The Famous Ric/Maxima S4440 Flatwound

[loveboatcaptain]

So... It's not everyday you find a shop that has 11 boxes of sealed vintage Rickenbacker S4440 Flatwounds they are just taking up room in the store and they want to get rid of...

but today that happened to me... SCORE!!!!!!

I'd like the know the gauge of the S4440 set, I've heard that it was 112/77/50/40, but I wonder if they varied over the years? any confirmation here from Ric? I've also heard the E string was 105?


So for those of you interested, take a look at these pics, rather remarkable really. Like a time capsule... amazing to think these haven't seen the light of day for 30/40 years? I opened one of the boxes to inspect.


I'll report back once I've taken the S4440's for a test run.

[Wiker]

Oh, look at that Lucky man you are
The one set I have measured 45-55-73-101

[sloop_john_b]

Wow!

[iiipopes]

Have you thought about contacting Sir Macca's equipment manager? They might be very interested.

[jdogric12]

Holy moly

[loveboatcaptain]

It did cross my mind about contacting Macca's guy but how to go about it I'm not sure. Kinda wanna use them myself though. But maybe he can have a few lol.

[jps]

It did cross my mind about contacting Macca's guy but how to go about it I'm not sure. Kinda wanna use them myself though. But maybe he can have a few lol.

Keep them, and enjoy them, for yourself; Paul can afford to buy anything he wants whenever he wants, probably even unobtanium.

[loveboatcaptain]

Yeah true. I'm certainly gonna enjoy these, can't wait to get them strung up

[teeder]

Congrats!
Send a set to me and I'll throw some micrometers on them and give you a measurement.

[jps]

Congrats!
Send a set to me and I'll throw some micrometers on them and give you a measurement.

Just don't go check tensile strength, string to string balance, or tuning/pitch accuracy while you're at it!

[iiipopes]

I know this post is completely off-the-wall, but consider this:

On the basschat.co.uk forum, when the Innovation company liaison wanted to do beta testing on a new forumulation of double bass strings, he set up a registry. You registered. The strings were mailed out to you. You tried them for a week, then either sent them back or contacted the next person on the registry to pass them along.

For those who never got the opportunity to play the OEM strings, and considering how long a good set of flats will last, maybe sacrificing one set for the cause for something like it might be something to consider? Maybe even with a $5.00 PayPal from each prospective auditioner to show good faith? Each person would be responsible for the postage to get it to the next person.

Yes, granted, a scheme like this has its caveats. If one person in the chain simply won't play nice with others, like we were taught to do in Kindergarten, yes, the whole thing falls apart. But I would like to think that those who care enough about taking care of a Rickenbacker instrument properly are also generally a notch up in their level of personal integrity and responsibility, and it just might work.

If it could be done, I would encourage each auditioner to make sound clips as possible, and post on the forum their impressions, including comparison with other strings.

Just a thought (as the bass lines in Sgt. Pepper start rolling through my head).

[Kiddwad57]

Congratulations on your find! That's quite a stash!

I'm glad to have copped a feel of those strings while trying out an azureglo (fave color) 4001 back in '75. Honestly, I will never forget that experience.

It seems like it'll be easy enough to put a set on, but how do you decide when to change them after that? They should last a long time, so maybe every eighteen months? That'd give you sixteen and a half years. OK, twenty two if you change them every two years. TI flats are good for three. Thirty three years sounds pretty good. Could easily last a lifetime for some of us.

Do strings last longer if you keep them in the freezer?

[chefothefuture]

Believe you me, once you get a set of original Maximas on a Rick, you'll never want to remove them!

They may sound a little uneven at first, but give a good hour of play, and that starts to clear up.

Great find!

[aceonbass]

Scott......while a set of stock flats would likely last years on one bass, cycling them (taking them on and off) multiple times will kill them prematurely.

[chefothefuture]

Scott......while a set of stock flats would likely last years on one bass, cylcling them (taking them on and off) multiple times will kill them prematurely.

The constant straightening of the ends to get them to pass through the tailpiece would usher in metal fatigue very quickly.