Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

1998 4004c. My third 4004,and the lightest,most contoured and comfortable body/neck of them all.
It has been modded (naturally) with a new wiring harness from Dane Wilder featuring a Master Volume/pan pot/tone controls.(500k). I swapped a gold plexi trc from my Laredo custom,and am very pleased with the result on both basses.
I also cleaned this up with Watco's Danish oil,and had the frets green grunge cleaned. With Dr Sunbeams,this bass plays great,and has a rather wicked Funk sound,quite a bit different from my other 2 4004s.
I had gone in to Apple Music to check out a new 4003w,but found this,and greatly preferred it. I am a 4004 guy for sure.

Looks great, Woody.

I like the gold TRC with the gold hardware -- nice touch.

Congratulations.

Nice!

While I thought my Laredo was great when I got it, it's even better now having v/t for each PUP. I guess I could get used to the v-p-t set up.

Do you have coil tapping on that harness Dane made you?

Ed-thanks! . I already had 2 4004's set up with Dane's wiring harnesses with individual coil taps,so,this time around i opted not to get that option. I really wanted to try a master vol/blend pot setup,and didn't see any way to do the coil taps seperately that way without adding switches,etc. I may regret that,as i normally use the coil tap on the neck pickup,to tame the bass boominess,and this bass has the the neck pickup right up against the fretboard,unlike my other 2 basses. The pan pot seems to work pretty well to dial off the neck pickup just a hair,though.

rickyfricky wrote:Looks great, Woody.

I like the gold TRC with the gold hardware -- nice touch.

Congratulations.

Thanks,Matt! I would probably put gold plastic/trc's on everything if i could!

Congrats on the 4004 - looks really nice.

How'd you remove the green from the frets?


bluewhale

bluewhale wrote:Congrats on the 4004 - looks really nice.

How'd you remove the green from the frets?


bluewhale

Ha,Well,it's my turn to turn green, because i actually had my guitar tech buddy do that when he did the set up,and installed the new electronics. I'm not really sure how he did it,seems like he mentioned using a cover of some kind to protect the fretboard wood,and lightly sanding the frets....with something. (Dremel? Sandpaper?) Sorry,i am not very "hands-on" when it comes to set ups,etc.
I did actually do the oil application after he had done his work.

That's alright - no apology necessary. And that body does look great.

My '78 4001 has had some green on the frets for a long time, and I can't decide whether to do anything about it. It doesn't seem to be changing any as time goes on.


bluewhale

I think once the grunge is on,you have to actively go for removal,or it isn't going to go away. This is the first used bass i've bought that had it. It had a rather ratty set of Rotosound swing bass strings on it,too. Let's face it those strings are so loosely wrapped,they can hold a lot of grunge in...

There's a bit of green grunge on the frets of my 2004 Laredo. Whatever - it's mojo.

I think the best way to avoid fret grunge is to avoid frets.

edski wrote:There's a bit of green grunge on the frets of my 2004 Laredo. Whatever - it's mojo.

I guess that's OK,as long as it's YOUR mojo,lol......

edski wrote:There's a bit of green grunge on the frets of my 2004 Laredo. Whatever - it's mojo...

corrojo

Looking great. I would bet he used some 0000-steel wool. I have used that with good success on many basses I've drug out of pawn shops and such.

Bill-i believe you're correct,now that you mention it,I think that is what my friend used. He may have taped the fretboard too i seem to remember. It has been a few monthes since i did all this...the difference was very substantial though. The frets now look like new. In fact,overall the bass is in great condition,naryna scratch. There is one dark patch on the underside of the body,looks like maybe someone was resting it on a bare thigh?

Nice one Woody! The 4004 is my fav Ric bass. I need to get one...