Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

At the Cheap Trick web site, there is a video of the band doing SURRENDER with a mariachi band! Muy cool!

Tom Petersson is playing a 4001 MG that has been modified to be a neck PU position only bass, with a gold pick guard and oven knobs for volume and tone. Looks pretty cool!

RobRick wrote:Tom Petersson is playing a 4001 MG that has been modified to be a neck PU position only bass, with a gold pick guard and oven knobs for volume and tone. Looks pretty cool!

I was totally surprised to see this. A friend of mine is doint almost exactly this conversion at the moment (without the oven knobs). Looks and sounds good.

His Waterstone basses get simillar mods. Tom believes that all the required sound lies in the neck pickup and he then uses his three amplifiers to get the high, mids and lows.
Regardless of which bass Tom uses, he still gets his sound. "A huge punch in the guts"

emac.

Agree on all points! Hmmmm, I may have to find an early '70s Rick 4001 with checkered binding and do something similar!

Hmm.....I should do that to my March '73 4001!

jps wrote:Hmm.....I should do that to my March '73 4001!

Still thinking if I'll take my januari or my may '73 for this.....

jps wrote:Hmm.....I should do that to my March '73 4001!

Yeah, you'd look good in a sombrero...

interesting idea -sort of a reverse 4000......that is a lovely old 4001,nice to see tom playing something besides the 12-ers...

A great take on their song. Good to see they have that crazy sense of humor still.

And why mod a bass to do that (other than it's cool)? Can't you just turn the volume all the way down on the bridge pickup
and get the same results? Or am I missing something....

. . . or just flip the switch to neck pickup only, or just disconnect the bridge pickup, or . . .

But some guys just can't keep well enough alone. Nobody like that around here!

harrek wrote:A great take on their song. Good to see they have that crazy sense of humor still.

And why mod a bass to do that (other than it's cool)?

You answered your own question.

not only does it look cool,but it frees up a huge area for playing without obstructions. (i would be loathe to give up the bridge pickup on any bass though)

iamthebassman wrote:

harrek wrote:A great take on their song. Good to see they have that crazy sense of humor still.

And why mod a bass to do that (other than it's cool)?

You answered your own question.

But he didn't paint it Jet Glo? Isn't that the ultimate way to make a Rick cool? Or so I have read here often?

No, that's the ultimate way to make it ROCK...

I read an interview where Petersson said this bass is a 1972 Rickenbacker 4001 that he had converted to a single, neck PU bass. He said he liked the HS PU but that is got in the way of his right hand for playing and muting.