Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My 4003 is about 4 yrs old at most. Up to last year my tone choice was leaning more towards Motown and Stax. I dialed up a boom heavy tone, not much treble. That made the Ric not my first choice, but I'm still glad I have it. I haven't used it on a gig since last summer.
Recently I discovered my tone preference moved towards what my (new to me) Fender Jazz bass provides - much more treble than a Precision, which I also own.
While playing with different amps and settings, I discovered that my 4003 seems to have lost it's treble bite. The tone sounds like it's going through a compressor - which I do not own or ever use.
Before I change strings or tear it apart and examine the selector switch, pots, output jacks etc I thought I'd ask for expert advise here. The treble pickup isn't dead and it hasn't lost apparent volume. It's not the amps I'm using because the other basses have treble to spare.

Any suggestions?

AndyM wrote:Before I change strings (...) Any suggestions?

Change strings.

Yes change strings. Not playing it keeps skin oils ,sweat, dirt & what have you off the strings. However while it sits, endlessly bored in it's case, the strings are quietly oxidizing.

Yes! That was the problem. Not one I've frequently had before. I also took the opportunity to reverse an ill-thought modification whereby I altered the treble pickup height adjustment. I had interchanged the assembly order of the large bezel and the pup cover so I could lower the pup further without making the cover go down and hit the strings.
In hindsight, a dumb idea. I put it back to the proper orientation and raised the treble pup higher than it used to be. The change of strings plus the higher pup has done the trick.
I used to be preoccupied with the difference in volume between the neck and bridge pups. Now I'll just adjust the volume pots to suit.

Thanks for the good advice.

I've noticed the very same thing lately. My 4003 very dull sounding compared to my Jazz. Need to pick up some new ones I guess but have to decide which. I use 105 Roto's on the Jazz so probably just go with that.

...recently I put the Dean Markley steels on it, GREAT GROWL AND BITE!

I've been running DR Hi-Beams for a little while now. Seem to be a great match for my 2000 model 4003. Switched from RotoSound RS66LD. I miss part of their sizzle, but the DRs seem to have a bit more girth.

Getting pickup heights right is a trick for Rics. Mine is limited by how high the neck/bass pickup goes, but the treble pickup is always set a tad closer to the strings. More than a few times I have soloed the treble pickup and got a great thick snappy modern style jazzy tone, but it is even better than a jazz because it has that trademark Ric breakup/growl. Oooh yeah!