Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Which strings for this: (Bear in mind it's a bit of a dark creature sound-wise, perhaps due to the ebony fretboard. I'm leaning towards the Roto-Sounds, although I've read good things about the TI Rounds and the GHS Progressives on this Forum of late. I play exclusively with a plectrum if that helps).

I think any round wound will work fine, I'd go with a set as close to RIC specs as you can. GHS allows you to specify gauges and have generally like Boomers.

I presume this one of a kind is in your hands now? If so congrats!

edski wrote:I think any round wound will work fine, I'd go with a set as close to RIC specs as you can. GHS allows you to specify gauges and have generally like Boomers.

I presume this one of a kind is in your hands now? If so congrats!

Thanks Ed.

I'm leaning towards the GHS Progressives.

I've been told the RS66's lose their bite fairly quickly, and the gauges on the TI's don't quite match up with RIC specs.

And yes I recently acquired this from a fellow Forumite, and I'm blown away by it.

Truly a STUNNING instrument.

rickyfricky wrote:Bear in mind it's a bit of a dark creature sound-wise, perhaps due to the ebony fretboard.

Notwithstanding the long-bantered argument as to whether tone woods matter or not, ebony is generally considered to impart brightness. But as a fingerboard wood, I would think that would matter if it were fretless (I have a few FLs with ebony boards), but no so much on fretted.

In any case, TI Jazz Rounds last 10x longer than Rotos. Make that 100x.

Thanks for the clarification John.

Another one of my theories shot to pieces.

No worries. Here's a link to describe some of the aspects of how wood affects tone, attack and sustain:

http://www.jemsite.com/jem/wood.htm

I wouldn't bet my house (or even my April '73 4001FL) on the info, but it seems to be in line with what I hear from my basses.

Here's another one:

http://www.warmoth.com/bass/Options/Woo ... tions.aspx

A fairly well-respected source; yet who takes direct advice from someone trying to sell you something? Then again, it doesn't seem so far off of what I've experienced. Then again, ebony doesn't seem to be there any longer. Perhaps due to the international restrictions on exotic woods?

FretlessOnly wrote:A fairly well-respected source; yet who takes direct advice from someone trying to sell you something? Then again, it doesn't seem so far off of what I've experienced. Then again, ebony doesn't seem to be there any longer. Perhaps due to the international restrictions on exotic woods?

Hmm, ebony should not be a problem regarding CITES, AFAIK.

Ah,yes,Sepp's tv yellow Cii. First off,congrats,that is a lovely bass! I have currently 3 4004 models strung with different string types,and can recommend any of them depending on what you want to get out of them. My custom Laredo has a set of balanced Kalium RW strings,which are the smoothest feeling strings i have ever experienced,and sound great even though they have been on for many years now. My Cii has a set of old Maxima flatwounds,which are pretty hard to find,but the new Optima set at least gets you something fairly close in sound/feel/gauge. TI flats are very similar,just a bit wimpy-gauged for my taste. My 4004c is wearing a set of DR Sunbeams,and clanks like a *******.
Lastly,when i owned my ebony-boarded 4002,i preferred the sound/feel of the Ghs progressives,kind of a smoothed out RW string. But overall,i have to say any new string purchases i would be doing going forward will probably be Kalium-i put a set on my 8-string bass,and just love the smooth medium-tension feel,and playability,as well,as the sound of them.

Edit:if the choice is down to the 3 pictured above,i would go for the GHS set.

It's not due to the ebony fingerboard. Ebony is very, very hard and considered very even, or slightly bright in the tonality.

It will be dark because of either or both of: the relative body density of the wood, or the HB-1's having 15kohms' worth of wire on them, which creates a rather large intra-coil capacitance, rolling off the treble. As on my 4002, with its ebony fingerboard, as stated above, I used GHS Progressives in custom gauges, 45-60-80-105, to get the best combination of brightness, overall tone, sustain, longetivity, and preservation of frets.

My favorites are the GHS Super Steels, LM5000, but there's a few other gauges available and they last a lot longer then Rotos.

Bassically, Michael

iiipopes wrote: It will be dark because of either or both of: the relative body density of the wood, or the HB-1's having 15kohms' worth of wire on them, which creates a rather large intra-coil capacitance, rolling off the treble. .

I seem to remember that Sepp had Dane make a new wiring harness for this bass,which would change out the values from the factory wiring,not on the pickups themselves of course....but the new harnesses do make a notable difference in "brightness".

Thank you for all of the suggestions, guys.

And yes, Dane did change out the harness, and wired it VVT and added the option of coil tapping.

TVY Update: Ended up putting the GHS Progressives on it, and I'm really happy with the sound.

It's definitely a bit brighter, with still more of a growl than a belch.

Gigged with it last Thursday, and I've promised myself not to treat it like a case queen.

rickyfricky wrote:TVY Update: Ended up putting the GHS Progressives on it, and I'm really happy with the sound.

It's definitely a bit brighter, with still more of a growl than a belch.

Gigged with it last Thursday, and I've promised myself not to treat it like a case queen.

Progressives on a RIC bass are the most underappreciated strings out there. To me, they bring out more tone than any other string. Right now, I do have tapes on my 4002, but I gigged for over twenty years on it with Progressives, from when Progressives were a "new" string. If I ever have another gig where I the heavier tone is needed, I will immediately put Progressives back and go.

Congrats for finding out about Progressives. One of these days, try a custom set of 45-60-80-105, which you can get as singles from bassstringsonline.com. This approaches the RIC stock gauges, is very well balanced for feel, and are my favorite strings for a RIC bass. I was custom ordering them for decades before "balanced" sets became the vogue.