Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Morning all.

Last time I played my 4001, (which has the current 4003 wiring harness in it with the push/pull tone pot), my bridge pickup had greatly reduced output. Usually if both volume knobs are at the same level, it is dominant but this was not the case.

I plan to open it up this afternoon when I get home from work to try and figure out what is going on and I wanted to find out if anyone had a similar problem come up. If so, is there anything in particular I should look for when I open her up?

For reference, all wiring/output jacks/pick-ups/switch were replaced with current versions just over two years ago, i.e. both pick-ups are adjustable pole hi-gains.

Thanks for any help you guys can provide!

Matt

is the neck pickup low in volume as well ? does the rear pickup go loud and then softer with the push pull switch ? could also be a bad contact in the toggle switch. i just had this problem with my '64 and cleaned the pin contacts with emery paper. also could be a bad cable ?

It has always dropped a lot of volume when the Treble tone pot has been pulled, is that not normal? With the tone pot in, the bridge pickup is not softer than what is was previously when the pot was pushed in.

I am running out the mono and was still getting the neck pickup fine. A bit of a wiggle around made no difference and there was no 'bad contact' static at all.

Check the contacts of the output jack and pickup selector switch. Make sure they are clean and not bent out of shape.

unless you've got a wiring problem, with the pot in, you should have the regular rick, thin rear pickup sound with less volume. with the pot pulled, you should get more volume and fuller sound from the rear pickup. this of course is when the selector is for the rear pickup only. make sure all the contols are full up.

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:unless you've got a wiring problem, with the pot in, you should have the regular rick, thin rear pickup sound with less volume. with the pot pulled, you should get more volume and fuller sound from the rear pickup. this of course is when the selector is for the rear pickup only. make sure all the contols are full up.

That sounds opposite to what I have, I have a full sound when the tone pot is in and a thin sound when the pot is pulled. That in itself should not matter though as it is just a switch. That said, the harness came pre-wired from Ric so I don't see how it could be backwards.

Hopefully whatever the problem is will be apparent when I open her up tonight, I'll check what people have mentioned here though.
Cheers

anyone else with the factory push/pull feature confirm it's function ? pushed in...thin standard sound/ pulled up ...fatter louder sound ?

I installed the switch & cap myself (parts obtained from RIC) and I followed the wiring diagram on Joey's site, I get the thin, lower volume capped sound with the switch pulled up. I'm sure I remember reading somewhere here or on the RIC site that the cap is only engaged with the switch pulled up too so I'm 99% sure that's how it would come from the factory too.

I think it was John Allgaier who posted an alternative wiring diagram which showed how to wire it the opposite way - useful for people who prefer the cap-in sound by default and only occasionaly want the full sound of the pickup.

Regards,
Steve.

i would have figured stock tone would be with the pot down, then pull up and bypass the cap.

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:i would have figured stock tone would be with the pot down, then pull up and bypass the cap.

Ron, RIC looks on the treble pup cap as a throwback or vintage sound so the default wiring is knob down cap out full tone, and knob up cap in thinner tone.

If you want it the other way, just move the wire that is at the "top" tab of the switch (furthest from the pot body) to the "bottom" tab of the switch (right next to the pot body) and it will be cap in when the switch is down.

Well I opened her up last night, but nothing really jumped out as being out of place. All the connections look good, nothing appears to be shorting.

There is basically no difference (only slight) between the pot being pushed or pulled, so I am pretty sure it'll be a tone pot problem. Armed with a multimeter, how do I check what is normal? And just for kicks, is there any easy way to see if the pick-up is ok using the multi-meter?

Aside: Where does the gounding wire normally go, I know it should end up near the pup cover, but mine goes into a hole in the side of the cavity near the bridge, I have only had the pick guard off (and neck pup obviously) so I have not really traced where the gound wire ends up, but I dodn't recall having a hole where the grounding wire is now before I got all the new electronics installed.

Here is the kicker, after having a look inside last night with no success, I took my P-bass to practice. I got there and plugged in only to find that the treble part of the split pup was stuffed, no output at all for the D and G strings! I guess I'll be using the acoustic bass this weekend...

ZHDriver wrote:Well I opened her up last night, but nothing really jumped out as being out of place. All the connections look good, nothing appears to be shorting.

There is basically no difference (only slight) between the pot being pushed or pulled, so I am pretty sure it'll be a tone pot problem. Armed with a multimeter, how do I check what is normal? And just for kicks, is there any easy way to see if the pick-up is ok using the multi-meter?

Aside: Where does the gounding wire normally go, I know it should end up near the pup cover, but mine goes into a hole in the side of the cavity near the bridge, I have only had the pick guard off (and neck pup obviously) so I have not really traced where the gound wire ends up, but I dodn't recall having a hole where the grounding wire is now before I got all the new electronics installed.

Here is the kicker, after having a look inside last night with no success, I took my P-bass to practice. I got there and plugged in only to find that the treble part of the split pup was stuffed, no output at all for the D and G strings! I guess I'll be using the acoustic bass this weekend...

Slight difference with the pot up or down is usual tonally. At the Pup switch, flip to the neck pup (towards the pickup) and measure the bridge pup - 11.4k ohms or so. Then flip the switch the other way and measure the neck - also 11.4k ohms or so.

The ground wire going into the hole goes to the tailpiece - it is soldered to the back of the mute metal plate. There should be a ground wire with an eyelet on it going to one of the treble pup height adjusting screws.

Thanks John! That gives me something to try when I get home.

your p-bass problem does not make sense as the coils normally are wired in series, therefore if one coil has a problem...so will the other, unless they are wired in parallel, then i could see a problem with one coil. (do you have a series/parallel sw on that bass ?)

I might of found the problem with the p-bass, will try a fix and mention it later. I talked with a tech at a bass shop in Sydney and he mentioned that it depends on the brand as to if loosing half will end up in full loss of signal due to the differenct way certain manufacturers make them.