ricks tone but sometimes I feel like I need some more "power".

More Power?

My '01 4003 is signicantly louder than either my P or J bass.

ricnbacker wrote:More Power?
My '01 4003 is signicantly louder than either my P or J bass.

My 4001 dates from around the same time as Vasilis' number (yia sou Vasili); I hadn't thought of it as sounding timid at all Maybe it's not the most powerful but you gotta love that tone.
I use a pre-amp to shape my sound, but it can also throw in a substantial boost (or cut) in any part of the spectrum.

Hi Vasilis,

In addition to degaussing and pot degradation, mid '70s Ric bass pups aren't wound as hot as more recent pups, and the treble pup will be passing through a low-end filter cap which reduces output. On top of that, the neck pickup is some distance from the strings at its maximum height. These factors have a cumulative impact. My '99 v63 is certainly way louder than my '74 4001. I do, however, prefer the tone of the '74.

I know that some of the early high gains had an issue with magnets degaussing. A friend's treble pickup on a '72 had this problem. I am not sure which years are more prone to this. Maybe Sérgio can shed more light on it.

Maybe you just need to remove the .0047 capacitor.

Maybe you should raise the pickups.

Also verify that both pickups are working. I reapiared a 76 4001 that had a neck pickup that had an internal wiring problem. That pickup was about 2k ohms on my meter. I rewired that bass with all 250k ohm pots and no .0047 capacitor. I used the original 8k ohm bridge high gain and put in a neck toaster. When I was finished that bass was one of the best sounding 70s 4001 basses I ever played.

triantavas wrote:Hi there mates! My question for today is: Do old pickups wear in time concerning input signal level and quality?
I have the honor to own a 1976 4001 and compared to my (first bass) 500$ Cort has the half input signal on preamp.
Do I have to change something?
Thnx in advance!!

Is your Cort an active bass ? (ie has a battery-powered preamp on board.) If so that will easily explain the volume difference! Many basses, even at the lower end of the market, are active these days. Even if not, pickup output is not really related to quality - an overwound pickup will certainly be loud but it won't necessarily sound all that good. Some types of pickups - humbuckers - are usually wired with the coils in series as well, which roughly doubles output signal level. The classic Rick pickups are all single coils, which are still prefered by many players for tone even though they aren't as loud, and hum. Although they do decrease in output slightly as the magnets age, it's not usually very much (apart from the original horseshoe ones) - but they can also fail internally due to corrosion of the wire, and either drop drastically in output or stop working altogether.

Pots don't decay with age in the sense of losing output, but they can get noisy - if so, FIRST try cleaning them with some electrical contact cleaner/lubricant (you'll need to do this from under the pickguard). Do NOT change the pots unless you're absolutely sure they are beyond saving - very many people do, and the quality of current pots, especially cheaper ones, is far lower than the originals used by RIC and other US manufacturers in the past... even the the current ones aren't quite as good. I can't begin to remember the number of times I've opened up a nice old vintage instrument and found a set of cheap junk pots (often badly fitted) when all that was probably necessary was to clean the originals .

My '72 bridge pickup lost a great deal of output; I've currently got one of Sergio's in there, although I keep thinking about getting it sorted. It actually used to be pretty loud for an early 70s pickup, but now.....

Thank you all mates for your feedback!!
I actually love the capacitor effect and I won' t remove it. The pickups are set rather high on profile.
I also love the Rick's special tone !! ( yeas I m a "Ric" type of guy ). My Cort is a passive one and I love it as well (many memories).
I have to say that I also compared my Fender jazz and a friends Washborn for input level and the sequence was from strong to weak:
Cort, Washborn, Ric, Fender (dimarzio pickups) all passives and tested on ashdown 300 mag input level analogue indicator.

Once more thnx for participation.