Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Here's my 1975 4001 with brand new Rick high gain pick ups with adjustable pole pieces and a Dane Wilder wiring harness and a Pickguardian pick guard. I highly recommend Dane's harness.

Looks great Larry, congrats.

Love black pickguards on maple,and the older shape looks fab,too!

Did you go with one of Danes single jack/stereo output setup, or standard stereo?

I went with Dane's stereo harness...wow...

When the bass was apart, I noticed some white overspray in the cavities. I bought this bass online from Guitar Center last year and it was listed as 'refinished'. It was shipped from California to here. The previous owner must've sanded it down and they rounded the binding down. It's a very subtle strip of black binding. There was some minor lift to the bridge but no cracks or repairs at the neck. I paid 900.00 plus shipping. I slowly got all the parts together. I went for a vintage pick guard since this 75 was before they moved the neck pick up back to 1", I thought I'd add the vintage style pick guard. Tony at pick guardian did a nice job with the template. It has new Rick tuners since the old ones were worn out. Hip shot bridge, Dane Wilder Harness and 2 brand new Pickups, I have a monster of a Rick.

Looks nice. Even with the binding sanded down.

I looked for the vintage pickguard on the PG site but only found it for the 4003. Does it fit a 4001 as well?

Tony can make you whatever you want; he has lots of templates and probably has something that will work for you.

This is his first early 70's vintage style. I paid an extra 7 dollars and change for a template fee. I love how it turned out.

What's a "template fee"? If I'm not sure the holes in a guard will line up, I just ask my customer to send me their old guard, which doesn't cost $7.

I guess it was to create a new 'template' because he didn't have it already.

What does Dane's wiring harness do differently than a stock 4001/3 wiring?

My harnesses are bluprinted versions of 60's Rick harnesses. Tone pots are 500K, and volume pots are 250K. Pots are matched in pairs and are within 5% of rated spec. RIC currently uses 330K pots on everything. If Rickenbacker HB1 pickups or aftermarket humbucking pickups are in the guitar, then I use 500K pots all around amd .022uF tone caps instead of the current .047uF tone caps RIC uses for everything. I also have mono/stereo harnesses for single output jack guitars activated by a push-pull pot, as well as coil tapping on the HB1's activated by a push-pull.

OK, this is not a 4001 but I've been wanting to put more Rickenbacker in my 2011 4003. For a while now, I've been meaning to have Dane build me a harness for this bass. I like my 4003. I like the way she feels and I like the way she plays. I just was not in love with the tone well or the peeling Jetglo finish. The flawed finish, I'm stuck with, thanks RIC, but I can sure fix the tone with relative ease.

This instrument was relegated to spare status but recently, we added a few tunes that required lower range. It was either BEAD or CGCF. CGCF fit a bit better so I added a set of Kalium balanced tension vines (.130, .086, .065, .047). Hogged out the nut slots preformed a set up. She did quite well but hew tone sounded a bit muddy. Enter Dane Wilder and his 60's spec harness!! It arrived today and I installed it. For my effort I was greeted with pure bright Rickenbacker bliss!! 500k tone pots, 250k volume pots, .0047 Ajax caps and no tone sucking .0047 cap!!

Thanks a million Dane!! I love the new found tone that this instrument has!!
Instrument prepped for surgery!
Old Harness removed
New harness in place.


Sepp