Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ok.. So a while back I picked up a cheap 70s Japanese 4003 copy.. I love it, sounds great etc etc..

well I thought.. if the copy is this good the real deals gonna kick arse.. so I picked up a minty midnight blue 2003 4003..

And its nice.. but.. it... well.. sounds rubbish.. I've tried raising the pickups and they just get too hot, I've tried lowering them and they just get muddy, what gives.. am I missing something, is there a mod I should do? The copy has a beautiful open airy sound (especially with both pups selected), sparkly highs, open mids and tight low.. the Ric.. nice bottom end, muddy mids and ****** high..

It looks good, feels good, plays nice.. gimme some help here guys! (I'm thinking changing the pups in from the Japanese copy may be a bit blasphemous!)

A toaster in front will dampen the lows a touch . They tend to have an airey mid tone and about half the output of the 4003 high gain. I always put 4001 pickups in the bridge position in these particular models. Because they are not as hot as the 2000 era high gains,And are alot brighter .Ive had better luck with 06 thru 08 4003's. The adjustable pole piece pickups seem to have more clarity. If i were you though , I would sell it and get a 4001 Russ.Then you'll see and hear what its all about.

Check the wiring to the controls to check whether a previous owner did something (like cut a cap, added a cap, changed the wiring arrangement, changed pots, etc.). I do assume that you've tried tweaking the amp settings, to no avail?

Mr. Meaty wrote:In my opinion 2000 -2005 werent all that great . Ive had every one of these years and hated the big fat neck and big fat tone . A toaster in front will dampen the lows a touch . They tend to have an airey mid tone and about half the output of the 4003 high gain. I always put 4001 pickups in the bridge position in these particular models. Because they are not as hot as the 2000 era high gains,And are alot brighter .Ive had better luck with 06 thru 08 4003's. The adjustable pole piece pickups seem to have more clarity. If i were you though , I would sell it and get a 4001 Russ.Then you'll see and hear what its all about.

see, strangely the japanese copy has a 6 pole toaster.. this is probably what I'm hearing as different the 4003 just seems REALLY hot, like it THUMPS but just doesn't have the clarity I was expecting.. I love the neck on it though, love fat necks!

What sort of heights do people tend to have these pickups at? When it arrived they were very high.

Its cool that you dig the neck To each his own my brother . Your Jappy sounds to me like it has a real rick toaster in it . That would describe the tone . Even just putting a toaster in the front of your 03 will make a big difference.I have toaster front pickups in all of my ricks.I raise the toaster as high as i can get it (be carefull of the guard ) and drop the high gain down so it more or less matches the toaster height.

lower the mute pad...

ilan wrote:lower the mute pad...

+1

I did play a 2003 once that "sounded rubbish". "Awful rubbish". But at that time I didn't know what the mute pad was and I may not have known to adjust it down--there's no way now to tell if that was the problem but it could have been. I sent that bass back in a hurry! I hated everything about it when the sounds came out all goofy like that.

Its not the mute pad!! (yes I checked!!)
I played around with it yesterday, raising and lowering the pickups.. Its as simple as the pickups are just very very hot from what I can tell, lowering them just makes em muddy, it sounds ok, but I'm seriously thinking of putting the toaster in from the Japanese copy, it sounds so sweet..

It plays and feels nice.. It sounds good, just.. lacks subtlety.

The 6-pole toaster is probably original to the JapCrap copy - a lot of them had these. Pretty much all of the Jap copies were based on early 70s 4001 specs (checked binding & full-width inlays are not uncommon) and have the high pass cap on the bridge pickup - this is probably the main reason for the big difference in sound, since an '03 4003 won't have the cap.

The other reason is, those JapCrap basses were actually pretty good.

Jon.

Mr.Mow wrote:

Its not the mute pad!! (yes I checked!!)
I played around with it yesterday, raising and lowering the pickups.. Its as simple as the pickups are just very very hot from what I can tell, lowering them just makes em muddy, it sounds ok, but I'm seriously thinking of putting the toaster in from the Japanese copy, it sounds so sweet..

It plays and feels nice.. It sounds good, just.. lacks subtlety.

Russ, you are a 7.4 to 8.4k Rick pickup candidate. They have the clarity you want. I was like you with the current higains - what I did first off was unwind the neck to the 7.4k point and then when I liked it bought a toaster for looks and the alnico magnets. If you were to unwind both coils to 8.4k like 70s pickups, it will also give you more clarity. I too find the hotter higains too muddy-ish FOR ME.

Japanese.................Jap is a racist word. Lets clean it up lads.

VRICKY63 wrote:Japanese.................Jap is a racist word. Lets clean it up lads.

+1

VRICKY63 wrote:Japanese.................Jap is a racist word. Lets clean it up lads.

I apologise - I have a genetic predisposition (it might be a British thing) to use tongue-in-cheek mildly & disparaging humour when referring to basses from territories which lend themselves to bad puns. JapCrap, YankW@nk, KoreaDiarrhoea, and of course - BritSh!t...

Although to be pedantic (which is also a genetic predisposition of mine ) in order to be racist I think a word or phrase needs to be insulting or to imply inferiority - and it's hard to see "Jap" as being anything other than an abbreviation.

J.

Jon, while I agree with your sentiments, it's that subtle distinction between implication and inference. Your intent was noble but you never know how someone will infer anything you say. Especially online.

Is there a resource (chart, diagram, spreadsheet) that can detail what models had what pickups?

I'm fairly happy with my 86 4003S/5 but I have no idea what pickups are in it.

Maybe I should go look at Ted's Pickup Guide a little closer.