Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi there,
have any of you guys tried the Bartolini pups in a 4003, if so what do you think of them, and do they drop straight in or is any mod' required ?
Thanks
Chris

I've had a set of Bartolini pickups in a 4003. They sound very good, much better than the Seymour Duncan for Rick bass replacement pickups. The Barts just don't have the bite that the RIC pickups have. If you love the Rick sound, it's best to keep RIC pickups in in your Rick. the minor mods would be, the neck pickup height adjustment screw holes in the pickguard have to be made slightly bigger and you'll also have to make two small holes of the bridge pickup mounting plate to screw the Bart pickup mounting tabs on to.

IMO, good options for different pups is to use other Ric pups. The Re-Issue Horseshoe, Scatterwound Toaster, and the Humbuckers are all great and each have their unique qualities.

I've had the Barts in several of my Rics before and loved them. IMO a touch better low end response and clarity but the Ric character was still present. If I had it to do over again I would, without a doubt, go with the Ric humbuckers. I didn't own a 4004 yet when I used the Barts in my 4003 Rics. I think the 4004 pups are the best of both worlds.......they still sound like a Ric but, again IMO, have better frequency response and clarity.

The Bart 6RT is the closest approximation of a 4002 bridge pickup I have ever heard. I have a couple I have used on-and-off for experimentation. Joey's right about the modifications required although most modern bridge pickup phenolic baseplates already have the holes needed to mount one of these. Make sure you have some decent nuts and bolts for the application.

If I have any gripes about them it's that they're quite tall and that makes travel in the neck position very limited.

Thanks for the replies.
I have a HB1 (coiltapped) installed at the neck of my 4003 (2009), but find the high gain treble pup sounds very harsh, so Im not using this bass nearly as much as I would like, but I don't want it to sound just like my Cii, that's why I am considering the Bart'.
I read on another forum one guy used the Bart' neck pup in the treble position on a 4003, apparently the Bart' pups arent the same as eachother.

The Bart neck pickup is a split-coil (i.e a P pickup in a Rick cover). The bridge version is a dual-coil. It also comes with a 4-conductor lead so you can easily do coil splitting or series/parallel switching. I used it hardwired in series and it had a nice midrange bark. Not as bright as a higain, though.

I used to have them on my 4003 for around 2 years. They are a little muffled (or should I say tamed?) in the top end. Maintains some Ric character while giving you some "7ender-style" tones as well. If you intend to use roundwounds, using Bart replacements is up to taste. I think they're nice sounding pickups. With flatwounds, however, they sound quite dull because they lack the top end of the Ric single coils.

The Bartolini mute compartment pickup is very interesting, though. It gives you a nice midrange bite when blended in. When soloed, it sounds similar to a 4001 bridge higain (with the bass-cut capacitor). I changed back to the good-ol' higains after 2 years, but the mute pickup stayed where it is. If you don't use the foam mute, I recommend trying the Bart mute pickup.

Neither one is a neck pickup or bridge pickup--they're both the same housing/construction, the difference is one is split coil and the other is a hot hum bucker. They market the 'bucker as ideal for the bridge position.

In your opinion Joshua, does the 6Rt perform better in the bridge position? I have installed the Barts and am mostly happy with them, just curious what happens when you swap positions.

I did try swapping positions. RT sounds nice at the bridge position, but I did not quite like the RC in the neck position. When wired in series, the neck RC overpowers the bridge RT. I could not manage to balance their output by height adjustment.

Also, when wired in series, The RC in the neck position has a low-mid honk that I did not like. If RT is to be used in the bridge with RC in the neck, wiring the RC in parallel would probably be more balanced in terms of output, and would have a clearer sound with less mids. I didn't try that, though.

smem wrote:In your opinion Joshua, does the 6Rt perform better in the bridge position? I have installed the Barts and am mostly happy with them, just curious what happens when you swap positions.

I knew right away the humbucker did not interest me so I just bought two of the 6RTs. They perform quite well in both positions. When I had one in my bridge position it reminded me of having a Toaster there, but no noise when soloed. In fact these are very low impedance, lower than Toasters IIRC.

Well I have ordered a Bart RC, will let you know how I go with it. Thanks to all for your opinions.

Ok so I installed the Bart RC pup in the treble position of my 4003. Played it at rehersal on sunday, sounds good, a slightly more rounded smoother sound, but not dull or muddy at all, & no hum. This coupled with the coiltapped HB1 at the neck seems to be a nice combination.
The Bart is slightly larger & didn't fit into the Tubeampology treble bezel, so had to file the bezel hole corners a bit, so now it fits nice & snug.
If I didn't already hahe the HB1 installed I would definatley give the RT at the neck.

Tonally can ayone compare the Bart's up against the ric humbuckers? I started out with stock hi-gains, installed the Bart's and now am leaning towards the ric humbuckers. Someone please help me...

The two types of Barts are both different from HB-1s. The Bart humbucker is hotter with less character than the HB-1 or so I have read. I've never heard one. The Bart 6RT (split coil) sounds like a 4002 pickup, basically. Low-wound and wide-open sound. The HB-1 has more a "charactered" mid-range resonant frequency that gives it a more classic, and palatable with less EQ, type of sound. For a high-wound humbucker I still feel it has a decent treble range especially through the minimal 4004 circuit.