Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

For the past 2 years, I've had an HB1 on both my 4003 machines, alongside a modern higains in the neck. I had to wire the HB1 pickups out of phase (ie blue to hot and red to earth) on both machines, as it seemed that HB1s and Higains are naturally out of phase, and this worked a treat (No backing off one of the vol controls to find a sweet spot)

So - on my 88 4003, I've just fitted a second HB1 into the neck postion, and corrected the wiring of the original bridge HB1, so that red is now hot, and blue is ground. New pickup wired the same. Both pickups have 500k CTS vol and tone and 0.022uF tone capacitors.

So - with both HB1s in phase, I'm very surprised at the drop in volume, resulting in having to back off one of the volume pots to get the sweet spot. I was assuming that the response would be similar to my 4004, but apparently not! Call me a thicky, but I'm losing the plot here!

GT`

HB1s have been known to be made out of phase with other HB1s, so what happens when you back off the volume control of one of them?

Morning John,

As I mentioned, backing off on the volume slightly finds the sweet spot, so I'll try putting blue to hot and red to ground on of the HB1s (as I had it with the HB1 and the Hi gain) and se if it improves it!

will report back!

Guy

Alas - switching the red and blue is slightly worse. I may fit a pair of matched volume pots next, just in case.

In the end, I reverted to the Higain in the neck, and the bridge HB1 with red to ground and blue to hot. Just couldn't get two HB1's to work well together in the 4003.

vulcan_creedler wrote:In the end, I reverted to the Higain in the neck, and the bridge HB1 with red to ground and blue to hot. Just couldn't get two HB1's to work well together in the 4003.

There is some other element at play here as normally this is a killer combination. I lent Marty Willson-Piper one of my personal basses that is so equipped and I haven't been able to rip it back out of his hands! I may have to make a trip to Penzance to grab it back . . .

johnhall wrote:

vulcan_creedler wrote:In the end, I reverted to the Higain in the neck, and the bridge HB1 with red to ground and blue to hot. Just couldn't get two HB1's to work well together in the 4003.

There is some other element at play here as normally this is a killer combination. I lent Marty Willson-Piper one of my personal basses that is so equipped and I haven't been able to rip it back out of his hands! I may have to make a trip to Penzance to grab it back . . .

John, I must admit, I didn't get round to fitting a matched pair of 500k CTS volume pots (gig was looming - so needed both 4003's ready for action!) I'll give it a go some time in the future. I may just try it on my Mapleglo instead. do you know if all HB1 production is more or less standard, as the two I fitted are of different vintages? One was from last year, and the recent addition in the neck was a few years older. That said - I've had more than a few non-ric bassist friends utterly amazed by the punchiness of an HB1 in the bridge!

Guy

PS - how about the option of an HB1 equpped 4003 from the factory (with push/pull, to get back to classic 4001 territory - of course!)

I have dual HB1's in my 08. Stealth quiet.
Matching 500k pots and oil caps made a hell of a difference I've gotta admit.
Love it.